Died: May 13, 1974
Nickname: "Denny" is a nickname based on Shute's middle name. His given name was Herman Densmore Shute.
Tour Victories:
15
Major Championships:
3
• British Open: 1933
• PGA Championship: 1936, 1937
Awards and Honors:
• Member, U.S. Ryder Cup team, 1931, 1933, 1937
• Member, PGA of America Hall of Fame
• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
Quote, Unquote:
• Byron Nelson: "Denny was a very quiet, reserved, shy man. But I saw him play a lot of golf. He was a lot better than people realize."
• Larry Shute, Denny's brother: "He played golf like he was taught by our dad - knock it down the middle, knock it on the green, and something good will happen."
Trivia:
• Until Tiger Woods did it in 1999-2000, Denny Shute had been the last man to win back-to-back PGA Championships (1936-37).
• When he won the British Open in 1933, he was just the second American-born golfer to do so.
Denny Shute Biography:
Denny Shute won three major championships in the 1930s, and came close in several others. Then he lived out his life as a club professional.
He was born in Ohio and learned to golf in West Virginia, where his father - a native of England - was a club professional. It was in West Virginia where Shute first started winning tournaments, namely the 1923 and '25 West Virginia Amateurs.
Shute returned to Ohio to win the Ohio Amateur in 1927, then claimed the Ohio Open from 1929-31 (and he would win the Ohio Open again at age 45 in 1950).
Shute started making noise on the PGA Tour when the decade of the 1930s began. He would win 15 times total during the decade, and play on three American Ryder Cup teams, but it was his performances in the majors that won him acclaim.
Shute was runner-up at the 1931 PGA Championship, then in 1936-37 he won the PGA back-to-back (something not accomplished again for nearly 70 years).
In 1933, meantime, Shute had traveled to play the Open Championship at St. Andrews, where he defeated Craig Wood for the Claret Jug in a 36-hole playoff.
Shute came close in two U.S. Opens, as well, losing playoffs to Byron Nelson in 1939 and to Wood in 1941.
Throughout his tour career, Shute - like many professionals of his era - worked as a club pro in the offseason. He held the position at a succession of clubs in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachussetts and Illinois.
From 1939-42, Shute worked for Montgomery Ward department stores, giving exhibitions, making radio appearances and promoting the Denny Shute line of golf clubs.
He went to work in a factory during World War II to help the Allied war effort, then returned to golf after the war. From 1945 until his retirement in 1972, Shute was head pro at Portage Country Club in Akron, Ohio. There in 1971, he shot his age of 66.
Shute was also a stamp collector, and following his 1974 death Shute's collection was auctioned off for $200,000.
He was selected for induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008.
