Bill Kidd Jr., 1927-2014

Minnesota

Bill Kidd Jr., the retired longtime head golf professional at Interlachen Country Club, passed away May 26. Kidd, 86, was born and raised in south Minneapolis, where he graduated from Washburn High School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy near the end of WWII. 

He was raised around the game and grounds of Interlachen, the venerable Edina country club where his father, Willie Kidd Sr., a Scottish immigrant, was the golf professional from 1920-1957. The elder Kidd was an accomplished player having won several regional golf tournaments in Scotland including the 1905 Monifieth Links Championship. Kidd Sr. was posthumously inducted into the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.

Bill Kidd married Jeanette Rossmeisl in 1952 and moved to Bismarck, S.D., where he became the head golf professional at Apple Creek Country Club. Kidd returned to Interlachen in 1955 to succeed his father who was nearing retirement. Having just won the 1955 Minnesota PGA Championship (a crown that Willie had accomplished 20 years earlier), it was said at the time that the younger Kidd’s victory sealed his choice as the golf professional to replace the beloved Willie. 

While Bill Kidd could play, he finished runner-up at the 1967 State Open, he was also respected by his peers for his professionalism. Kidd was named Golf Professional of the Year in 1964 and 1993, he served as the Minnesota Section president, 1967-68, and upon retiring worked as the Section’s Club Relations Director and Rules official. 

Bill Kidd Jr. was named to the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Jeanette, and their four children. 

Memorials in Bill Kidd’s name may be made to the Minnesota PGA Foundation (to benefit junior golf), or the Western Golf Association’s Evans Scholars Foundation (to benefit college scholarships for deserving caddies).