Francis Ouimet

Francis DeSales Ouimet (; May 8, 1893 – September 2, 1967) was an American amateur golfer who is frequently referred to as the "father of amateur golf" in the United States. He won the U.S. Open in 1913 and was the first non-Briton elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. He was posthumously inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

Early life Ouimet was born to Mary Ellen Burke and Arthur Ouimet in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. His father was a French-Canadian immigrant, and his mother was originally from Ireland. When Francis was four years old, his family purchased a house on Lee Street across from Clyde Street in Brookline, directly across from the 17th hole of The Country Club. The Ouimet family grew up relatively poor and were near the bottom of the economic ladder, which was hardly the position of any American golfer at the time. As far as the general public was concerned, amateur golf was reserved for the wealthy, while professional golf provided competition and income for former caddies, who were prohibited by the USGA from caddying after the age of 16 if they wanted to keep their amateur status.

Ouimet became interested in golf at an early age and started caddying at The Country Club at the age of 11. Using clubs from his brother and balls he found around the course, he taught himself to play. His game soon caught the eye of many country club members and caddie master Dan MacNamara. It was not long before Ouimet was the best high school golfer in the state. When he was a junior in high school, his father insisted that he drop out and do "something useful" with his life. Ouimet worked at a drygoods store before landing a job at a sporting goods store owned by future Baseball Hall of Famer George Wright.

Golf career 1913 U.S. Open In 1913, Ouimet won his first significant title at age 20, the Massachusetts Amateur, an event he won five more times. He participated in the U.S. Amateur at the Garden City Golf Club on Long Island, New York, in early September, losing in the quarterfinals to the eventual champion, Jerome Travers. Soon after, he was asked personally by the president of the United States Golf Association, Robert Watson, if he would play in the national professional championship, the 1913 U.S. Open, which had been postponed to mid-September from its original June dates to allow for the participation of British golfers Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, both of Jersey. Vardon had won the U.S. Open in 1900 and The Open Championship five times to that point. Ray had won the Open Championship in 1912. The 1913 event was played at the course Ouimet knew best, The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Ouimet originally declined to play, having just returned from an absence from work to play in the National Amateur. His participation in the Open was soon arranged, however, with the cooperation of his employer.

It was Ouimet's first appearance in the championship. Eddie Lowery was his 10-year-old caddie. After 72 holes of regulation play ended in a three-way tie, Ouimet, Vardon, and Ray engaged in an 18-hole playoff the next day in rainy conditions. Ouimet won the playoff at one-under-par for the day, beating Vardon by 5 strokes and Ray by 6. His victory was widely hailed as a stunning upset over the strongly favored British, who were regarded as the top two golfers in the world. He was the first amateur to win the U.S. Open. The biggest crowds ever seen in American golf followed the playoff, and his achievement was front-page news across the country.

Ouimet's U.S. Open success is credited for bringing golf into the American sporting mainstream. Before his win over Vardon and Ray, golf was dominated by British players. In America, the sport was restricted to players with access to private facilities. There were very few public courses (the first, Van Cortlandt Golf Course in The Bronx borough of New York City, opened in 1895). Ten years after his 1913 victory, the number of American players had tripled and many new courses had been built, including numerous public ones.

Ouimet aspired to become a businessman to elevate himself into the middle class. The life of a professional golfer at that time did not offer an avenue to reach that goal. Within ten years of his U.S. Open victory, Ouimet had started to work as a banker and eventually a stock broker, which had always been his intention. He culminated his business career as a customer's financial advisor at Brown Brothers Harriman.

During the First World War he served in the US Army.

In 1963, WGBH-TV, Boston's public television station, aired an interview with Ouimet at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, to mark the 50th anniversary of his win at the 1913 U.S. Open. The kinescope of that interview was included in the DVD of the Walt Disney film The Greatest Game Ever Played. Disney's film took artistic license, portraying the win as having been by a single stroke when, in reality, Ouimet won by five strokes.

Controversy resolved Ouimet never turned professional; Ouimet did not bear a grudge against the USGA and served on several committees. He was also a golf member of Charles River Country Club in Newton Centre, and was a member of the Woodland Golf Club of Auburndale.

Ouimet won his second U.S. Amateur in 1931. He played on the first eight Walker Cup Teams and was Captain of the next four for a team record of 11-1. In 1951, he became the first non-Briton elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and in 1955 was the first-ever winner of the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the USGA, in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. Ouimet has been named to many golf halls of fame and has a room named after him in the USGA Museum.

Two other aspects of Ouimet's golf career are important: He used the overlapping grip to hold the club and was among the first top players to use this method. He very likely used the grip to emulate Vardon, who often is credited with developing the grip. Many great golf champions since have used this technique. The method is named for the "overlapping' of the little finger of the top hand between the forefinger and middle finger of the bottom hand. Ouimet mentored and encouraged the young Gene Sarazen, who developed into one of golf's greatest champions.

Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund In 1949, a group of Ouimet's friends started a scholarship in his honor, naming it the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund.

Depictions

In 1988 a portrait of Ouimet appeared on a commemorative 25-cent United States Postal Service postage stamp in his honor.

In 2002, Mark Frost wrote a biographical account of Ouimet's U.S. Open victory titled The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf. Shortly afterward, Frost was tapped by Walt Disney Studios to write a motion picture adaptation. The Greatest Game Ever Played was released in theaters in 2005. The film starred Shia LaBeouf as Ouimet and was directed by Bill Paxton and produced by Larry Brezner.

Appearing on the cover of The Greatest Game is a photograph of Ouimet at the U.S. Open with his 10-year-old caddie, Eddie Lowery. This iconic image is one of the best known in American golf and was used as the logo for the United States Golf Association's Centennial celebrations. A statue of Ouimet and Lowery based on the photograph stands in Brookline, Massachusetts, and at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida.

A street is named after Ouimet in Greenside, Johannesburg, South Africa, close to the Parkview Golf Course. A number of adjacent streets are also named after golfers, although the street in Johannesburg is named Quimet Street. How the misspelling occurred is not known. The street is still sometimes pronounced (correctly) without the Q, while it is also sometimes pronounced in the French way (Wee-May).

Personal life Ouimet married Stella M. Sullivan on September 11, 1918. They had two daughters: Janice Salvi and Barbara McLean.

Ouimet died in Newton, Massachusetts, on September 2, 1967, at age 74.

Amateur wins

1913 Massachusetts Amateur 1914 U.S. Amateur, Massachusetts Amateur, French Open Amateur Championship 1915 Massachusetts Amateur 1917 Western Amateur 1919 Massachusetts Amateur 1920 North and South Amateur 1922 Massachusetts Amateur 1925 Massachusetts Amateur 1931 U.S. Amateur

Amateur major shown in bold.

Professional wins (15) PGA Tour wins (1) 1932 Massachusetts Open Source:

Other wins (14) 1910 Woodland Golf Club Open 1911 Woodland Golf Club Open 1912 The Country Club Cup, Allston Golf Club Open Championship 1913 Meadow Brook Golf Club Open, U.S. Open 1915 Baltimore Country Club Spring Invitational 1922 Houston Invitational 1923 St. George's Challenge 1924 Crump Memorial 1925 Gold Mashie Tournament, Bermuda Handicap Tourney at Riddle's Bay 1927 Crump Memorial 1934 Boston Open

Professional major shown in bold.

Major championships (3) Professional wins (1) YearChampionship54 holesWinning scoreMarginRunners-up 1913 U.S. Open Tied for lead +12 (77-74-74-79=304) Playoff 1 Harry Vardon, Ted Ray 1 Defeated Vardon and Ray in an 18-hole playoff – Ouimet 72 (−1), Vardon 77 (+4), Ray 78 (+5)

Amateur wins (2) YearChampionshipWinning scoreRunner-up 1914 U.S. Amateur 6 & 5 Jerome Travers 1931 U.S. Amateur 6 & 5 Jack Westland

Results timeline Tournament1950Masters TournamentU.S. OpenThe Open ChampionshipU.S. AmateurThe Amateur ChampionshipR128 Note: As an amateur, Ouimet could not play in the PGA Championship.

M = Medalist LA = Low amateur NYF = Tournament not yet founded NT = No tournament WD = Withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place DNQ = Did not qualify for match play portion R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play

Summary Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts madeMasters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -U.S. Open 1 0 1 3 3 4 6 -The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -U.S. Amateur 2 1 6 10 14 16 26 19The Amateur Championship 0 0 1 1 1 3 10 -Totals 3 1 8 14 18 23 44 19 Most consecutive cuts made – 9 (1913 U.S. Amateur – 1924 U.S. Amateur) Longest streak of top-10s – 3 (1921 U.S. Amateur – 1923 The Amateur Championship, 1923 U.S. Amateur – 1925 U.S. Open)

U.S. national team appearances Amateur Walker Cup: 1922 (winners), 1923 (winners), 1924 (winners), 1926 (winners), 1928 (winners), 1930 (winners), 1932 (winners, playing captain), 1934 (winners, playing captain), 1936 (winners, playing captain), 1938 (non-playing captain), 1947 (winners, non-playing captain), 1949 (winners, non-playing captain)