Ed Dudley's Golfing Career

 

 Ed Dudley signature putter

 

I knew from my father's stories that Ed Dudley served as the first golf professional at Miami, Oklahoma, that Dudley was an outstanding golfer and teacher, whom my father admired greatly. My father, also, developed great friendships with Ed's close friends George L. Coleman Jr, Ky Laffoon, and John F. Robinson in the 1950’s which created a circle of friendships from coasts to coast. Several of the connections are attributed to my father, who became a teaching pro at Santa Anita Golf 

 

Course after the war. In those few years my father played golf with several stars, Johnny Weissmuller, Tarzan and Olympic swimmer, being a favorite. Mother loved to tells stories about meeting Bing Crosby, and sometimes going to the horse races at Santa Anita Race Track where she wore a mink coat.    

Rockdale Country Club's first golf professional (later called Miami Golf and Country Club) was Ed Dudley.

1922 (story from a 1933 article by MNR Ross Jones)

Back in the dim dark ages of 1922, when golf was at its height in Miami, Oklahoma, G.C. Warren of Tampa, Florida, then in charge of the old Brownhead mine near Pitcher, became interested in the Miami County club course.

Warren was a golf enthusiast, and way back in the Georgia canebrakes before he came to the mining district in 1921 he had become interested in a youthful caddy at a Tampa course. He was so firmly convinced that in the young aspirant of the greens there was a material of champions, that he had made a mental note concerning him. That caddy was Ed Dudley.

The Miami Country club was forming plans to hire a new professional for the course. Warren heard the discussion and his mind flashed back to that sunny southland where this same youthful caddy was still plugging away, but now advanced to the rank of caddy master. He immediately began to canvass the executives of the country club here, and was high in his praises of what he believed was a coming star and an already finished product of the fairway.

The country club officials heeded his high praises and the result was that the caddy came from Tampa to Miami, Oklahoma. It was his first real chance to prove his prowess, and he set out to do it. It was a start and a start he wanted. Not yet out of his teens, he vowed that someday his name, Edward Dudley, would be known throughout the sporting world.

1923

In 1923, Ed branched out a bit. (At this time the Rockdale Country club was only four holes built in 1916.) In 1923 Ed Dudley and several members designed the layout for the new five hole, creating what was known as the original nine hole golf course). His duties at the Miami club didn’t keep him so very busy and he managed to work his way into a job at Bartlesville. He brought his younger brother, Bill, up from the South to assist him.

While in Bartlesville he picked up a few more things necessary in his golfing life, including among them a wife. The wife proved a great asset to him rather than a hold-back in his campaign, and his rise during the following year was almost phenomenal. 

*From the time that Ed Dudley began his career in Miami, Oklahoma he used his skills as a ball striker and his drive to make a name for himself, as he moved from country club to country club, all the while playing in state championships to major opens from coast to coast. Our home town newspapers kept the public up to date on Ed's golfing career.

1925 June 14 MNR (Tulsa, June 13)   “Ed Dudley Wins State Open Golf Championship”

Ed Dudley, professional at Oakhill Country Club in Joplin, Missouri, and darkest of the dark horses, today won the open golf championship in 36 holes medal play. Dudley’s score (gross) was 151. The match was the first event in the sixteenth annual tournament of the Oklahoma State Golf association.

Bill Creavey, Oklahoma City professional, took second. Dudley, who formerly lived at Bartlesville and Miami, made his low score by playing a consistent game throughout. His approach shots, his opponents said, were almost perfect. He played the third nine of the 36 holes in 34, one under the course par. Dudley’s morning round shows 39 38 for a 77; afternoon rounds of 34 40 for a 74 total of 151. (No golf course was named for this event.)

1925 September 10 MNR Ed Dudley, formerly professional at the Rockdale Country club here, and now acting in the same capacity with the Oak Hill club in Joplin, is continuing on his way toward a high place in the golfing firmament. Tuesday he tied his own record on the Oak Hill course by shooting a 64. Dudley went out in 31 and came in with a 33. His record for nine holes is 29. In order to shoot his remarkable score, Dudley bagged two eagles and seven birdies. He went over par on only one hole, No.1.

1925.11.16 JOPLIN HERALD   “Ed Dudley”

Just as many predicted when Ed Dudley gained so much fame during the summer, he will not be at Oak Hill next year. Dudley has accepted an offer of the Oklahoma City Club and will begin his duties there in January. Dudley has been at Oak Hill two seasons. He succeeded Dewey Longworth. He captured the Oklahoma championship last season at Tulsa and came near bagging the Missouri Open at Shifferdecker.

 

32.1.3 MNR  NEA SERVICE SPORTS WRITER, by CLAIRE BUCKY.

If all those interested in lowering their golf score would send a stamped and self-addressed envelope to Edward Bishop Dudley, Jr, Wilmington, Del. The mail would be flooded. The recent batting averages of big league golfers for 1931 showed that Ed Dudley was the champion swinger in the P.G.A. league, yet they didn’t tell half the story. Big Ed has chiseled just exactly four strokes per 18 holes off his average in championship play since he stepped into the big time five years ago. His record since 1927 might well be lesson No.1 in the golf primer.

According to P.G.A figures Dudley whacked the 1931 “balloon ball” 71 times or 1-3 times per 18 holes in 30 championship matches. From that, try to figure Dudley a bush-whacker! Yet, he was only a big, smiling southerner of twenty-four and some ambitions in 1927. Somehow he managed to shoot enough sub-par golf in Oklahoma that winter to give him an average of approximately 75 strokes for every round of championship play.

Not bad, thought Ed, so he went after the big prizes. He wintered in California the next year, showed them some fancy shots and established a connection there. Meantime, he lopped off another stroke in his average, bringing it down to a fraction under 74 strokes.

From the major league golfers fortune-hunting in California, Dudley learned that he would attract more attention by moving east. He did, settling in the Philadelphia district, and soon became a member of Walter Hagen’s Ryder cup team. That was 1929. His average in more than 100 championship rounds was pared to 73.

Recognition then came. His fine golf strokes, his big colorful physique and his ever-ready smile were sought for all the events of 1930. He was close in all of them, but won only two minor titles. Still his batting average improved to 73 strokes a round.

Now Dudley faces a new campaign with the best average in the game. He’s a 71 average man, a sub-par shooter. He can spot Walter Hagen and Harry Cooper one stroke each. Gene Sarazen and George Von Elm two strokes each, Tommy Armour and Leo Diegel three strokes apiece and beat them, the figures say.

Smiling Ed is a chance-taker with nerves of steel in the pinches. Von Elm tied Johnny Golden for the Agua Calinte prize of $10,000 and then twice tied Billy Burke in the National Open. But Dudley put $2,000 on one shot in the Los Angeles Open last year and made it. It was the eighteenth hole-a 445 yarder and dog-legged hole to boot in the final round. Ed’s drive went 230 yards straight down the middle. From there all he had to do was pitch to the green surrounded on three sides by a ditch with a 10 foot drop. His second shot went wild. It went too far to the right and stopped behind a big tree. Besides the tree in front of him there was the ditch to the right again and the postage stamp green some 75 yards beyond both.

The safe and sane shot would have been back to the fairway. But Dudley was neither safe nor sane. He laid back his pitcher, took a smooth swing at the ball and lofted it over the big tree to the tiny green. He was down in one putt for a 68 and $3,500.

(This was the first article where I have seen Ed Dudley referred to as “Big Ed” or “Smiling Ed” Dudley. He received the nickname “Big Ed” because he stood 6’4” and weighed 200 pounds.)

*For better images of Ed Dudley please search his name and images. 

1933 February 2 MNR by Ross Jones "Job as Pro on Bobby Jones "Ideal Course" Climaxes Golf Career Begun Here by Ed Dudley."

The greatest honor ever conferred upon Dudley, though, came recently (1933). Bobby Jones, the sentimental gentleman from Georgia, built what he calls an ideal golf course—probably the outstanding course in the land. Someone was needed to take charge of it, for Bobby spends some time at his law practice, as well as on the links. (We know this golf course as Augusta National, home of the Masters Golf Tournament.)

Ed Dudley got that job, and became the first golf professional at Augusta, Georgia.

1938 May 27 MNR (Toledo, Ohio)  Big Ed Dudley of Philadelphia and Ky Laffoon, the Miami, Oklahoma star, ripped eight strokes off par today with a 63 to beat Lawson Little and Jimmy Demeret 6 up, snatching the lead at the end of the first round of the $4,600 Inverness Invitational best-ball matches. Little and Demeret had a 69. 

*The stories show the attributes of Dudley, not only in Oklahoma but in the years after he was appointed the first head professional job at Augusta National, by Bobby Jones, the designer.  Among Dudley's most famous students were President Dwight Eisenhower, singer Bing Crosby, and comedian Bob Hope.

1942 September 25 MNR  “Dudley and Bing”

Ed Dudley, the pro golf star and Bing Crosby, the movie crooner, played one unscheduled match in the state when they stopped in Oklahoma on their recent bond-selling tour. That was over the Miami Country club course, where Big Ed served as professional 22 years ago.

Dudley and Bing stopped at Miami on their way to Tulsa. Dudley wanted to pay a call on his old friend, Jack Guild, now pro at the Miami layout. Big Ed recalled that when he was at Miami the club had sand greens back in 1920—the year he started his meteoric rise in the golfing world that has carried him to the present rank as one of the nation’s best and President of the Professional Golf Association.

Note the signature of Crosby across the bottom of the tee top.

* The small red tee, only one inch and a half long, is a true souvenir from a thirteen year old golfer and Crosby fan, Sarah Hilliard Mirjanick, who received it from Bing Crosby on the day he played golf in Miami. The picture of the tee was shared by Sarah's daughter,  Rebecca Mirjanick Davis. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Crosby and Dudley didn’t attempt to tear the course apart on their leisurely round of golf with Mrs. George L. Coleman, Jr., and Miss Patty Fullerton, Miamians. In fact, no score cards were kept.

 

There are numerous journal stories about Big Ed Dudley with photographs. The websites listed below are some of the best stories that recall the years when Ed’s name was well known.

“DID YOU KNOW”
Ed Dudley saved golf during World War II?

Dudley Saves Golf

Dudley's Bio and Wins

Dudley's Augusta Years Nearly Lost to History

 

Edward Bishop Dudley (February 19, 1901 – October 25, 1963). 

 * For other stories about golf and Miami, Oklahoma please click on the link to my personal blog Literally Letty

For previous stories of Dudley and the Rockdale Country Club please click on the link Rockdale Country club 1914-1929

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

1939--TIMELINE AND STORIES of the MIAMI GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

1939 March, New Pro, Jack Guild

 By Letty Stapp Watt

*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.

 

1939 January 1 MNR   Charley Lewis, son of the Miami Country Club professional  joined the hole-in-one club Friday afternoon at the expense of Bill Laffoon, playing with the local golfer at the time. Lewis' perfect shot, on the 165 yard No. 3, duplicated the performance of Glenn Scott, who accomplished the same thing last summer. These two linksmen are the only ones to register holes-in-one at the country club since the installation of grass greens.  

 

1939 March 30 MNR Grist by Mac Bartlett  A ringer tournament will be introduced soon for women players at the MCC course, if enough feminine golfers want it. New pro Jack Guild said the event can last for a month. The lady who gets in the most rounds of golf has the best chance of winning. If a woman gets a 6 on No. 1 hole, for instance, she will have several chances to beat that mark. When she does, the old number will be wiped out, and the new inserted. 

Guild talked the deal over with Mrs. Bert Wall, Mrs. C.N. Harrell, and Mrs. Floyd Newton, and the three agreed it would be a good event.  

1939 March 31 MDNR  

Jack Guild believes that the shortest way to the cup is down the middle of the fairways. Not long tee shots, but straight. Most of his are good for 225 to 250 yards, through the center. He has won the State P.G.A. (at Muskogee in 1926) and twice finished runner-up for the State open title to Clarence Clark, the former Tulsa golf master, in 1929 and 1931.
 

1939  April 4 MNR Jack Guild of Tulsa McFarlin club succeeds Frank Lewis, who moved from the country club quarters today to a residence here.

Club officials disclosed they had hired Jack Veal, veteran greenskeeper at the Northridge club at Tulsa, and Mrs. Veal, who will become the cateress. Prior to his professional career at Tulsa, he was associated in a like capacity for ten years with the Oakhurst club of Tulsa.  

A native of Scotland, Guild served his apprenticeship on the British Isles, becoming a professional after five years of training at Troon, Scotland. He came to the United States in 1924.  The Tulsa linksman, the No.1 ranking PGA golfer in Oklahoma during 1935, was awarded second place recognition last year for his outstanding play in five tournaments. Paired with Joy Cole, Tulsa amateur champion, Guild copped first honors in the pro-amateur event at Oklahoma City in 1938. 

1939 April 12 MNR Golfing with Guild. Jack Guild, Miami Country Club professional has followed golfing developments in Oklahoma for fourteen years. He has agreed to write some of his observations, gleaned from years of experience as a teacher and tournament player, for the Miami News-Record. 

 1939 April 20 MNR Miami Country club is selected as scene of the Oklahoma PGA Tourney. Thirty professional golfers are slated to gather here May 24 and May 25. Miami's rolling nine-hole course was named as the most suitable layout for Oklahoma's siege guns of the fairways when Professional Jack Guild made his bid in conferences with Joe Dahlman of Tulsa, President of the State PGA. 

Professionals over Oklahoma and instructors at Ft. Smith and Hot Springs are members of the state association, whose leading golfer of 1938 was George Whitehead, pro at Tulsa's Indian Hills Country club. 

For the first time since 1930, Miami will be host. John F. Robinson, chairman, announced that the event will appeal to Miami amateurs as much as it will to visiting linksmen. Robinson disclosed plans for a larger pro-am field on May 24, opening day of the event. Three members will be drawn for foursomes in which the pros will become the fourth members. This plan will enable some 75-90 local players to compete. Guild estimates 25-30 pros will come here for the two day test. George Coleman, Jr, club president, has suggested that the Miami membership stage a big stag party on the eve of the pro-am, draw names of the amateurs with the pros and form a Calcutta pool. A percentage obtained from the pool will be used for cash prizes for the pros and merchandise for the "simon pures." (Men of  financial means were sarcastically called 'Simon Pures' by the press or media. They were considered men who could play golf six days a week pick up a little cash, and call themselves amateurs.)"simon pures" described

1939 April 23 MNR The Grist from Mac Bartlett. A blazing 70 is the new course record at Miami Country Club. The two-under-par score was registered Friday afternoon by Charley Lewis. Playing with Jack Guild against George Coleman, Jr. and John F. Robinson. Charley went out in a 36 and came in with 34. In the par-breaking performance were five birdies. 

Coleman shot a 75, Robinson came in with 76 and Guild finished with 77. (Par is 72.) One the second nine, three of the linksmen made birdies on the No. 1 par four hole, which is 331 yards in length. The same trio stormed into No. 9 with birdies. 

1939 April 23 MNR John F. Robinson, chairman of the country club tournament committee, wants all members to write up their four lowest scores and turn 'em in before May 10. The handicaps must be set before the club tournament program can be launched. 

1939 May 19 MNR  Golf course is 6,560 yards in length.

1939 May 22 MNR  Buddy Poteet, former amateur from Commerce, Oklahoma, who attended NEO and impressed people with his talents on the links the last few years at Miami, has since moved to Tulsa, Northridge where he is practicing his golf skills as an assistant professional. He will be returning to Miami to play in the upcoming State PGA. While as an assistant at the Miami course he shot an 18 hole sub par round of 67 on the sand greens. The greens are now grass greens and a challenge for the pros.  

1939 May 24 MNR "Score of Links Wizards Eager for State P.G.A. "

Oklahoma's links wizardry, developed by men who send out booming drives and deadly putts for gold, was centered at the Miami Country club's nine-hole course today. A restless group of 23 professionals, ready to complete in a pro-am event this afternoon with 56 Miami amateurs, was looking forward to a heated battle tomorrow for the first honors in the annual State P.G.A. tournament. To the top three men go places in the National P.G.A. at Flushing, Long Island. To the champion goes a large part of $200 in cash and a silver trophy that Eddie Stanard has been polishing for a year down at Oklahoma City.

The pros were not hesitant to predict that "the guy who gets a 144 aggregate" for the 36 holes medalist play "will win this meet. "First to join in accord with that forecast, was PGA president, Joe Dahlman, defending champion. Jimmy Gullane, Bartlesville pro, piped up to second the motion. George Whitehead, the stylist from Tulsa's Indian Hills club and twice champion of the play-for-keeps boys, had about decided like the others. He shot a par 72 at the country club five weeks ago. The pros will be busy determining what they'll do about divvying up the gold. Dahlman said they'd make pairings for tomorrow's attraction. The experts will shoot 18 holes in the morning, then repeat the procedure in the afternoon.

The course was in excellent condition for the assault on the par. Greens and fairways glittered with greenness decidedly bright after recent rains. Mid-June weather conditions were in prospect as clearing early to presaged shirt sleeved golfers galore before this thing is completed last Thursday. 

 A gigantic stag dinner last night, attended by 150 players brushed fried chicken from around the corners of hungry mouths. In practice rounds yesterday, Jack Mann of the Shawnee Elks club shot a par-equaling 72. He was playing with Jimmy Gullane who shot 77, Gib Sellers shot 76 and Howard Estep a 74. It was Oklahoma vs Arkansas, and Oklahoma won 5 and 3. Sellers last week captured the Arkansas Open crown, while Estep finished runner-up. Both are eligible to play here since part of Arkansas is in a district with Oklahoma's state P.G.A. setup. 

1939 May 25 MNR "Pro-Amateur Establishes Whitehead and Estep as State P.G.A. Favorites."  Defending champion Ed Stanard of Oklahoma City faced the stiffest kind of opposition. On the basis of performance in the pro-am yesterday, George Whitehead of the Tulsa Indian Hills club, and Howard Estep, pro at Fort Smith's Hardscrabble course, were established as co-favorites to unseat the champion. Both shot sub-par 71's. 

Gail Hutts, riding a 17-stroke handicap blasted he way to the pro-am low ball title yesterday, sharing the honor with Bob Mair, pro at Fort Sill. Their low ball score was 63. On the incoming nine, it was Hutts' excellent firing that bought the pro a place in the links spotlight. Gail turned on the heat to score a 39, without the use of his handicap, while Mair, who opened with a 39, slipped off to a 40. Tied for second and third places were Estep, R.O. (Hoot) Gibson,  Horace Payne, and Mair. They bagged 65's. Next came Gib Sellers of Hot Springs, Arkansas and Dick Neel with a 32-35=67 (net), while George Whitehead and Carl Hilliard ploughed through with a like total. 

Mair's pairing with Payne to tie for second was the first time in State P.G.A. history that a professional had teamed up with two amateurs to win more than one high place in the same event. In 1930, when Miami first played host to the PGA, Clarence Clark paired with Luther Sheldon, local amateur, to win the pro-am event with a low score of 65. Among the better scores for the pros yesterday, were several 74's by Buddy Poteet and Ed Stanard, Gib Sellers and Bill Witherspoon, pro at Tulsa's Southern Hills club.  Jimmy Gullane, of Bartlesville, and Floyd Farley, the state PGA secretary, each turned in 75's. Jack Guild, local pro, was off his usual game. He scored a 40 on the first nine, then trimmed off three strokes on the second to get a 77.

John F. Robinson, local club members who will compete in the National Open at Philadelphia next month, and Charley Lewis, holder of the course record, a 69, both shot 73's. Joy Cole of Welch got a 75. Henry Ping, a Tulsa pro, was the highest scorer among the PGA members. He carded a 90. The pros competed for cash prizes totaling $100. First place brought $25 for Bob Mair. Other PGA pros playing are: Bill Witherspoon, Buddy Poteet, Floyd Farley, Harley Hicks, Jimmy Gullane, Sandy Francisco,George Whitehead, Bob Dunning, Marion Askew, and Harlan Brittain. 

1939 May 26 MNR "Buddy Poteet Strokes Way to State P.G.A. Title With Sub-Par 142 Total"

From caddy to State P.G.A. champion in eight years. That is the enviable record of Buddy Poteet, the former Commerce boy, who splashed through a downpour to hang up a two-under-par 142 for 36 holes of medalist play at Miami County club Thursday. Poteet refused to buckle as he neared the end of his great performance. He sank a three-foot putt on No. 18 and a large crowd looking out from the east veranda of the clubhouse had difficulty seeing the shot that 10 minutes later was to give the Tulsa Northridge pro his first state championship.

Handsome Floyd Farley of Oklahoma City, the pace-setter at the three-quarter mark with a sizzling 104, saw his shotmaking wizardry fall apart on the last nine. He slipped over par on four consecutive holes, beginning with No. 13. He came in with a 39 and his 36-hole total of 143 was good for second money. Rains that had subsided after delaying play for more than an hour in the morning beat down upon the leaders as they finished their final nine.

Howard Estep, the sweet little stroker from Fort Smith, wound up in fourth place with a 145. George Whitehead, pro from Tulsa's Indian Hills club, was fifth with 146. First place brought Poteet $200 and the P.G.A. trophy. 

Before leaving here last night, the professionals chorused that "This is the best tournament we've ever had." Smiling Floyd Farley, after shaking hands with Poteet and complimenting him on his great finish, said to a reporter: "Do something for me; tell them Miami has given us the best reception we ever received anywhere. I really mean that."

Joe Dahlman, the PGA president who hails from Tulsa's McFarlin club, agreed with Farley. "Yes, I want to say, too, that we have had a splendid time here. We'd like to come back to Miami every year." 

1939 May 27 MNR Tulsa Country club is honored to be the host of the Trans-Mississippi  

1939 August 16 MDNR "35 WOMEN VIE ON LINKS HERE"  Mrs. Charles Larson of Baxter, one of the most consistent feminine players in the district, captured low gross honors at Miami Country club Tuesday afternoon in the monthly tourney of the Tri-State Women's Golf association. She shot round of 48-43 for a 91.  Next came Mrs. August Simeon of Pittsburg, who trailed by a stroke with a 44-48 for a 92. Each received golf ball awards. Women from Joplin, Webb City, Pittsburg, and Miami played and discussed plans for the annual tourney to require a $1.00 entry fee. Golf ball awards Tuesday afternoon were awarded to: Mrs. Floyd Newton of Miami for using the least number of putts, 31; Mrs. O.S Moss of Joplin, who required the most putts, 51;Mrs. Carl Drath of Joplin, who took only 25 strokes on six blind holes; Mrs. J. Mohler of Pittsburg, highest number on blind holes with 42 strokes, and Mrs. W..R. Martin of Joplin, high scorer of the day, with rounds of 70-75 for a 145.

* For other stories about golf and Miami, Oklahoma please click on the link to my personal blog Literally Letty

For more information on the history of Miami, Oklahoma please refer to these links:

Miami, Ok. history  

Coleman Theatre History, Route 66

Tri-State Lead and Zinc Mines