Dana Rader, Charlotte’s Hall of Fame golf pro, found ‘real love’ in teaching the game

Brian Rader will always remember how his sister, Dana, influenced countless lives as one of America’s greatest teachers of golf.

“She helped so many people be the best they could be,” he said.

Dana Rader fell in love with the sport their dad introduced her to when she was 15 growing up in Morganton, Brian Rader said. She was an all-conference basketball player at Freedom High, he said, but the links soon became her lifelong passion.

And she later passed the skills and know-how she accrued to thousands of students at her Dana Rader Golf School in Ballantyne, he said. More than a few became golf pros, while others made the LPGA tour, he said.

Dana Rader, a former LPGA national teacher of the year whose golf school consistently ranked among the nation’s best, died Wednesday of a rare brain disease, her family said. She was 64.

Rader died of the degenerative Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where she moved in 2017 after selling her school.

“Even in her last weeks, she was still funny, telling jokes,” Brian Rader said. “She was so sweet, so caring.”

“She had such a magnetic personality, a dry sense of humor, a quick wit,” he said. “People were drawn to her. She pulled them in with her magnetism. They loved her,” as she did back.

Her school, which opened at Raintree Country Club in Charlotte and later moved to the former Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge, trained at least 17,000 students a year.

Over a career that began in 1980, Rader was named one of the top teachers in the nation by Golf Magazine, Golf Digest and Golf for Women. She was named LPGA National Teacher of the Year in 1990 and was inducted into the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Hall of Fame in 2017.

“I’ve always been a huge advocate of all people playing the game and have really been involved at the grassroots level getting beginners into the game,” Rader told The Charlotte Observer in 2011.

“She had friends from the Atlantic to the Pacific,” her brother said.

“Unbelievable” how many, he said.

‘Beloved leader, mentor, friend’

Rader worked to get more women in the sport, including advising club manufacturers and others in the industry on how to create a more inclusive environment for women.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, the LPGA Professionals organization called Rader a “beloved leader, mentor, and friend. Her contributions to this organization and those who love the game are too numerous to count and for that, she will be sincerely missed.”

Golf Magazine for years ranked Rader’s school among the 25 best in the U.S.

Nancy Lopez, one of the all-time greatest golfers, became a mentor and friend and wrote the foreword to Rader’s 2002 book, “Rock Solid Golf: A Foundation for a Lifetime.”

In 2020, Rader received the Nancy Lopez Golf Achievement Award, recognizing the teaching professional “who best emulates Lopez’s qualities of leadership, passion, giving and approachability.”

Through all of the accolades, Rader “was always like a local, low-key instructor,” the type you’d never expect had reached the pinnacle of her profession, fellow golf instructor Marc Lapointe told the Observer in an interview Thursday.

Lapointe, now based in Fort Mill, worked for Rader for 13 years at her school before branching out on his own as one of South Carolina’s most highly rated instructors.

“Dana had a huge impact on my life,” Lapointe elaborated in an email Thursday night.

She offered Lapointe, a Canadian citizen, his first job in the United States.

“She was the epitome of a leader,” he said. “She had such an impact on those around her. You could sense it just from being in the room with her that she was someone special. I didn’t just see Dana as just my boss, but as a mentor and a friend.”

On Facebook, Jason Sutton, chief golf instructor at Colleton River Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, said Rader “had a massive effect on my career and my life. I miss her so much and wish we had more time together. I love you Big Girl!!”

Golf her lifelong passion

Rader learned from pro instructor Joe Cheves and golf great Billy Joe Patton at Mimosa Hills Country Club in her hometown, and made the men’s golf team at Pfeiffer University, her brother told the Observer. She was inducted into Pfeiffer’s Hall of Fame in 1996.

She learned from some of the best, her family said, including Lopez, Hall of Fame instructor Peggy Kirk Bell, LPGA founders Ellen Griffin and Shirley Spork and Charlotte developer and Ballantyne founder H.C. “Smoky” Bissell.

“While she had the talent to try and qualify for the LPGA Tour, Dana found her real love for the game was in teaching,” her family said in her obituary.

Brian Rader credited Bell with helping steer his sister to teaching.

“’Dana, you have a love of the game and a love of people,’ ‘’ Brian Rader said Bell told his sister. “’You need to teach.’”

Rader trained at least 30 instructors in the years he worked for her, Lapointe said. Several, including himself, became directors of instruction at other facilities or started their own golf academies, he said.

“She was a Hall of Fame(r) for sure, one of a kind,” Lapointe said. “She will be greatly missed.”

National LPGA leader

From 2010 to 2015, Rader served as national president of the LPGA’s teaching and club professionals and in 2015 received the LPGA’s highest honor for teaching professionals, the Ellen Griffin Award.

She also was a respected community leader, friends and family said, serving on the board of directors of the United Way of Central Carolinas, First Tee Greater Charlotte and Pfeiffer University, among others.

She was named Charlotte Business Woman of the Year in 2003.

Rader, who reached Master Professional status in her sport in 2013, also served on the staff of Square Two Golf and Nancy Lopez Golf and was the first woman to serve on Nike’s Advisory Board.

After selling her golf school, she returned to her love of teaching, first at Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, and, since 2018, as director of instruction at Belfair in Bluffton, her family said.

Her faith in God fueled everything she did, Lapointe said, noting how the mission statement of her golf school started with “to serve God.”

“And although I initially thought it was an odd statement for a business, it became apparent very quickly that Dana had a strong faith in God that was present in her daily life,” Lapointe said. “Her impact goes far beyond golf, and I’m appreciative for the years I had with her.”

Family thanks community

Brian Rader said his sister was two years younger than he is, “but I learned so much from her. She was a loving, gracious sister. I was ‘Boom’ to her,” and she checked in on him daily.

“Hey, Boom, how are you doing?” he said she asked each time, no matter where or how busy she was.

His sister excelled in everything she did, and with great integrity and ethics, he said. “What a person she was,” he said.

Dana Rader also is survived by Amy Prior; cousin and Sissy Judy “JuJu” Hensley; “Aunt Boot” Virginia Hood Rader; and a nephew, nieces, cousins and extended family members.

A celebration of life service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, at First United Methodist Church, 200 N. King St. in Morganton.

An additional service will be held in Hilton Head Island at a date to be announced.

Contributions in Rader’s memory may be made to the Dana Rader Leadership Fund, in care of the LPGA Foundation, the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation or the CJD Foundation.

Sossoman Funeral Home and Crematory Center is handling arrangements.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.sossomanfh.com.