Lookabill gets a well-deserved honor

If you've been around Charlotte long enough, you know the name Gene Lookabill.

For decades, he's been one of the top players in the area and he'll receive a nice honor this weekend when he's presented the Jess Sweetser award at Biltmore Forest Country Club in Asheville.

Lookabill's list of accomplishments runs on and on. He won or finished second in more than 100 events, not bad for a self-taught player who took up the game as a 13-year old and got his first set of clubs from Johnny Palmer.

Lookabill won the prestigious Biltmore Forest Country Club Invitational in 1957 and 1958, one of the events in the region. He won the Carolinas Golf Classic three times, the Clayton Heafner Memorial, the Carolinas Four-Ball, the Mecklenburg Four-Ball and many other events.

A former University of North Carolina golfer, Lookabill won 15 individual championships over the years at Carolina Golf Club and he played in two U.S. Amateurs.

The honor is well deserved.