Joe Campbell: NCAA Champ, PGA Tour Winner
Full name: Joseph Edward Campbell
Date of birth: November 5, 1935
Place of birth: Anderson, Indiana
Date and place of death: November 27, 2024, in Lake Wales, Florida
Also known as: Joe E. Campbell
His Biggest Wins
Joe Campbell had three official PGA Tour tournament victories:- 1961 Beaumont Open Invitational
- 1962 Baton Rouge Open Invitational
- 1966 Tucson Open Invitational
- Indiana Open: 1955 and 1956 as an amateur, 1977, 1981
- Tennessee Open: 1958, 1965, 1973
- Tennessee PGA Championship: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1972
In the Majors
Campbell got into 20 majors over his career, first at the 1956 Masters and last at the 1978 U.S. Open. He played The Masters three times as an amateur and the U.S. Open twice as an amateur, and it was as an amateur that he had his best finish in each: tied 22nd in the 1957 U.S. Open and tied 29th in the 1958 Masters. He had two other Top 25 finishes in majors, both in the U.S. Open: 25th in 1959 and tied 25th in 1969. His best finish in a PGA Championship was tied 27th in 1962. Campbell never played the British Open.
More About Joe Campbell
Joe Campbell wasn't hard to find on a golf course during his PGA Tour career. He was a stocky man, a bright dresser, and he was usually seen with a cigar clamped between his teeth — so much so that "cigar-smoking Joe Campbell" was how he was commonly introduced by print publications during his heyday.The 1967 NBC Sports Golf Guide said that Campbell, who it called "one of the tour's most colorful members," was always easy to spot on the course: "... just look for a chunky, blond-haired golfer chomping on a big cigar and wearing metallic gold-colored shoes."
Campbell had a strong career in amateur golf before turning pro. He was the Indiana state high school champion in 1952 and 1953, won the Indiana Amateur title in 1954, 1955 and 1956, won the NCAA Championship men's individual crown in 1955 and the Big 10 Conference championship in 1956 and 1957, and won the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur in 1957.
Campbell wasn't just a golf star during his years at Purdue University, but also a starter on the school's basketball team for two years. In 1957, he captained the Purdue basketball squad.
And in addition to his Indiana Amateur wins, Campbell also won the Indiana Open, playing against the pros while still an amateur, in 1955 and 1956. (And he won that title again around 25 years later.)
Campbell reached the quarterfinals of the 1955 U.S. Amateur Championship before falling to Bill Hyndman. In the 1956 U.S. Amateur, Campbell beat Hyndman and Charles Coe en route to the semifinals, where he fell to eventual champ Harvie Ward.
Campbell was part of Team USA in the 1957 Walker Cup, winning a foursomes match but losing in singles. And he reached the championship match of the 1957 Western Amateur before falling to Ed Updegraff.
Campbell turned pro after playing in both The Masters and U.S. Open as an amateur in 1958, although his first appearance in a PGA Tour event was back in 1953 in the Fort Wayne Open.
His rookie year on the PGA Tour, 1959, was a good one. He made 31 starts and had two runner-up finishes: at the San Diego Open (by one stroke to Marty Furgol) and the Tucson Open (by one to Gene Littler). Golf Digest picked Campbell as the tour's rookie of the year.
Campbell earned the biggest prize money of his career, by far, in the 1960 Desert Classic in Palm Springs, Calif. — not for winning, but for making a hole-in-one. The tournament, with insurance provided by Lloyd's of London, put up a $50,000 prize to anyone making an ace during the tournament, any round, any hole. When Campbell aced the 205-yard fifth hole in the third round at Tamarisk Country Club, he earned the payout.
His first win tour came in 1961 at the Beaumont Open. In 21 starts, he had three other Top 10s that year.
Win No. 2 happened at the 1962 Baton Rouge Open, where Campbell bested runner-up Bob Rosburg by two strokes. In 30 starts, Campbell also had two second-place showings and four other Top 10s. In the 1962 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, Campbell lost a playoff to Doug Ford. And he finished one behind winner Arnold Palmer in the Texas Open.
It was several years before Campbell's next win on tour. But at the 1965 IVB-Philadelphia Golf Classic, he tied second behind Jack Nicklaus when Nicklaus eagled the 71st hole to win.
By 1966, Campbell's starts on the PGA Tour had dropped below 20 as he began cutting back. But he finished second to Roberto De Vicenzo that year in the Dallas Open. And his third and final PGA Tour win happened when he beat Littler in a playoff in the 1966 Tucson Open.
He made 15 starts on tour in 1967, he last year with double-digit PGA Tour starts. And Campbell made it into another playoff that year, at the Azalea Open, before settling for second place.
Campbell's PGA Tour career was shorter than it otherwise could have been due in part to a chronic bad back. But he was successful enough and recognizable enough in the 1960s to have his name on eqiupment made by the Kroydon golf brand, including Kroydon Joe Campbell Golf Clubs, Kroydon Joe Campbell Youth Sets, and the Kroydon Joe Campbell Cut-Proof Golf Ball.
He continued playing a handful of tournaments per year, usually fewer than five, until his final appearance in a tour event in the 1978 U.S. Open. Campbell's PGA Tour career totals: 235 starts (the vast majority of them 1959-67), three wins, seven seconds, six thirds, 22 Top 5 finishes, 42 Top 10 finishes.
Campbell played 23 tournaments on the Champions Tour between 1986 and 1996, with 13 starts in 1988 being the only year he reached double-digit starts. He finished second on the senior circuit that year in driving accuracy (75.3%) and ninth in sand saves (53.2%).
After growing up in Indiana, Campbell moved, in the late 1950s, to Knoxville, Tennessee. As his tour career was winding down in the late '60s and early '70s, Campbell was a force in Tennessee tournaments, including five wins in the Tennessee PGA Championship. From 1967-74, he was the head pro at Whittle Springs Golf Club in Knoxville.
Then Campbell moved back to Indiana after accepting the job of golf coach at Purdue University in 1974. He remained the golf coach at Purdue until 1993. And during that span, Campbell added a couple more wins in the Indiana Open.
Campbell is a member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame, Indiana Golf Hall of Fame, and Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Brown, Hal. "Sports Signals," The Lincoln (Neb.) Star, February 15, 1966.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
National Broadcasting Company. NBC Sports Golf Guide 1967, Ridge Press, 1967.
PGA Tour. Players, Joe Campbell, Career Record, https://www.pgatour.com/player/05096/career.
PGA Tour. Senior PGA Tour Book 1989, Senior Tour Facts & Figures.
Purdue University. "Eight To Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame," August 23, 2001, https://purduesports.com/eight-to-be-inducted-into-hall-of-fame.
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. "Campbell Collects $50,000 For Ace In Desert Classic," The Associated Press, February 6, 1960.
Tennessee Golf Foundation. Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame Members, Joe Campbell, https://tngolffoundation.org/members/joe-campbell/.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990, Triumph Books, 1992.