Storey for the ages

By WA Golf Site Admin

Posted on Jun 10, 2022

Tom Storey and Jonny Akin spent their high school days playing golf at Inglewood Country Club with their fathers, with Jonny’s dad Bud Akin serving as Inglewood president in 1961 and ’62.

University of Washington golfers Bill Tindall (left) and Bruce Richards (center), with Seattle University player Tom Storey in 1965. Storey defeated Tindall in the final match of the 1963 Washington Men’s Amateur, and overcame Richards in the final round to win the 1966 championship. Storey won three Amateur titles (1963, 1964, 1966), while Tindall would later be inducted into the Pacific Northwest Section PGA Hall of Fame, and Richards inducted into the PNGA Hall of Fame. (Courtesy The Seattle Times)

Storey and Akin were also teammates on the golf team at Seattle University in the early 1960s. Storey won the Washington State Amateur three times (1963, 1964, 1966), and the pair won the 1966 Inglewood Best-Ball (the precursor to the Washington Men’s Four-Ball).

Storey also won the 1967 Seattle Amateur, and went on to play the PGA Tour from 1976 to 1983. All told, he won more than 125 amateur and professional tournaments.

He is the answer to the trivia question: Who led the Memphis Classic after the first round the year Al Geiberger shot the Tour’s first 59 in the second round? It was Tom, with a 65.

Tom is a member of the Seattle University Athletics Hall of Fame and the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame.

To supplement his income while trying to make it as a professional golfer, Tom Storey (left) and childhood friend Jonny Akin had a longtime nightclub act, performing all over the country, including the main room at the old Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. (Courtesy Inglewood Golf Club)

(The 2022 Washington Men’s Amateur Championship will be held June 28-30 at Meadow Springs Country Club.)

Did You Know…

The Washington Men’s Amateur Championship has been held in different formats over the past century.

From 1922-1941 it was conducted as match play.

From 1942-1945 it was contested as a two-day, 54-hole stroke-play event, because restrictions during World War II allowed golf to be played only on weekends. In 1944, Harry Givan and Scotty Campbell tied after 54 holes, and had to wait until the following Sunday to square-off in an 18-hole playoff.

Givan won that playoff, and repeated as champion the next year, bringing his total number of wins to four. Campbell would win the title three times. Both players would eventually be inducted into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame.

When the war ended in 1945, the championship reverted to a match-play format from 1946-1964. And in 1965, to join all other significant tournaments, the championship again was held as stroke play, the format which continues to this day.