VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Rutland

Golf

Inducted 2020

Vermont’s most accomplished men’s amateur golfer by dominating the sport from the mid-1930s to the 1950s, the late Tom Pierce is the first men’s golfer to be inducted in the VSHOF.  

As a 16-year-old in 1935, Pierce won the first of his record seven Vermont Amateur golf championships.  The long-time Rutland County Club members added state amateur titles in 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1947 and 1950. He won three state championships each at the Rutland and Burlington Country Clubs with his other win at Ekwanok Country Club in Manchester; the three have long been recognized as among the best courses in the state.

He also had great success at the northeast and national level reaching the match play portion of the U.S. Amateur Championship four times.  Pierce also reached the finals of the New York state amateur in 1941, finishing as the runner-up. He reached the match play portion of the U.S. National Amateur Championship four times. 

In Vermont, he was the 1950 winner of the inaugural Leslie D. Pierce Memorial, one of Vermont's post prestigious tournaments, at Rutland Country Club. The tournament was named in honor of Pierce's father, and continues to this day. He also was a member of six of Rutland Country Club's McCullough Cup championships, given to the top club at the Vermont Amateur. 

Tom Pierce passed away in 1974.