dale hayes column
A young Bobby Locke playing in Australia
MAKING HISTORY
There have been many legends of golf and moments to remember in the sport
My father instilled in me a love of the history of golf. He was a modest man, and it was only after he passed that my brother and I learned that our father once played an exhibition round of golf with the great Walter Hagen (right).
Although Hagen only played at three of the four Majors, he won 11 times and still ranks third on the all-time Major list behind Jack Nicklaus, who achieved 18 victories in his career, and Tiger Woods in second place with 15 titles.
The Masters only started when Hagen was in his mid-forties. The American travelled the world on an exhibition tour with Joe Kirkwood, an Australian who was a fine player and the first trick-shot golfer. Hagen was golf’s first true character, and it was he who took professional golfers out of the caddies’ shack and into the clubhouses.
He had two wonderful sayings: “I never wanted to be a millionaire. I just wanted to live like one” and “Don’t hurry, don’t worry and stop to smell the flowers on the way”.
My dad was 17 or 18 when they played a match in Cape Town a few years before World War II. Hagen followed that up with a match in Johannesburg against Bobby Locke, of whom he said: “Watch out for this young man; he’s a fine player.”
Another golf match my dad never told us about was against another of golf’s all-time greats, Sam Snead.
In the 14 individual matches they played, Snead could only beat Bobby Locke twice. My father was invited to play in a betterball match as Bobby Locke’s partner against Sam Snead and Jimmy Bullock. My dad told me what it was like playing golf before World War II, especially in Cape Town where the fairways had no water systems, so in the middle of summer the fairways had more sand than grass and there was no placing. They also played stymies on the greens.
Golf is a lot easier today and we haven’t even got to the improvement of the clubs and balls yet.
After the War there was a mini-boom in golf, especially in the US where three Americans dominated the PGA Tour – Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.
In 1945, Nelson won 11 PGA tournaments in a row and total of 18 for the year. When he was two thirds of the way into his 11 wins he started saying to his wife, “I wish someone would beat me.”
In 1948 Ben Hogan won 10 tournaments, while Sam Snead won six events each in 1945 and 1946, and one in 1948.
While those three were dominating in the United States, along came our very own Bobby Locke who won 11 tournaments in a 30-month stretch from April 1947. Eventually, because they couldn’t beat him, they banned him.
Another catalyst in the history of golf was the golf architects. Robert Trent Jones built 500 courses in 45 US states and 35 in other countries in his career. His style was big, wide open golf holes with large artistic bunkers, water features and enormous greens.
In South Africa it was a man by the name of Robert Grimsdell, more commonly known as Bob, who was responsible for building over 100 new courses or redesigns in South Africa. Among others, he was the architect of Royal Johannesburg and Kensington, Hermanus, Hans Merensky, The River Club and Sishen Golf Club. Grimsdell also operated outside South Africa, building beautiful courses in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Grimsdell was a fine player who was a runner-up at the SA Open twice and at the SA Professional Matchplay Championship four times.
Byron Nelson
Bobby Locke
Gary Player
In the years after World War II, the SA Open and Amateur Championships were moved around South Africa and were played in East London, Port Elizabeth, Vereeniging, Bloemfontein and Pretoria. Before the War the event was also played in Potchefstroom, Kimberley and Royal Port Alfred.
The Brews brothers, Sid and Jack, won the SA Open eight and four times respectively, Locke had nine wins and Gary Player holds the record with 13 wins.
The amateurs who dominated the SA Open from 1947 to 1959 were Ronnie Glennie with six titles, Micky Janks, Jimmy Boyd, Reg Taylor, Arthur Stewart and Denis Hutchinson. During that that period, the other professionals who lifted the trophy included Sid Brews (2), Bobby Locke (3), Gary Player and Harold Henning, with one each.
Many people would put Bobby Locke and Gary Player in the Top 10 Golfers of All Time. Locke was voted the best putter of the 20th Century and Gary Player is widely regarded as the greatest bunker player ever.
GRANT WINTER/ROLEX/STATE LIBRARY OF NSW
South Africa’s Dale Hayes is a former professional golfer with an illustrious record in the sport. His 21 professional wins include the 1971 Spanish Open, the 1974 World Cup of Golf in partnership with Bobby Cole, and 13 titles on the Sunshine Tour. He also won the European Tour Order of Merit in 1975. Since retiring from the pro golf circuit he has remained active in the sport as the principal of an event management company and a popular and respected commentator.
South Africa’s Dale Hayes is a former professional golfer with an illustrious record in the sport. His 21 professional wins include the 1971 Spanish Open, the 1974 World Cup of Golf in partnership with Bobby Cole, and 13 titles on the Sunshine Tour. He also won the European Tour Order of Merit in 1975. Since retiring from the pro golf circuit he has remained active in the sport as the principal of an event management company and a popular and respected commentator.
He also won the European Tour Order of Merit in 1975. Since retiring from the pro golf circuit he has remained active in the sport as the principal of an event management company and a popular and respected commentator.
South Africa’s Dale Hayes is a former professional golfer with an illustrious record in the sport. His 21 professional wins include the 1971 Spanish Open, the 1974 World Cup of Golf in partnership with Bobby Cole, and 13 titles on the
Sunshine Tour. He also won the European Tour Order of Merit in 1975. Since retiring from the pro golf circuit he has remained active in the sport as the principal of an event management company and a popular and respected commentator.