Hall of Fame
Robert Russell is still winning golf tournaments.
Robert won the Watson Challenge in June, beating a field of 50 golfers who are the top PGA club professionals from the PGA Midwest Section and the top amateurs living in the greater Kansas City area. He made five birdies during his final nine holes and finished with a 9-under-par 207, winning by two shots over Korn Ferry Tour member Joseph Winslow and Kansas Jayhawks senior Davis Cooper. Tournament host Tom Watson did not play this year because of injury.
Robert had come close before to winning the tournament, which began in 2007.
"A bunch ... second place, thirds, fourths, fifths, I have all those covered," he said with a laugh.
Robert began playing golf around 13 years old when he started going out to the course with his dad Bob. He was runner-up in the MSHSAA state tournament his junior year at Joplin High School.
College took him to the Kansas City area as he played two years at Kansas City Kansas Community College and two years at UMKC.
He won a record 13 times at KCKCC, capped by the NJCAA championship in 1993. He won four times at UMKC and was the school's first athlete to qualify for a national championship event after finishing fourth in the regional tournament.
In 2008 Robert was a member of the first class of the UMKC Hall of Fame.
Robert quickly became a force on the Joplin summer golf tournament swing. His first tournament title came at Center Creek Golf Course in Sarcoxie shortly after he graduated from JHS.
He dominated the Joplin golf scene in the early and mid-1990s. During a five-year stretch from 1991 through 1996, he won 10 local tournaments — three Joplin Golf City Championships (1991, '92, '94), three consecutive Briarbrook Invitationals (1994-96), two Ozark Amateurs (1994-95) and two Twin Hills Invitationals (1995-96).
"I have good memories of all of them," he said. "You always wanted to win the Ozark. Then after I'd won a handful of tournaments, I couldn't play Twin Hills because I wasn't old enough. Finally when I turned old enough, I was glad I was able to finally get in."
Robert then turned professional and played 10 years on the Hooters Tour. He was instrumental to the Hooters Tour having a stop at Peoria Ridge Golf Course in Miami, Oklahoma. He won one Hooters Tour tournament in 1999 in Decatur, Alabama.
But the biggest highlight of Robert's golf career is playing in the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. He shot 77-82 for a 159 total, missing the cut by 12 shots.
Robert has been a golf pro in the Kansas City area the last 10 years. He was head pro at Shamrock Hills in Lee's Summit, Mo., for three years. The last seven years he has been at Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate in Overland Park, Kan. He has been head pro there for four years after being the assistant pro for three years.
"It's been great," Robert said about his golf life. It's the relationships that you build. That's priceless."
Robert and his wife Tara have two children, a daughter Lauren (17) and a son Rhett (12).
