The 2009 BNI Memorial Tournament is being dedicated to the late Jefferson Lee ’Jeff’ Davis, tournament director Pat Hanna has announced.
Before his death on Jan. 9, 2006, at age 59, Davis was one of the most popular golfers in the Beckley area ’ and a successful one as well. In 1981, he and the late Jimmy Jones won the second West Virginia Four-Ball Championship. Davis also played in the West Virginia Amateur Championship, winning medalist honors one year in an Amateur qualifier at Grandview, competed in the BNI in its early years and organized weekend cat games at Grandview.
Davis was also a 26-year West Virginia State Police veteran, retiring in 1994 as a major and officer-in-charge of field operations. He graduated with the 18th Cadet Class at the State Police Academy in 1968 and served as a trooper at the South Charleston and Whitesville detachments and as an undercover officer in Beckley. He was promoted to sergeant in 1981 and served as detachment commander at Whitesville.
Following his promotion to first sergeant in 1988, he was with the West Virginia Turnpike in Beckley and then was promoted to captain in charge of Company E, now Troop 7, Headquarters in 1991. The following year, he was promoted to major and OIC-Field Operations.
At the time of his death, Davis was a deputy director for the state Public Service Commission, Weight Enforcement Section.
An Interstate 64 bridge near Beckley is named in his memory.
A native of Summerlee, he graduated from Collins High School in Oak Hill and earned a degree in criminal justice in 1978 from West Virginia State College.
Davis was a Vietnam veteran, serving as a sergeant with the U.S. Army, and a Mason.
His survivors include his wife, Peggy; two sons, Jeff Lee and Jerry Lee; grandson, Cass Lee; and three brothers, Jimmy, Jerry and Joel. Two other brothers, John Dale and Jack, preceded him in death.
Joel Davis, one of the area’s top golfers, a regular BNI participant and the golf coach at Oak Hill High School, said his older brother had a ’passion’ for not only playing golf but playing the game the right way.
’He was a stickler for the rules,’ Joel Davis said. ’He had a passion for playing it fair and square.
’He competed hard, but one thing about Jeff, he had a lot of quips. He didn’t get angry at all. He had a good sense of humor about the game.’
Joel Davis said he and his brothers all caddied at White Oak Country Club in Oak Hill while growing up.
’Jeff was 10 years older than me,’ he added. ’When he would go play, he would always pretty much take me along. We’d be gone from dawn to dusk and circle the course as long as we could.
’He saw that I kept up with them, kept pace, and let me go play.’
The 2009 BNI Memorial will be played July 11-13 at Grandview, Pipestem and Glade Springs.
’Jeff loved all three of those courses,’ his brother said.
