Golf lost a true multi-faceted competitor and gentleman on September 17, when John Harris died at age 73 after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia. Harris was celebrated not only for his success on the PGA Tour Champions, but even more for his storied amateur career and his fierce loyalty to his Minnesota roots.
Harris spent his life proving that golf isn’t a one-way street: you don’t just go from amateur to pro, then fade away. His path went in both directions, and he made damn sure he left a mark in each chapter.
A two-sport standout turned dominant amateur
Harris was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Roseau, Minnesota, but he didn’t just pick one sport and run with it. While in college at the University of Minnesota, he starred in hockey, helping lead the Gophers to the 1974 NCAA National Championship, and simultaneously won the Big Ten individual golf title that same year.
After a brief flirtation with professional golf in the mid-1970s, earning a PGA Tour card in 1975 via Q-School but never quite finding his footing, Harris made a bold decision. He reclaimed his amateur status in 1983 and threw himself full bore into amateur competition, quietly becoming one of Minnesota’s greatest ever.
His amateur legacy is staggering. He won multiple Minnesota State Amateur and Mid-Amateur titles, captured several Minnesota Opens even while still an amateur, and was ultimately crowned the 1993 U.S. Amateur champion at age 41–the last “mid-amateur” (player aged 25 or older) ever to win that crown.
The Champions Tour and back again
Golf wasn’t finished with Harris, either. In his 50s, he returned to professional golf on what is now the PGA Tour Champions. The highlight? A playoff win at the 2006 Commerce Bank Championship.
He made nearly 250 starts on the senior circuit, earning the kind of respect from peers that goes beyond a resume. Harris was also a mentor, a teacher, and a fixture in Minnesota golf. Later, he served as director of golf at his alma mater.
His return to pro golf stood as a testament to his competitive fire and humility. He never needed the biggest stage; he just needed the right one.
Legacy isn’t just trophies
Harris’s death reverberates most powerfully in Minnesota, where he dominated statewide amateur golf for decades, collected a staggering ten “Minnesota Player of the Year” awards, and anchored multiple national-team efforts, including four Walker Cup appearances for the USA.
He was universally respected for doing things on his own terms. A dual-sport athlete, mid-amateur champion, Champions Tour competitor, coach and mentor–Harris charted a path less traveled, and he did it without drawing attention to himself.
He also showed that a golf career doesn’t have to be linear. Sometimes, the detours become the most meaningful legs of the journey.
“He was probably the best amateur player at our state level [in the modern era] that we had seen in a long time,” Warren Ryan, the communications director/editor for the Minnesota Golf Association, said. “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.”
What the golf world loses, and what remains
The PGA Tour Champions and amateur golf circles alike are diminished with Harris gone. They’ve lost someone who bridged eras: the grit-and-grind world of 1970s qualifying school, the pride and ferocity of amateur competition, and the seasoned poise of senior tour play.
But what Harris leaves behind isn’t only a body of wins and appearances. It’s a way of competing. It’s the belief that you can return to competition again, at a high level, on your own terms. It’s a reminder that legacy isn’t just about titles, but the choices you make, the toughness you show, and the respect you leave behind.
Golf fans–especially those who root for the “underdog” or believe in second (or third) acts–will remember John Harris not as a footnote, but as someone who followed his own course and made damn sure it counted.
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