NC Oklahoma News

Former Oklahoma State standout Bo Wininger has been named as a member of the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame's class of 2023. He is joined by Stacy Prammanasudh, Ron Streck, Mike Hughett and Morri Rose.
 
The five will be inducted (Wininger posthumously) on Nov. 12 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa.
 
Wininger was one of the most prolific PGA Tour winners ever from Oklahoma. He was a great natural athlete who played both football and basketball in Guthrie and then served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II.
 
Upon his discharge, Wininger went to OSU to play golf for legendary coach Labron Harris Sr., who founded the program in 1947.  Wininger lettered in 1947-50, and led the team to NCAA finishes of fifth, fifth, sixth and 13th. He won the Missouri Valley Conference individual championship in 1949 and 1950 and Oklahoma A&M won the conference championship all four years.
 
Wininger went east after graduation, landing a job at Atlantic City Country Club in 1952. He joined the PGA Tour in 1953.
 
In 1955, Wininger broke through with victories in the Baton Rouge Open and the Hot Springs Open. He won again in 1956 before leaving the tour and its minimal payouts for private business, but joined again in the early 1960s and promptly won three more times in short order. He won the Greater New Orleans Open and the Carling Open in 1962 and then repeated as champ in 1963 in New Orleans.
 
Wininger then accepted a job directing golf operations in Las Vegas at The Desert Inn, home of the PGA Tour's Tournament of Champions. He gave lessons to high rollers and Rat Pack members, hobnobbed with the stars and appeared in an episode of "I Love Lucy."
 
When Howard Hughes bought the Desert Inn in 1966, he stopped the practice of hosting the Tournament of Champions. Wininger returned to Oklahoma and worked for a short time in the oil business before suffering a stroke in November 1967 and passing away the following month at age 45. 

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