Dugan Aycock

A Charlotte native, this patriarch of golf grew up caddying at the Charlotte Country Club where he was the favorite bag-toter of James B. Duke of Duke Power and Duke University fame. He turned professional at age 18, taking his first job at Badin.  He later served brief stints at Bassett, Va., Forest Park in Martinsville, Va., Greensboro’s Green Valley Country Club and at New Bern Country Club, but most of his career was at the Lexington (NC) Country Club where he has been since 1938.  He is now professional emeritus there.

In 1940 he helped lead a move that enabled the Carolinas PGA to regain its charter after losing it to another section.  The 74-year-old Aycock was named professional of the year in the Carolina in 1957, that same year he won National Pro of the year honors.

Widely known for his many charitable projects, he has served 14 one-year terms as President of the Carolinas PGA Section and two different three-year terms as a National Vice-President.  He has held every office in the Carolinas PGA.  Aycock was chairman of National Golf Day two years, raising a record sum for charity in 1971.  He has also served on many PGA Championship and Ryder Cup Committees.

“Mr. PGA in the Carolinas ,” Dugan is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, was in the inaugural class of inductees into the Carolinas PGA Section Hall of Fame and was voted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.