Fourteen-Time Club Champion and Regional Amateur Champion

Alton "Bud" Fields

Alton “Bud” Fields was one of the most accomplished golfers in the history of the Mount Union course. Club records credit him with 14 men’s club championships between 1945 and 1971, a span of twenty-six years that connected the club’s early postwar era to a new generation of local competitors.

His championship years were 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1970, and 1971. Only Elinor Wible’s extraordinary record of 48 women’s titles exceeds his total in the club’s surviving championship lists.

A Golfer Who Knew the Course

Fields’s record was built on intimate knowledge of the Mount Union layout and a short game that repeatedly separated him from strong fields. In July 1947, The Daily News reported that his 73 in a Central Counties match against Blairmont established a course record. The paper also described him as a longtime member of the Mount Union team and a constant worker on the course.

He lowered the amateur course record again in July 1950, shooting a five-under-par 70 during a putting tournament. The professional record at the time was reported as 68.

Newspaper article reporting Bud Fields's five-under-par course-record round in 1950 — *The Daily News*, July 11, 1950, reporting Fields's five-under-par 70 and new amateur course record.

The First Mount Union Open

Fields won the Mount Union Open on July 6, 1952, with a three-under-par 71. The tournament brought professionals and leading amateurs to Mount Union, but the hometown player finished one stroke ahead of professional Henry Lyons and amateurs Dave Wallace and John Walter, who tied at 72.

The newspaper’s account emphasized that Fields’s short game made the difference. His victory earned the tournament’s top amateur merchandise prize and established him as the first winner of an event that became a major part of Mount Union’s golf calendar.

Newspaper article reporting Bud Fields's victory in the 1952 Mount Union Open — *The Daily News*, July 7, 1952, reporting Fields's victory in the Mount Union Open.

Bud Fields with Lew Worsham, Harold Dore, and Leo Anderson during the 1952 Mount Union Open — Bud Fields with 1947 U.S. Open champion Lew Worsham and professionals Harold Dore and Leo Anderson during the 1952 Mount Union Open. *Daily News* photograph.

Club Championships

Fields won his first surviving club title in 1945 and added another in 1947. In the 1949 final, he defeated Harry Cholewinski 8 and 7 in a 36-hole match. He continued winning through the 1950s, collecting eight club championships by the time he captured the Central Counties title in 1959.

His twelfth club championship came in 1965. That victory was his third consecutive title, and he defeated Don Dimoff 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final. Contemporary coverage reported a field of 96 golfers across six flights. Fields later returned to win the championship in 1970 and 1971, bringing his documented total to fourteen.

Central Counties Golf

Fields was also one of Mount Union’s leading representatives in Central Counties competition. He earned medalist honors at the 1958 Central Counties championship on his home course with a two-under-par 72. The following year, at Lewistown Country Club, he defeated former Penn State captain Rod Eaken on the eighteenth hole to win the 33rd Central Counties Amateur Golf Tournament.

These performances show that Fields’s success extended well beyond club championship play. He could qualify at the front of large regional fields and win match-play titles away from home.

Family Recollection and Photographs

Fields’s son, Charles “Charlie” Fields, has helped identify surviving club photographs. In a firsthand written exchange shared with the club in 2026, Charles identified one image as Bud teeing off from the old seventeenth tee. He also confirmed that another photograph showed Bud with his wife, Pauline Fields, and Nan Anderson. A labeled copy in the club’s MU Country Club photograph collection identifies the three from left to right as Nan Anderson, Bud Fields, and Pauline Fields. Those identifications preserve valuable context that the photograph itself did not record.

Bud Fields teeing off from the old seventeenth tee at the Mount Union course — Bud Fields teeing off from the old seventeenth tee, identified by his son Charles Fields on April 13, 2026.

Nan Anderson, Bud Fields, and Pauline Fields at the Mount Union course — Nan Anderson (left), Bud Fields (center), and Pauline Fields at the Mount Union course. Charles Fields confirmed the photograph on April 13, 2026; the names and order are also recorded on a labeled club copy.

Legacy

Bud Fields’s fourteen club championships, course-record rounds, Mount Union Open victory, and Central Counties title place him among the most important competitive golfers in ALCC history. His record is not a single great season but more than a quarter-century of success on the same course he knew, represented, and helped define.

For the complete year-by-year record, see Men’s Club Champions.

Sources

The Daily News, July 17, 1947, page 4 — course-record 73 and Central Counties match against Blairmont.
The Daily News, July 7, 1948, page 4 — June tournament first-flight victory.
The Daily News, September 6, 1949, page 4 — club-championship victory over Harry Cholewinski.
The Daily News, July 11, 1950, page 4 — amateur course-record 70.
The Daily News, July 7, 1952, page 4 — victory in the Mount Union Open.
The Daily News, August 9, 1958, page 4 — Central Counties medalist honors.
Clearfield Progress, August 9, 1959, page 10 — Central Counties Amateur championship.
The Daily News, September 7, 1965, page 4 — twelfth club championship.
Charles Fields, firsthand written photograph identifications shared with the club, April 13, 2026.
MU Country Club photograph collection, labeled copy identifying Nan Anderson, Bud Fields, and Pauline Fields.