NEWS
Club professional & coach Kevin Edwards, and amateur golfers Bob Beck and Terry Slater Jr. headed to Lehigh Valley Golf Hall of Fame in 2017
March 26, 2018
Club professional & coach Kevin Edwards, and amateur golfers Bob Beck and Terry Slater Jr. headed to Lehigh Valley Golf Hall of Fame in 2017
BETHLEHEM TWP. — The Lehigh Valley Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2017 features a special mentoring connection.
Kevin Edwards, a veteran golf professional and Moravian College golf coach, did not have to think long about choosing his presenter for induction — John Makuvek, his golf coach when he played at Moravian College.
“I have presented ‘Coach Mac’ at two hall of fame inductions, he will be my presenter,” said the 42-year-old Edwards, who presented Makuvek for induction in 2009 into the LVGHOF. “He is the main reason I went to Moravian College.”
This year’s class includes Edwards, and two accomplished amateur golfers: Bob Beck of Salisbury Township, and former Alpha resident Terry Slater Jr.
The group was announced Tuesday morning at a press conference at Green Pond Country Club.
The Class of 2017 brings the hall to 66 members in it’s fourteenth year. With three members per year slated to be inducted the next 11 years, the hall of fame will have 100 members after 25 years.
The 14th annual induction dinner is scheduled for Wednesday, November 1 at Green Pond Country Club.
Edwards, a 42-year-old Nazareth native who now resides Allen Township, has served as the head golf pro at Riverview Country Club and Woodstone Country Club; and is currently the director of golf at Olde Homestead Golf Club.
In 2009, he succeeded Makuvek as the golf coach at Moravian College.
“Coach Mac means everything to me,” said Edwards, a graduate of Nazareth Area High School (1992) and Moravian College (1996). “Coach Mac is a father figure to me. He taught me character. Always give your best. Do it with good character and sportsmanship.”
Edwards also credited pros Jim Muschlitz and Wayne Phillips with his career development. He began working as a teenager under Muschlitz at Green Pond from 1991 to 1993, then followed him to Southmoore in a variety of roles from 1994 to 2000. He worked as an assistant pro for Phillips at Lehigh Country Club from 2000-2004.
Edwards enjoyed success as a golf coach at Muhlenberg College (2002-2004), where he led the Mules to he 2004 Centennial Conference title; and at Moravian, where he earned Empire 8 Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2015 and 2017.
Beck, 57, a former Lehigh University golfer from 1978-1982, has been one of the region’s top amateur golfers over the past 25 years.
A Managing Director of Investments at Wells Fargo, Beck enjoyed a banner 2016 season which included winning the Golf Association of Philadelphia Brewer Cup senior match play event and Lehigh Valley Senior Tournament of Champions title en route to earning the 2016 Lehigh Valley Senior Player of the Year award.
Beck, a nine-time Lehigh Country Club men’s club champion, also won the 1992 Lehigh Valley Tournament of Champions and 1993 Lehigh Valley Medal Play Championship. He qualified for the 2000 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
A native of Winfield, West Virginia, Slater relocated to Alpha when he was 14 years-old.
Following a stellar junior golf career at Phillipsburg High School (1996) and on the Lehigh Valley Junior Golf Tour, Slater won the Lehigh Valley Amateur, Lehigh Valley Tournament of Champions, and Lehigh Valley Player of the Year awards in 1996 and 2000.
A powerful player off the tee who also possesses an excellent putting touch, Slater was a star golfer at Northampton Community College in 1997, and at Elon University from 1998-2000.
After turning pro in 2001, the 41-year-old Skater was an assistant golf pro at several clubs until he became the head pro at Pound Ridge Golf Club in New York in 2014.
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