Remembering 1993 U.S. Amateur Champion, Walker Cupper John Harris

John Harris, the last mid-amateur golfer to win the U.S. Amateur and a four-time USA Walker Cup Team member, died on Sept. 17 after battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a type of blood cancer that affects the bone marrow. He was 73.

Harris is one of the most decorated players to come out of the state of Minnesota, having captured the Minnesota Amateur four times. He was a 10-time Minnesota Player of the Year, having won the honor nine consecutive years from 1987-1995 and again in 2000. He’s also a member of the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame.

According to Warren Ryan, the communications director/editor for the Minnesota Golf Association, Harris had just played golf last Thursday, shooting an even-par 72 at Edina (Minn.) Country Club.

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But Harris started feeling ill earlier this week and, following a checkup, he was admitted to hospice on Tuesday.

“He was probably the best amateur player at our state level [in the modern era] that we had seen in a long time,” said Ryan. “He basically dominated Minnesota amateur golf from the mid-80s until 2001 before he decided to turn pro again. He beat everybody young and old.

“Speaking to some of his close friends, they all said the same thing – he was the consummate gentleman on and off the golf course. He always knew the right thing to say and the right thing to do… his reputation was huge.”

Born in Minneapolis on June 13, 1952, Harris was not only a talented golfer but an elite ice hockey player, good enough to play for the University of Minnesota, a national powerhouse. He was the second-leading scorer for the 1974 Gophers squad that claimed the NCAA Division I title under legendary coach Herb Brooks. He also starred for the school’s golf team, winning the 1974 Big 10 Conference individual title.

His younger brother, Robbie, also starred for the Gophers’ ice hockey program and played on the 1976 USA Olympic Team that competed in Austria. His father, Robert, also was an excellent golfer who was the runner-up in the 1992 U.S. Senior Amateur.

John and Robert won 12 state father/son titles and one national father/son title.

Harris’ sister, Nancy Harris Blanchard, also was a standout golfer who won numerous state titles and captained the victorious 2001 Minnesota side to the USGA Women’s State Team title. She, like John, is in the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame.

John Harris represented the USA on four Walker Cup Teams, including the 1997 Match at Quaker Ridge. (USGA/John Mummert)

Harris briefly played professional hockey after college before turning his attention to pro golf. He earned his PGA Tour card via Q-School in 1975 but did not have much success, and eventually regained his amateur status in 1983.

His second stint as an amateur delivered many victories, including the 1993 U.S. Amateur at age 41, where he defeated Danny Ellis, 5 and 3, in the 36-hole final at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. To this day, Harris remains the last mid-amateur (25 and older) to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy.

During that span, Harris, who was involved in the insurance business, would also claim a pair of Minnesota State Opens (1994, 1995), three of his four Minnesota Amateurs and five Minnesota Mid-Amateurs. He also won the prestigious Porter Cup in 1997 and the Terra Cotta Invitational in 2002. When Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., hosted the 2001 USGA Men’s State Team Championship, Harris helped the three-man squad win the championship. The Minnesota women also won the State Team that year, and all six members of the winning squads were featured on the cover of Golf Journal fishing the two trophies out of a computer-generated frozen pond.

Those accomplishments garnered the attention of the USGA, who selected Harris to Walker Cup teams in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2001. He amassed a 10-4 combined record in foursomes and singles matches over those four appearances. Harris also helped the USA win the 1994 World Amateur Team Championship (Eisenhower Trophy) in Versailles, France, competing on a team that included 18-year-old Tiger Woods and fellow mid-amateur Allen Doyle.

When he turned 50, Harris decided to give professional golf a second try, this time on the Senior Tour (now PGA Tour Champions). He enjoyed much better success this time around, winning the 2006 Commerce Bank Championship in a playoff over Tom Jenkins. At age 68, Harris retired from the circuit following the 2021 Sanford International in Sioux Falls, S.D.

When Brad James left the University of Minnesota golf program in July of 2010 for his native Australia, Harris stepped in to become school’s director of golf. Harris also became a mentor to 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent, whom he befriended through Noah’s stepfather, Dana Fry. Kent made his run to the championship match at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Harris split his time between residences in Greater Minneapolis and Naples, Fla.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.