Portal:Golf/Selected biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gene Sarazen (né Eugenio Saraceni; February 27, 1902–May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, best known for being one of just five players to have, by winning each of the four men's major championships, completed a career Grand Slam; for having won eight PGA Tour tournaments during the 1930 season, the seventh-most of any player in a single year; for having won seven major championships over his career, more than all but eight players in golf history; for having won 39 PGA Tour events over his career, more, at the time of his retirement, than all players in PGA Tour history save four; for having won the 1992 Bob Jones Award from the United States Golf Association in recognition of his sportsmanship; for having struck an honorary tee shot at The Masters Tournament each year between 1981 and 1999, inclusive; for having invented the sand wedge, a lofted club for use in bunkers; and for having, in part in view of such, been an inaugural 1974 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Born in Harrison, New York, Sarazen forfeited his amateur status in 1922 when, aged just 20 years, he contested several events organized by the Professional Golfers' Association of America, winning the Southern Open before travelling to Glencoe, Illinois, where he claimed the United States Open Championship, and then to the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, where he overcame Emmet French, 4 & 3 in his final match to claim the PGA Championship, his third tournament title of the year; having won the latter aged just 20 years, five months, and 22 days, he became the youngest-ever winner, setting a record that remains. Sarazen won the tournament once more in 1923, defeating countrymate Walter Hagen, the 1921 champion who would ultimately become the tournament's winningest player, 1-up, in Pelham Manor, New York.
Sarazen was winless during the 1924 season but in 1925 began an 11-year period during which he would win at least one tournament each year, claiming the 1925 Metropolitan Open, then the Eastern equivalent to the Southern and Western Opens and the 1926 Miami Open, a tournament he would win in five consecutive seasons, before beginning, in 1927, a six-year period during which he would win multiple tournaments yearly, claiming, in addition to the Miami title, those of the Long Island Open and the Metropolitan PGA, each held in New York City. Representing the United States, he also played in the first Ryder Cup Matches, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, contributing to the Americans' 9½-2½ victory over the team representing Great Britain, and making the first of what would be six career appearances, over which he would score eight-and-one-half points over his twelve matches. Sarazen won the Miami and Metropolitan Opens again in 1928, adding the Miami Beach and Nassau Bahamas Opens, continuing to succeed in Florida, to which he would eventually retire.
After winning just two titles—the Miami and Miami Beach Open championships—Sarazen won eight tournaments in 1930, then, alongside the eight won by American Horton Smith in 1929, the most of any player in a single year, claiming, most notably, the Western Open, conducted in Lake Orion, Michigan, again overcoming Hagen in a tournament the latter would win five times. Sarazen won three more tournaments in 1931, bringing his career total to 26, more to that time than any other player save Hagen, and enjoyed a career season in 1932, winning the True Temper Open and Coral Gables Open Invitational before again winning the United States Open, this held in Great Neck, New York, and then The Open Championship contested at the links-style Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich in Kent, England, becoming the first player ever to win the United States and Great Britain national championships in the same year.
Read more about Gene Sarazen...
