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.

Shields won the state title in 1951, 1952 and 1955. He lost in the final in 1953. He posted a 27-1 record in match play in the state tournament. 

Ray Kelly, a prominent area amateur who first met Shields as his caddie in the mid-1970s, told the Albany Times-Union in 2006: “I’ve played with just about everybody, and to this date he is the best amateur player I ever saw. Tee-to-green, far and away, he is the best."

An Albany native and Christian Brothers Academy graduate, Shields transferred in 1947 from Notre Dame to Siena College, 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 Wolferts Roost Country Club, 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 qualified for the U.S. Amateur at age 21 in 1949. It would be the first of six times he played in the national amateur championship. 

Shields broke through on the national stage at the U.S. Amateur in 1950 in Minneapolis. The tournament was entirely match play in that era, and Shields won his first five matches.

In the round of 16, Shields scored a 2 and 1 victory over Dick Hackett of Rome, Ga. Shields hit all 17 greens in regulation and made 17 pars, vanquishing his opponent in a brilliant ball-striking exhibition. 

“That was the dawgondest round I ever played,” Shields told the Minneapolis Star.

Shields lost in the quarterfinals, 2 and 1, to John Ward of Clay, N.Y. But by reaching the final eight, he earned an invitation to the 1951 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga.

Shields tied for ninth out of 16 amateurs and placed 50^th out of 64 overall in the ’51 Masters, which was won by Ben Hogan, and Shields viewed the experience as the highlight of his career.

Spurred on by the major championship appearance, Shields captured the 1951 NYSGA Amateur in a field thick with former champions at Knollwood CC in Westchester County. In the quarterfinals, Shields upset Westchester CC’s Tommy Goodwin, 4 and 2. Goodwin was a three-time NYSGA champion at the time, and Shields played the final 16 holes in 2-under par to knock him off. In the final, Shields scored a 5-and-3 victory over Long Island’s Billy Edwards, a Colgate golfer.

In 1952 on his home course at Wolferts Roost, Shields overwhelmed seven-time champion Ray Billows of Poughkeepsie, 6 and 5. It was a dominant showing. Shields won his semifinal over fellow Wolferts Roost member Lou Witt Jr., 10 and 9, in a match that was scheduled for 36 holes. Shields played the 27 holes in 5-under par. In all, played seven matches in 8 under par over six days.

Shields’ bid for an unprecedented three-peat ended in the 1953 final at Yahnundasis CC, where Goodwin beat him 2 up over 36 holes. It was the 40-year-old Goodwin’s fourth state title. 

After missing 1954 for U.S. Navy service, Shields returned in 1955 at Jamestown’s Moon Brook CC and gained his revenge on Goodwin, grinding out a 36-hole final, 1 up. The two were tied on the final hole, the 453-yard 18^th. Both players hit their second shots about 20 yards over the green. Goodwin hit his pitch to 10 feet and two-putted for bogey. Shields hit his to just 1 foot to save par. Shields played the last 18 in 1-under par, which included an eagle-2 on the 335-yard 13^th, when his 110-yard shot hit the pin and dropped in the cup. 

Later that summer, Shields reached the match play portion of the U.S. Amateur in Richmond, Va. He lost in the first round to Tom Strange, the father of future World Golf Hall of Famer Curtis Strange. 

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. His last U.S. Amateur was 1957. Shields competed in the U.S. Open at Rochester’s Oak Hill CC 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. 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