Byron Nelson's Life
Born near
Waxahachie, Texas, Byron Nelson was the son of Madge Allen Nelson
and John Byron Nelson, Sr. His parents set a precedent for him not
only in their long lives — Madge Nelson lived to age 98, and her
husband to age 77 — but also in their religious commitment. Madge,
who had grown up Baptist, was baptized in a Church of Christ at age
18, and John Byron Sr., raised Presbyterian, was baptized in a
Church of Christ soon after meeting Madge. The senior Byron Nelson
went on to serve as an elder in the Roanoke Church of Christ, and
the younger Byron Nelson was a committed member of that
congregation — even performing janitorial services there from time
to time long after he became famous — he later placed his
membership at the Hilltop Church of Christ in Roanoke from 1989
until 2000 when he moved his membership to the Richland Hills
Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas in later life. When
Nelson was 11 years old, the family moved to Fort Worth, where he
barely survived typhoid fever after losing nearly half his body
weight to the disease, which also left him unable to sire children.
Soon after his baptism at age 12, he started caddying at Glen
Garden Country Club. An article on Nelson in Sports Illustrated
noted that initially caddies were not permitted to play at the
club: "[H]e would often practice in the dark, putting his white
handkerchief over the hole so he could find it in the darkness."[6]
The club later changed its policy and sponsored the Glen Garden
Caddie Tournament, where a 14-year-old Nelson beat fellow caddy and
future golf great Ben Hogan by a single stroke after a nine-hole
playoff. In 1934, Nelson was working as a golf pro in Texarkana,
Texas, when he met future wife Louise Shofner, to whom he was
married 50 years before she died in 1985 after two severe strokes.
After turning professional in 1932, Nelson waited until 1935 to
post his first victory at the New Jersey State Open. He followed
this up with a win at the Metropolitan Open the following year. He
reportedly won this tournament with "$5 in my pocket". Nelson won
his first major event at The Masters in 1937, winning by two shots
over Ralph Guldahl. During this tournament he shot a first-round
66, which stood as a record as the lowest round in the Masters
history until Raymond Floyd had 65 in the 1976 event. Nelson would
subsequently win four more major tournaments, the U.S. Open in
1939, the PGA Championship in 1940 and 1945, and a second Masters
in 1942. Nelson had a blood disorder that caused his blood to clot
four times slower than normal, which kept him out of military
service during World War II. It has sometimes mistakenly been
reported that he had hemophilia; this is not true. In his career,
Nelson won 52 professional events. Nelson won the Vardon Trophy in
1939. He played on the U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 1937 and 1947 and
was non-playing captain of the team in 1965. After 1946, Nelson
curtailed his schedule although he continued to make regular
appearances at The Masters as a ceremonial starter for many years.
In 1945 Nelson enjoyed a record-breaking year, winning 18
tournaments including 11 in a row. Both records are still yet to be
beaten. Nelson however lost many chances at major championships
during this year, and previous years, because of the war, and only
won the 1945 PGA Championship. There has been debate to how
impressive these results are, as it was believed to be a weakened
tour due to the war. But in reality many of the leading golfers of
that time, including Sam Snead and Ben Hogan still played a full or
at least part schedule that year. Both Snead and Hogan won multiple
times on the tour in 1945. During this year Nelson finished second
another 7 times, set a record for the scoring average that was only
recently broken (68.33, broken by Tiger Woods in 2000), a record 18
hole score (62), and a record 72-hole score (259, which beat the
previous record set by Ben Hogan earlier that year). This year is
now known as the greatest single year by a player on the PGA Tour,
as Arnold Palmer said: "I don't think that anyone will ever exceed
the things that Byron did by winning 11 tournaments in a row in one
year." Even more recently, Tiger Woods referred to the year as "one
of the greatest years in the history of the sport" Nelson's record
of 113 consecutive cuts made is second only to Tiger Woods' 142. It
should be noted that the PGA Tour defines a "cut" as receiving a
paycheck, even if an event has no cut per se. In Nelson's era, only
the top 20 in a tournament received a check. In reality, Nelson's
"113 consecutive cuts made" are representative of his unequaled 113
consecutive top 20 tournament finishes. Nelson died Tuesday,
September 26, 2006, at the age of 94. According to a family friend,
Nelson died at his Roanoke, Texas home around noon. He was survived
by Peggy, his wife of nearly 20 years, sister Margaret Ellen
Sherman, and brother Charles, a professor emeritus at Abilene
Christian University, where Byron Nelson had been a trustee and
benefactor. Nelson met his second wife, the former Peggy Simmons,
when she volunteered at the Bogie Busters celebrity golf tournament
in Dayton, Ohio in 1985. Several of the obituary columns mentioned
Nelson's Christian beliefs, and one widely quoted column by
PGA.com's Grant Boone drew a direct connection between these
beliefs and Nelson's positive reputation: "Byron Nelson wasn't
randomly respectable, not generically good. He was a follower of
Christ, and his discipleship dictated his decency, demeanor,
decision-making, and the way he dealt with people. ... But Nelson
never brandished his faith as a weapon, choosing instead to extend
an empty and open hand in friendship to all comers. And did they
ever come. Wherever the debate over which golfer is the best of all
time ends, Byron Nelson was the game's finest man, hands down."
Photos
© 2009 Created by Byron Nelson Booster
