Elvis Larkin
Class of 2016
In his prime, Elvis Larkin stood among the finest amateur golfers in Alabama, but the game did not come naturally to him as a boy growing up on Hermitage Avenue in Huntsville’s Blossomwood neighborhood. Like many boys of the 1950s, he dreamed first of baseball, not birdies and bogeys. It was his father, Buck Larkin, owner of Huntsville’s Firestone store, who insisted that his only son take lessons from Huntsville Country Club professional Milton Ward. What began reluctantly soon became a calling. Larkin later said Ward’s blunt honesty forced him to decide whether he truly cared about the game, and once he did, his focus changed for good.
By age 15, Larkin was already playing with many of the top golfers at Huntsville Country Club, learning from accomplished veterans such as Bob Lowry Jr. and Frank Campbell. While still a student at Huntsville High School in 1962, he won the North Alabama Junior Championship, finished second in the Alabama Junior, placed third in the Dixie Junior, finished second in the Gadsden Invitational, captured the Bobby Lowry Cup and played in the Future Masters in Dothan. Those results announced the arrival of a remarkable young talent.
After dominating the Huntsville Club Championship in 1966, Larkin’s career was interrupted by a two-year Army commitment that included a year in Vietnam. He returned, enrolled at Athens College and in 1970 produced the most memorable season of his career, winning club championships at Willowbrook, Athens and Decatur, tying for low amateur at the Pot o’ Gold Pro-Am, qualifying for the U.S. Amateur and making the cut in Portland, where future stars Lanny Wadkins and Tom Kite finished first and second.
Larkin turned professional in 1975 and later became a respected teaching pro at five courses, most notably Point Mallard in Decatur, where he served 24 years as head professional before retiring in 2004. The next year, the course renamed its annual fall event the Elvis Larkin Fall Classic, a fitting tribute to one of North Alabama golf’s enduring names.
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