Accomplished Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame class is Hughett, Prammanasudh, Rose, Streck, Wininger
By Ken MacLeod
A decade in, the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame is only becoming more illustrious with each succeeding class.
The 2023 inductees have accomplished playing records on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Champions Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and state and national amateur events as well. And one didn’t play professionally but may have had the biggest impact on Oklahoma golf of any individual in history
The five-member 2023 class consists of Stacy Prammanasudh of Enid, Ron Streck of Tulsa, Mike Hughett of Owasso, Bo Wininger of Commerce and Guthrie and Morri Rose of Shawnee.
Tom JonesThe five will be inducted (Wininger posthumously) on Nov. 12 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa. Tables for the sure-to-be-sold-out event will go on sale soon at www.golfoklahoma.org. Click here to leave your email so we will be sure to alert you the minute tickets are available. You can also meet all previous inductees, see their induction videos and hear their acceptance speeches at the site.
“This year’s inductees represent different aspects and contributions to the game of golf, and to the state of Oklahoma,” said Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame Chairman Tom Jones. “The 2023 class encompasses players from the professional ranks, an amateur that has more state titles than anyone on record, to an administrative director, visionary, and mentor to young players across the state. The Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame is proud to showcase the rich history and heritage that this class represents.”
Let’s meet the 2023 inductees into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame in alphabetical order.
• Mike Hughett was born in Illinois and grew up in Nebraska from the age of four, where he won the Nebraska Golf Association Stroke Play Championship in 1977 and Match Play Championship in 1981. He attended Oral Roberts University on a golf scholarship and decided to stay and make his home in Oklahoma following college, working for decades at aircraft manufacturer Nordam, where he retired as chief financial officer in 2020.
In 1986, he won the OGA Stroke Play Championship at Tulsa Country Club. In 2022, he won the OGA Mid-Amateur Championship at Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville, becoming one of the oldest mid-amateur champions in the history of any state.
In between those two, he won 22 other OGA Championships, giving him a record 24 and counting. He has also won five national amateur events, placed second in three others and qualified for 19 USGA championships, advancing to match play 11 times. It is an amateur record unparalleled in state history.
• Stacy Prammanasudh started making her mark on the state at age 11. With father Lou as her caddie, she won most of what was available to play in, including five consecutive Women’s Oklahoma Golf Association Junior Championships from 1993-97.
It didn’t stop there. She won three of four high school championships for Enid, an overwhelming majority of the high school events she entered and continued right into a sterling career at the University of Tulsa. She was a four-time All-America, won 10 of the 44 events she entered, was a three-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year and was the second-ranked collegian in the nation as a senior.
Stacy P, as she was known to most everyone, went on to great success on the LPGA Tour as well, playing 13 full seasons, winning twice, recording 30 top-10 showings and being named to the 2007 Solheim Cup Team. Now retired and living with husband Pete Upton and their two sons in Broken Arrow, Stacy can be found more often on the tennis courts at The Club at Indian Springs, but did come out of retirement for one event in 2022, competing in the All Pro Tour’s event at Indian Springs to show her boys Ryp and Ryder what mom did for a living for many years.
• Morri Rose is the founder and longtime director of the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour. That tour is credited with helping raise the profile of Oklahoma junior golf and sending hundreds of junior players on to collegiate scholarships since its inception in 2002.
Rose, a fine amateur player in his own right, started the OJGT at the suggestion of former Oklahoma State golf coach Mike Holder as a way to give Oklahoma juniors a competitive fall tour that would keep their games sharp year round. The tour has been credited by professional golfers such as Talor Gooch, Taylor Moore, Quade Cummins, Austin Eckroat and others as being crucial to their development. Rose’s love for the game and all of his competitors has been a treasure for the state and credited by many for lifting Oklahoma from relative obscurity into one of the nation’s junior golf powers.
• Ron Streck, the aptly nicknamed “Milestone Man,” achieved several significant firsts in a professional career that spanned 40 years and 355 events on either the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions or what is now known as the Korn Ferry Tour.
He was the first player to win at all three of those levels while also winning an event on the European Tour. He was among the first to regularly use metal drivers and the first to win using one when he captured the San Antonio Texas Open on Sept. 17, 1978, at 15-under-par, finishing one stroke ahead of Hubert Green and Lon Hinkle. He set a record at that time with the tour’s lowest two-round total of 125 to close out the tournament. His second PGA Tour victory came at the Michelob-Houston Open title on May 2, 1981, at 15-under-par, three strokes ahead of Hale Irwin and Jerry Pate in second.
Streck is a Tulsa native, a standout prep basketball player at Cascia Hall, and was inducted into the University of Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1997. He won four of his seven events as a senior and was medalist in at least one event each of his four years from 1973-76, including two Missouri Valley Conference titles. He was teammates with famous instructor Hank Haney, but always maintained he wouldn’t listen to Haney’s swing advice until Haney could beat him on the course.
After registering two victories during his PGA Tour career, Streck won on what was then the Nike Tour in 1993 and on the Champions Tour in 2005. While injuries limited his career after the age of 40, he has been a successful businessman in many ventures, written an instruction book and won over $2 million in career earnings despite playing the majority of his career when a good season with seven or so top-25 finishes would net $50,000 or less.
• Francis “Bo” Wininger was one of the most prolific PGA Tour winners ever from Oklahoma. He was a great natural athlete who played both football and basketball in Guthrie and then served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II.
Upon his discharge, Wininger went to OSU to play golf for legendary coach Labron Harris Sr., who founded the program in 1947. Wininger lettered in 1947-50, and led the team to NCAA finishes of fifth, fifth, sixth and 13th. He won the Missouri Valley Conference individual championship in 1949 and 1950 and Oklahoma A&M won the conference championship all four years.
Wininger went east after graduation, landing a job at Atlantic City Country Club in 1952. He joined the PGA Tour in 1953.
In 1955, Wininger broke through with victories in the Baton Rouge Open and the Hot Springs Open. He won again in 1956 before leaving the tour and its minimal payouts for private business, but joined again in the early 1960s and promptly won three more times in short order. He won the Greater New Orleans Open and the Carling Open in 1962 and then repeated as champ in 1963 in New Orleans.
Wininger then accepted a job directing golf operations in Las Vegas at The Desert Inn, home of the PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions. He gave lessons to high rollers and Rat Pack members, hobnobbed with the stars and appeared in an episode of “I Love Lucy.”
When Howard Hughes bought the Desert Inn in 1966, he stopped the practice of hosting the Tournament of Champions. Wininger returned to Oklahoma and worked for a short time in the oil business before suffering a stroke in November 1967 and passing away the following month at age 45.
Golf Oklahoma will profile each of the inductees in upcoming editorial issues.
About the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame:
The Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame (a 501C3 non-profit) was founded in 2014 by Edmond businessman Everett Dobson, owner of Oak Tree National and merged with the previously existing Oklahoma Women’s Golf Hall of Fame. This is the sixth induction class in a format that now inducts a class every other year. Induction videos, bios and acceptance speeches of all previous inductees are on the website at www.oklahomagolfhof.org. The Hall of Fame grants two $5,000 scholarship annually to Oklahoma high school seniors and also presents a $5,000 cash award (The Everett Dobson Award) to a graduating Oklahoma collegiate golfer to help them launch their career.
In addition to the Hall of Fame ceremonies, the organization holds a fund-raising golf tournament every other year at a prominent location in Tulsa or Oklahoma City. The 2022 event was held in early November at Southern Hills Country Club.
Anyone wishing more information or to get involved, please call 918-280-0787 or email ken@golfoklahoma.org.