Jack Webb had an outstanding golf career as both an amateur and a professional. He also gave back to the game as a standout teacher.

Born in Spirit Lake, he was a versatile athlete who stood out in football and basketball. His father, John, was his basketball coach, and Jack played on a team that made the state tournament in 1942. Jack worked at Brooks golf course in Okoboji, as a caddy and a maintenance worker.

He attended Iowa State as a freshman, then enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served his country in World War II. He flew B-24s as part of the “Carpetbaggers’’ unit assigned to fly supplies and agents across the North Sea and English Channel without lights, weapons or armor. Webb was honorably discharged in December of 1945 after 25 missions and one bailout.

He returned to Iowa State and earned his degree. He also also a member of the Cyclone golf team and played in the 1949 NCAA Championship at the Iowa State course in Ames.

Jack would win two Iowa Amateur titles – one in match play, the other in medal play. He beat his brother, Don, 6 and 5, in the championship match at the Fort Dodge Country Club in 1949. He also won the 1960 state title at the Wakonda Club in Des Moines, his future home, in convincing fashion. Webb’s 284 total was eight shots better than runners-up Dick Smith and John Liechty. Jack was 36, and a teacher and coach at Atlantic High School, at the time of his second victory.

His career also included a Northwest Amateur title in 1959 and a Waterloo Open amateur crown in 1954.

He left education and coaching to become the golf professional at Edgewood golf course in Fargo, N.D., in 1961. He moved to the Fargo Country Club in 1963. Two years later he won the North Dakota Open. Then he was hired by Wakonda in 1968, and became a fixture in Des Moines for the rest of his life.

He won the Iowa PGA Section title in 1969 and 1970, and served as the organization’s president from 1972 to 1975. He was also District 8 Director for the PGA of America from 1982 to 1984, and worked the 1983 Ryder Cup. He played on several Iowa Cup teams, the last in 1998 at the age of 74 when he was recovering from cancer.

Jack was the Iowa PGA Section Senior champion 13 times. He played in the PGA Championship twice (1970, 1971) and in four U.S. Senior Opens, making the cut twice. Jack retired from Wakonda in 1987. He became a teaching professional at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club for the last 29 years of his life.

Mr. Webb was 92 when he passed away on Feb. 29, 2016.

Career Highlights

• Head professional at Wakonda Club for 19 years
• 1959 & 1960 Iowa Amateur Champion (Beat his brother Don for his first title, and won the first stroke play title)
• 1959 Northwest Amateur Champion • 1954 Waterloo Open Champion
• 1969 & 1970 Iowa Section PGA Champion • 1972-75 Iowa Section PGA President
• 1982-84 District 8 Director for the PGA of America
• 13-time Iowa Section Senior Champion
• Competed in 2 PGA Championships- 1970 at Southern Hills and 1971 at PGA National
• Compete in 4 U.S. Senior Opens, making 2 cuts
• 8 Career Hole in Ones • Upon retirement from Wakonda Club, has instructed at Des Moines Golf & CC from 1986 to the present day.