Dean Candea

Dean Candea says that golf was a different game than it was today when he grew up in North Platte.

“The only courses in the area had sand greens, the high school didn’t have a golf team, and nobody knew what a handicap was,” he said.

That’s the reason tennis was Dean’s sport until he got out of the service after World War II.

“All the courses in our area of the state still had sand greens when I took up golf,” Candea adds, “although North Platte Country Club eventually had nine grass greens and nine were sand.”

Candea is being recognized for his dominance as a sand greens player by his induction into the Nebraska Golf Hall of Fame. It is said that he considered it a bad round if his 18-hole score every exceeded 59. He still cherishes the three gold putters he won as the state sand green champion in 1949, 50, and 51.