Golf's True Hero: Jimmy Demaret

Jimmy Demaret the three time Master winner, was born James Newton Demaret in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Houston, started caddying in 1920 at the age of eight. By age 11 won his first competitive tournament in 1923. Demaret professional golf career started while he was only two years into high school.

In 1934 when he won the Texas PGA Championship in Dallas. Demaret spent the rest of the Great Depression touring and playing in minor tournaments in Texas and California. In 1938, after he won his fifth consecutive Texas PGA title, Demaret joined the regular tour and captured his first victory by beating Sam Snead in a Match Play. 

One of Demaret's finest seasons on the professional circuit was in 1940 when he won seven events, including the U.S. Masters and the Western Open. His Masters victory was record-setting in that he shot 67 in the first round. His score of 30 over the last nine holes, comprised of six birdies and three pars, was the lowest to that date. In 1941 Demaret won three tournaments, among them the Argentine Open, and in 1943 he added two more minor events.

Demaret's career was interrupted at the most unfortunate time because he was at the top of his game in the early 1940s. Demaret served his country in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After winning several minor tournaments in 1945-1946, Demaret came back in 1947 with another impressive season.

That year he won six titles, including his second Masters, beating Byron Nelson by two strokes. He also collected the Vardon Trophy, given to the PGA tour player with the season's lowest stroke average, and he was the tour's leading money winner, collecting $27,936.

In 1948 he broke the U.S. Open scoring record with a 278 at the Riviera Country Club, but was defeated by two strokes by Ben Hogan.

What was not well known was Jimmy Demaret was one of Hogan's few and closest friends, and in 1954 he published My Partner, Ben Hogan, a book that chronicled the life and career of Hogan in the aftermath of his life-threatening auto accident.

Demaret and Hogan were a feared match-play team in four-ball tournaments and in Ryder Cup matches. Jimmy Demaret's Ryder Cup record from 1947 to 1951 was a perfect six wins and no losses. He won his third Masters, and his last major title, in 1950.

Jimmy Demaret never won the U.S. Open, the British Open, or the PGA Championship, he did win 44 professional events, and became the first man to win three Masters titles, and was elected to the PGA Golf Hall of Fame in 1960. Demaret retired from competitive golf in 1963.

Jimmy Demaret spent the last twenty years of his life working as a television commentator, as host of the "Wonderful World of Golf" series during the 1960s, and as a consultant to a golf club manufacturer.

The majority of his retirement, however, was spent managing the Champions Golf Club and privately assisting a young impressionable golfer by the name of Rick Martin the son of his very good friend Mike Martin.

Champions Golf Course is just one of  Jimmy Demaret's legacies to the game of golf and was the site of the 1967 Ryder Cup matches and the 1968 U.S. Open. Demaret died of heart attack while working on the course he designed and built.

Demaret's professional record, while quite respectable, was sometimes overshadowed by his popular personality and incredible sense of style. He was golf's most colorful figure in golf's conservative era. His trademark was not so much his solid and steady game as it was his wonderful sense of humor and outlandish wardrobe.

Demaret adorned himself in custom made in New York electric blue, bright apricot, or canary yellow. Behind the smile was a respected and loved player who made a significant contribution as one of the game's finest ambassadors.

Sam Snead observed, "Of all the guys on the tour, I think Demaret was more well-liked than anybody, by the pros and the fans both. He was a wonderful guy."

Jimmy Demaret is the only golfer from the past that never really seems to ever recieve the kudos he so truly deserves. If not for him, we wouldn't ever had The Senior Tour, Style, or Humor.

I was blessed to know, and receive both life and golf instruction from Both Jimmy Demaret and his life long friend Jack Burke Jr. Together they gave me a wonderful respect for the game and life.