PGA Life Member Don Malarkey of Signal Mountain, Tenn., a golf professional who competed alongside golf legends ranging from Walter Hagen to Sam Snead, and who later became a premier teaching professional in the Tennessee PGA Section, will reach another milestone on Sunday, April 3, 2005.
Malarkey, who was elected to PGA membership in August 1926, is the 13th longest serving member in PGA of America history. On April 3, Malarkey, who is also the oldest living PGA member, will celebrate his 100th birthday. The Board of Directors of Malarkey's home course, Signal Mountain Golf & Country Club, will precede Malarkey's actual birthday by hosting a reception Saturday, April 2, at 6:30 p.m.
But milestones are just a drop in the range bucket for Malarkey, a native of Vandergriff, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh. In 1915, at age 10, Malarkey first picked up a golf club. It was two years before The PGA of America was born.
He would go on to develop his game, turn professional at age 18 and later become a close friend of the late Hall of Fame PGA teaching professional Harvey Penick.
Malarkey was profiled in 1998 by author G.Z. "Bome" Patten in A Lotta Malarkey, a book that features some of Malarkey's golf feats, which continue to be a marvel to his friends and acquaintances.
He is a golfer who shot his age 627 times, beginning with a 68 in 1974 when he was 69 years old. In 1998, at age 93, he posted a 91 at his home course, Signal Mountain Golf & Country Club. He last played golf in September 2004, being able to go just a few holes with his son, PGA Professional Mike Malarkey, before ongoing circulatory problems in the elder Malarkey's legs forced him to end his playing career.
However, when the weather is warmer in Signal Mountain, Malarkey can be found hitting some 100 balls on the practice range.
Malarkey competed in the 1939 and 1941 U.S. Opens, and he was also in the qualifying medal-play tournament of the 1927 and 1941 PGA Championships, but did not reach the match-play first round. Malarkey and Jack Burke Sr., were the only full-time club professionals to reach the medal play portion of the 1927 PGA Championship.
"I feel pretty good, and I guess I can credit my mother for longevity," said Malarkey. "She lived to be 101. I have never smoked, drank very little and got plenty of exercise."
Up to his suffering a freak accident in 1999, Malarkey was working steadily since arriving in 1956 as head professional at Signal Mountain. In 1999, Malarkey walked around a maintenance truck that had backed up just ahead of an unmarked manhole cover. Malarkey stepped into the hole, shattered his right heel and injured himself up to his chest.
"I survived that, but I never really recovered fully," said Malarkey. "I was disappointed that it set me back."
Malarkey's first wife, Vera, whom he married in 1936, died in 2001.
"When I lost Vera, I didn't care if I lived or died," said Malarkey. "My family was pretty concerned about me. I went to a matchmaker service and paid $1,500 and tried to find a date. I went out on one and then asked for a second date. I met Maxine (Lawson), and we became friends, and we've been married four years in May."
"I think the Lord put us together," said Maxine, 59, a former employee of the Tennessee Valley Authority. "I've enjoyed every minute. Don is a blessed person, and I feel the same."
An accomplished musician, Malarkey also logged more than 7,000 hours as a pilot. During World War II, he trained hundreds of Navy pilots. Following the War, he operated a flying service for 12 years.
Malarkey invented a training device - a golf club that adjusted automatically to a player's desired swing weight, but he failed to gain a patent for the instrument.
He was a golf coach for the late Dick Metz, one of the top tour professionals of the 1930s and a member of the 1939 Ryder Cup Team.
Malarkey's son, Mike, coached from 1977 to 1998 at the University of Tennessee and is currently a 59-year-old PGA Teaching Professional at Deadhorse Lake Golf Course in Knoxville, Tenn.
"In addition to seeing him do the day-to-day business of being a PGA Professional and what it takes to serve the members, Dad has witnessed so many changes in the world, but also in the golf industry," said Mike. "And it is something that I really respect about him. He began playing when club professionals made wooden-shafted clubs and stamped their name on the back of the club. When he gets to hitting balls on the range, when the weather is good, he will tell you that his swing is probably better now than it ever has been. Isn't that just like a golfer?"
"Don Malarkey is the epitome of how we can make the game of golf a game of a lifetime," said Tennessee PGA Executive Director Dick Horton. "Don is a great storyteller and of all the memories I have of him, I come back to his playing the piano at his induction dinner in 1999 into the Tennessee PGA Hall of Fame. He is one of four club professionals who make up 23 members of our Hall of Fame. He is a special guy.
"We are proud that he is a member of our Section. He played with the greats of the game, and his son is a wonderful PGA Professional. Don is a guy that everyone likes to be around."
Malarkey also revealed perhaps a more profound secret to longevity.
"I've always loved to teach the game," he said. "I've had a great time in the game. I don't live in the past. I enjoy the past, and I think about it, but I don't live in it."
