Dave Farley
David Farley was born
August 1st, 1960 in
Portage, WI and graduated from River Falls Senior High
School in 1979. At
RFHS, Farley lettered a total of 8 times in
football (1), basketball (3), and golf (4). A
5-time All-Conference performer,
Farley excelled in basketball and golf. The undersized
’79 Wildcat basketball
team was 14-6 with Farley averaging 17 points and 11
assists per game as an
honorable mention All-State player.
Golfing success included team and individual
conference, regional, and
sectional championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979. RFHS went to
the WIAA state golf championship
in each of those seasons with Farley placing 5th,
6th,
and 7th individually and 3rd as
a team in 1979.
At the University of
Wisconsin, Farley was a 4-year letter
winner and a 3-time captain of the men’s golf team. The 1983
team broke a then NCAA record for
low single tournament round (272, 16 under) with
Farley shooting a 68 in the
final round of the UW Invitational at Cherokee Country
Club in Madison, WI. The
Badger team improved yearly with Farley, and the squad
finished 3rd
behind Ohio State and Iowa in the 1983 Big Ten
Championship. He won the 1983
Big Ten Medal of Honor for academic and athletic
achievement.
Outside of school,
each summer found Farley competing in
dozens of golf tournaments in the early 1980s.
Included in his 31 tournament wins are the 1981
WSGA State Match Play
Championship, and two CVGA Tournament of Champions. He
also won two CVGA Player
of the Year awards. Farley won 3 River Falls
Firecracker Championships and
holds four course records including a 63 at the River
Falls Golf Club in 1981.
Farley was inducted into the River Falls HS
Hall of Fame in 2005.
Dave Farley is
currently Professor of Surgery at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester where he and his surgical team
have performed some 13,000
operations and trained over 300 young medical students
to become safe General
Surgeons. David is married to Cathy, a former standout
gymnast, diver, and
golfer in her own right.
They are the
proud parents of three outstanding student-athletes:
Thomas, Benjamin, and
Samantha.