Billy Joe Patton was born in Morganton, North Carolina and graduated from Wake Forest University in 1943. For better or worse, he was best known for almost winning the 1954 Masters Tournament and came within one stroke of being in a three-man playoff with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead for the championship. His up-and-down final round 71 included a hole-in-one on the par-3 6th hole and a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole, when he tried to reach the green in two and put his ball into Rae’s Creek.
Patton won several amateur tournaments including the North and South Amateur three times and the Southern Amateur twice. He also won the Carolinas Open twice. Patton played on five Walker Cup teams; 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, and 1965 and was captain of the 1969 team. He played on the Eisenhower Trophy team in 1958 and 1962. This Demon Deacon was inducted into Wake Forest’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1974.
