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.

 

MIAMI GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB 1930-39--Man of the Decade

 

GOLF'S MAN OF THE DECADE--GENE SARAZEN

1930-39

January 16, 1940

(Author's note: I selected this article because my father thought of Sarazen as a role model and fellow competitor. In the golf shop of the 1950's my father arranged a dozen pictures of professional golfers who were stunning examples of professional golf. I never met Sarazen but I remember his picture on the wall along with Snead, Hogan, Jackie Burke, and others.)

1940 January 16 MDNR AP article by  Dillion Graham

Golf's man of the decade must be an internationalist, one who won on both sides of the Atlantic. He must be an athlete who shone both under the strain of medal play, where a single sliced putt brought disaster, and in match play, where psychology sometimes takes hold and where nerves must be of steel.

Our nominee is that stubby little Roman, Gene Sarazen, a cocky and courageous competitor who captured virtually all the laurels offered to a professional golfer. Looking back over the Thirties one can find a handful of standout golfers. The most recent sensations were Ralph Guldahl and Sam Snead. The stoop-shoulder Norwegian's game was characterized by great finishing bursts like those that brought him two successive National Open championships. In the first of these triumphs he set a new scoring mark of 281. Guldahl also won the Western Open three straight years, copped the Augusta Masters' and was second in the Open in 1933. 

Snead was the good-looking young glamor boy of the decade, a long hitter and a low scorer, a big money-winner, a naïve West Virginia "hill-billy" who rushed out of obscurity to become a top figure in no time at all. Snead almost won the Open in his first bid, finishing two shots behind Guldahl in 1937. Last summer he had the blue ribbon all but won, then blew up on the last hole and kicked it away. 

Sarazen won all six of the major championships, five of them in the Thirties. In 1932 he garnered both the U.S. and the British Open crowns, setting a scoring record in England. A year later he won the Professionals' match play tournament. In 1935 he scored his famous "double-eagle" to tie Craig Wood and win the playoff. He was the Western Open champion in 1939 and the Metropolitan ruler in 1925. Once he finished second and twice he wound up third in the British Open. 

*Sarazen was the first of five golfers to earn the career grand slam, along with Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods.  Information from The Squire Gene Sarazen

** 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.

For more information on golf in Oklahoma or Miami please click on the link to my personal blog  Literally Letty 

"TEE SHOTS" BY FRANK LEWIS, Golf Professional

By Letty Stapp Watt

In 1938 Frank Lewis became the golf professional for one year at the Miami Country Club. One of his promises to the club was to bring in more interest in golf to the community by writing a series of eight articles on the game of golf. 

Vintage 1920-30
leather golf bag 

1938 March 13 MNR "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis, club professional at the Miami Country club. #1

In presenting a series of articles on golf, I want it understood that these discussions are not to be regarded as actual lessons. I will attempt to explain why golf is and always will be "individual" and as such, what might be correct for one golfer may not hold true for another. 

After 20 years of teaching the game, in England, Canada and the United States, I have found that learning to play from books or articles has not been very successful--or else there would be more better golfers. I do not believe there are better readers of golf articles than good golfers themselves.

I personally prefer to teach the individual as I find him or her. Sometimes it is not easy to determine the ability of your pupil to relax under strain. You must build up his or her faith in his own ability. In accomplishing, that, an instructor has done much.

What I want to emphasize in subsequent articles is the stroke or swing. Also I will strive to show the meaning of the word "timing" and several other terms of which golfers have heard but do not understand the full meaning or significance.

These articles, I believe, can be enjoyed by the par shooter as well as the beginner. After all, we will always have with us the "good old duffer." God bless him, what would the game be without him? 

1938 March 20 MNR "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis, professional at the Miami Country Club #2

All golfers, good and bad, are troubled with common faults. In looking at linksmen for some 20 years, I find that there is one fault, common to all.

What is it? It's the "up swing." It causes more worry than any other shortcoming and its one that requires careful analysis to correct.

The tendency is to grip the club too tight. Consequently the golfer makes the up swing too hard. It is a case of bad timing. I think the mistake is made by attempting to clout the ball too hard. The result is often topping, slicing or even pulling.

Tension in action is a difficult problem to master. It is the hardest of all habits to break. I believe it can be mastered only by one's ability to relax under pressure. Upon that performance hinges the success or failure of a player.

Take my advice--watch your up swing and learn to let the wrist muscles of the arms relax. Do not forget the body also. Try to eliminate anything which tends towards stiffness. In that statement I am running into deep water. 

I refer to the stiff left arm. Well, I'll leave you there with this question: Is there such a thing as a stiff left arm? You should think before you give your answer. I'll give my opinion next week. 

1938 March 27 MNR    "TEE SHOTS" by Frank Lewis, golf professional. #3

The idea of a stiff left arm in golf is really wrong, for anything which tends to stiffen the upswing is bound to cause stiffness of body action. I am a believer in relaxing the left arm. I have watched too many good golfers swing without showing any trace of a stiff left arm. To swing correctly we must relax. Thus how can you relax if you really are trying to stiffen the left arm?

I find also golfers are prone to grasp the club too tightly. One should try to be natural--a good golfer always does as his swing clearly shows.  If you are a beginner, try to adopt an easy grip. Swing the club; you don't have to kill the ball because the speed of your wrists will give you a lot of hitting power.

It is very hard to convince an old golfer that he is not hitting with his left hand. After all, a right hand golfer can and should hit with his right wrist. If he is left-handed, let him use his left wrist. My own idea is that a right-hander can't throw a ball very far with his left arm. Then why not follow the same principle to the golf swing? 

1938 April 3 MNR "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis, golf professional. #4

There is a definite wrist action which starts with the left wrist moving from the ball in the upswing and continues to the top of the swing and then both wrists begin to operate on the down swing. This is where the average golfer runs into trouble.

If he has attained the sense of direction the forward swing must take, he knows how much his wrist action means. His right hand must be free always; otherwise he does not get a good follow through.

I was asked once what was the idea of a follow through. That was an easy question to answer. All I said was the follow through is a finished swing and if failed to be added, what happens to the shot?

Many golfers never realize how they actually start a shot or how it should finish. If you play yourself, look your swing over. See if I am nearly correct.

I have been asked also if it is possible, then to over swing. Yes, it is, but a golfer who has an over swing is rarely found. The reverse is true about under swinging. most golfers do not go back far enough to get the proper wrist break. Bobby Jones calls it cocking the wrists at the top of the swing.

That's another common fault, caused from gripping too tightly. The question is how tight should one grip a club, a question that covers a big field. How tight do you grip and what are the results? Next week I will give a further discussion on that point. 

1938 April 10 MNR "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis. #5

The grip is something that all golfers are seldom conscious of. I am not going to say the Vardon grip is correct nor any other grip as far as that goes because among professional golfers there is quite a difference in grips as well as opinions.

Some say the right hand should be up; other s say the right should be under and there you are.  I remember the time when the so-called lock grip was thought to be the thing and then the Vardon grip, but I advise you to look around and see the different grips for yourself. 

(My father, Johnie Stapp, was an ardent believer in one grip. He considered the Vardon grip the best because it gave balance to both hands. He believed both hands had to work together to produce a straight shot.)

I know one good golfer whose grip is almost like a baseball player's, and yet he can shoot par very easily, so don't run into danger by trying to play a certain grip, especially if you do not get the desired results.

I have changed too many hands not to know that the most natural grip is the best one. Take hold of the club as it suits your hands. Try it, for sometimes it works. 

Let's go a little further about some short shots. I believe a lot of strokes are lost from 100 yards and down to the cup. Yes, I know one could write a book on what happens but honestly the greatest mistake is really a very simple one. A person has to watch only the back swing, because it is generally too fast. Short strokes are the hardest of all golf strokes.

Why? Because it calls for more concentration than we generally give it. The stroke is so interesting that I believe I will have to devote my next article to a discussion of it. 

1938 April 17 MNR "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis #6

There are two very definite short shots, once called the pitch and the other the pitch and run. As you may notice one is a pitch, and the other a run. But wait, is it run shot? No, there are at least a half a dozen clubs to play the pitch and run--they all carry in the the angle of loft in the club.

Now the reason why it is not entirely a run shot is because the idea is to let the ball fall somewhere near the edge of the green and then the rest is all run. You must have a certain amount of pitch and also knowledge of how far the ball will run after it hits the green.

  (To this day I have movies that run in my head of the hours I spent practicing the pitch and run shots with my 7 iron, 5 iron, and 3 iron on the practice green at the Miami Country club. My father insisted that I concentrate on hitting the ball squarely and then watching and learning how far each shot rolled once it bounced.)

Now you see why the shot is very difficult. How accurate a player has to be to know exactly where to drop the ball and have the decided amount of run to put the ball near the hole. Take the pitch shot--it's difficult. But you can certainly see that if the ball has been given the right amount of loft it has a much better chance of dropping near the flag.

These shots are definitely the "brains of golf." You have to know how to execute either. Personally, I believe the pitch shot is the better in the whole game.

If you are a runner, try a No.8 club. Pitch the ball up for its lots of fun. As they say anyone can roll a ball, but why not learn to play good golf?

1938 April 24 MNR "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis #7

Now we talk about the least known shot in the game--the explosion or bunker shot. Of course, there is a special club called a sand blaster which is used to play the shot. 

But if one is to get acquainted with the club--a very unwieldy weapon--the idea is to take a lot of sand with the ball. How can this be done? Golfers as a rule are afraid of the explosion shot and generally go into the trap with a prayer that the ball will stop somewhere on the green.

Yes it can be played to perfection. I have seen golfers come out of some of the most impossible places. I'll admit that I am one of the rank of golfers who offers up a prayer. But when I do play it right, I get a big kick out of it.

It's played in quite a different way as the stroke is almost vertical and one has to bear almost straight into the sand on the down swing.

1930's Sandblaster wedge. 

The sand on our course at the present time is very wet and as such is easy to play, but wait until it get dry and then listen to the tale of woe. The explosion shot takes lots of practice and courage because if you don't hit out properly you might find yourself just as far on the other side of the green.

Take my advice and learn to play the explosion shot; it will save you lots of stokes. Of course, we can chip out, but what about the bad lie in the trap. Another thing, when a player has finished his shot and taken lots of sand he should see that the hole he has made is filled in. The man playing behind is just apt to put the ball in the same bunker and he may find the hole made previously. It would be easy then to overhear his language. 

(This particular spring in Miami, Oklahoma must have been very rainy. There are several references made to the conditions of the course because the new "grass greens" were opened in April.)

1938 April 24  Mac Bartlett, sports writer for a column called The Grist, writes that the Miami Country club's nine-hole course has finally yielded a subpar score. Charley Lewis shot a sizzling 71 Friday afternoon, coming in one under par figures for the best 18-hole score posted at the club since the construction of the "Grass Greens."

The club pro, Frank Lewis, shot a steady 38 on the first nine. It was hit first try at the course in several days. He was one of a foursome that included his son.  

1938 May 1 MNR  "Tee Shots" by Frank Lewis, #8

When the ball reaches the green, the shot we are going to play is the most annoying of all as so much can be said as to how we shall stand and how shall we hold the club. A putter in action is a weird club because one day we can almost hole them in from anywhere; the next it seems as if we were using someone else's club. 

I wonder why, I have seen, I believe, literally hundreds of positions taken. To me a good putter is a gift from the gods of golf (if they are any gods of the game).

Watch a good putter if you every had the pleasure of looking at one. I don't mean the in-and-outer--good today bum tomorrow. All tournaments are won by putting. When a man's putter is hot, he is bound to be saving strokes. In addition, his mind is easy.

Miss a few three-foot putts, then what do you feel like? I know. I, too, have missed those putts. My advice in putting is not simple because putting is not easy. I like to see a man be comfortable. Yes, he can hold the club as he likes. Now he must, first of all, find out which grip suits him best and there are several. 

Putting can only be perfected by constant practice. Spend a little time each day on the putting green. It will repay you later on. This is good sound advice. Putting is a study, but who takes the time to figure it out. 

Figure how many three putts you have taken--then practice that distance. It doesn't cost anything. 

1938 May 1 MNR Mac Bartlett writes in The Grist column that women golfers are showing increased interest in the links sport here (in Miami). They plan to play at the country club Tuesday afternoon after a luncheon in the clubhouse. 

Charley Lewis and George Coleman, Jr, won a friendly golf match over Carl Childress and Howard Thomas Saturday afternoon. Lewis bagged a 72 while Coleman got a 74. Childress, a Joplin business man, took a 77 and his partner, who lives in Baxter Springs, came in with a 76. 

*Frank Lewis's love for the game of golf continued on with his son, Charley Lewis, who later became a well respected golf pro at Little Rock Country Club, Arkansas. 

Oklahoma PGA Championship Winners

By Letty Stapp Watt

"Oklahoma Professional Golf Association Championship"  began in 1924. I located this record of players in The Story of Golf in Oklahoma by Del Lemon.  I thought it important enough to research the winners since the beginnings of this tournament were hosted by the Rockdale Country club and the Miami Country Club.

Sand Greens in Chickasha Ok. 1931

Until 1938 the greens at the Miami Country club were sand greens, but I do not know of the conditions at other courses. Miami, like many other courses, was only nine holes. This tournament format was a two day medal play tournament (although match play may have been an option or another event). The first day of play the pros played with local amateurs in what is called a pro-am. Money and prizes were awarded to the winners of the pro-am and the medal play winners. This tournament appears to have been 36 holes on day one and 36 holes on day two. 

1924   Ed Dudley                                     location unknown         

1925  William Creavy                              location unknown

1926  Jack Guild, pro from Tulsa            MUSKOGEE COUNTRY CLUB

1927  Jimmy Gullane                               location unknown

1928  Jimmy Gullane                               ROCKDALE COUNTRY CLUB, Miami

          (Gullane became pro at Hillcrest in Bartlesville when he won the Oklahoma Open in 1932-33. Gullane went on to win the South Central PGA section championship three times.) 

1929  Clarence Clark                              ROCKDALE COUNTRY CLUB, Miami
           Runner-up Jack Guild

1930  Clarence Clark                               ROCKDALE COUNTRY CLUB, Miami

          Runner-up Jack Guild

          (Clark was the winner of seven PGA events plus the 1930 Oklahoma Open. This pro from Tulsa's old McFarlin Golf club won the 193 Texas Open and had a top-ten finish in the 1936 US Open at Baltusrol. Clark won back-to-back South Central PGA Championships in 1929-30.)

1931  Bob Higgins, local pro                    OKMULGEE COUNTRY CLUB 

          (Bob HIggins of Okmulgee CC, also won the South Central PGA Championship in 1931-32)  

1932 Howard Frank, pro Rockcliffe CC in Ponca City, or Bob Higgins (info not clear)

                                                                 CONOCO COUNTRY CLUB  

1933  Jimmy Gullane   (33.8.6)                location unknown

1934  George Whitehead, pro Indian Hills CC    location unknown

1935  Francis Scheider                             OKLAHOMA CITY GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

          (Scheider won the South Central PGA in 1935.)

1936  George Whitehead, pro Indian Hills CC    location unknown

           (George Whitehead, long hitting pro at Tulsa's Indian Hills CC won the 1942 Oklahoma Open at Oakhurst CC in Tulsa. At that time he was the reigning Tulsa PGA District Champion,the State PGA match play champion, and won four South Central PGA Championships between 1934-1945) *The Story of Golf in Oklahoma, p.346

1937 Floyd Farley                                    location unknown 

1938 Eddy Standard, Okc Country Club pro,     MUSKOGEE GOLF COURSE

         (Standard won the South Central PGA Championship in 1938.)

1939  Buddy Poteet                                            MIAMI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

Buddy Poteet professional golfer from Tulsa's Northridge golf course (1941.5.18 Miami Daily News Record)

 

          (Poteet won the 1941 Oklahoma Open and the South Central PGA Championship in 1939.) 

Floyd Farley, PGA of Oklahoma

 

1940  Floyd Farley                                            MIAMI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

         (Farley became the most prolific golf course architect in Oklahoma history. He won the South Central PGA Championship in 1937 and 1942.)  or Frank Higgins (D.Lemon) 

1941 Charley Weisner, Muskogee                    MIAMI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB                                Runner-up Jimmy Gullane of Bartlesville

        or George Whitehead (Del Lemon)

1942  Floyd Farley                                            MIAMI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

1943  No tournament

1944  William Oliver

1945  Tex Consolver, Wichita pro                    MIAMI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

1946  Jimmy Gauntt, Okc                                MIAMI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

           (Gauntt was one of only two five-time winners of the South Central PGA Championship, Rob Ralston of Arkansas was the other. Guantt is the only person to have won the Oklahoma Open five times, including three years straight 1954,55,56. A native of Ardmore, a former caddie at Dornick Hills, and long time pro at Twin Hills, Gauntt also won three consecutive Texas PGA Championships (1942,43,44).)

1947  Jimmy Gauntt, Okc                                unknown

1948 Morrie Gravatt, Tulsa pro                    ? PONCA  CITY COUNTRY CLUB

         (Gravatt won the South Central PGA Championship in 1948.)

1949  Jimmy  Gauntt, Okc                              PONCA CITY COUNTRY CLUB

1950  Jimmy Gauntt

1951 Ted Gwin

1952  Dick Mertz

1953  E.J. "Dutch" Harrison

1954  Labron Harris, Sr.                                PONCA CITY COUNTRY CLUB

1955  Jimmie Gauntt                                     TULSA INDIAN HILLS

1956 Jimmie Gauntt

 Headlines Read: 33RD ANNUAL OKLAHOMA SECTION PGA TOURNAMENT to be held at PONCA CITY COUNTRY CLUB

1957 Buster Cupit

1958 Ted Gwin

1959 Buster Cupid

1960 Buster Cupid

1961 Pete Fleming

1962 Francis "Bo" Wininger

1963 Francis "Bo" Wininger

1964 Chris Gers

1965 Charles Rotar

1966 Ernie Vossler

1967 Larry Fryer

1968 George McKeown

1969 Richard Crawford

1970 Jerry Abbott

1971 Richard Crawford

1972 David Lee

1973 Art Proctor (from Kickingbird GC)

1974 Dick Goetz

1975 Labron Harris, Jr. (Stillwater) 

1976 Jimmie Bullard

1977 Jerry Jones

1978 Doug Tewell

1979 Bob Ralston

1980 Chris Cole

1981 Dick Goetz

1982 Bob Ralston

1983 Art Proctor (Kickingbird GC)

1984 Don Maddox

1985 Bob Ralston

1986 Steve Ball

1987 Jim Woodward

1988 Andy Schaben (Earlywine GC)

1989 Bob Ralston

1990 Art Romero

1991 Dave Bryon

1992 Jeff Combe

1993 Glen Day

1994 Tim Fleming

1995 Rod Nuckolls

1996 Bob Ralston

1997 Jim Woodward

1998 Craig Walker

1999 Tim Fleming

I will continue to update this list as I read connections to the Miami Golf and Country club. 

*Please refer to the Oklahoma PGA for more information.

**The Story of Golf in Oklahoma by Del Lemon is my source for the golf titles from 1949 to the present. All other information came from the articles I found in the Miami Daily News Record, or the Miami News Record.

**This is the link to the Chickasha Golf course in 1931 article. Sand Greens

                     

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.