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Hamarik, 56, remembered for talent, faith, encouragement
After arthritis cut short PGA career, Hamarik taught game to youngsters
The memories of John Hamarik’s golfing ability are stories legends are made of.
Some consider him the best golfer to come out of the Mahoning Valley. Others say he would’ve been one of the best in his era, had his professional career not been cut short by arthritis in his hands. Yet everyone agrees his life was cut too short.
Hamarik, a 1977 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, died last Friday. He was 56.
“John Hamarik was someone who cared about his family, his faith and Cardinal Mooney High School and carried those three things with him whenever on tour,” said Jack Gocala, former Youngstown State University chief of police and a Mooney graduate.
“He was one of the great local golfers who always had time for others and would go out of his way to help and assist fellow golfers.”
Following his high school golf career, Hamarik played collegiately at the University of Tennessee. In 1981, he won the Ohio Amateur, as well as the Chile Open — which is where his friends’ stories begin.
“I remember he beat the great Johnny Miller in the Chile Open head-to-head,” recalled Denny Liebert, who hosted a Saturday afternoon radio show with Hamarik in the early 2000s.
“He beat him in a playoff and what I remember most about it was the story he told about armed guards being all over the golf course.
“There was a lot going on over there at that time, so they were there as security, but he just found it so unusual to see all these guys carrying weapons while he was trying to stand over a putt.”
Following his amateur success, Hamarik played one full season on the PGA Tour before arthritis in his hands derailed his career. He played in 23 events in 1984, but only one in each of the following two years.
His career earnings on Tour was slightly more than $6,000.
“I mean you talk about a guy who had something taken from him,” Liebert said. “Toward the later parts of his playing days it got to the point where he couldn’t hold a golf club.”
Just before Hamarik earned his tour card, another Valley native, Jerry McGee, was competing on the professional tour. McGee retired from the PGA Tour in 1981, but that didn’t keep him from following Hamarik’s career.
“I remember John as an excellent golfer, but moreso as a wonderful, caring person,” McGee said. “Health issues cost him a lot of time on the PGA Tour, but make no mistakes, he could play with the best professionals in the world.
“He was a student of the game, someone who always had time to lend a helping hand, was an excellent instructor and a golfer that was passionate about the sport.”
Hamarik was inducted into the Cardinal Mooney Hall of Fame in 1994. Andy Santor was at Mooney more than a decade after Hamarik, but says the legacy still lingered then — just as it does now.
“He was very influential in my early golfing career with both the level he played and always offering advice and encouraging words,” said Santor, a golf professional at Mill Creek Golf Course.
“This news really hurts. Never quite lived up to the standards he set at Mooney, but not too many people could have.”
Hamarik was similar in age to household names like Paul Azinger and Mark Calcavecchia, yet the smooth-swinging Valley golfer earned his tour card before either of them.
After his playing days were behind him, Hamarik committed his time to teaching the game. He helped with the USGA’s First Tee program, a national effort to help introduce kids to golf, as well as his Clubs for Kids effort locally.
That was an area he took great pride in, according to Liebert. He wanted to help inner city kids get acclimated to the game and did so by making clubs for them to ensure they had an opportunity to learn the game he loved.
“That’s the type of guy he was,” Liebert said. “He’ll be missed.”