1995 BYU Hall of Fame

John Fought III is used to having numbers behind his name, and they are usually flattering. A golf course architect, Fought has also engineered great success on the links as a golfer. Among the Portland, Oregon, native's many accolades, he was ranked number one by Golf Digest after recording 22-straight match play victories; he won the 1977 U.S. Amateur; and he was the 1979 Rolex PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

Fought (rhymes with boat) was a member of the four-man World Cup Amateur Team; he also won all four matches playing as a member of the prestigious 10-member 1977 Walker Cup Team.

When Fought won the 1977 U.S. Amateur Championship, his name was added to the elite list of past champions that includes Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus. The same year he also won the Trans-Mississippi Amateur and the Broadmoor Invitational.

Individually at BYU he was medalist in the Sun Devil Classic and the Beehive Intercollegiate, as well as winning the British Universities Amateur Federation - setting a course record of 64 at the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in Scotland. He also won the Pacific Coast Amateur, the Provo Open, and the LDS All-Church Championships.

Fought helped the Cougars to four titles at the Cougar Classic and four WAC Championships. During his tenure on the golf team, the Cougars won a staggering 29 tournament titles.

The third-team All-American was a member of the 1976 Cougar golf team that finished second at the NCAA Championships. His teammates that year were Mike Reid, Jim Nelford, Mike Brannan, Jim Blair, and Pat McGowan.

One of Fought's first sudden-death playoff victories came in the 1976 Cougar Classic when he defeated Oregon's Peter Jacobsen. Months later in Oregon he won a second playoff against Jacobsen in the Northwest Open.

In 1978 Fought earned his PGA Tour card at Huntsville, Texas. The next year he defeated Jim Simons in a playoff for the Buick Goodwrench Open title and a $27,000 share of the purse; he also won the Anheuser Busch Classic.

Fought participated along with Nelford in Lisbon, Portugal, at the World Cup Amateur in 1976. Earlier that year, Fought and Reid tied for low amateur honors at the U.S. Open.

Among his many other accomplishments on and off the course, Fought, an architect for Cupp Design, Inc., was co-designer of the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, which Golf Digest has named Course of the Year.

Placed first at the Beehive Invitational ... finished third at the Rebel Classic.