Buzz Edmonds, known to golfers in Kitsap as ‘The Legend,’ dies at 91

He was nicknamed “The Legend” for his prowess in golf over decades, but the name could also be applied to John Franklin “Buzz” Edmonds Jr. for his quiet demeanor, his humility, his kindness toward all and, of course, his competitiveness in sports, especially on a golf course.

During his 91 years Edmonds won too many golf tournaments to count, and played in the first U.S Junior Amateur Tournament in 1948 at Ann Arbor, Michigan. His dad, John Franklin Edmonds, drove him there, and the young teenager didn’t disappoint, winning the consolation bracket.

His golf began when a Bremerton High School friend (Edmonds graduated in 1949) asked him to go to Kitsap Golf & Country Club and play a round in 1945, when he was 15.

“His dad was a member of Kitsap and he asked me one summer day to go out and play golf,” Edmonds said for a story I wrote 10 years ago. “I told him I didn’t know how to play golf.”

He went and immediately fell in love with it.

The nickname came years later when a bunch of Kitsapers were playing at Black Butte Ranch in Bend, Oregon.

“The weather was bad and Buzz probably played one of the worse rounds he played in a long time,” said close friend and longtime playing partner Harley Schmeichel. “One of the higher handicap guys beat him and as was usual we went off to have a couple cool ones, and Charlie Buell got on Buzz.

“Buell says, ‘So the legend got beat by ...', and I forgot the guy’s name, but that’s how he got the name. Charlie Buell coined it.”

Edmonds legitimately earned the name by the force of personality and play on the golf course, and for the seven decades he stayed as a member at Kitsap G&C, helping out here and there at times while dominating the scores. Playing against low handicappers and high handicappers, he became well known and well loved. He didn’t discriminate. He would play at the drop of a tee with anybody, even if you (like me) could not miss trees, water, and bunkers and logged a long list of five-putts.

Nine times over five decades Edmonds won the Kitsap Men’s Golf Championship, a feat that seemed impossible to match — until Scott Fenske, a key member of the Ridgeway Street Golf Association that combines golf and fun, won it eight times.

Three years ago Fenske had his headphones on and was practicing putting on the main green two weeks after winning his seventh club championship when he felt a presence behind him. It was The Legend.

“He put a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Do me a favor,’” Fenske said. “I said, ‘What’s that?’”

“Slow down,” Edmonds said with a smile.

Fenske replied, "I want you to be there when I get there (winning the 10th)."

“I will be there,” Edmonds answered.

Not in physical body, but in spirit, because the Legend sadly passed away from a blood clot Aug. 13 at the age of 91.

Fenske believes he will honor his word.

“I know he will be there, looking down on me,” says Fenske.

After one year at Olympic College, Edmonds enlisted in the Air Force (1951-55) and spent his entire time at Travis Air Force Base in California on the golf team, often beating his superiors, which was considered a no-no. But Edmonds didn’t care. He played to win.

Edmonds retired as supervisor of planning and estimating in the pipe fitting shop from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 1985 at age 55. One year he won the shipyard Ping-Pong singles tournament, which he was real proud of. Then he and Don Larson partnered to win the doubles competition.

It was in 1998 he had a stroke that changed his level of competitiveness. He had always played with a single-digit handicap with the lowest a one, and kept playing, but now it was more for fun. He was playing golf in 2021 when he suddenly just walked off the course.

“He never walked off a course while playing,” says daughter, Vickie Edmonds. “He was in pain and knew something was up.”

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He underwent treatment and later felt better for a couple months. Then the cancer came back. But that’s not what ended it. A blood clot in the heart did him in.

Vickie had moved back in with her dad and they had some good laughs together.

“I felt like I cheered him up,” she says.

Schmeichel got emotional talking about the passing of his friend. They first met in 1958. A mutual friend invited him to play golf along with Edmonds. Schmeichel was not a good player then but they connected almost instantly.

While they were golfing, Edmonds, already a club champion, quietly asked Schmeichel to be his partner in upcoming best ball tournament. They played poorly in the tournament, but it got much better. They continued that partnership and as Schmeichel improved they began winning a lot of best ball tournaments.

Edmonds’ personality never changed with success, which included three Kitsap Am championships (1960, 1971-72), winning the first Pacific Northwest USGA Tournament, four Bremerton Sun doubles titles and four Bremerton City Championships, among many others. Winning didn’t go to his head. He continued to treat strangers like they were lifelong friends. And he never swore, which is unusual especially in this day and age.

“A good friend of mine, Wendell Arnold, said the reason Buzz plays so good and gets all the good bounces is because he doesn’t swear,” Schmeichel said.

Schmeichel and Edmonds drew even closer after they both lost their wives — Diane Schmeichel in 2004 and Marilyn Edmonds in 2014.

“We were kind of the odd couple,” says Schmeichel. “We would have dinners together on Monday evenings, golf on Wednesdays, happy hour at the club Friday evenings and golf on Saturdays.”

Edmonds was also a good basketball and softball player. Edmonds started playing basketball in the Bremerton City League when he was 16 and one year was the league’s scoring champion. He continued to play until his mid-40s, although he did play when he was in his mid-60s for just a few minutes for a team coached by Scott Alexander.

Alexander didn’t know if he would have enough players so he asked Buzz to show up just in case. As it turned out, Alexander had five players so he didn’t need Edmonds. Or so he thought. It turned out, one player fouled out and Edmonds had stayed around to watch. So Alexander reeled him in.

“We were playing against a bunch of Navy guys in their 20s and Buzz scored six points,” says Alexander. “He had great athletic ability.”

Edmonds played on several softball teams, including Bud Higgs’ Lake Furniture that one year won the state tournament.

“I played second base for Bud Higgs, and was on the original Pop’s Inn team with (hall of famers) Swede Moore, Al Campbell, Benny Murray, Doc Bonnema, Dan Burton, and Oliver Malley,” Edmonds said for an earlier story.

He also played basketball on the Olympic College team that placed in the 1950 National Junior College Tournament (he also played golf at OC).

The Kitsap Golf & Country Club renamed its men’s golf tournament the Buzz Edmonds Men’s Golf Tournament last year when he turned 90. The honor was not expected and it bought Edmonds to tears, but you are not supposed to know that. He didn’t like to be in the spotlight and he wouldn’t like it if you knew that or knew when Kitsap remodeled its pro shop and it needed a TV to make it complete, he stepped forward.

“Secretly, he purchased a $700 flat screen TV and gave it to us,” says former club pro Al Patterson (now at Canterwood in Gig Harbor). “He was very humble as far as things he did in golf, but still was competitive.

“He was a class act, a gentleman.”

There will be a celebration of life for Buzz Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. at Kitsap Golf & Country Club.

Terry Mosher is a longtime Kitsap County sportswriter who writes about sports personalities for the Kitsap Sun. Contact him at bigmosher@msn.com. 

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Buzz Edmonds, known as The Legend for golf ability, dies at 91