Born:
Nov. 22, 1911, in Dallas, Texas
Died:
June 11, 1987
Tour Victories:
16
Major Championships:
3
• 1937 U.S. Open
• 1938 U.S. Open
• 1939 Masters
Awards and Honors:
• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
• Selected to one Ryder Cup team
Quote, Unquote:
• Sam Snead: "If Guldahl gave someone a blood transfusion, the patient would freeze to death."
• Ralph Guldahl: "Behind my so called poker face, I'm burning up."
Ralph Guldahl Biography:
Ralph Guldahl was born within a year of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead, and he was another Texan like Hogan and Nelson. And he was just as talented as those three legends. Heck, he was on his way to becoming a legend himself.
From 1937 to 1939, Guldahl won 3 majors: 2 U.S. Opens ('37 and '38) and the '39 Masters. He won three straight Western Opens (1936-38) at a time when the Western Open was considered by tour players to be a major. In his brief PGA Tour career, Guldahl won 16 tournaments and finished second 19 times.
But after his 1939 Masters victory ... nothing. Guldahl never won again. He quit the Tour in 1942, returning only briefly in 1949, but essentially his career was over after the 1939 season.
What happened? Nobody really knows. Guldahl's game just disappeared. One theory that is often quoted is that when Guldahl - who was no technician and had never paid much attention to swing theories - wrote an instructional book, he overnalyzed his swing and, poof, it was gone. "Paralysis by analysis," as the saying goes.
And here's something else interesting about Guldahl - when he quit the Tour in 1942, it was actually the second time he walked away from golf. He joined the PGA Tour in 1932, won a tournament that year, and nearly won the 1933 U.S. Open. He was 9 strokes behind eventual winner Johnny Goodman with 11 holes to play, but reached the 18th green needing only to sink a 4-foot putt to force a playoff.
Guldahl missed. And he left the Tour for three years, preferring to sell cars in Dallas.
"Though his fast and quirky swing produced only marginal power," the profile of Guldahl at the World Golf Hall of Fame says, "Guldahl was straight and uncanny in controlling the distance of his approaches." The profile notes that Guldahl was an exceptional lag putter, and was stoic on the course.
After golf, Guldahl went on to work as a club pro. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
