Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
It’s been a few years since he’s been in the public spotlight, but it seems John Harris can still hit a ball a long way.
The 1973 Clovis High School graduate is best known for his professional baseball career, which included three seasons with the California Angels.
Today, his best sport is golf, evidenced by the hole-in-one witnesses say he scored at Colonial Park’s par-4 fourth hole on Thursday morning.
“I think it’s 331 yards,” said playing partner Lynn Berry of Clovis, who reported the ace.
Berry attributed Harris’ success to “those quick wrists.”
“He doesn’t even look like he hits the (ball). ... He doesn’t swing hard or anything,” Berry marveled.
Berry said Harris used a driver for the long shot, and fired an 81 for the round.
Harris, 64, lives in Amarillo these days.
He was drafted by the Angels out of Lubbock Christian University in 1976.
He played 56 games for California from 1979 through 1981, hitting five career home runs while compiling a lifetime batting average of .258.
His baseball claim to fame: Harris made his Major League debut on Sept. 26, 1979, as a pinch runner for future Hall of Famer Rod Carew.
His golf claim to fame: Well, that happened Thursday morning. Harris told his playing partners it was his first hole-in-one in six-plus decades playing the game.
He left a Facebook post downplaying the event.
“Thanks,” Harris wrote. “(A guy’s) gotta get lucky every now and then.”
— Publisher
David Stevens