Golf Legend Gene Sarazen
Winner of 7 Majors Also Invented the Sand Wedge
Eugenio Saraceni was born in Harrison, New York on February 27, 1902, the son of an Italian Immigrant. He began caddying at 8. By the time he reached the 6th grade, Eugenio decided to drop out of school and pursue a life as a professional golfer.
After nearly dying in the flu epidemic of 1918, he moved to Florida to work on his game full time. Not long after that, he changed his name to Gene Sarazen because, to him, it sounded more like a golfer’s name.
By the age of 20, Sarazen was already one of the finest players on the pro circuit. That year he captured his first of 2 U.S. Open titles thanks to a closing round 68 punctuated with a birdie on the final hole, leaving legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen in his dust.
Later that summer he won his first of 3 PGA Championships. He then audaciously challenged Hagen, the best match-play golfer in history, to a 72-hole one-on-one “World Championship.” Sarazen backed up his bravado by beating the great Hagen.
Great Finisher
Nicknamed the Squire for his upstate New York farm, Sarazen had a reputation as a great finisher - Not surprising considering his 38 career PGA Tour titles, including 7 Majors. He cemented that reputation at the 1932 U.S. Open.
Sarazen won his only British Open earlier in the summer and then put on one of the greatest finishing kicks ever at the U.S. Open. He played the final 28 holes in just 100 strokes and fired a closing round of 66 to win with a record score that stood until 1960. Jones called it “the finest competitive round ever played.”
If there was a defining moment to Sarazen’s playing career, however, it came at the 1935 Masters. Trailing by 3 with just 4 holes to play, Sarazen uncorked what has been called golf’s single greatest shot, the Shot Heard Round the World. His 235-yard 4-wood on the par-5 15th rolled in for a double eagle.
The rare double eagle erased Craig Wood’s 3-shot margin and the Squire would go on to capture the title with an easy playoff victory for his final Major Championship.
Tireless Ambassador
Being one of golf’s legendary champions would have been enough to ensure Sarazen a place of honour among the game’s immortals. But he was also a tireless ambassador for the sport as well as being a great innovator.
Sarazen traveled the world giving exhibitions both during and after his competitive career. During the 1960s, he hosted Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf on television and hit the ceremonial opening tee shot at the Masters until shortly before his death in 1999 at 97.
In a 1978 ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of his first British Open appearance, Sarazen lobbed a 5-iron for a hole-in-one on the par-3 8th at Troon – the famous postage stamp hole. He was 71 at the time.
Innovator and Inventor – Sand Wedge anyone?
Unlike many of today’s self-absorbed pros, Sarazen was always looking for ways to improve things for other golfers. Taking a tip from baseball immortal Ty Cobb, Sarazen developed a weighted practice club. But it was another invention that Sarazen called his greatest contribution to golf.
According to Sarazen, it was while taking flying lessons with Howard Hughes that he took particular notice of how an airplane’s flaps worked. From that observation, Sarazen developed the sand wedge. It made its first appearance during Sarazen’s 1932 run to the British Open Championship.
Not everything Sarazen touched turned to gold, but he was always trying. In an effort to show that a round of golf didn’t have to take forever to play, Sarazen and fellow pro George Fazio zipped around Augusta National in an hour and 57 minutes. That idea didn’t catch on. Neither did his notion that the game would be more popular if the hole was bigger (ed. note – Too bad).
Sarazen spent almost a century playing and improving the game of golf. Not a bad life, really.
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