looking back
The No.2
Wood When it comes to Major heartache, the late Craig Wood had more than his fair share. Dr Milton Wayne profiles one of the game’s most prolific second runners, who, happily, ended his career on a high
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Courtesy of the USGA
ame the handsome blondhaired player famed for his booming drives who lost playoffs at all four majors, in some cases due to miraculous shots by his opponents? Greg Norman? You’re right of course, but he wasn’t the first. I’m referring to Craig Wood, one of the most consistent players on the PGA tour in the 1930s and 1940s – and arguably the most unlucky. Born in Lake Placid, New York in 1901, Wood won 21 PGA titles over his career, but for many years was seen as “jinxed” in the Majors, as title after title slipped away. In 1933 at St Andrews, he suffered his first Major playoff loss, losing the Open Championship to Denny Shute after a 36-hole playoff. Confirming his reputation as a stunningly powerful player and justifying his “Blond Bomber” nickname, on the fifth hole of the playoff Wood hit an unbelievable drive over 430 yards into a fairway bunker. It was mightily impressive - and a plaque was later erected by awestruck locals – but also impulsive and it cost him a stroke. Shute eventually captured the title by three shots. From the many painful years to choose from, the following year, 1934, was Wood’s annus horribilis. He lost the first-ever Masters by one shot to Horton Smith (who holed a 20-foot birdie putt on 17), was disqualified from the US Open in Merion when he discovered he had played the wrong ball, then lost in the final of the PGA at Park Country Club to Paul Runyan, his one-time assistant, at the second extra hole in the matchplay format used at that time. 20
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The Blond Bomber; with his old rival Neville Shute (left) HKGOLFERMAGAZINE.COM
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Courtesy of the USGA
Role Reversal: Wood would lose to Byron Nelson in a playoff for the 1939 US Open; but finally got his hands on the title in 1941. 22
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His reputation as the unluckiest player on tour was confirmed in 1935 at the Masters. Deep into the back-nine with his first Major title all but in his grasp, Wood fell victim to the “shot heard around the world” – Gene Zarazen’s 235-yard 4-wood at the 15th, which found the cup for an albatross (double eagle) – and lost the ensuing 36-hole playoff. By now, the “Blond Bomber” had another nickname: “The No.2 Wood”, due to his run of second place finishes. Over the next four years, a semi-final loss at the PGA was his only performance of any note in the Majors, and it was felt that his time had been and gone. However, in 1939, a sixth place finish at the Masters indicated that his game was returning and he went into the 1939 US Open at the Philadelphia Country Club with renewed confidence. He played brilliantly, and birdied the final hole of regulation play to tie with Byron Nelson and Denny Shute. In the playoff, Wood looked to have the title won, but Nelson birdied the last to tie. With no sudden-death (and Shute eliminated), Wood and Nelson went out again the next day to play another 18. Unbelievably, his opponent produced yet another “shot heard around the world” at the fourth hole when Nelson holed a 210yd 1-iron for an eagle. Wood was shattered. He eventually lost by 3 shots, becoming the first man to lose all four Majors in playoffs, a dubious honour later matched by the Great White Shark. Lesser players would never have recovered from this, but Wood came back the following year, 1940, and posted two top-10 finishes,
finishing seventh at Augusta and fourth in the US Open at Canterbury. It set him up nicely for 1941, the year that wiped away all of the previous disappointments in style. After two second places and four top-10s, Wood finally won the coveted Green Jacket. He became the first man to win pillar-to-post (or wire-to-wire in today’s vernacular), beating Nelson by three shots. He then topped this feat at The Colonial Club, winning the 1941 US Open by three shots from Shute, his old rival. In doing so, he became the first man to win the first two Majors in a calendar year and ensured his place in the original PGA Hall of Fame. After being evicted in the World Golf Hall of Fame debacle of 1986, Wood was deservedly reinstated in 2008 on the PGA tour ballot. After his annus mirabilis of 1941, the Second World War forced the cancellation of three of the four Majors. Wood never seriously challenged again and instead began building a reputation as an excellent teacher. However, he continued to exert a wider influence on the game when he coached a young Claude Harmon to victory at the 1948 Masters. Harmon became not only the last club pro to win a Major, but under Wood’s influence he became the highest rated teacher of his day – a tradition carried on by his sons: Craig (named after Wood), Bill, Dick and, of course, Butch. Wood died before his time in 1967 in West Palm Beach, playing well to the last. He matched his age, posting a 66 at Winged Foot. Perhaps no longer the “Blond Bomber”, but certainly now “The No.1 Wood”.
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