Bruce Cudd (1934 – May 2, 2022) was known as a true gentleman while playing amateur golf throughout the Northwest and traveling to Scotland with an American team.
Cudd grew up in Portland and attended Grant High School. He began playing the game while caddying for his father and became friends with fellow OSHOF member Dick Yost. Bruce helped Grant win the 1949 OSAA team championship with rounds of 72 and 73 at the Salem Golf Club. Cudd had three top 10 finishes in his three years and took All-State honors. He won the 1950 Oregon Junior Boys Championship while at Grant.
He began college at the University of Portland and was given an intermediate membership to Columbia-Edgewater Country Club, along with Yost.
Cudd won the Oregon Amateur in 1952 and 1953, won the Western Amateur in 1954 and won the Oregon Open in 1954 and 1955. His second win helped earn a spot on the Walker Cup Team, which represented the U.S. against Great Britain and Ireland in the biennial event for amateur players. Bruce was 21 years old when he and Dick Yost traveled to the birthplace of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. The US won 10-2, Cudd won his foursome and singles match.
A semifinalist at the U.S. Amateur in 1953, Cudd played on the Morse Cup team for Oregon against Washington in 1952-55, and the Hudson Cup team that pits Northwest Amateurs against Professionals eight times between 1952 and ’75. He made four appearances at The Masters.
Cudd joined the PGA Tour in 1965, but returned to amateur golf the following year as he pursued a career in insurance.
Bruce Cudd was inducted into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame and the University of Portland Hall of Fame in 1991.