Jimmy Demaret: The Essence of Golf
Jimmy Demaret was born in Houston, Texas on May 24th, 1910. He was well known for his parts on The Jim Backus Show, I love Lucy and many others. Although it was uncredited, Demaret played in ‘Follow The Sun’, a movie in which Glen Ford played Ben Hogan.
Aside from Demaret’s acting career, he was also a great golfer. When speaking of multiple PGA or major wins by an individual, many names come to mind, but one that is lurking around in history and especially at Augusta that you don’t hear about immediately is that of Jimmy Demaret.
Demaret idolized Bobby Jones and as a kid Demaret would sneak onto the grounds at the Houston Country Club and watch Jones compete in amateur events.
Later in life, in one of his letters to Jones, Demaret praised the Masters, calling it the finest tournament he ever played in and said it stood for the epitome of golf. Demaret, however, countered the idea about the Masters being the pinnacle of his golfing accomplishments by stating, “I have always thought that any success that I have had in sports is very insignificant in our short visit through life.” Demaret was also known to stop at night clubs, while traveling on tour, to do stand-up comedy and he was one of the first golfers to move into broadcasting.
But there was one huge pinnacle in Demaret’s career. He was the first person to win three Masters. Demaret won the Masters in 1940, 1947 and 1950. During his golfing career from 1935 to 1957 he also had 31 tour victories along with 28 second place and 26 third place finishes. He made 318 cuts out of 337 tournaments. He was runner up to Ben Hogan in the 1948 U.S. Open and leading money winner and Vardon Trophy winner in 1947. Demaret reached the semi-finals of the PGA Championship four times and in 1957 at age 47 he was one shot short of making the playoff in the U.S. Open.
Ironically, Jimmy Demaret was also known for his flashy and colored dress on the golf course. Over the last couple of decades we’ve had John Daly and Rickie Fowler, but they weren’t the first to portray the flamboyant pro golfer. In 1993, Demaret was elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame and he was ranked the 20th greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest.
Sadly, on December 28, 1983, Demaret was preparing for his daily ride on the Champions course just north of Houston, when he had a heart attack and died. Demaret was only 73. Given Demaret’s great play and class act personality, he definitely fulfills “The Essence of Golf”
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