Lester Kimber Honored with Hall of Fame Selection

By MARK CARTNER

As Lester Kimber and his wife Diane sat at their K&W Cafeteria table following the early service at East Winston First Baptist Church, Lester wondered what Harold Dunovant wanted to see him about. Dunovant, the founder and director of the National Black Golf Hall of Fame (based in Winston-Salem) had spotted Kimber in the restaurant and instructed him not leave until the two had a chance to speak.

By the time Kimber strolled into the parking lot, more than his belly was satisfied. Inside the K&W, Dunovant informed Kimber that he had been selected as a 2001 inductee to the National Black Golf Hall of Fame. In July, Kimber joins Artis "Jack" Hall of Plantation FL, Wilhelmina A. Young of Greensboro, and Herman Mitchell of Pensacola, FL in the Hall of Fame Lester Kimber never dreamed of.

Growing up a country boy in rural East Bend, NC, Kimber (the oldest of five siblings) fantasized about Cooperstown, not Winston-Salem. Kimber played baseball. And by his late teens he was a .360-hitting left fielder for the semi-pro Elkin Blanketteers. But Elkin was a far cry from the major leagues, and for Kimber’s baseball career – it was the end of the road.

"When I was a kid I thought I would play baseball for a living, making big bucks," laughs the friendly, plain-spoken 53-year-old Kimber. "But then I woke up one day and realized I was in the real world."

That day came when Kimber, as a 21-year-old, crossed the Yadkin River en route to Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem. At Forsyth Tech, Kimber learned welding. It’s been his trade ever since – but not his passion. That belongs to golf.

Kimber’s start in golf came unexpectedly.

One Father’s Day in the early 70s, his first wife surprised him with a beginner’s set of golf clubs. "I was so green I didn’t even know which club was for what," Kimber says honestly. "My brothers laughed at me when I started playing."

But they didn’t laugh for long. Kimber put his natural athletic ability to work in a nearby abandoned schoolyard and in about four years time, not only did he know what the clubs were for, he began to use them in competition.

Kimber won his first tournament in 1976 at the East Bend Jaycees event at Booneville Golf Club. It was the first of 63 tournament titles captured by a man who fired an inauspicious 108 the first time he played 18 holes. "I remember thinking if I could shoot 79 I’d be satisfied," says Kimber while tracing the evolution of his game. "But it doesn’t matter. If you could shoot 65 every time you’d want to shoot 62. You’re never going to be satisfied and if you are then you’re of no account."

And around this area for the past 25 years, any golfer looking for titles has had to account for Lester Kimber.

After he broke the ice with that first win at Booneville, Kimber went on a bit of a local rampage. To date the 6’1" 250-pounder known, interestingly, for his accuracy and short game, has won four Forsyth County Invitationals, nine Winston-Lake Pro-Ams, five East Bend Jaycees, five Sarah Marsh Opens, a Gate City Open, and a whole slew of others.

But despite the success, Kimber does have one regret – that he didn’t play in more of the many regional tournaments sprinkled up and down the East Coast. "I wish I had played in more of them when I was younger," he says, "but I didn’t know about them."

Along with the local events, what he did know about back then was the major leagues of golf – the PGA Tour. But just as with baseball, the "big-time" wasn’t meant to be. Though some local men approached Kimber about the possibility of sponsoring his run at the Tour, Kimber quickly nixed the idea. His East Bend sensibilities simply wouldn’t allow him to jeopardize a wife and two small children.

"There’s more to turning pro than just saying you’re turning pro," Kimber soberly explains. "I don’t want to do anything half-way and at the time I didn’t think I could be better than average out there. I wasn’t willing to risk my family’s future on a dream I wasn’t even sure of. It’s more than just a notion. People can tell you you’re good enough to do this or that … but sometimes you've got to look deep down inside yourself and be honest."

Looking back at his decision, Kimber has no regrets, but he also says that if he’d had a similar opportunity in his late 40s to join the Senior Tour, he’d have jumped on it. "Nobody was offering me the money then," he laughs, "but if they had, I’d a took it! But I can’t complain. Like mamma used to tell me, ‘When you start to feel sorry for yourself, look around. Somebody’ll trade places with you in a heartbeat.’"

Kimber’s homespun ways are sincere. And curiously, it’s those humble, country ways that led Kimber to a love affair with the occasionally elitist game of golf. "If it comes to it," Kimber says, "I can play by myself. That’s the beauty of golf. It let’s the country boy be a country boy. When you come up in the country you learn how to be by yourself, and golf is a game of being by yourself – even in a crowd."

Ups and Downs

Way back in 1976, Lester Kimber choked his way to the first of his 63 tournament wins. The event was the East Bend Jaycees and following a first round 62, Kimber struggled to a final round 72 to win by a hair. "You don’t forget those," Kimber laughs now. "You’re chokin’ so bad and you don’t want nobody to see it – but that’s what’s happened’."

A little less than a year ago Kimber won number 63 when he captured the Reidsville Jaycee Invitational tournament crown. Winning was especially sweet for Kimber considering that the previous December he’d had his left knee replaced – but it’s another victory that Kimber cherishes the most.

Though known mostly for his dominant play in the Triad, for fours years, starting in 1978, Kimber ventured northward to Pennsylvania to compete in the Westinghouse Open. The tournament, run by Kimber’s employer, brought together the company’s best golfers from more than 40 states. According to Kimber the competitors were brought to a course nobody had seen, denied a practice round, and then forced to play on a layout so tight it made Winston Lake golf course look like a treeless links course by comparison. In the four tournaments Kimber played, he finished second, first, first and second. And he still considers his first Westinghouse Open in 1979 the finest of his career.

But for the most frustrating moment of his golfing life, Kimber recalls the 1986 U.S. Public Links Championship won by Billy Mayfair at Tanglewood Park. In his first round match Kimber held a 4-up lead on his opponent as they played the back nine. But then everything fell apart. "I couldn’t do nothing," Kimber remembers. "I couldn’t putt. I couldn’t hit wedges. I saw it coming unraveled and there wasn’t anything I could do about it." And contrary to local legend, Kimber’s first round opponent wasn’t Mayfair.