Hall of Fame

Region: Capital District (Albany)
Hometown: Albany, N.Y.
Deceased (1929–1983)

Billy Shields was the dominant force in New York amateur golf in the early 1950s - a three-time State Amateur champion from Albany whose game carried him to the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals, the Masters, and the match-play rounds of the British and French Amateurs. Few players have ever owned the NYSGA Men's Amateur the way Shields did during his five-year prime.

An Albany native and Christian Brothers Academy graduate, Shields transferred from Notre Dame to Siena College in 1947, where he nearly matched the Notre Dame course record with a 64 and became a cornerstone of Leo Callahan's young program. A tireless practicer who honed his game at Wolfert's Roost, he was the only Siena player to qualify for the 1948 Pinehurst tournament, and he would later become the first non-basketball athlete inducted into the Siena College Athletics Hall of Fame.

Shields broke through on the national stage in 1950, reaching the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur in Minneapolis as part of a remarkable showing by New York amateurs that year. That quarterfinal finish earned him an invitation to the 1951 Masters, where, alongside three other New Yorkers, he teed it up at Augusta in the year Ben Hogan won, finishing 50th in a 64-man field.

Back home, he authored one of the greatest runs in NYSGA history. At Knollwood in 1951 he won the first of back-to-back titles with a 5-and-3 victory over Billy Edwards in a field thick with former champions. In 1952, on his home course at Wolfert's Roost, he overwhelmed seven-time champion Ray Billows, 6 and 5. His bid for an unprecedented three-peat ended in the 1953 final at Yahnundasis, where Tommy Goodwin beat him 2 up over 36 holes. After missing 1954 for U.S. Navy service, Shields returned in 1955 at Moon Brook and gained his revenge on Goodwin, grinding out a 36-hole final, 1 up. Across those four championships he compiled a sparkling 27-1 match-play record, three titles in five years.

His excellence extended well beyond the State Amateur. Shields won the Eastern New York Golf Association championship four times, once carding a 65 at Van Schaick Island in Cohoes, and captured the first three Glens Falls Invitationals from 1951 to 1953. On the international stage he reached the quarterfinals of both the British and French Amateurs in 1952, and he competed in six U.S. Amateurs between 1949 and 1957, adding a U.S. Open appearance at Oak Hill in 1956.

Away from the course, Shields ran Ruch Distributors in Albany and remained a fixture of Capital Region golf until his death in 1983 at the age of 54. More than four decades later, no Capital Region player has matched his three State Amateur titles, and his 27-1 championship match-play record endures as a benchmark of the era. A pioneer of New York amateur golf and the first golfer enshrined at Siena, Billy Shields takes his rightful place in the New York State Golf Association Hall of Fame.

Billy Shields's Career Highlights

• 3x NYSGA Men's Amateur Champion (1951, 1952, 1955); runner-up 1953
  • 1951 (Knollwood): def. Billy Edwards 5 & 3
  • 1952 (Wolfert's Roost, home course): def. seven-time champion Ray Billows 6 & 5
  • 1955 (Moon Brook): def. Tommy Goodwin, 1 up over 36 holes
  • 27-1 career match-play record in the championship
• Quarterfinalist, 1950 U.S. Amateur (Minneapolis) — earned a 1951 Masters invitation
• Played in the 1951 Masters — finished 50th in a 64-man field
• 6-time U.S. Amateur participant (1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957)
• Played in the 1956 U.S. Open at Oak Hill CC
• Quarterfinalist, 1952 British Amateur; quarterfinalist, 1952 French Amateur
• 4-time Eastern New York Golf Association champion (incl. a 65 at Van Schaick Island CC, Cohoes)
• Winner, first three Glens Falls Invitational Championships (1951, 1952, 1953)
• Transferred from Notre Dame to Siena (1947); only Siena player to qualify for the 1948 Pinehurst tournament
• First non-basketball inductee, Siena College Athletics Hall of Fame