BILLINGS — If you listen to the breeze at Yellowstone Country Club, you can almost hear Bob Eames whispering a friendly golf tip. The man who started his PGA career there, and ultimately closed it there after 52 years, passed away Sept. 25 after touching countless lives and improving countless golf games.
"He was a mentor to me, for sure, as well as a mentor to countless golf professionals in the Rocky Mountain Region," said Chad Dillon, who stepped into Eames' shoes as PGA head pro at Y.C.C. after 15 years of learning under him.
Watch Eames' story and hear from friends he impacted:
"When I first started working for him, we played a lot together and I would ask him for advice on my golf swing all the time and he was always very generous," Dillon recalled.
Eames was a hall of famer, inducted by the Montana State Golf Association in 2022. Visiting with MTN Sports on the verge of that induction, he was carrying oxygen instead of a golf bag. It was painful when health ultimately kept him from regularly playing golf after dedicating more than half his life to the game. Yet, he was still teaching — this time life lessons.
"You see this on me?" he said, referencing an oxygen tube running down the front of his pullover jacket. "For all the people that are watching, particularly the younger people watching that are smoking, get that cigarette out of your mouth, doggonit!"
Early in his career, Eames played on the PGA Tour for a bit before transitioning to club pro for most of his life. He shared his wisdom with moms, dads and kids, former LPGA and PGA players and even one former Major League Baseball player.
"It was frozen golf in the winter, I was out on the course by myself and they rotate the pins (on each green)," recalled friend and Y.C.C. member Jeff Ballard, who played for the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1987 to 1994.
"And he said, 'Why don't you go out and don't aim at a pin. Just aim at the middle of the green and just putt to the closest hole and see what you score.' And so I did that and I scored really well. And the message was, it's never a bad thing to hit it in the middle of the green," Ballard said with a knowing smile.
Eames always expressed appreciation to the media for any and all local golf coverage, especially for youth and high school players.
Funeral services were Friday, Oct. 3, for the teaching legend who said he "never had to work a day" in his life — thanks to his love for golf.
