Lou Kretlow
Louis Henry Kretlow was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in the Major Leages for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Athletics. The native of Apache, Oklahoma, threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed. Kretlow attended the University of Oklahoma and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, before beginning his pro career in 1946.
Over ten MLB seasons, Kretlow posted a 27–47 won–lost record in 199 games pitched, with 22 complete games, three shutouts, 43 games finished, one save, a 4.87 earned run average and 1.659 WHIP. In 785⅓ innings pitched, he allowed 781 hits, 479 runs and 522 bases on balls. He was credited with 450 strikeouts.
After 1957, his final year in baseball, Kretlow owned an Oklahoma oil company and became a golf pro at Meadowlake Golf Course in Enid. In 1961, he set a world record when he scored a hole-in-one on a 427-yard par 4 at Lake Hefner Golf Club in Oklahoma City. This shot on a straight-away hole with an actual wooden wood and old style ball prompted Duffy Martin, the developer of Guthrie's Cedar Valley Golf Club, to say "If Lou had the kind of equipment they are using now, Tiger Woods couldn’t carry Lou's jock strap".
Lou Kretlow died in Enid of natural causes at the age of 86.
