Career Highlights

1995 Bob Fry Award winner
1957-69 Davenport Park Board, Commission Chairman
1955 President of the Iowa Golf Association
Founder of Crow Valley Golf Club & Emeis Golf Course
Founder of Quad-City Open Tournament at Crow Valley (now John Deere Classic)

Franklin “Whitey” Barnard’s history with golf covers a lot of ground. And a lot of achievements. The latest comes as a member of the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.

Barnard was a good player. He was captain of the Davenport High School golf team in 1939. One of his teammates was future U.S. Open champion Jack Fleck. Barnard played in the Iowa Amateur t0 times, reaching the quarterfinals in 1953.

He also spent eight years on the IGA’s Board of Directors, and was the association’s president in 1955. That same year, Fleck outdueled Ben Hogan in a playoff to win the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club.

Barnard was also a master at promoting the game of golf. He played an unmistakable role in the arrival, and later survival, of the PGA Tour in the Quad Cities. Barnard was the chairman of the first Quad-Cities Open, played as a PGA Tour satellite event in 1971. It became a full-fledged tour stop in 1972 and now carries on annually as the John Deere Classic.

“I tell you with confidence that no man was more influential in this event’s inception than Whitey Barnard,” said Craig DeVrieze, author of “Magic Happened: Celebrating 50 Years of the John Deere Classic.”

Barnard had envisioned the PGA Tour coming to the Quad Cities as far back as 1936, when he and Fleck worked as caddies at the Western Open held the Davenport Country Club. Barnard, 13 years old at the time, earned a total of $20 that week to caddy for Tommy Armour.

Barnard worked behind the scenes to bring the Western Open back to the Davenport Country Club in 1951, one of many things he would do to promote the game he loved. A travel agent by trade, he was a member of the Davenport Park Board when that group approved the building of the Emeis public course in 1962. As president of that board, Whitey hired Bob Fry as the golf professional in 1965.

Fry, a member of the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame, joined Barnard and others to chase the dream of bringing the tour to the Quad Cities. They were also instrumental in the building of Crow Valley Golf Club, which hosted the tour event for the first four years and remains one of Iowa’s greatest courses.

Barnard was the co-chairman of the Quad Cities event from 1972 to 1974, and even dug into his own pocket to keep the event above water.

“The fascinating history of the event includes numerous moments when its future was dire, even desperate,” DeVries wrote. “But with the support and commitment of Quad Citians who echoed the dedication to community first exemplified by Whitey Barnard and friends, it persevered, overcame and grew. Whitey remained a friend of the tournament for the remainder of his life.”

Barnard received the Bob Fry Award, presented annually in recognition for contributions to golf in the Quad Cities, in 1995.

Mr. Barnard was 79 when he passed away in 2000. But his legacy lives to this day.

“He was instrumental in just about every phase of golf in the Quad Cities,” Iowa Golf Hall of Fame member Jim Hasley said when Barnard passed away. “His fingerprints are on just about everything.”