Betty Baird Kregor was special golfer 50 years ago and now she is going into the Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame

Betty Baird Kregor has been a successful golfer, teaching pro and mentalist coach.

From the first time I saw Betty Baird Kregor of Louisville play golf at age 11 in 1972 at the Danville Country Club Junior Invitational I knew she was special.

I am not sure I have ever seen a better golfer at age 11 — and granted I haven’t seen all of Kentucky’s best golfers at that — until I recently watched Marshall County’s Trinity Beth.

I was a summer intern at The Advocate-Messenger and that basically meant I got the assignments no one else wanted. But as soon as I watched her hit, I thought, “Wow.”

She was so long and so accurate for an 11-year-old girl and I continued to follow her golf career. She won the Kentucky Girls Junior PGA Championship nine times, became the first girl to win a boy’s flight at the Junior Fall Cities in 1974 along with the Junior World Championship, and won the KHSAA Girls State Championship in 1979. She also was second in the Girls Western National in 1976.

She went to Alabama to play golf and had a superb career that included All-American honors. Once her playing days ended, she became a golf instructor and was on several TV shows, including the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1997.

Kregor, who is already in the KHSAA Athletics Hall of Fame, transitioned to a mentor for college athletes — both golfers and non-golfers — to help with the mental aspect of competition. In 2014, Kregor retired from  teaching golf to work as a “performance coach. One of her clients was former Kentucky standout Willie Cauley-Stein after he went to the NBA. She also works with current pro golfers Jared Wolfe, Cooper Musselman and Stephen Stallings, Jr.

Now Kregor is one of those being inducted into the Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame. Like always, she downplays what she has done. She told me what an honor it was to join Dick Bradow, Buddy Bryant, Kevin Greenwell,  Tennye Ohr, PGA, and Pat Stephens in the 2022 Hall of Fame class.

“It’s an honor to join that group of people. As a  golf history buff, it’s unfathomable my name is going to be on a list that will live on forever,” Kregor said.

No it isn’t. I thought she was that good when I first saw her play 50 years ago and she deserves this moment in the spotlight for not only being a special golfer, but also being a special person/coach.

Job well done Betty Baird Kregor.