Craig Wood

Born: November 18, 1901, in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Died: May 7, 1968
Nickname: "No. 1 Wood" or "Blond Bomber." The No. 1 wood is the driver, of course, and the fair-haired Wood was one of the big hitters of his era.

21
List of Craig Wood wins

2
• The Masters: 1941
• U.S. Open: 1941

• Member, U.S. Ryder Cup team, 1931, 1933, 1935
• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame

• In 1941, Craig Wood became the first wire-to-wire winner of The Masters.

• Also in 1941, Wood became the first golfer to the win the first two professional majors of the year (The Masters and U.S. Open).

• Wood is one of only two golfers to lose playoffs at all four professional majors.

Craig Wood's PGA Tour career begin in the 1920s and continued into the 1940s. And in some ways, it resembled the career that Greg Norman had 50 years later. Both were very talented golfers who seemed to have a knack for being beaten out by great shots, by fluke shots; for coming very close many times to winning majors but falling short in most of them. Wood won 21 times on the USPGA, Norman won 20 times. Wood won two majors, Norman won two majors.

But like Norman decades later, Wood often seemed snakebit. For example, at the 1935 Masters, Wood was in the clubhouse with a 3-stroke lead. And then one of the most famous shots in golf history occurred out on the course: Gene Sarazen's "Shot Heard 'Round the World," his 4-wood double-eagle on the 15th hole. Sarazen tied Wood with that shot, then beat Wood in a 36-hole playoff.

It was one of a string of close calls for Wood in 1933-35:

• 1933 British Open: Lost 36-hole playoff to Denny Shute.
• 1934 Masters: Runner-up to Horton Smith in inaugural Masters.
• 1934 PGA Championship: Lost to Paul Runyan on second extra hole of final match.
• 1935 Masters: Lost to Gene Sarazen in 36-hole playoff.

You might have noticed that Wood lost three playoffs in three different majors in the years cited above. In 1939, Wood made it a quartet: That year, at the U.S. Open, he birdied the final hole of regulation to join Byron Nelson and Shute in a playoff. Shute was eliminated after 18 holes; Nelson beat Wood, 70 to 73, over the second 18 holes for the trophy.

So in his career, Wood lost all four majors in playoffs. Only one other golfer has done the same. You guessed it: Greg Norman.

There were plenty of wins along the way, however. Wood's first tour victory was at the 1928 New Jersey PGA Championship.

And he did finally win a major. Two of them, in fact, one after the other: the 1941 Masters and 1941 U.S. Open. At The Masters Wood topped Nelson by three, winning wire-to-wire; at the Open, he bested Shute by three.

His final win on tour came three years later at the 1944 Durham Open.

Wood was a native of Lake Placid, N.Y. In 1954, the city honored Wood by renaming the Lake Placid Golf and Country Club to Craig Wood Golf Course, a name it retains today. A display in the pro shop shows off mementos from Wood's career.

Wood was the subject of the book, Craig Wood the Blond Bomber: Native Son of Lake Placid, written by J. Peter Martin and published in 2002.

He was selected for induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008.