Top Duke Golfers

[Indoor66]

Who are the top Duke Golfers?

I would nominate two: Mike Souchak (won 15 PGA events and held the tour one round scoring record (a round of 60) from 1955 until broken by Al Geiberger (the peanut butter man) with a 59, in 1977. The second would be Art Wall who was the 1959 Masters Champ, won 4 tournaments that year and was PGA Player of the Year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Souchak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Wall,_Jr.

Any others?

[duketaylor]

Yep, it would be a pretty short list as only a few played the PGA Tour over the years. Guess it depends whether you want to compare pro careers or college success. Mr Souchak and Mr Wall (for whom I've caddied) would easily be the top pros. Another would be Skip Alexander, likely 3rd on the list.

[jdj4duke]

There are about 6 recent grads on the LPGA tour, including Virada Nirapathpongporn who not only was NCAA medalist, but also US Amateur champ. The women aren't lighting up the pro circuit yet, but having an alumna as a US Am champ is great.

[Olympic Fan]

The guy who should be the most famous Duke golfer in history has somehow been overlooked, his incredible story forgotten.

Skip Alexander played at Duke from 1937-40. He won two individual Southern Conference championships and helped Duke win three straight team titles. He joined the PGA Tour in 1946, winning his first (of three) tournaments in 1948.

Two years later, he was third on the money list halfway through the season when the small plane he was riding to the next tournament crashed and burned. Everybody on board, except Alexander, was killed -- he was burned over 70 percent of his body and one side of his body was crushed. He underwent 17 operations over the next year, including one to fuse the fingers of his left hand so he could hold a golf club.

A little over a year after the crash, Alexander's friend Sam Snead named him to the United States Ryder Cup team. It was seen at the time as a symbolic gesture to his courageous recovery. And when Snead named Alexander to match up against British champion John Panton in the singles competition, it was seen as a throwaway, since nobody was beating Panton at that time, so Snead didn't want to waste one of his best golfers against a guy nobody could beat.

But Alexander did beat him -- by an incredible 8 and 7 margin, which for years was the largest Ryder Cup margin in history. His surgically repaired hands were bleeding during the match, but he played the 12 holes of Pinehurst well under par.

After watching all the hosannahs for Tiger Saturday and Sunday, playing on his sore knee (all of which were IMHO justified), can you imagine what the media would do with a golfer in Alexander's situation? His Ryder Cup performance should be one of the most celebrated moments in golf history.

It's not because it was overshadowed by Ben Hogan's similar story -- he was injured (not as badly) in a plane crash and recovered to win again. Hogan was a bigger name and hence, his heroics have been remembered, but Alexander's have been largely forgotten.

Still, when you list the names of Duke's greatest golfers -- don't leave out Skip Alexander.

[Indoor66]

The guy who should be the most famous Duke golfer in history has somehow been overlooked, his incredible story forgotten.

Skip Alexander played at Duke from 1937-40. He won two individual Southern Conference championships and helped Duke win three straight team titles. He joined the PGA Tour in 1946, winning his first (of three) tournaments in 1948.

Two years later, he was third on the money list halfway through the season when the small plane he was riding to the next tournament crashed and burned. Everybody on board, except Alexander, was killed -- he was burned over 70 percent of his body and one side of his body was crushed. He underwent 17 operations over the next year, including one to fuse the fingers of his left hand so he could hold a golf club.

A little over a year after the crash, Alexander's friend Sam Snead named him to the United States Ryder Cup team. It was seen at the time as a symbolic gesture to his courageous recovery. And when Snead named Alexander to match up against British champion John Panton in the singles competition, it was seen as a throwaway, since nobody was beating Panton at that time, so Snead didn't want to waste one of his best golfers against a guy nobody could beat.

But Alexander did beat him -- by an incredible 8 and 7 margin, which for years was the largest Ryder Cup margin in history. His surgically repaired hands were bleeding during the match, but he played the 12 holes of Pinehurst well under par.

After watching all the hosannahs for Tiger Saturday and Sunday, playing on his sore knee (all of which were IMHO justified), can you imagine what the media would do with a golfer in Alexander's situation? His Ryder Cup performance should be one of the most celebrated moments in golf history.

It's not because it was overshadowed by Ben Hogan's similar story -- he was injured (not as badly) in a plane crash and recovered to win again. Hogan was a bigger name and hence, his heroics have been remembered, but Alexander's have been largely forgotten.

Still, when you list the names of Duke's greatest golfers -- don't leave out Skip Alexander.

Great info and Skip should be included. I had always heard of Alexander but had never heard this, the rest of the story. (An aside, Hogan was in an auto accident - head on with a bus.)

[gotham devil]

Yep, it would be a pretty short list as only a few played the PGA Tour over the years. Guess it depends whether you want to compare pro careers or college success. Mr Souchak and Mr Wall (for whom I've caddied) would easily be the top pros. Another would be Skip Alexander, likely 3rd on the list.

It was still nice to see three Duke players (Ogilvie, Quagliano, and Streelman) out of the relatively small field at this year's US Open.

[ice-9]

Thanks for a great story Olympic Fan.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Kevin Streelman is continuing his strong play from last week. He shot a 62 today (Saturday) and is 12 under and tied for the lead in this week's tournament!

[Edouble]

Kevin Streelman is continuing his strong play from last week. He shot a 62 today (Saturday) and is 12 under and tied for the lead in this week's tournament!

With Tiger gone, the field is wide open. Championships will be his for the taking.

[gw67]

For those who don't know, Chuck Taylor (duketaylor) was an outstanding golfer at Duke. I believe that Chuck was a two-time All American. I accidently came accross a listing of college All Americans a while back and Chuck was a top golfer in an era that sent a bunch of players to the tour, including Love, Andrade and many others. I apologize that I can't find a link.

gw67

[BlueDevilBaby]

There was an excellent program on HBO yesterday about the 1960 US Open with Jack, Arnie and Hogan. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Souchak. Too bad he could not hold onto his lead.