Gene Sarazen
U.S. Open champion 1922, 1932; National PGA champion 1922, 1923, 1933; British Open champion 1932; Masters champion 1935; National PGA Senior champion 1958; U.S. Ryder Cup team 1927, 1929, 1931, 1933; PGA Hall of Fame (1940); World Golf Hall of Fame (1974); Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame (1962).
Gene
Sarzen's first full-time job in golf was in 1918 as assistant to George Sparling at the
already distinguished Brooklawn Country Club in Bridgeport. Not a Connecticut native son,
as is often mistakenly assumed, he was born February 27, 1902, in Harrison, N.Y., hard by
Connecticut's downstate border, which makes him a Pisces and doubtless explains his
absence of worry about water hazards throughout his competitive career.
Just before his apprenticeship to Sparling, he had officially anglicized his name from Eugenio Saraceni, which he thought made him sound like some second violinist. He left Sparling at the close of the 1919 season, joined in Florida what was that day's PGA Tour, promptly won the Southern Open, and was well on his competitive way.
Sarazen's record of tournament victories and other contributions to golf is truly remarkable. He won seven major championships, and with his dramatic Masters victory in 1935 he became the first of thus far only four men to have won all four of modern golf's major championships. He made two of the most famous shots in golf history: perhaps the longest, his some 230 yards 4-wood for double eagle at Augusta National's par-5 15th in the 1935 Masters; and one of shortest, his 5-iron ace at Troon's "Postage Stamp" eighth in the 1973 British Open where he was celebrating the 50th anniversary of his first appearance in the Open. And for two inventions he has had the undying gratitude of several generations of golfers: the modern sand wedge, and the now outlawed Reminder grip.
For a few years in the 1930s, the Squire owned a farm in Brookfield Center when he was head professional at the Brookfield Golf Club. Although he never competed in the Connecticut Open, he did play in lovable Lou Galby's Shoreline Open at Mill River in Stratford several times, a one-day 27-hole event that each year attracted some tour players along with the best professionals and amateurs from Connecticut, Massachusetts and the Metropolitan New York/New Jersey area, and was won by Julius Boros and Jay Hebert, among others. Sarazen won it in 1948 with a score of 100, matching Boros' record set in 1947.
But through the years of his greatest competitive success, and well after, for that matter, Gene Sarazen demonstrated deep affection for Connecticut and the many friends and admirers he had won here, and he generously returned to play in a number of exhibitions: in 1935 at the Rockledge Country Club right after his Masters win; at Brooklawn in 1938, when he set a then-course record of 63; in 1939 at the Country Club of Torrington with the club's head professional, Paul Bell, and leading state amateurs Bob Grant and Holly Mandly; in 1949 at the Wethersfield Country Club when he and Tommy Armour opposed -- and barely lost to -- Byron Nelson and Sam Snead; and at Tumble Brook to celebrate the opening of the club's second nine.
Recently, with his close friend and neighbor Ken Venturi as master of ceremonies, Gene Sarazen was honored at a 94th birthday party on Marco Island, Florida, his home since 1966. As a birthday present to those in attendance, he announced that he was preparing to hit the opening tee shot in the 1996 Masters -- which he did, very straight in a classic draw. As Armour would surely say, "Cheers, and years, Eugenio."
-- Jack Burrill