Some years after Jimmy Demaret had quit the competitive golf game scene , he was asked if he would have won more had he call for golf game more badly . His response was typically candid . " If I had , " he said , " I would n’t have won anything . "
In power point of fact , James Newton Demaret , born in Houston in 1910 , took his golf quite seriously . After all , he win three Masters and 28 other tournaments on the PGA Tour , and by all account of his coeval was one of the best jazz player the game has ever had .
With his enormous helping hand , and from a position in which his foot – even with adriver– were but a few inches aside , Demaret was a maven at manipulate the golf game ball . It ’s just that the times of golf game gravitational attraction were intersperse , rather liberally , with time of frolic .
Indeed , it could be said that Demaret ’s vivacity and lovemaking of life give as much to the game as did his wonderful acting gift . Perhaps more . Demaret , like most of his generation of golf player , got into the game as a caddie .
When he joined the pro tour in 1927 , all golf player wore the same style of clothing – chocolate-brown or hoary slacks , brown or black shoe , a white-hot dress shirt , a tie , and sometimes a fedora lid .
The vesture was not only cautious in colour and cut , but the fabric tend to be heavy and , in spicy - weather locker room , " form of stank , " said Jimmy .
So one day in the late 1930s , while inNew York City , Demaret travel to a workshop in the garment dominion where movie headliner had their clothes made .
There he attend bolt of lightweight material in a kaleidoscope of bright colors that take in his center .
As Demaret remembered , he had evolve his gustatory sensation for colors from his begetter , a menage painter who , in the day before paints were mix by machine , would merge by deal and test shades on the bulwark of his home .
Jimmy ask if he could get some golf game shirts and slacks made of such goods . Told the hooey was for ladies ' garment , Jimmy enjoin he did n’t care ; he wanted to act golf game in them .
His request was fulfilled , and a sartorial revolution in golf find under way . Not only did linksman set about to wear more lively looking clothing , but the clothes were lighter , and the shirts in finicky made swinging a club gentle .
It is difficult to appraise precisely all other contributions to the game of golf Demaret made in his long career , because many evolved from his sunny disposition . He had an infectious smile , an even more jollylaugh , tell jokes with a relish , and had the talent of a professional entertainer .
When Jimmy woke up one daytime and see Pebble Beach covered with nose candy , he quip , " I know I got drunk last night , but how did I wind up at Squaw Valley ? " When one shin golfer need Demaret for advice , Jimmy shot back , " Take two weeks off – then give up the game . "
Actually , in the day before golf wastelevised , Demaret was often asked to doradioplay - by - child’s play program of golf game tourney . He infused them with his elfin , improvisational spirit , the most memorable call amount upon the 2d shot Lew Worsham holed from 105 yard to pull ahead the Tam O’Shanter World Championship in 1953 .
" The damn affair get going in the hole , " Demaret report .
When television did come into golf game , Demaret was on the ground floor . For five years , he was a witty and sharp commentator ( with Gene Sarazen ) on theEmmy prize - winning TV program Shell ’s Wonderful World of Golf . The show aired in the sixties and had much to do with the growth of golf game in the United States and around the relaxation of the world .
Demaret ’s association with the producer of the Shell show , Fred Raphael , led to the first of the Senior PGA Tour . Through Demaret ’s connector and influence , the made - for - television competition Legends of Golf score the melodic phrase in 1978 with the squad ofSam Sneadand Gardner Dickinson prevailing .
Bringing back to legitimate competition famous Tour pro in their fifty and beyond , the tourney was the input – the " male parent " – of the Senior PGA Tour . The first 12 tournaments were play at Onion Creek C.C. in Austin , Texas , on the course Demaret contrive .
But perhaps Demaret ’s finest donation to the golfing landscape painting is The Champions Golf Club in Houston , which he originated and owned along with his collaborator , Jack Burke Jr. The two course – Jackrabbit and Cypress Creek – are both superb layouts . The latter hold a Ryder Cup Match ( 1967 ) , a U.S. Open ( 1969 ) , and a U.S. Amateur ( 1995 ) .
Although he had input , Demaret did n’t design the courses . However , he did leave his unique embossment on their surroundings . He made sure there were many colourful flowers trim the grounds .
Even more to the full point , Demaret saw to the construction of amen ’s footlocker elbow room that is the epitome of good fellowship – a ardent and friendly topographic point with a big and exquisitely wooded legal profession , where linksman could expend many a perspicacious hr talking the game and just having fun . A Demaret kind of property .
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