Idle Hour's Ray Cutright set for PGA Hall induction

Ray Cutright said he barely has had time to think about being a part of the PGA of America Hall of Fame Class of 2015.

But that all changed Monday when he decided it was time to read the biographies of the other members of the group.

For the first time, Cutright allowed himself to get emotional at the honor that will be bestowed on him in a ceremony Thursday in Palm Beach Gardens.

The other inductees are Charlie Sifford, Payne Stewart, Lee Trevino, Michael Doctor, George Hannon and Tommy Bolt. And by the luck of the draw, Cutright's induction comes right after Stewart's and right before Trevino's.

"If I could hand pick where I would want to be inducted, that is where I would want to be," said Cutright, the director of golf at Idle Hour Club who spends a lot of time at the Arnold Blum Golf Learning Center working with golfers. "Somehow they stuck an old golf pro from Macon, Georgia, in between two of the greatest golfers of all time. When I finally decided that I better start preparing for this, I read the biographies of all of the men being inducted, and I openly wept. The group of men I am going in with is just outstanding."

Cutright has come a long way from the teenager who took his first job in the golf industry when he was only 15.

"I went to work for a PGA professional named Lewis "Butch" Hanson, working in the pro shop for him while I was in high school," Cutright said. "When he changed clubs, I went with him. He is the one who actually gave me my first chance at teaching lessons when I was 18 years old while I was in college. He was more than just a mentor to me; he was like a second father. That was not always good for me because he was tough, very tough, on me. He forced me to do things at a young age like talking to people and anticipating their needs, that have helped me my entire life.

"He was definitely a life changing individual for me, because he helped me become a man."

Cutright had huge aspirations even early in his career.

"I wanted to be the head professional at Augusta National, but eventually I changed that to wanting to be the head professional at Idle Hour," Cutright said. "I had a great job working as the Director of Golf at Sea Island, but Idle Hour was just something that I could not turn down. Idle Hour has been my home since 1993, and I could not be happier."

Through the years, Cutright has served on the National PGA Board of Directors, as well as serving as the co-chair of the instruction Ccmmittee. He was the 60th recipient of the PGA Golf Professional of the Year and was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in January.

And at 64 years old, Cutright is not ready to slow down.

"Heavens no, I am not going to slow down because I still think we can do better than we are doing right now," Cutright said. "I can see myself doing this for at least five or six more years, and the truth is, I love coming to work. We want to make sure we turn out some really good players, and our juniors are very strong right now. But most of all, I just want to help people enjoy the game of golf."

This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Idle Hour's Ray Cutright set for PGA Hall induction ."