George Reynolds, 1932-2020

Minnesota

George Reynolds, 88, of Minnetonka, Minn., passed away March 31. Reynolds grew up in Anoka and attended the University of Minnesota, where he lettered in basketball and golf. He would spend nearly 35 years in the Hopkins and Eden Prairie School Districts as a teacher, coach and athletic director. Three of his golf teams would win the state high school tournament, and he would ultimately coach four individual state champions.

"It's the players who make the coach," Reynolds said, "not the coach who makes the player."

A lifelong coach and mentor, Reynolds was instrumental in creating the Minnesota Section PGA’s junior golf program, served as the lead instructor of the section’s Junior Golf Academy, and in 2001, was honored with the section’s Horton Smith Award for education.

In 2003, Reynolds was inducted into the Minnesota High School Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame. Five years later, the MGA would recognize Reynolds with its highest honor, the Warren J. Rebholz Distinguished Service Award.

A talented competitor, Reynolds won the 1986 Minnesota Senior Open, qualified for three U.S. Senior Opens (1984, 1987 and 1992), and finished in the top 10 of the Minnesota Section PGA Championship three times.

Reynolds was the eighth of 10 children. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant, and is survived by his ex-wife, two sisters and two sons, and four grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the Minnesota PGA Reach Foundation, or the Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park.
 
Cal Simmons, a past president of the MGA (2000-2002), writes a golf-themed blog, A Life in Golf.  Read his latest post, "Minnesota Loses Two Giants in Golf," click here.

Mike Fermoyle profiled Reynolds after he received the MGA Warren J. Rebholz Distinguished Service Award in 2007, click here.

Editor's note: George Reynolds was inducted into the Minnesota High School Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003, not the MSHSL Coaches Hall of Fame as originally reported.