Frank Beard (golfer)

Early years

Beard was born in Dallas, Texas. He attended Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky, and won the Kentucky state high school golf championship as a senior in 1957.

College career

He attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Conrad Rehling's Florida Gators men's golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1958 to 1961. He was recognized as an All-American in 1960 and 1961. He graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1961, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."

Professional career

Beard turned professional in 1962. He topped the PGA Tour money list in 1969 with earnings of $175,223. He has eleven wins on the tour including victories in the Tournament of Champions in 1967 and 1970. He was a member of the U.S. team in the Ryder Cup in 1969 and 1971 and had a 2–3–3 win-loss-half record. His best finishes in a major tournament were a third-place finish and a tie for third in the 1965 and 1975 U.S. Opens. After turning 50 years old, he played on the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour), where he won the 1990 Murata Reunion Pro-Am.

Beard is probably best known as the author of Pro, the story of his year on the tour in 1969. The book revealed many of the more mundane parts of life on the pro tour for the middle tier of golfers with families. Commentators called the book "humorous and insightful," showing the human side of the PGA Tour.

Beard has also worked as a golf commentator on ESPN. He was inducted as a member of the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.

PGA Tour wins (11)

Other wins (2)

Senior PGA Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Yellow background for top-10

Summary

U.S. national team appearances