This is Letty Watt--Oklahoma Golf Legend Podcast

Thursday, October 21, 2021

MIAMI GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB 1939 Professional Winners

I have chosen to include this article in the timeline for its great description of a nearly tragic round of golf, that has been told and retold at golf courses for decades. 

1940 January 3 mdnr The Year in Sports--Golf  1939 review 


Sammy Snead, the handsome hill-billy whose sweet smile and sweeter swing had caught the fancy of golfers everywhere, was coming up the hill to the last hole.

Thousands fought for a spot around the Philadelphia Country club's wide 18th green to see Snead, the "people's choice," win the National open championship.

'Slammin' Sammy needed a par 5 to win as he approached the final, 72nd hole. He pushed his drive into the rough. That was bad, but Sammy could still get his five. Those who perspired around the green didn't know that Snead's ball had dropped into a bad lie, and there wasn't any amazement when he pulled out a spoon. But the groan of the crowd could be head all over the course when Sammy hit a poor, low shot into a bunker a few yards ahead. 

Sammy took a long iron. A niblick would have been safer but he had to gamble now Snead didn't get the shot up and dug into the sand. The spectators gasped. They were quiet as Snead, raging angry now, lunge at the ball and knocked it far off line. Hardly, a sound came from the crowd. It had come to celebrate a victory but found itself in on a wake. 

Snead finally holed out for an eight--an eight that would always be a nightmare for him. Thousands had watched him throw away the National championship. Sammy later said he thought he needed a four to win, which accounted for his gambling. 

That, perhaps, was golf's most dramatic episode of a year that saw Byron Nelson win the Open after a triple-tie and a double play-off. Henry Picard  snatched the Professional Golfers' crown in an overtime duel. Marvin (Bud) Ward spread eagle a fine amateur field and Betty Jameson won the women's championship undefended by powerful Patty Berg. 


Husky Betty Jameson, 17, and a Southwestern star for five years, turned back slender young Dorothy Kirby of Atlanta to win the women's diadem. Two-time queen Patty Berg, who had mopped up most of the earlier tourneys, was kept from playing by an appendectomy. 


Update: Betty Jameson born May 19, 1919 in Norman, Oklahoma. Died February 7, 2009 in Boynton Beach, Florida. Jameson was one of the original 13 founders of the LPGA. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1998. Betty Jameson bio

 


*For the sake of the “Timeline of Miami Country Club” I have chosen to use the exact words from the newspaper writers because they date the times and the language of golf, and the cultural standards from the war and depression years.