HE COULD HIT a golf ball with precision right-handed or left-handed, off a 1-foot tee or a 6-foot tee, with a club featuring a 4-inch shaft or with the clubhead tied to a string or a bungee cord, with a tennis racket or a pipe or even a soda bottle.

He smacked shots standing on his head, unloaded monster drives long before 300-yard bombs became common and never passed on an opportunity to promote the game.

The golf world will miss you, Tommy Mullinax.

Mullinax, 56, lost a battle with cancer Saturday, and news of his death traveled slowly from the Upstate. Obituaries mentioned his golf prowess almost in passing, and that will never do.

"He was one of those people who you always will remember for the right reasons," said Happ Lathrop, executive director of the South Carolina Golf Association.

Longtime friend Ron Stevenson, owner of Coldstream and Oak Hills golf clubs, called Mullinax an incredible talent. "If there was a way to swing a club at a ball," he said, "Tommy could do it."

Mullinax turned trick shots into an art form, and most people will remember him for those amazing displays. He put on exhibitions for charity groups and drummed up support for junior golf with performances at clinics.

"In setting up chapters for youngsters, we would always have a clinic or a trick-shot exhibition," Stevenson said. "Every time I called Tommy, he only had two questions: 'When?' and "Where?'.

"We would have auctions at fund-raisers for junior golf and he always said, 'I'll find something,' and he would give us a top-dollar item.

"He would send things like a golf bag autographed by a Jay Haas, a cap signed by Fuzzy Zoeller. He went beyond golf, too. He had batting gloves signed by Jim Rice or Cecil Cooper and autographed pictures of NFL teams."

Mullinax, a resident of Williamston at the time of his death, held golf professional jobs at several clubs, including Greenville Country Club, the Links O' Tryon and the Cliffs of Glassy.

"What people don't know is that he was a terrific baseball player in his younger days, and he could really play golf," Stevenson said. "He was a pioneer on what became the long-driving tour, and I played with him in mini-tour events."

Lathrop, a former South Carolina Amateur champion, can attest to Mullinax's ability.

"In my first college match (at South Carolina), we played East Tennessee and I went against Tommy," Lathrop said. "The first hole was a par-5 with a creek across the fairway, so you needed to be short of the water.

"Well, he hit his drive too far and his ball was against a wooden bridge. Most people would take a (penalty) drop, and I thought, 'Well, I got him.' He glanced at his ball, turned a 4-iron over and hit it left-handed about 175 yards.

"I thought right then, 'Well, he's got me.' "

At charity events, Mullinax would give his trick-shot show, then sometimes move to a par-3 hole to help increase the contributions.

Once, he told each group that each player needed to put up $10 and he would play them closest-to-the-hole -- with him using a tennis racket. He won almost every time and added the cash to the charity's coffers.

"The best compliment I can give him is to say that he was a real pro," Stevenson said.