As one of the country’s top amateurs, John Harris’ decision to turn pro after he turned 50 and join PGA TOUR Champions came as a bit of a surprise. Yet Harris had the bona fides to compete at that level, and he was ready to see how his game stacked up.

However, once a PGA TOUR Champions member, Harris didn’t exactly tear it up. In his first 35 starts on the over-50 circuit, the four-time U.S. Walker Cup team member and winner of the U.S. Amateur, the Sunnehanna Amateur and four times the Minnesota Amateur, didn’t post a top-10. In his third and fourth PGA TOUR Champions’ seasons, the top-10 results finally materialized. Yet, as some good earnings years piled up, Harris never seriously contended for victory.

That all changed in 2006. A tie for second at the Toshiba Classic—losing by a stroke to Brad Bryant—was a good indicator things were turning. And three months later, at the Commerce Bank Championship at Eisenhower Park’s Red Course in East Meadow, New York, Harris finally broke through. Tied for 17th and five strokes behind when the final round began, he shot a dazzling 64 to catch Tom Jenkins and force a playoff that took exactly one hole. Harris, a match-play veteran during his amateur days, rammed home a six-foot birdie putt to defeat Jenkins and win his first, and only, PGA TOUR Champions title.

“I probably was in more of my comfort zone,” said Harris of the head-to-head battle with Jenkins. “I knew what I had to do. I just had to believe in myself in that situation.”

Following the victory, Harris, a college hockey player at the University of Minnesota, dedicated his win to his coach Herb Brooks, who led the U.S. men’s team to the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

“I’m sure he’d be proud,” said Harris of Brooks, who died three years earlier in a car crash. “He instilled a lot of confidence in me, gave me an opportunity to excel. I sort of let that take over and got out of my own way for once.”

Harris, the accomplished two-sport star, died on Sept. 17, 2025. He was 73.

“As one of the most accomplished amateurs of his generation, and a PGA TOUR Champions winner, John Harris was an incredible ambassador for our sport. He was beloved by his fellow players, as well as our tournaments and staff, and represented the game of golf with unwavering class and humility,” said PGA TOUR Champions President Miller Brady. “We extend our condolences to his family during this difficult time.”

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 13, 1952, Harris excelled in both hockey and golf. By the time he chose a school to attend, he knew he would play two sports at the collegiate level. In 1974, his senior season, Harris was one of the top scorers on the Gophers’ NCAA Championship-winning team, and later that spring he won the individual title as a Gopher at the men’s golf Big Ten Conference championship. In the summer, he picked up his first Minnesota Amateur title.

Harris played minor league professional hockey after graduation while still competing at a high level on the golf course. In 1975, Harris tied for 11th at the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament at the Walt Disney World Resort, earning his PGA TOUR playing privileges. He only made three cuts in 10 starts in 1976, losing his card. He then qualified for the 1977 U.S. Open for his only appearance that season.

Harris, by then, had co-founded the Harris-Homeyer Insurance Company, and that led him to rethink his career plans. Harris regained his amateur status from the USGA, and the success of his insurance business allowed him to travel the United States competing in high-level tournaments.

The apex of his amateur career came in 1993, at Champions Golf Club in Houston. Harris dispatched John Lindholm, Danny Green, David Berganio, Justin Leonard and Bobby Cochran in match play before defeating Danny Ellis, 5-and-3, in the championship final to secure the U.S. Amateur title. That U.S. Amateur victory was also the last by a player not named Tiger Woods, until 1997. Harris’ Houston triumph earned him invitations to the following year’s Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship. In addition, Arnold Palmer invited Harris to play in the PGA TOUR event at his Bay Hill Club in suburban Orlando, and Jack Nicklaus extended an invitation to Harris to play in the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Harris also played in the Southwestern Bell Colonial (now the Charles Schwab Challenge). Harris made three cuts that season, tying for 50th at both the Masters and Colonial and tying for 57th at Bay Hill.

At the end of 1993, as a U.S. Walker Cup team member for the first time, Harris led the Americans to victory over the Great Britain and Ireland squad. The U.S. team included Leonard, fellow Minnesotan Tim Herron, Jay Sigel and Allen Doyle. He played in 1995, 1997 and 2001, as well, compiling a 4-1-2 match record.

Harris served as the director of golf at his alma mater for one season, starting in 2010, the same year he began reducing his playing schedule. Harris, however, still played periodically on PGA TOUR Champions between 2011 and 2020, making 53 starts.

The University of Minnesota inducted Harris into its M Club Hall of Fame in 1994 for both his golf and hockey exploits, and the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame inducted Harris in 1998.