SALT LAKE CITY — Longtime Utah golf professional and Hall of Famer Bob Betley passed away last week at age 80.
Betley was one of the state’s top professional golfers during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He won the Utah Open at the Salt Lake Country Club in 1979 and several events in the Intermountain area, including the Colorado Open and Arizona Open. He played in several PGA Tour events, before embarking on a successful career on the PGA Champions Tour.
Local golf fans remember his iconic 8-hole sudden-death playoff with Orville Moody at Jeremy Ranch GC in the Franklin Quest Championship. He lost that playoff, but came back the following year to win the Bank of Boston Classic, his lone win on the Champions Tour, and earned more than $1 million in his Champions Tour before retiring in 2002.
He settled in the Bear Lake area where he built a home with his wife, Jane, and was the pro at the Bear Lake West Golf Course.
A native of Butte, Montana, Betley graduated from Weber State and worked as a motorcycle cop in Ogden, before becoming a professional golfer in his late 20s. After his sterling career on the links, Betley was inducted into the Utah Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 along with Mike Reid and Marcia Thayne.