Tommy Armour
Tommy Armour | |||
---|---|---|---|
Personal information | |||
Full name | Thomas Dickson Armour | ||
Nickname | The Silver Scot | ||
Born | Edinburgh, Scotland | 24 September 1896||
Died | 11 September 1968 Larchmont, New York, US | (aged 71)||
Sporting nationality | Scotland United States | ||
Career | |||
College | University of Edinburgh | ||
Turned professional | 1924 | ||
Former tour(s) | PGA Tour | ||
Professional wins | 27 | ||
Number of wins by tour | |||
PGA Tour | 25 | ||
Other | 2 | ||
Best results in major championships (wins: 3) | |||
Masters Tournament | T8: 1937 | ||
PGA Championship | Won: 1930 | ||
U.S. Open | Won: 1927 | ||
The Open Championship | Won: 1931 | ||
U.S. Amateur | T5: 1920 | ||
British Amateur | T33: 1920, 1921 | ||
Achievements and awards | |||
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Thomas Dickson Armour (24 September 1896
Early life
Armour was born on 24 September 1896 in
Golf career
Armour won the French Amateur tournament in 1920. He moved to the United States and met Walter Hagen who gave him a job as secretary of the Westchester-Biltmore Club.[3] He competed in important amateur tournaments in the U.S. before turning professional in 1924.
Armour won the 1927
Armour also won the Canadian Open three times, a feat exceeded only by Leo Diegel, who won four.
At the Shawnee Open in 1927, Armour scored the first ever "archaeopteryx" (15 or more over par) when he made a 23 on a par 5, for 18 over par. It still stands as the highest score on a hole in PGA history. This historic performance happened just one week after he'd won the U.S. Open.
Retirement and later life
Armour retired from full-time professional golf after the 1935 season, although he competed periodically in top-class events for several years afterwards. He taught at the
After becoming an American citizen in November 1942,
Armour co-wrote a book How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time (1953) with Herb Graffis. It became a best-seller and for many years was the biggest-selling book ever authored on golf. A series of 8mm films based on the book was released by Castle Films including Short Game Parts I and II, Long Hitting Clubs, Grip, and Stance.
Armour is succeeded by his grandson, Tommy Armour III, who is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour.
Death and legacy
Armour died in Larchmont, New York and was cremated at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York but not interred there. Some modern golf equipment is still marketed in his name. Armour was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976.
Amateur wins
- 1920 French Open Amateur Championship
Professional wins
PGA Tour wins (25)
- 1920 (1) Pinehurst Fall Pro-Am Bestball (as an amateur, with Leo Diegel)
- 1925 (1) Florida West Coast Open
- 1926 (1) Winter Pro Golf Championship
- 1927 (5) Long Beach Open, El Paso Open, U.S. Open, Canadian Open, Oregon Open
- 1928 (4) Metropolitan Open, Philadelphia Open Championship, Pennsylvania Open Championship, Sacramento Open
- 1929 (1) Western Open
- 1930 (3) Canadian Open, PGA Championship, St. Louis Open
- 1931 (1) The Open Championship
- 1932 (3) Miami Open, Miami International Four-Ball (with Ed Dudley), Mid-South Bestball (with Al Watrous)
- 1934 (2) Canadian Open, Pinehurst Fall Pro-Pro (with Bobby Cruickshank)
- 1935 (1) Miami Open
- 1936 (1) Walter Olson Golf Tournament (tie with Willie Macfarlane)
- 1938 (1) Mid-South Open
Major championships are shown in bold.
Other wins
- 1927 Miami International Four-Ball (with Bobby Cruickshank)
- 1938 Mid South Pro/Pro (with Bobby Cruickshank; tie with Henry Picard and Jack Grout)
Major championships
Wins (3)
Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1927 | U.S. Open | 1 shot deficit | +13 (78-71-76-76=301) | Playoff 1 | Harry Cooper |
1930 | PGA Championship | n/a | 1 up | Gene Sarazen | |
1931 | The Open Championship | 5 shot deficit | +8 (73-75-77-71=296) | 1 stroke | José Jurado |
1 Defeated Harry Cooper in an 18-hole playoff: Armour 76 (+4), Cooper 79 (+7).
Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958
Results timeline
Tournament | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
U.S. Open | T48 | WD | T13 | T38 | T9 | 1 | 16 | T5 | ||
The Open Championship | T53 | 13 | CUT | 10 | ||||||
PGA Championship | QF | QF | R32 | |||||||
U.S. Amateur
|
QF | R16 | R32 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
The Amateur Championship | R64 | R64 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Tournament | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | NYF | NYF | NYF | NYF | T37 | T20 | T8 | T12 | ||
U.S. Open | 6 | T46 | T21 | T4 | T50 | WD | T22 | CUT | 23 | T22 |
The Open Championship | 1 | T17 | ||||||||
PGA Championship | 1 | QF | R16 | 2 | R64 | R64 |
Tournament | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 38 | 38 | T28 | NT | NT | NT | |||||
U.S. Open | T12 | CUT | NT | NT | NT | NT | CUT | CUT | WD | CUT | |
The Open Championship | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | |||||
PGA Championship | NT |
NYF = tournament not yet founded
NT = no tournament
WD = withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = round in which player lost in match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Sources: U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur,[9] Amateur Championship:1920,[10] 1921[11]
Team appearances
Amateur
- Great Britain vs USA (representing Great Britain): 1921
Professional
- Great Britain vs USA (representing the United States): 1926
See also
Notes
- ScotlandsPeople. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-0785328483.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Davidson, Jack (11 August 2015). "Tommy Armour: the Scotsman who won the US PGA". The Scotsman. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ "1931 Tommy Armour". The Open. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
- ^ May, Mike. "Golf @ The Boca Resort: Living, Breathing History". Go Golf and Travel.
- ISBN 9780307338037.
- ^ "U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992" – via Ancestry.com.
- ^ USGA Championship Database Archived 21 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- The Glasgow Herald. Glasgow, Scotland. 9 June 1920. p. 11. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
- The Glasgow Herald. Glasgow, Scotland. 25 May 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 9 March 2011.