This is the sixth in a series profiling the 2003 inductees into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame at a banquet Friday in Vicksburg. Thursday: Kent Hull.

[4/2/03]James Ray Carpenter has been on the same golf course with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

He’s handed a winner’s check and new Rolex to Tiger Woods.

He was there when the United States Ryder Cup team made a dramatic comeback in 1998 on the final day to beat the Europeans.

Not bad for someone who only started playing golf because his boss told him he had no other choice.

On Friday, on his first ballot, Carpenter will be one of eight choices for enshrinement into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. The banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Vicksburg.

“I was not really surprised, but I was very gratified,” said Carpenter, whose inviting wit and humor will most certainly entertain Friday’s audience. “It’s not bad for a guy who really hasn’t done anything.”

How Carpenter, a standout basketball and baseball player and Mississippi State graduate, got into golf is, well, let him tell you.

“I was working for an oil company when the boss came in and said we were playing golf with one of the executives from Texas,” Carpenter said. “I told him I didn’t play golf, and he said, you didn’t hear me, I said we are playing golf today.’

“I had a starter set of Sam Snead Blue Ridge golf clubs still in the box and went out and bought the cheapest bag I could find and three balls. I remember very little about how we played.”

Carpenter never got invited back to play another round with the executive, but when they wanted to move him to West Texas, with “all those sandstorms,” he declined and headed near home to Hattiesburg.

Born in Runnelstown about 15 miles east of Hattiesburg Carpenter was offered a job to be the golf coach for the University of Southern Mississippi in 1964. He had his masters degree and also taught, making more money at that than he did as the coach.

He wasn’t just a coach, though, he was the course pro, general manager, assistant coach and latrine orderly, he said with a laugh.

He learned the game by talking with people in the business and hitting round after round on the driving range, whenever he could get a chance.

Eventually, he became the President of the PGA’s Mississippi chapter, and that evolved into him becoming president of the Gulf States PGA, which includes Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

In 1987, he became national president of the PGA and attended more PGA tournaments than he can remember.

The 98 Ryder Cup, though, was one that sticks in his mind.

“That experience was unbelievable,” said Carpenter, recalling Justin Leonard’s dramatic 40-foot putt that set off a mass celebration for the Americans. “Then last time, the Europeans waxed our butts.”

Carpenter is slowing down, now, mostly because of costs associated with going to and being an official for the events. He said one trip to the U.S. Open would have cost he and his wife nearly $4,000.

He will not be at The Masters this year, either, although he did get an invitation. He’ll watch the match from his easy chair as Tiger Woods shoots for another Green Jacket, his xx of his young career.

“Tiger and I have a little bit of a relationship,” said Carpenter, nicknamed J.R. “Every time I have been around him, he’s been one of the nicest people ever.’

After one of Woods’ wins earlier in his career, J.R. went up to Tiger and said, “Now Tiger, I just handed you a big check and a new Rolex, now how bout giving me yours,” Carpenter said. “He laughed and I grabbed his arm and said I wasn’t joking. His arms are like steel rods.

“I told him he was probably working too hard.”

And Carpenter won’t shy from Tiger’s aura.

“We were at the past champions dinner and Tiger was talking to Paul Azinger,” Carpenter said. “I walked up and Paul said, hey, J.R.’ and Tiger said, who’s J.R.’

“Later on at a match, I was in charge of handing out the scorecards and I said, gentlemen, I have to read your names for the crowd. Now, this is Tiger who?’ He almost died laughing.

“He’s the greatest player I have ever seen. One thing that he has done is raise the level of everyone else’s play.”

Carpenter expects a good following in Vicksburg on Friday night. He said that he thought he’d be lucky to fill two tables with family members, but now will entertain eight tables.

Those numbers may have been smaller if not for a trip to Florida in 1986. While mulling where he and his wife would retire, the couple was traveling on “the longest, straightest stretch of road I had ever seen.”

In the sky, he saw a huge orange glow, then the glow disappeared.

It was the Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after takeoff.

“I told my wife that I knew something was wrong because pieces weren’t supposed to be falling like that,” he said. “I told my wife that we didn’t need to be living in a place where stuff like that happens.”

So Carpenter retired to Hattiesburg and now works at Timberton Golf Course, working and teaching a sport that he fell into almost on accident, and then fell in love with.