Golf mentor, pro Ralston, 70, dies

Former PGA Tour player and longtime club professional Bob Ralston died Sunday after a six-month battle with liver cancer.

Family members were at the home hospice bedside of Ralston, who most recently served as the PGA head professional at Stuttgart Country Club. Ralston's 71st birthday would have been today.

A former head golf professional at several clubs in the state, including Maumelle Country Club and Belvedere Country Club in Hot Springs, Ralston played on the PGA Tour from 1980-82, winning $1,074 by making the cut at the San Antonio Texas Open in 1980 and the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic in 1981.

He also was a member of the Korn Ferry Tour for nine years, winning $1,390 in the 2004 Wichita Open, his final event. He also played in the 2008 PGA Tour Champions Senior PGA, where he missed the cut.

Ralston was a regular on the PGA South Central Section and is a member of its hall of fame. He is also enshrined in the Arkansas State Golf Association Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2004 along with his brother, Steve Ralston, the PGA head professional at Burns Park in North Little Rock.

"Just about everybody who's had amateur success in the state he has helped or touched in some way," said his son-in-law, Glen Day, a current member of the PGA Tour Champions. "He gave a lot of lessons to kids. He loved working with them and helping them out."

Tracy Harris, a 2020 inductee into the ASGA Hall of Fame, said Ralston's guidance helped him win the state's top amateur prize in 1997.

A few hours before flying to Peru to play in a team event, Harris and his partner Jay Fox stopped by Demo Days at Burns Park to try out some clubs. Ralston saw Harris swing and said he would like to show him a few things. After engaging in further conversation and saying he and Fox had a plane to catch, Harris told Ralston he would be back to see him upon their return.

"He said, 'Call when you get back,' " Harris said. "Well, I did, and he just showed me one or two things. I won the state amateur about a month later. It really helped. If it hadn't been for that, I don't know if I would have won, to be honest."

Former pupils paid respects to Ralston on social media Monday, including Cameron McRae.

"RIP to a legend!" McRae tweeted. "Mr. Ralston taught me how to hit a bunker shot when I was 10 yrs old -- To this day, I use the technique he showed me. I'll never forget it."

Day said Ralston's reputation reached far outside the golf circles of Arkansas.

"I'm 90% sure, but there was an old teacher named Harvie Ward," Day said. "He taught [Greg] Norman awhile a long time ago, and he has since passed. Someone asked Harvey what are some of the best swings you've ever seen in your life. He said, 'Well, Byron Nelson. Ben Hogan. And there's a club pro from Arkansas that y'all don't know.'

"Bob had one of the best golf swings and was as good golfer as I have ever played with, and I've played with a lot of them. Bob and I played so much golf together he never would call me and tell me anything. That wasn't the way Bob was. Bob would never interject or intercede unless he was asked. Bob was the epitome of a class gentleman and a club pro."

Harris said Ralston always made time for him.

"Even if he was in the middle of something, he'd make himself available," Harris said. "Bob was very knowledgeable of the golf swing. We'd be out there 45 minutes or an hour and might hit 20 balls and the rest of the time we'd just talk. I got as much out of that as I did hitting balls.

"He was very good to me. I owe him a lot."

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