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TUCSON, AZ - February 2, 1952
The Sports Time Traveler™ has gone back in time exactly 72 years, to watch the 72 holes at the 1952 Tucson Open, a PGA event here at the El Rio Golf & Country Club.
The purse is $10,000 with $2,000 going to the winner. That’s the standard money for PGA events here in 1952.
All the greatest players on tour are here with the exception of two - Sam Snead and Ben Hogan.
Ben Hogan of course is chronically limited in his ability to play due to the near fatal auto accident he sustained in 1949. Hogan only competes in about 6 tournaments a year now. See my article about Hogan from last summer:
Ben Hogan Battles the British and His Own Body at the British Open.
Sam Snead is not here this week because of a commitment in Florida. Snead is headlining the Great Miami Sports and Vacation Show alongside baseball legend Bob Feller.
Despite missing two of the premier players in golf, attendance at the Tucson Open is on pace to break the all-time record for the event.
Joe Louis is in the Tournament
The large galleries in Tucson this week are mostly due to an unexpected entrant - former world heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Louis.
Louis was the champion of the world from 1937 to 1949. He successfully defended his title a record 25 times. In 2024, that remains the record for all weight classes.
And for those of you in 2024 who don’t know too much about Joe Louis, note that ESPN ranked Joe Louis as the #11 greatest athlete of the entire 20th century.
ESPN's Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century
Louis is playing here in Tucson as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption.
It’s his 2nd PGA tournament.
The 1st one was monumental.
But this one has turned out to be even bigger to this sports fan.
BACKGROUND and BREAKING THE COLOR BARRIER
2 weeks ago, on January 17th at the San Diego Open, Joe Louis became the first African-American player in history to play in a PGA event.
But it didn’t happen without significant controversy.
Louis, an outstanding golfer, had been invited to play, on a sponsors exemption, in the San Diego Open as an amateur. In addition, 2 African-American professional players had also received sponsor exemptions.
An AP article that appeared in the Los Angeles Mirror that week noted that “Louis’ followers hailed his entry as ‘the first step’ in a long fight by Negroes to compete in PGA tournaments. They likened it to the case of Jackie Robinson as the first Negro to crash into organized baseball.”
But a few days before the tournament the PGA informed the operators of the San Diego Open that PGA rules forbid non-white players.
An article in the January 13th Los Angeles Times had a headline, “Joe Louis Will Fight PGA Tournament Ban.”
Louis was livid at the ruling and declared it, “the first time he had personally encountered racial discrimination.”
A public brouhaha ensued with PGA President Horton Smith (who was the winner of the very first Masters in 1934) ruling that Louis may play as an amateur, but the African-American professionals could not, as the non-white player rule applied to professionals.
The decision was explained in a January 16, 1952 article in The Los Angeles Times.
Louis was upset with the ruling but vowed to play and continue to fight racial prejudice in golf.
A day later, Joe Louis, playing as an amateur, became the first African-American player in a PGA tournament at 9:27am when his group went off for the first round of the San Diego Open.
He was paired with PGA President Horton Smith!
Louis played admirably shooting a 76, the same score as 1952 PGA championship winner Jim Turnesa, and better than many PGA professionals including Jerry Barber (who later won the 1961 PGA Championship).
Only one shot ahead of Louis was the legendary Billy Casper.
Horton Smith shot a 73.
According to the January 18th Los Angeles Times, Smith told Louis, “You hit like a pro, Joe,” when he watched Louis hit a 250 yard drive on the opening tee shot.
Later when Louis hooked his tee shot into the left rough on the 3rd hole, Smith said to him, “The only place a left hook is good is in the ring.”
Louis didn’t fare as well the next day and shot 82 to miss the cut.
But Louis was successful in his efforts to challenge the PGA color barrier.
On January 19, 1952, Horton Smith announced the PGA would lift its ban on African-American professional players in cases where they are invited to play by the host organization. This was reported in the January 20, 1952 Los Angeles Times.
NOTE from The Sports Time Traveler™
I’m cutting in from 2024 with an insight.
The lifting of the PGA ban on non-white professionals leads me to believe that the Joe Louis – Horton Smith match in the first round of the 1952 San Diego Open was the most important match of Joe Louis’ sports career.
Louis apparently was able to deliver the knockout blow to the color barrier via his conversation with PGA President, Horton Smith, during that historic round of golf at the San Diego Open on January 17, 1952.
Now back to 1952.
The Phoenix Open
The next week at the Phoenix Open, Louis told a UPI reporter his feelings about the new PGA rule. He said that he was, “well satisfied, however, I would like to have one change in the rules, the one that requires Negroes be specially invited before they can compete in qualifying rounds.”
Louis did not play in the Phoenix Open, but he was there to see his friend Ted Rhodes become one of two professional African-American golfers to play in a PGA event for the first time. The other was Bill Spiller.
Only Rhodes made the cut at the Phoenix Open, thus becoming the first African-American player to ever make a cut in a PGA event.
Rhodes finished 28 shots behind the winner, Lloyd Mangrum, but he made it into the top 60, earning an automatic qualifying spot in the Tucson Open for which he had an invitation to play.
Joe Louis also had an invitation to play in Tucson, and as an amateur invitee, Louis also did not have to play in the qualifying rounds.
The Tucson Open - ROUND 1
2 days ago, on the first day of the tournament, Louis teed off at 9:05am.
On the opening 9 holes he shot a 1 over par 36.
But on the back 9 he fired a 2 under par 33 to finish the day with a 1 under par 69.
Only 5 of the 150 golfers in the field shot better on the back 9 than Joe Louis.
4 of them were just 1 shot better than Louis with 32s. While Dr. Cary Middlecoff had the best back 9 of the day with a 30.
The 69 put Louis in 17th place in the field of 150.
The Arizona Daily Star reported that Louis was, “tickled to death” with his round of 69.
Louis was only 4 shots off the lead held by Dr. Cary Middlecoff and Jimmy Clark at 65.
He was also 1 shot ahead of Ted Rhodes.
And Louis had the best score of the day among the amateurs in the field which included Frank Stranahan, perhaps the best amateur player in the world. Stranahan had posted a 71.
Joe Louis poses at the 1952 Tucson Open Pro-Am on January 30th:
The biggest shocker of round 1 came from one of the biggest names in the field, Jimmy Demerat.
The 2-time winner of this tournament came to the dog leg par 5 18th hole 1 under par on his opening round.
Demaret, as he always does at the El Rio course, tried to cut the corner of the dog leg on his drive.
But his drive went out of bounds.
Then in an unimaginable sequence he proceeded to hit 4 more drives out of bounds.
Jimmy Demaret finished the 18th hole with a 14! That gave him a score of 78, leaving him virtually certain to miss the cut.
Demaret took it very well and was laughing when told a reporter from the Arizona Daily Star, “That’s the highest score I’ve taken on one hole in my life.”
NOTE: I found it interesting that a 2021 Golf Week article on the highest scores ever on a single hole in a PGA sanctioned event, failed to include Demaret’s 14. Demaret’s score would have ranked as tied for the 7th worst score on a single hole. You can view that article here: Highest Single Hole Scores in a PGA Event
ROUND 2
Frank Stranahan demonstrated why he might be the best amateur in the world, and one of the best golfers anywhere, in yesterday’s 2nd round.
Stranahan stood over a 20 foot putt on the 18th hole.
Up to that moment he had taken only 58 shots.
Make the putt and Stranahan would become the first player ever to break 60 in a PGA event.
In this morning’s Arizona Daily Star, sports editor, Abe Chanin, described the action as Stranahan stroked the putt for history, “Instead of playing it safely with an approach putt, Stranahan went for the cup and the record. The ball rolled past the hole, a few inches off line.”
Stranahan had barely missed the 59.
NOTE FROM 2024:
It will be another 25 years until Al Geiberger becomes the first player in a PGA event to shoot a 59 in 1977.
Now back to 1952.
And then Stranahan missed the 3 footer coming back.
Despite three-putting the final hole, Frank Stranahan had himself a 9 under par 61.
That was good enough to wrest the amateur lead from Joe Louis, and also to move into a tie for 1st place in the Tucson Open at the halfway mark.
Stranahan and Skee Riegel both stood at 8 under par 132.
If Stranahan had broken the 60 barrier, few fans would have seen it. That’s because the largest crowd of the day was following the former boxing champ, Joe Louis.
Joe Louis played well again in the 2nd round. He came to the 18th hole poised to remain under par for 36 holes. But he required 2 shots get out of the sand trap on the 18th and finished the day with a 2 over par 72.
Joe Louis’ 36 hole score was a 1 over par 141, tied for 39th.
And that was good enough to make the cut which was at 144.
An All-Time Great Athletic Achievement
I’m interrupting this article to come back to the present and ponder the magnitude of what Joe Louis did 72 years ago yesterday.
The fans who followed Joe Louis that day saw something unprecedented, something astonishing.
On February 1, 1952, Joe Louis became the only champion athlete from another sport to make the cut in a PGA event.
Think about that.
Joe Louis made the cut at the Tucson Open!
How great an accomplishment was this?
Consider the company Joe Louis was in by making the cut at 141:
He was tied with multiple major champions Jack Burke, Jr. and Lawson Little.
He was one stroke AHEAD of PGA greats Tommy Bolt, winner of the 1958 US Open and Vic Ghezzi, winner of the 1941 PGA Championship.
He was two strokes AHEAD of Dick Mayer, winner of the 1957 US Open.
He was three shots AHEAD of Bob Toski, the leading money winner in 1954 (NOTE FROM 2024: Bob Toski might be the only person that played in the 1952 Tucson Open that is still alive at age 97).
He was only 2 shots off from Julius Boros who won the U.S. Open the next year on his way to 3 majors and 18 PGA wins.
He was only 3 shots back of Lloyd Mangrum, the leading money winner on the PGA circuit from the prior year.
I’m just totally blown away by this.
As far as I can tell there is no parallel with any other great athlete of Joe Louis’s stature.
For example, former Cowboys QB Tony Romo has played in 4 PGA TOUR events and never made the cut.
And even if he had made a cut, Romo has not even been to a Super Bowl (except as an announcer).
And Romo did not make the list of top 100 football players of all-time as ranked by the NFL Network.
Former NFL QB, John Brodie, won a Senior PGA TOUR event, but never played on the PGA TOUR. And Brodie also never went to the Super Bowl. And also did not make the list of top 100 football players of all-time as ranked by the NFL Network.
In comparison, Joe Louis was ranked #1 in his sport for 12 consecutive years.
And Louis was ranked as the #11 greatest athlete of the 20th century, across all sports, by ESPN.
Joe Louis made the cut in a PGA event.
It’s mind boggling.
There seems to be no other champion athlete ever to do what Joe Louis did in a PGA event.
Yet almost no newspapers at the time made note of the fact that Joe Louis had made the cut.
Besides the local Tucson papers, the New York Times simply mentioned, “Louis qualified for tomorrow’s play.”
And nothing was ever mentioned again about it.
The achievement seems to have been lost in history.
I was so excited when I uncovered this as I read the newspaper archives.
And now back to 1952.
ROUND 3
Today is round 3.
Joe Louis has a packed day.
He had previously committed to making a community appearance at 8:30am this morning.
Perhaps he simply didn’t fathom he would make the cut and be busy elswhere on this day.
The Tucson Daily Citizen reported yesterday, “Louis will appear on the stage of the Fox-Tucson theater during the safe-teen club program… during his appearance Louis will present an award to the city’s Junior Citizen of the Week.”
I wondered if Louis was going to make good on the appearance since he had an 11:42am tee time in the 3rd round of the tournament.
It turns out he did make it to the theater 3 hours prior to his tee time as can be seen in this photo that appeared in the Arizona Daily Star.
On the golf course, Louis again had the largest gallery of the day.
But things did not start out so well for Louis in the 3rd round.
The winds were gusty and on the 1st hole the former boxing champ’s tee shot, “went high and the wind carried it out of bounds,” according to the report from Ray McNally in the afternoon edition of today’s Tucson Citizen.
At the time of this writing, Louis has finished the front 9 in 39. His playing partner, Jack Burke Jr. was only 1 shot better at 38.
The Sports Time Traveler™ will continue following the 1952 Tucson Open over the next day and a half and will report to you if there is any more news that is so exciting I just have to share it with you.
Thanks for reading.
1952 - Joe Louis Belts an Uppercut on the PGA