One day Cameron Palmer walked into the eating establishment at the Half Moon Bay Golf Links, now named after Mullins, and saw his friend sharing the table with baseball great Joe DiMaggio.
“He asked me to join him,” Palmer said.
  
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Friends gathered at Skylawn Memorial Park and later at Mullins Bar & Grill on April 7 to say farewell.
Born in Cabin Holler, Tenn., Mullins started playing golf while he was in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served as a golf pro for several courses in Palm Springs before relocating to Half Moon Bay more than 30 years ago.
Friendships he made while in Palm Springs carried over. One friend, golf legend Arnold Palmer, helped design the Half Moon Bay Golf Links.
Upon completion of the course in 1973, Mullins played the first round with Arnold Palmer, daredevil Evel Knievel and entertainer Jackie Gleason.
Around the time of the golf course’s opening, members of the San Francisco Giants were living on the Coastside, looking for a place to play golf. Bobby Bonds, Jimmy Davenport, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey were among the regulars, who became friends with Mullins.
It was not just the famous who Mullins counted as friends, though.
“He was friendly with everyone,” said his wife of 51 years, Lois Mullins. “He used his Southern charm.”
He treated everyone the same.
“He was a teacher and a friend,” Palmer said. “He treated us like adults when we were kids.”
Palmer first met Mullins when he was a student on the golf team at Half Moon Bay High School.
Half Moon Bay City Councilwoman Marina Fraser also met Mullins when she attended Half Moon Bay High School.
She said Mullins taught plenty of golfers at a driving range near what is now Nurserymen’s Exchange. She was one of his students who struggled at first.
“He could sense I was frustrated,” Fraser said. “He told me I was holding a golf club, not a softball bat. He told me to just hit the ball and make it go straight.”
He was a fixture at the Half Moon Bay Golf Links from the time the course opened until his passing.
“He would come down for a few minutes and talk with people for about 30 to 40 minutes,” said Kevin Niessner, the director of golf at the course. “He would brighten up the place.”
In addition to his wife, Mullins is also survived by his children Tom and Tracy Azevedo and Scott Mullins, and enough friends to fill a football stadium.
“He was not just a wonderful ambassador for golf and the golf course, but for Half Moon Bay as well,” Fraser said.
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