No exaggeration, exactly 100 years ago today, September 20, 1913, Francis Ouimet won the U.S. Open and it changed the face of golf in this country.
He was a man of the people, a commoner, a young man 20 years old in fact with a 10 year old caddy. It was not improbable, it was impossible, but it happened. The story is so compelling that it was front page news, not just sports page news the next day. It got Americans of all economic backgrounds to take up golf.
Ouimet lived across the street from The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. He was not allowed to play the course – he was a caddy. He qualified for the event and then needed a caddy. Francis asked a friend to caddy, but he opted out at the last moment and the friend’s 10 year old brother volunteered to caddy. The rest is magical history.
Eddie Lowery was the 10 year old, Francis Ouimet was the 20 year old and together they defeated the two most prominent golfers in the world in an 18 hole playoff. Ouimet defeated Legendary Englishman Harry Vardon who today still holds the record for winning the most British Opens at 6 and had won the 1900 U. S. Open. Ouimet also conquered Vardon’s fellow countryman, Ted Ray, who also was a British Open champion and would go on to win the U.S. Open in 1920. Ouimet beat Vardon by 5 and Ray by 6 strokes in the playoff.
This event, in golf history, remains to this day by most golf historians as the single most important for the proliferation of the game inAmerica. Golf went from an elitist sport to one open to everyone virtually overnight. Francis Ouimet and Eddie Lowery connected to golf history forever remembered today and as long as golf is played in America.