Johnie F. Stapp, the WAR years and a New Life as a Professional Golfer--1941--1946

1941-1946

Johnie F. Stapp, The War Years

1941 notes from personal scrapbook

Before the war began my father, Johnie Stapp, enlisted. He was stationed at Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas. The only story I ever remember from him was when they learned to march through the swamps of S.E. Arkansas and Louisiana. He told me that it honestly scared him to pieces, because he could just imagine all of the snakes in the trees. Then one day a snake fell on one of his companions. Although it did not kill him, nor dad, I've never forgotten that picture he described. (No wonder I tell stories.)

"Tough Soldiers Balk at Wet Links" 

The Division golf tournament opened last Sunday as six soldiers waded through rain soaked links in three 18-hole  matches.... Pvt. John Stapp, Medical Detachment, 137th Infantry, defeated Pvt. Pat Shelton, Headquarters Company, 137th, two and one at Fair Park. 

Rain forced postponement of other first round matches. Twenty-two golfers are entered in the championship tournament. All matches are being played on Little Rock links. 

1941  August 12    "Golf Champion" 

Pvt. John Stapp of Wichita, a member of the 137th Infantry, today was crowned golf champion of the 35th division. Stapp won the title in yesterday's championship flight when he defeated Pvt. Richard Logger of St. Louis, 4 and 3. Logger is a member of the 138 Infantry. 

1942 February 20  "Wichitan in the News"

Johnie Stapp formerly of 35th Infantry division made a hole-in-one at Fair Park Municipal Course in Little Rock. He played with Lloyd and Bill DeBacker. 

1943 January 

Lieut. John Stapp is visiting his parents. Stapp, formerly stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland will be stationed at Camp Santa Anita, in California as a staff and faculty. Stapp received his commission on September 26, 1942, and met his future wife, my mother, Helen.

1943 March "Man O' War" Military Newspaper

Lt.Stapp shot a 73, three over par 70, to win Low Gross for officers in the Camp Santa Anita Cup. Stapp received a 14" engraved cup.

1943 April 16  

In the officers and non-commissioned officers event, the team of Lt. Stapp and Pvt. Danner snared the golf titles. "Salute the winners, the Turfbirds",  of the Camp Santa Anita golf tournament. You might as well for one of them raises a highball anyway you look at it." Stapp's score of 73,72,71,73=289 is a strong show. 

1943 August 10 L.A. Times

Lt. Stapp takes the coveted Arcadia Crown. The first man to win the Arcadia City Championship at Annandale Country club, by shooting a 69. 

1943 August 20 by Jack Curnow

"Snead's Navy Golfers Play Army Team"

Sam Snead, who needs no introduction to the golfing world will head a contingent of blue-jackets from San Diego Navy Base today against a soldier outfit from Santa Anita Ordinance Camp in a 10-man play over the sporty county-owned Santa Anita links in Arcadia.

Backing up Slamming Sammy will be an Alhambra product Bill Nary, the long-hitting ex-Rancho Santa Fe pro who joined the Navy several weeks ago....

Heading the Ordinance golfers will be Lt. Johnie Stapp, ex-Kansas golf pro who has been right on his stick lately. He'll have the team of Col.F.G.Bryan, Capt E. H. Christensen.......

The match starts at 2 pm and is open to the public. Off the early dope, the blue-jackets figure to nudge the soldiers.

1943 October    L.A. Times by Mel Gallagher

Lloyd Mangrum, one-time Texas caddy who develop into one of the leading golf professionals of the nation, arrived home last week from his summer links tour prepared to enter the Southern California Open October 15,16, 17.  

The stylish clubbing Mangrum, a mainstay of Walter Hagen's Ryder Cup team for the past two years will be a strong favorite for this Arcadia tournament title. He has shown a liking for the stretching Santa Anita par 70 layout, having spread-eagled an open field there two years ago. ....

1943 October 12 L.A. Times by Jack Curnow

"Mangrum-Bassler Card 63s in Pro-Amateur"

Harry Bassler, Fox Hill pro, and Lloyd Mangrum of Monterey Park, traveling pro, served warning on the large field entered in this weekend's Southern California Open, when they fired identical 68's in the pro-am tourney. Three teams tied for third place money with  65's; Pro Eddie Hobit and Frank Horton, 32-33; Lieut. Johnie Stapp and Joe Mabley 34-31; and Ray Haines, assistant pro to Ellsworth Vines at Southern Country club and Fred Clark, Jr. 32-33. 

1943 October 14  L.A. Times by Jack Curnow

"Southland Open Takes Tee Today"

The big guns start firing today in the Southern California Open at Santa Anita Golf Club in Arcadia. The 72-hole medal play affair; which has lured a big field of local favorites and many newcomers now here in the war work and military service, gets under way with 18 holes of play. ....

At the halfway mark Joe Kirkwood, Jr. lead the field with 70-71....Lieut. John Stapp with a 74-72; 

**At this point in Santa Anita dad has become friends with Sammy Snead, Lloyd Mangrum, and Johnny Bulla, George Fazio, Byron Nelson, Ed Dudley (who was MGCC's first golf pro).  Ray Beardon, head pro at Santa Anita and Ellsworth Vines, pro at Southern California Country club. He and mother often shared stories of Elly Vines, who had been the national tennis champion before turning golf pro.

*Note: Johnie spent the remainder of the war years in the Pacific Islands. After the war he remained in Japan for several months, helping with the closure of the war and  communications with the Japanese. During that time he became close friends with Dr. Seturo, a Japanese doctor at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium.

I followed up on the doctor he befriended after the war. This is a clip from my story. Dr. Seturo's niece writes: 

"Your father's friend, Dr Seturo, was a very talented person. After graduating from medical school in Japan, he was studying at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

His son, Mitsuko's father, was also a doctor. He went to North China as a medical doctor. At the end of the war he was interned in Siberia and missing forever It was a really sad story." 

To read more of this World War II story please click on this link Touching Lives

Helen Stapp, Arcadia, Ca. 1946

1946 May 25 

My mother, Helen Weaver, who met her future husband, Johnie while he was home on leave in Wichita, Ks., married him on May 25 at the Little Church of the West in Las Vegas. Their first daughter, Letty, was born December 26, 1947.

Johnie returned from the war and began working at the Santa Anita Golf Course as a teaching pro. He actively taught golf lessons to students in the various college campuses around Santa Anita. During this time he met many of the Hollywood stars who played the Santa Anita course and bet on the races at the Santa Anita Racetrack Park.

It was through his golf at Santa Anita that he met Bing Crosby and Johnny Weissmueller. In January 1947 he attended the Bing Crosby Tournament being held at Pebble Beach. Knowing this from my father's stories I researched to the best of my abilities any kind of list or story that might show when he played. (If newspapers are not online then the records remain on microfilm or microfiche in area libraries.) I did not find any list of players, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading articles from all over the United States telling tales of the Clambake. I also discovered that in the late 1940's Crosby Tournament was so popular that it was carried on the radio.

Picture of Johnny Weismuller, Tarzan, from Stapp family photos.

From 1937--1942 Bing Crosby held his tournaments at Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego. After the war in 1947 Crosby moved his tournament for more money and larger gatherings to Pebble Beach, California. The nickname "Clambake" came from the early days when Bing gathered the players on the beach for an authentic "clambake" with food, entertainment, and drinks for everyone.

 Bing Crosby Tournament History

 The Crosby Clambake

**I had hoped to find my father's connection to George Coleman, Jr. through the stories on Bing Crosby's Tournament. Johnie would have been invited to the clambake by Crosby since he knew him personally from his work at Santa Anita. I know that he attended the tournament at least one more time before moving to Miami.  He already knew George Coleman, Jr. before moving to Miami. So I am guessing they met in California. 

In our first year in Miami (1954) dad bought a dark green 1952 Oldsmobile from George Coleman, Jr.  It was a supped up engine, and  became a race car. We traveled to California in that car when I was too young to remember anything but looking out the car window and seeing the road drop off in a cliff. I also experienced dirt track racing in that Olds.

This same car 52 Oldsmobile photo became a well known speedster before Johnie bought the Muntz from Lou Newell in 1959 or 1960. The speedster Olds took Johnie and Doc Robert Baron to California in a single day or less, so the story goes. Of course, the same story can be told about Johnie and Doc Jackson traveling to California in 24 hours. I do not recall which Pro-Am's they played in but it seemed to be fun and profitable for dad's teams. 

The Caddy -- 1950's

1950'S THE CADDY by Letty Stapp Watt

It would be impossible to share our history of golf without including the role of the caddies who have perpetuated the game over the last two centuries.

Depiction of Slammin Sammy Snead, who began his career in golf as a caddy.

 

It is important to know that before 1870 caddies carried clubs in their arms with out the benefit of a bag. A retired sail-maker who was the clubhouse attendant at England's Westward Ho! fashioned a strip of canvas to keep the grips from getting wet. Among the wealthier members, this chore of toting the loose clubs was delegated to the caddie.  Because of course conditions (Links-lands and public space for man and beasts) and the caddy's intimate knowledge of the course, they began to advise the player on club selection, distance, direction, and hazards. By the nineteenth century many caddies where known as "professionals." My father, like so many professionals of his era, began his career as  a caddy in Wichita, Kansas.  (THE WORLD OF GOLF by Charles Price, 1962)

1932

1932 June 19 mdnr reports that John Ballard, Custodian of the golf shop will reduce cold drinks by 50 percent. Golfers may now quench their thirst for a nickel. Golf balls are also cheaper this year and caddies made the rounds at considerably reduced fees.

1932 August 2 mdnr  reports that during the club championship between Clarence Gordon and Luther Sheldon, that Sheldon knocked his tee shot into the ditch and rolled under the bridge on hole #4. Caddies who were in a position to watch the ball declared that it bounced back and forth under the bridge before it flopped out and up for several yards on the fairway.

1932 July 11 MNR The annual tournament of caddies of the Rockdale CC is under way this week. The matches being played so far show: McCorkle winning two up and one to play over Breckinridge; Andy Gump winning five up over E. Warner; Glen Heath over Hank Eagle two and one to play; Virgil Pryor winning over Irvin Heath three up and two to play. The semi finals are scheduled to be played the first of this week.(No follow up on the winner.)

In the 1930's the Western Golf Association built a "caddie kit" for golf courses to purchase. 1. Know all 14 clubs;2. Hand player the club he selects; 3. Stand still; 4. Watch the ball; 5. Keep p with the player; 6. Keep quiet; 7. Replace all divots; 8 First n the green takes the flag; 9 Smooth sand in traps; 10. Memorize yardage of each hole; 11. Never swing clubs; 12. If you don't know--ask.  

There were also "Four Things to Do" if you are the player: 1. Know your caddy's name; 2. Cooperate fully with the caddy committee by observing all club caddy rules; 3. Give your caddy constructive advice and suggestions; 4. Help your caddy earn the WGA Honor Caddy badge. 

1942

Linda Neal Reising shares this story about her her father, Leroy Neal. 

My father worked as a caddy at the Miami Country club when he was young. He always told the story about Bing Crosby coming to the course. The boys drew straws to see who would be his caddy. Unfortunately, my father did not win. The boy who received the job to caddy for Bing Crosby was given a fifty dollar tip from Mr. Crosby. That was a fortune. 

To read the story of when Bing Crosby played golf at Miami please click on this link: Bing Crosby

1947 to the early 1950's 

Hermann Childers shared his memories of caddying at the Miami Country club in the early 1947. The pro before your dad came on board after the Scotsman, Jack Guild, left. He was there when I started to caddie in 1947 (Guild 1939-1952). Some of the caddies who worked there were Jack Horner, Larry Warner, Jim and Larry Parker, Ken and Jr. Walker, Ron Edwards, Bob Furnish. There were the Huddleson Brothers, there were five who lived in Commerce worked regularly as caddies. Ernie Warner, and others whose names I don't recall worked as caddies through the late 1940's and early 1950's. 

Those were the good times. We always made good money for hauling those clubs around the course. On Saturdays and Sundays we made $2.00 a day or more. That was great money because we could go to the movies for 10 cents. Ice cream "double dip" was 5 cents and hamburgers were 10 cents at Roy's Lunch and Tucker's Lunch. Those were the days.  

 

James Taylor recalls many stories about the Miami Country club. He writes that the old cement building for caddies stood off to the right of hole #1. It was a block house with benches to offer shade. Caddies would wait until they were called, I believe Ernie, a Sr. Caddy in his thirties, managed them. However, I did caddy and spent a little time in that house. Mostly caddies played poker and gambled while waiting. Conversations were similar to the dialogue in the movie "Caddy Shack." 

James writes, when I was 14, I was going to the CC to practice and observed a dozen or more people grouped around someone hitting golf balls in the range next to hole #1. As I walked over there, I saw Ben Hogan hitting balls and watched him for 60 plus minutes hit seven irons to Ernie. Hogan's forearms were Popeye liked, and those shots were carrying about 155 yards or so. Erie hardly ever had to move other than a step and bend over to pick up the golf balls.

Another treat was when Hogan hit 25 or so shots with just his left arm. Those shots had the same trajectory and were 15-20 yards shorter than his normal shot. Hogan was a good friend with George Coleman, Jr.  George brought Ben to Miami more than once when he visited his mother. George is who also put together the four ball team of Hogan and Nelson that defeated the undefeated team of Ward and Venture as described in the book THE GREATEST MATCH EVER PLAYED by Mark Frost. 

James writes, Johnie Stapp and my father, Gob Taylor, were good friends. Once when I was caddying for John Robinson I overheard John F. and Johnie Stapp discussing activity at the dance at the Miami CC. It must have been a good story.

I also carried double at Southern Hills for Johnie and Doc Baron. Pat Temple and I went double for Johnie, Doc Baron, Jackie Meyers and Doc Jackson at Southern Hills when I was 14 years old and Pat Temple was 15. Southern Hills is hilly and a wonderful challenging course. I only recall I was totally exhausted after the round, going up and down those hills, as was Pat. Johnie took a little pity on us and as did the rest of the foursome and asked after the round if we could go another 18. I almost died at the question as the event was in July and 95 degrees with no wind, but then he just laughed and said, "Just kidding Jimmy" and I thanked the Lord. 

1953 October 7 mdnr  "Pros Women caddies in Paris"

The American Ryder cup golf team confessed to a man today that it is slightly nettled over one aspect of European golf. It is the women caddies.  The American Professionals are here for a match with a European all-star team from six countries. At the suburban St. Cloud golf course they discovered that women were used to carry clubs. Walter Buerkemo's caddy confided in him she's expecting the blessed event in about five months. 

"You know," said the Detroit pro, "I just feel like going up to her and saying, "Ma'am I'll carry that bag".

 

Bob Hill relates his memories of caddying for Ky Laffoon and Jackie Myers, local hustler. It was not uncommon for them to play 18 holes, for which Bob caddied double, then after winning or losing a large amount of money, they would head over to hole #1 and play the hustle game. 

On hole #1 they'd go to a spot on the hole, perhaps a 60 yard pitch or chip shot, throw out a dozen balls each and hit to see who got the closest to the hole. These were of $100+ bets (1950's). Then they'd walk over to hole #2 and perhaps throw down a dozen balls each in the bunker, and again play for who hit the closet shot to the pin. 

During the hustle game Ky would play with his Championship bag of clubs. The special bag contained 5-6 different types of clubs because he was superstitious, and kept only the clubs that he hit the best. In reality they were often the only clubs left in his bag after a round of golf. His temper cost him not only tournaments and money but it cost him many golf clubs (and gave golf historians many outlandish stories to tell.) 

Bob relates that during the hustle round of 9 holes in 3 1/2 hours he was required to keep score 11111,1111.  In the end Jackie Myers owed Ky $9.00

One year when Ky was visiting Miami course, he carried a MacGregor set of irons and copper plated inset on the grooves of each iron. 

Bob Hill retells caddying for Harvey Ward during the 1958 U.S. Open at Southern Hills. Ken Venturi also played in the practice  round group. (This is the same pairing from The Match by Frost.) Mike Souchak and Frank Stranahan were in the foursome with Ward and Venturi. Bob was 16 years old in 1958. *Stranahan was a very wealthy young man, who turned pro just so he could play with the pro's. He liked that level of golf. (read in a golf story.)

In order to learn how to caddy for a pro in the US Open, Bob and other men were required to go to caddy school for 6 weeks on a Monday in Tulsa. Bob's folks took him out of school and drove him to Tulsa to learn the rules that caddy's needed to know.

It seems that Harvey Ward and Ken Venturi were on the rolls as working for Eddie Lowry in his California car dealership, when in essence they never worked a lick, but Eddie paid for their amateur tournaments. Because this was illegal Harvey was forced to turn pro in 1958, Venturi had already turned pro. 

In the 1958 US Open Bob caddied for Ward on the practice round (Wednesday), then 18 on Thursday, 18 on Friday, and 36 on Saturday. $35,000 was the entire purse with the winner Tommy Bolt taking home $8000, and unknown man named Gary Player, placed 2nd.

 

Tommy Bolt, celebrating the win on hole #18. There is a skinny little kid in the background, Bob Hill. (pic posted on Facebook 3/30/22) Tommy Bolt, US Open Champion 1958

In the late 1950's Bob often traveled to Springdale, Arkansas for a big Pro-am with Doc Jackson, Johnie Stapp, Jackie Meyers, who was the gambler.

Charlie Dawson writes I worked in the golf shop with Johnie Stapp in the late 1950's and early 1960's. In my last event, Bob Dickson who went on to play the tour was in my threesome. Johnie arranged for me to caddy for Mickey Mantle and George Coleman, Jr. when they played at Miami CC. When Coleman left Miami to live in California he was connected with the celebrities out there. I think he was an investor in the Ben Hogan company. 

If it weren't for the role of caddying in the 1920's my father, the next professional to come to Miami, would never have learned the game of golf, nor learned a profession other than janitor, as his hands were twisted and scarred from serious burns he received in his early teens, while working on a car.  The doctor and nurse suggested that dad learn to hold a golf club as therapy, which then opened the door to golf courses and caddying. 

On a personal note:

 I recall caddies being regular hands at the golf course in Independence, Kansas when I would have been 3,4,5 (1951, 52, 53).  There were no gasoline golf carts, so the caddies carried one or two bags and perhaps used a push cart if the player requested. They were there from sunup to sundown and many an afternoon I played out back in the sand pile where the caddies sat around when they weren't working. I remember that they each had cigar boxes, some painted, most just labeled. Inside they kept their cash or other belongings. The cigar boxes were stored at the Bowling Alley when the caddy was working.  I watched them play marbles and tried my best to sit on pop bottles like they did.

My most fascinating memory was from the snakes and fishes in the big lake on the golf course, not far from our home or the putting green.  The boys, dad, and some of the members often fished in the lake. One day the caddies raked out a great long black snake and cut it open. In all of their excitement I left my home and ran down to the lake. There I discovered with own my own eyes a number of rotten golf balls in the snake's belly. The balls don't digest, they just lay in the belly and rot! Ack.

*Note: As I finish this story on the role of the caddy, The Master's golf tournament is 'live on television' this week. The role of the caddy is immeasurable as we watch these men walk the six miles daily up and down the lush hills of Georgia. I hope some of our readers have had the opportunity to watch The Master's in person or another women's or men's professional golf tournament. Being in the crowd and watching this game live is incredible. 

**The story of Pappy Stokes, Grandfather of Caddies explains all of the roles that a caddy carries on his/her shoulders. 

 

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.