Connecticut connections to the PGA Championship
By Jack Burrill
As with the U.S. Open and The Masters, Connecticut historically has had player representation with some consistency in the National PGA Championship. This year it will be John Reeves, who is in his mid-30s and his sixth year as assistant at Fairview in Greenwich. Reeves missed the 36-hole cut last year at Riviera Country Club despite a solid second round 68, and qualified this year by finishing 21st in the 1995 National Club Professionals' championship.
Reeves' name is the latest, but surely not the last, in a long list of Connecticut-connected competitors that includes the famous and the obscure, but each having lived that golf-incomparable moment, however fleeting, of teeing it up in a major championship. As most golf followers know, the PGA Championship since its inception in 1916 has been conducted at match play (1916-1957, with no tournaments in 1917-18 and 1943, and at stroke play since 1958. The switch to stroke play for the 1958 event was largely inspired by the coming of television and the accompanying apprehension that the stars would be knocked out in the early (18-hole) matches by some unknowns, leaving Sunday's finals telecast with something out of a B-movie cast.
And such was not without historical evidence, some of the stunning involving state-related players:
- In 1925, two-time champion Gene Sarazen (1922-23) was soundly done in 8 and 7 in the first round by then considerably less known Jack Burke, father of Jack Burke Jr., the 1956 Masters and PGA Champion
- In 1926, John Golden, who would later become head professional at Wee Burn and win four consecutive Connecticut Open championships, made his way to the semifinals leaving Sarazen and Harry Cooper in his wake
- In 1950, then-Race Brook head professional Eddie Burke, 1938 Connecticut Open champion and younger brother of 1931 U.S. Open champion Billy Burke, chipped in for eagle 3 on Scioto's 18th to oust defending champion and tournament medalist Sam Snead in the second round
- In 1953, Harford's Felice Torza, then a club professional in Aurora, Ill., nervelessly navigated past better-knowns Sarazen, Jim Turnesa and Wally Ulrich to the final but was defeated by Walter Burkemo.
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Here are the professionals with supportable Connecticut connections who have won the National PGA Championship:
- Tommy Armour, head professional at the Rockledge Country Club from 1944-46, in 1930, match play
- Julius Boros, born in Fairfield, in 1968, stroke play
- Doug Ford, born in West Haven, Connecticut, in 1955, match play
- Gene Sarazen, head professional at Brookfield Golf Club and assistant at Brooklawn Country Club, in 1922-23, 1933
Below is a list of most of those Connecticut-connected professionals who have competed in the National PGA Championship since the first in 1916:
(MP=match play; SP=stroke play; MC=missed cut)
- Armour, Tommy -- nine years in MP; won in 1930
- Benson, Bob -- head professional Connecticut GC, two years SP, eight rounds, tied 64th in 1975
- Bodington, Bob -- head professional CC of Farmington and the Hartford Golf Club, two years SP, MC (2)
- Boros, Julius -- born Fairfield CT, 22 years SP, won in 1968
- Burke, Billy -- born Naugatuck CT, eight years MP, semifinal (1)
- Burke, Eddie -- born Naugatuck CT, eight years MP, third round, three years SP, tied 44th in 1958
- Cooper, Harry -- head professional Wee Burn CC, 14 years MP, semifinal (1)
- Demaret, Jimmy -- assistant professional Wee Burn CC, 13 years MP, semifinal (1)
- Ford, Doug -- born West Haven CT, three years MP, won in 1955, four years SP, fifth in 1961, 1962
- Golden, John -- head professional Wee Burn CC, 13 years MP, semifinal (2)
- Kay, Bob -- head professional Wampanoag CC, four years MP, fourth round; seven years SP, tied 44th in 1962
- Nettelbladt, Harry -- head professional GC of Avon, seven year MP, second round
- Sarazen, Gene -- head professional Brookfield CC, 28 years MP, won in 1922-23, 1933; four years SP, MC (4)
- Torza, Felice -- born Hartford CT, three years MP, runner-up 1953; four years SP, tied 35th in 1958
- Turnesa, Joe, head professional Wampanoag CC, seven years MP, runner-up in 1927
Others: Lou Bartoletti, Bob Benson, Billy Booe, Ernie Boros,
George Buck, Ernie Catropa, Lou Chiapetta, Brian Claar, John
Cleary, Dennis Coscina, Doug Daziel, John Elliott, Billy Farrell,
John Galeski, John Gentile Jr., Ken Green, Mike Homa, Chuck
Huckaby, Paul Kelly, Ed Kuna, Gene Kunes, Denny Lyons, Billy
Markham, Fran Marrello, Leo Mallory, Dick Mayer, Jack McConachie,
Roy Pace Jr., John Paesani, Drew Pierson, Ed Rubis, Paul Ryiz,
Ed Sabo and Stan Staszowski.
Jack Burrill is a regular contributor to CTGolfer Online.
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