Source: VT Golf Magazine | Issue: Summer 2007 | Author: William Noble

Synopsis: This article is about Joe Kirkwood who has been described as the world’s best trick-shot golfer. It talks about his work in the golf world and how he later became Stowe’s first golf pro. 

 

    He was a big man with a doughy, seamed face that blossomed to smiles when he was around youngsters. His face told of hours in the sun from his early golf days in Australia, where he was born, to his many years on the professional golf tour, and, finally, to his last years in Stowe where he sprinkled his genial nature and spectacular golf skills as resident golf professional at Stowe Country Club from 1963 to 1970. 

    Meet Joe Kirkwood, whose name still resounds in Vermont golf circles through the Kirkwood Memorial Golf Tournament, played annually since 1967 at Stowe Country Club, “Joe was the first PGA professional our club has ever had,” says Lynn Altadonna, the club’s golf historian. “He took us from a club in the country to a country club and was the first to give professional lessons here.”