In 1938, N.J. Pro Won U.S. Open, But Lost State Open At Home Course

Cover photo: 1937 U.S. Open champion Ralph Guldahl, right, with runner-up Sam Snead

By Mike Moretti

Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret and Byron Nelson called him the greatest golfer in the world in the late 1930s, and his name wasn’t Jones, Sarazen, Snead or Armour.

Decades later, ESPN ranked his collapse No. 1 all-time among all sports. This mystery man won two U.S. Opens, The Masters and three Western Opens at a time when it was considered a major in the years 1936 through ’39, and much of it was accomplished while he was a head professional at a New Jersey golf club.

This mystery man is Ralph Guldahl, the one-time head pro at Braidburn (now Brooklake) Country Club in Florham Park, the best golfer and PGA and World Golf Hall of Famer many have most likely never heard of, yet his is one of the most fascinating golf stories of all time.

Guldahl was born the same year (1911) as Hogan, Nelson and Sam Snead, and he shot to the top more quickly than any of them

After accomplishing so much in such a short span of time, Guldahl, for the most part, vanished from the golfing scene and never got close to attaining his previous heights.

In an absolutely ironic twist,.after winning the 1938 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills in Colorado, Guldahl came home to compete in the New Jersey State Open the following week at his home course. Promising to “toss his clubs into the pond at the 18th hole” if he didn’t win the State Open, he promptly finished tied for second losing to Ted Turner, head pro of Pine Valley, by three strokes.

That 1938 State Open no doubt included the most star-studded field ever. Besides Guldahl, Craig Wood of Rumson (1941 Masters and U.S. Open champion) and Vic Ghezzi of Deal (1942 PGA champion), tied for fourth, four shots back.

Getting back to Guldahl, the 6-foot-3 Texan came onto the New Jersey links In April of 1938. Coming off the best year of his career in 1937, Guldahl, then 26, had just won his first U.S. Open (at Oakland Hills) in record fashion, scoring 281 to break Tony Manero’s record of 282, set at Baltusrol the previous year. Guldahl’s record would stand until Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open in 1948 at Riviera with an 8-under-par 276.

Guldhal followed his U.S. Open victory by winning the first of his three consecutive Western Opens.

He moved into a house on the course at Braidburn on April 11, 1938, on his seventh wedding anniversary. Just a week earlier, he had tied for second in the Masters with Harry Cooper, losing to Henry Picard by two strokes.

That came a year after he blew an opportunity to burst on the scene by winning the 1937 Masters. Guldahl was four strokes up with only seven to play, but he hit into the water on both the 12th and 13th holes to score a 5 and 6. On the same holes, Nelson scored a two and a two to blow past runner-up Guldahl and win by two.

But 1938 would still prove to be another outstanding season for Guldahl, now representing Braidburn. He would become the only golfer to win both the Western and the U.S. Open in consecutive years. The U.S. Open triumph was achieved by six strokes at Cherry Hills in Denver, where Guldahl became the last U.S. Open champion to win the title wearing a necktie.

He returned to New Jersey where his remark about “dunking” his clubs did not sit well with the other competitors set to compete in the State Open at Guldahl’s home course. Guldahl trailed Turner by seven shots after the home pro’s 79 in the third round put him in fifth place with a 227. A rain storm the previous night left the course very soft and explained the higher scoring that day.

Guldahl, however, turned his game around in the final round and got within two shots of Turner with two holes to play after Turner’s triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 15th hole opened the door. But Turner, with both Gulduhl and co-runner-up Johnny Kinder of Plainfield coming on strong, birdied the par-4 17th with a wedge to two feet to seal his triumph.

Guldahl’s 71 was the best score of the day with Wood second best at 74 and Turner, Kinder and Ghezzi all shooting 75. Turner won at 295; Guldahl and Kinder, who won three State Opens, were both next at 298.

Guldahl finally earned his green jacket at Augusta in 1939 with the most memorable performance of his career. Trailing Snead who was already in the clubhouse with a record score of 280, Guldahl needed a 34 on the back nine just to force a playoff.

Instead, the Braidburn pro fired a 33 on Augusta National's back nine, highlighted by a 3-wood second to the par-5 13th that finished six feet from the hole and led to an eagle. That scoring record of 279 stood until Hogan shattered it in 1953 with a 14-under 273.

He would win three more PGA events in 1939 and two more in 1940 before the bottom dropped out of his game.

He was also known as a deadly lag putter, and was so focused on the golf course, that a few times after finishing 18 holes, he would ask where the next tee was located.

At the end of 1939, he completed a book called Groove Your Golf, a book that used high-speed photographs of Guldahl on each page to create "flip-book" movies. Family members thought the book was his undoing, because he never won again after 1940.

His son, Ralph, claimed that his father overanalyzed his swing and it fell apart. According to his wife, Laverne: "When he sat down to write that book, that's when he lost his game."

Guldahl left the tour in 1942 and, except for a brief return in 1949, never played it again.

Guldahl worked as director of golf at the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana, California, from 1959 until his death in 1987. He continued to play in The Masters each year until 1975, but still took part in Augusta National’s par-three tournament, twice winning it.

He said there were other factors for his collapse.

In an interview with Golf Digest in 1976, he stated: “I left the tour after 1942. There were no tournaments in 1943 because of the war and when the tour started again, I just never went back. And I’ve never been sorry.

“The tour was an empty existence. My wife and I were traveling all the time, our son was in military school, and we just decided we would like to have a chance to enjoy home life for a while.”

Following his stint at Braidburn, Guldahl was a professional at San Diego Country Club after leaving the tour. He then moved to Medinah, staying until 1948. He spent 10 years in real estate on the West Coast before taking the job at Braemar.

To this day, Guldahl is believed to be the only sitting New Jersey professional to win a major, not to mention two of them. Byron Nelson, an assistant pro at Ridgewood in the mid-1930s, never did it until after he left the Garden State.

A comparison to today would be unthinkable. The last New Jersey pro to even win a PGA Tour event was Jim McGovern of Hackensack in 1993.

"When Ralph was at his peak, his clubhead came back on the line and went through on the line as near perfect as anyone I've ever seen." said Hall of Famer Snead, runner-up to Guldahl by two strokes in the 1937 U.S. Open..

“Though Ralph didn't have a technically sound swing, and it didn't have a great deal of power, his control of distances on approaches was uncanny.

Snead also commented on Guldahl's composure: "If Guldahl gave someone a blood transfusion, the patient would freeze to death."