Byron Nelson

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Byron Nelson
The cover of a book about Nelson's record-breaking 1945 season
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The cover of a book about Nelson's record-breaking 1945 season
Nationality Flag of United States United States
Birth February 4, 1912
Waxahachie, Texas
Death September 26, 2006
Roanoke, Texas
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight 180 lb (82 kg)
Turned Pro 1932
Retired 1946
Professional wins 52 (PGA Tour: 52)
Major Championship results
Wins: 5
Masters Won 1937, 1942
U.S. Open Won 1939
British Open 5th: 1937
PGA Championship Won 1940, 1945
Awards
PGA Tour
Money Winner		 1944, 1945
Vardon Trophy 1939

John Byron Nelson, Jr. (February 4, 1912 – September 26, 2006) was an American PGA Tour golfer between 1935 and 1946. He and two others of the greatest golfers of all time, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, were born within 6 months of each other in 1912. Although he won many tournaments in the course of his relatively brief career, he is mostly remembered today for having won 11 consecutive tournaments and 18 total tournaments in 1945. He retired officially at the age of 34 to be a rancher, later becoming a commentator and lending his name to the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the first PGA Tour event to be named for a professional golfer.

Contents

[edit] Early life and career

Born near Waxahachie, Texas, Byron Nelson was the son of Madge Allen Nelson and John Byron Nelson, Sr. His parents set a precedent for him not only in their long lives — Madge Nelson lived to age 98, and her husband to age 77 — but also in their religious commitment. Madge, who had grown up Baptist, was baptized in a Church of Christ at age 18, and Byron Sr., raised Presbyterian, was baptized in a Church of Christ soon after meeting Madge. The senior Byron Nelson went on to serve as an elder in the Roanoke Church of Christ, and the younger Byron Nelson was a committed member of that congregation — even performing janitorial services there from time to time long after he became famous — before becoming a member of the Richland Hills Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas in later life.[1]

When Nelson was 11 years old, the family moved to Fort Worth, where he barely survived typhoid fever after losing nearly half his body weight to the disease, which also left him unable to sire children. Soon after his baptism at age 12, he started caddying at Glen Garden Country Club.[1] An article on Nelson in Sports Illustrated noted that initially caddies were not permitted to play at the club: "[H]e would often practice in the dark, putting his white handkerchief over the hole so he could find it in the darkness."[2] The club later changed its policy and sponsored the Glen Garden Caddie Tournament, where a 14-year-old Nelson beat fellow caddy and future golf great Ben Hogan by a single stroke after a nine-hole playoff.[1][2]

In 1934, Nelson was working as a golf pro in Texarkana, Texas, when he met future wife Louise Shofner, to whom he was married 50 years before she died in 1985 after two severe strokes.[1]

[edit] Championship heyday

Nelson won his first major event at The Masters in 1937. Nelson would subsequently win four more major tournaments, the U.S. Open in 1939, the PGA Championship in 1940 and 1945, and a second Masters in 1942. Nelson had a blood disorder that caused his blood to clot four times slower than normal, which kept him out of military service during World War II. It has sometimes mistakenly been reported that he had hemophilia; this is not true.

Nelson lost many chances at major championships due to the war. In 1945, while The Masters was postponed, Nelson won 18 tournaments including a record 11 in a row. In his career, Nelson won 52 professional events. After 1946, Nelson curtailed his schedule although he continued to make regular appearances at The Masters as a ceremonial starter for many years.

Nelson's record of 113 consecutive cuts made is second only to Tiger Woods' 142. It should be noted that the PGA Tour defines a "cut" as receiving a paycheck, even if an event has no cut per se. In Nelson's era, only the top 20 in a tournament received a check. In reality, Nelson's "113 consecutive cuts made" are representative of his unequalled 113 consecutive top 20 tournament finishes. Woods has only managed 21 consecutive top 20 finishes in his career. Nelson won the Vardon Trophy in 1939. He played on the U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 1937 and 1947 and was non-playing captain of the team in 1965.

In 1968 the Dallas Open stop on the PGA Tour was renamed the Byron Nelson Golf Classic. In 1974, Byron Nelson received the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. He became the second recipient of the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, and has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

[edit] Death and legacy

Nelson died Tuesday, September 26, 2006, at the age of 94. According to a family friend, Nelson died at his Roanoke, Texas home around noon. He was survived by Peggy, his wife of nearly 20 years, sister Margaret Ellen Sherman, and brother Charles, a professor emeritus at Abilene Christian University, where Byron Nelson had been a trustee and benefactor. Nelson met his second wife, the former Peggy Simmons, when she volunteered at the Bogie Busters celebrity golf tournament in Dayton, Ohio in 1985.[3]

Nelson was often referred to as "Lord Byron," after the English poet by that name, in recognition of his reputation for gentlemanly conduct, a nickname given him by Atlanta sports journalist O. B. Keeler.[4] Many of his obituaries referenced this reputation.[5][6]

Several of the obituary columns mentioned Nelson's Christian beliefs, and one widely quoted column by PGA.com's Grant Boone drew a direct connection between these beliefs and Nelson's positive reputation: "Byron Nelson wasn't randomly respectable, not generically good. He was a follower of Christ, and his discipleship dictated his decency, demeanor, decision-making, and the way he dealt with people. ... But Nelson never brandished his faith as a weapon, choosing instead to extend an empty and open hand in friendship to all comers. And did they ever come. Wherever the debate over which golfer is the best of all time ends, Byron Nelson was the game's finest man, hands down."[7]

[edit] Posthumous honors

State Highway 114 Business through Roanoke is named Byron Nelson Boulevard, in honor of Nelson's residence; the street he lived on was recently changed to Eleven Straight Lane in honor of his 1945 record. A street in Southlake, Texas, Byron Nelson Parkway, was named in his honor, as was a street in a residential neighborhood in McAllen, Texas.

On October 16, 2006, President George W. Bush approved H.R. 4902 awarding Byron Nelson the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award that can be bestowed by the Legislative Branch of the United States government. The resolution cites Mr. Nelson's "significant contributions to the game of golf as a player, a teacher, and a commentator." Representative Michael C. Burgess (R-TX) sponsored the resolution, originally proposed March 8, 2006, well before Nelson's death.[8] Senate Resolution 602 memorialized Nelson on September 29, 2006.

[edit] PGA Tour wins (52)

Major championships are shown in bold.

[edit] Major Championships

[edit] Wins (5)

Year Championship 54 Holes Winning Score Margin of Victory Runners Up
1937 The Masters 4 shot deficit -5 (66-72-75-70=283) 2 strokes United States Ralph Guldahl
1939 U.S. Open 5 shot deficit +8 (72-73-71-68=284) Playoff 1 United States Craig Wood, United States Denny Shute
1940 PGA Championship N/A 1 up 1 stroke United States Sam Snead
1942 The Masters (2) 2 shot lead -6 (68-67-72-73=280) Playoff 2 United States Ben Hogan
1945 PGA Championship (2) N/A 4 & 3 4 strokes United States Sam Byrd

Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958
1 Defeated Craig Wood and Denny Shute in 36-hole playoff - Nelson (68-70=138), Wood (68-73=141), Shute (76) (eliminated after first 18)
2 Defeated Ben Hogan in 18-hole playoff - Nelson (69), Hogan (70)

[edit] Results timeline

Tournament 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
The Masters DNP T9 T13 1 5 7
U.S. Open CUT T32 CUT T20 T5 1
The Open Championship DNP DNP DNP 5 DNP DNP
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP T5 T5 2
Tournament 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
The Masters 3 2 1 NT NT NT T7 T2 T8 T8
U.S. Open T5 T17 NT NT NT NT T2 DNP DNP CUT
The Open Championship NT NT NT NT NT NT DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship 1 2 T3 NT 2 1 T5 DNP DNP DNP
Tournament 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
The Masters T4 T8 T24 T29 T12 T10 39 T16 T20 WD
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP T28 DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP T32 DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
Tournament 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966
The Masters CUT T32 T33 CUT CUT T15 CUT
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP

NT = No tournament
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for Top 10.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Legendary golfer Byron Nelson, a faithful church member, dies at 94, by Bobby Ross, Jr., The Christian Chronicle
  2. ^ a b Grace, style and morality: Nelson will be known as 'legend who will never fade', obituary by Art Stricklin, Sports Illustrated, September 26, 2006 (retrieved November 2, 2006)
  3. ^ Nelson obituary in the Dayton Daily News
  4. ^ Byron Nelson, Golf Champion, Is Dead at 94, by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, September 26, 2006 (retrieved November 1, 2006)
  5. ^ Legendary memories: Byron Nelson was larger than life, and I was lucky to call him a friend, Jeff Rude, "Our Take" (column), Golf Week
  6. ^ Death of Nelson shuts door on greatest era: ‘Lord Byron’ embodied the essence of the game like no one else, by Mike Celizic (column), MSNBC.com, October 3, 2006 (retrieved November 2, 2006)
  7. ^ Full Nelson ("Grant Me This" column), Grant Boone, PGA.com, September 27, 2006 (retrieved November 2, 2006)
  8. ^ H.R. 4902: Byron Nelson Congressional Gold Medal Act

[edit] External links

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