With the EDS Byron Nelson as this week’s PGA Tour attraction, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a brief look at the man for whom the tournament is named. Nelson is just one of two professional golfers with a PGA Tour tournament as his namesake (Arnold Palmer is the other).

Byron Nelson is primarily remembered today for his remarkable 1945 season, in which he won 11 straight tournaments—and 18 overall. It’s a record that likely will never be broken, even by Tiger Woods. He won 31 of 54 tournaments over the 1944 - 1945 seasons and then did the unthinkable: he retired from professional golf at the age of 36. He had by that time, achieved his goal of earning enough to buy a ranch in Texas.

“When I was playing regularly, I had a goal,” Nelson once said. “I could see the prize money going into the ranch, buying a tractor, or a cow. It gave me incentive.”

Nelson had 63 wins between 1932 and 1946, including the Masters in 1937 and 1942, the U.S. Open in 1939 and the PGA Championship in 1940 and 1945.

Some have discounted his victories, saying that during the war years, he was playing against a limited field. However, the 1945 was at the end of the war, and among the players he defeated that year were Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Jimmy Demaret (all of whom had victories that year). It also should be remembered that in golf, you don’t play against the field as much as you play against the course. In 1945, Nelson destroyed the courses with a 68.33 scoring average, a single season record that stood for 55 years (broken by Tiger Woods in 2000). With a 68 average, he was going to win, no matter who he was playing against.

It’s also recently been revealed that Nelson likely won 12 in a row that year, but always was too much of a gentleman to mention it.

Nelson was home during the war years because of a blood condition, sometimes reported as hemophilia.

The first inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Nelson was given the PGA Tour’s lifetime achievement award in 1997 and was posthumously awarded a Congressional Golf Medal in 2006.

Nelson is considered one of the fathers of the modern golf swing.  His long, smooth motion, combined with more hip action than in earlier eras to get the most out of the “new fangled” steel shafts. He was so consistent that the USGA equipment testing machine is named the “Iron Byron.” A video of the swing is below.

However much Nelson is remembered for his on-course achievements, however, his real legacy may be in the very large number of golfers—both amateur and professional—that he mentored over the years. Nelson apparently always had time to encourage literally thousands of young players, to give them a lesson, and to write them letters. Among those he helped: Tom Watson, Ken Venturi, Scott Verplank, and Ben Crenshaw.

Tiger Woods had this to say about Nelson:

I’ll never forget when he pulled me aside ... and basically gave his opinion on my game and things that might be pitfalls in the future, what I should do. I was pretty impressionable, a really young kid, and he was a guy I idolized. He didn’t have to do that. It really touched me. Without a doubt, Mr. Nelson has been one of the role models of my life.

By all accounts, Nelson was a gentleman in every sense of the word.  A story about Nelson in Mark Frost’s The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, illustrates the point. In mid 1950s, Nelson was traveling with Ken Venturi, playing exhibition matches, and mentoring the young rising star:

In each exhibition they played against the host club’s head professional and reigning amateur champion in a best-ball match. At every stop, Byron made a point of inquiring who held the local scoring record, which usually belonged to one or the other of their opponents that day. Byron told Ken that wherever he went, no matter how well he was playing, he should never break that record as a show of respect to his host; that was the way gracious visitors were supposed to behave.

Jack Nicklaus on Byron Nelson:

I think the only thing that rivals Byron’s greatness on a golf course is the manner in which he conducted his life - as a gentleman, a role model and an ambassador.

That Byron Nelson has a tournament named after him is a fitting tribute. I just hope that it remains his memorial for many, many years to come.

For Nelson’s career PGA Tour record, see below:

Theodore Rhodes, Bill Spiller and Madison Gunther sued the PGA Tour in 1948 for the right to play as non members in Tour events. The PGA amended its constitution as a result of the civil lawsuit.

Pete Brown was the first African American to win a PGA Tour Event. In 1964, Brown won the Waco Open; later, he would win the 1970 Andy Williams Open (now the Buick Open at Torrey Pines). He also won the 1961 Michigan Open, and was four time National Negro Champion.

Lee Elder turned pro in 1959, and in 1975 became the first African American to play at the Masters. He would play in five more, with his best finish at 17th. Elder also had four PGA Tour Victories, and eight on the Senior Tour. Elder also played on the 1979 Ryder Cup team.

Charlie Sifford worked as a caddy at age 13, and eventually became the first African American to join the PGA Tour. Sifford won the Long Beach Open in 1957, which while not an official Tour event, was cosponsored by the PGA. He eventually won two PGA Tour events, and six Negro Open Championships. Sifford had first attempted to get into a PGA Tour event in 1952, at the Phoenix Open, using an invitation obtained by Joe Louis. In 2004, Sifford was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He chose Gary Player to make his presentation.

Before Tiger Woods, Calvin Peete was the most successful African American golfer on Tour. Peete won 12 tour events, and played on the 1983 and 1985 US Ryder Cup Teams. When the World Golf Rankings came out in 1986, Peete was in the top ten for several weeks. Peete was known as one of the straightest hitters on tour; some have speculated it was due to a bent right arm caused by an improperly set break. In his career, he finished as high as 11 in the US Open and Masters.

Every guy of a certain age remembers the thrill of watching Steve McQueen evade his Nazi pursuers on a motorcycle in the classic movie “The Great Escape.” Based on the real-life mass escape of prisoners from Stalag Luft III during World War II, the movie had an all star, all-testosterone cast that included not only ultimate-guy Steve McQueen, but also James Coburn, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough and Donald Pleasance.

It turns out that digging tunnels was not the only thing the prisoners did, and that their ingenuity was not all focused on making fake passports and other gear. They also made golf equipment and constructed a golf course with the permission of the commandant.

There’s an article in the Birmingham Mail about one of the surviving hand made golf balls from Stalag Luft III. It’s in a case in a course in England.

Happpy Birthday to Randolph Scott!

Scott (1898 - 1987) has long been my favorite western actor, especially in the films that he made from 1956 to 1960 with director Budd Boetticher. In those films, Scott, at an age when most leading men were winding down their careers, managed to revive his—and cement his place in cinema history. The Scott-Boetticher films are edgy, especially for the 1950s. Scott’s characters are not-quite-heroes; the villains are evil, but complex.

Quentin Tarantino says that acknowledged the influence of the Boetticher films on his own work by naming one of the characters in Kill Bill, Budd.sa

With a screenplay by Detroit native Elmore Leonard, The Tall T is my favorite Randolph Scott film. It’s what you might expect from Leonard—dark and complex, with interesting characters. In The Tall T, Scott is captured—along with the other passengers on a stagecoach—by a group of outlaws led by Richard Boone. Some of the gang members are homicidal maniacs, but Scott and Boone recognize in each other kindred spirits who, but for the kidnapping, might have been friends.

There are appreciations of some of those films here, and here.

Scott retired from film in 1962, after making Ride The High Country, a film by Sam Peckinpah. It was the director’s first feature film, and a tribute to the passing of the old west. In it, Scott and Joel McCrae play a pair of over-the-hill gunfighters who are hired to escort a shipment of gold. Scott plans to doublecross his friend McCrae and steal the gold, but in the end does the right thing. The ending of Ride The High Country is quite emotional and always leaves me with a tear in my eye.

Scott was a good golfer—a six handicapper—who played in the first Crosby Clambake in 1937 at the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club near San Diego. He also was a course designer, having laid out the Creste Verde Golf club in 1927.

The photo above shows Scott in 1962. I believe that the woman in the cart is his wife—I’ve seen her in other photos. (photo from Flickr) I’ve also seen—but have not been able to find—a couple of photos of Scott in golf attire and one with Gene Littler at the Crosby. I’d like to have copies of those for my wall.

Scott’s reputation has taken a bit of a beating in recent years as he has become sort of a gay icon. The rumors stem from the ten years that he shared a beach house with Cary Grant— a place known as Bachelor Hall. If you run a search, you’ll find plenty of photos of Scott and Grant originating from alternative lifestyle websites. Grant and Scott, however, always denied the rumors—and certainly had more than their share of romantic trysts with leading starlets. Scott friend and director Budd Boetticher has this to say about the rumors: “Bullshit.”

But it doesn’t matter. Scott’s legacy is in his film, not his social life. And his films are timeless.

A great Ben Hogan story (and perhaps apocryphal)

During a pro am, Ben Hogan’s partner expressed admiration for the way Hogan’s seven iron checked up on the green. Thereafter, he kept pestering The Hawk for tips on how to pull off such a shot. In his usual taciturn way, Ben ignored his partner as long as he could.

Finally, Ben asked the man how far he actually hit his seven iron. “A hundred twenty,” the amateur replied.

Ben glared at him. “Then why the hell would you want it to stop?”