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Information About

Horton Smith





TOURNAMENT CAREER


Smith's turned professional in 1926 and won his first tournament, the Oklahoma Open in 1928. In 1929 he won eight titles. This was an era of expansion and reorganisation for professional golf. The PGA Tour was founded in 1934, and Smith was won of the leading players of the early years of the tour, topping the money list in 1936. He accumulated 32 PGA Tour titles in total, the last of them in 1941. Smith's two Major Championships both came at the Masters, the first at the inaugural tournament in 1934 and the second in 1936. He played for the United States in the Ryder Cup five times.


MISCELLANEOUS


  • Rated as the finest chipper and putter of his era by Byron Nelson . Co-author of a 1961 book, ''The Secret of Holing Puts''.

  • Smith was the last man to defeat Bobby Jones in match play before Jones retired in 1930.

  • According to the World Golf Hall Of Fame Smith was the first man to use a Sand Wedge , although the concave wedge he invented was later banned by the USGA and superseded by a style introduced by Gene Sarazen .

  • Smith was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990.

  • President of the Professional Golfers' Association Of America 1952-1954

  • The PGA of America annually grants the ''Horton Smith Award'' to a PGA professional who has made "outstanding and continuing contributions to PGA education."



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