Gene Sarazen

Golfer

• Born: February 27, 1902
• Birthplace: Harrison, New York
• Died: May 13, 1999
• Place of death: Naples, Florida

Sport: Golf

Early Life

Gene Sarazen was born Eugenio Saraceni on February 27, 1902, in Harrison, New York. His father had been forced by financial need to abandon his studies in Rome for the priesthood. He immigrated to the United States and worked as a carpenter. He always regretted his failure to pursue his scholarly career and was a bitter and unhappy man.

As a result, Gene and his father had a poor relationship. Gene worked as a caddy at local golf clubs but did not take up the game seriously until the conflict with his father worsened. This further break took place after the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917. Gene’s father secured a job for Gene at a local shipyard after urging him to quit school. In part because of the hard labor required, Gene developed pneumonia. After his recovery, he abandoned his job and decided to become a professional golfer, much to his father’s displeasure.

The Road to Excellence

Gene Sarazen—a name which he adopted after turning professional—had a number of qualities that marked him for greatness. He was aggressive and cocky with a fierce will to win. He was capable of spectacular shot-making under pressure.

Gene’s golf matched his temperament. He punched his shots so that they had a low trajectory, enabling him to ignore unfavorable wind conditions. Although only 5 feet 6 inches tall, he was immensely strong, and his fast hand action enabled him to generate highly powerful shots. His best clubs were the fairway woods, in the use of which he became one of the two or three best of all time. Putting was not his strength, but Gene’s method of dealing with this weakness was characteristic. He spent hours practicing this aspect of his game until it became a real weapon in his arsenal.

The Emerging Champion

In 1922, Gene emerged as a major presence in golf. He won the U.S. Open, held at the difficult Skokie course near Chicago. How he won the tournament exemplifies his personality. He made a study of the course in the week preceding the event and memorized the contours of the greens. As a result, he was among the tournament’s leaders after three rounds, a position he had never before attained in the U.S. Open.

The young player, undaunted by the U.S. Open’s prestige, proceeded to play the last round in aggressive fashion; he finished with a 69, a good enough score to win the tournament outright. He avoided a playoff by a daring approach to the last green.

In the same year, Gene won the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship. At that time, the PGA Championship was a match play event, in which golfers faced each other head-to-head. Walter Hagen was generally regarded as the greatest of all match players. Gene was immune to the pressure and dispatched Hagen, a feat he repeated in an arranged match for the “World’s Golf Championship.”

In 1923, Gene’s game slumped, and he finished poorly in the U.S. Open. He revived by the time of the PGA Championship and again defeated Hagen in the final. Gene appeared set for a long reign at golf’s pinnacle, but the remainder of the 1920’s proved a disappointment. He did not win any other major titles in that decade. In part, the reason for his fall was precisely the source of his strength. His aggressive game sometimes got out of control. In the 1928 British Open, he missed a chance to win by ignoring the advice of his experienced caddy Skip Daniels. He attempted a risky shot that failed, and his seven on the hole cost him the tournament.

Continuing the Story

Gene’s way of coping with his slump showed his immense dedication. In spite of his success—his slump was by most golfers’ standards a period of great success—he decided to revamp his game completely. He had come to adopt an outside-in trajectory on his swing that, he believed, was responsible for inadequate control of the club. He thought that an inside-out swing was more suited to his game and embarked on the endless hours of practice required to alter his swing.

Gene also endeavored to improve his play in sand bunkers. To this end, he invented a new golf club, the sand wedge, which proved much more efficient than the earlier niblick and soon became a standard item.

In the 1932 British Open, Gene again had Daniels as his caddy. This time he followed his adviser’s suggestions and triumphed in the tournament. He also won the U.S. Open that year, doing so by one of his come-from-behind charges.

Gene’s most famous victory took place in the 1935 Masters. As the tournament neared its end, Gene needed to birdie three of the last four holes in order to secure a tie with Craig Wood, who had already finished his round. On the fifteenth hole, Gene used his skill with fairway woods to full effect. He sank his second stroke, a 250-yard shot to green, giving him a double-eagle 2 on the par-5 hole. This was sufficient to give him his tie with Wood, whom he bested in the playoff.

An unusual feature of Gene’s game was his longevity as a topflight golfer. In 1940, he tied for the U.S. Open with Lawson Little. Although he lost the playoff, his achievement was remarkable. He was thirty-eight years old at the time, in golf a quite advanced age.

Perhaps even more amazing was his performance in the 1958 British Open. He finished only 10 strokes behind the winner. He ended in a tie for sixteenth place with Bobby Locke, the previous year’s victor. Gene also became the first player older than sixty to make the cut at The Masters.

Summary

Gene Sarazen became one of the greatest golfers of the 1920’s and 1930’s by a combination of aggressive temperament and physical ability. His strength and speed enabled him to risk shots that other golfers dared not attempt. He played best when under pressure, and his dashing style gained him wide publicity as well as seven major championships.

Bibliography

Barkow, Al. Best of Golf: Best Golfers, Courses, Moments and More. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Publications International, 2002.

Barkow, Al, Gene Sarazen, and Mary Ann Sarazen. Gene Sarazen and Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Clock Tower Press, 2003.

Olman, John M. The Squire: The Legendary Golfing Life of Gene Sarazen. Cincinnati: Author, 1987.

Sarazen, Gene. Gene Sarazen’s Common Sense Golf Tips. Chicago: Reilly & Lee, 1924.

Sarazen, Gene, and Peggy Kirk Bell. Golf Magazine’s Winning Pointers from the Pros. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

Sarazen, Gene, and Roger P. Ganem. Better Golf After Fifty. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Sarazen, Gene, and Herbert W. Wind. Thirty Years of Championship Golf: The Life and Times of Gene Sarazen. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950. Reprint. London: A & C Black, 1990.