Craig Wood (golfer)

{{Infobox golfer

| name = Craig Wood

| image = Craig Wood at 1933 LA Open.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Wood in 1933

| fullname = Craig Ralph Wood

| nickname =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|11|18}}

| birth_place = Lake Placid, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|5|7|1901|11|18}}

| death_place = Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.

| height =

| weight =

| nationality = {{USA}}

| spouse = Jacqueline Valentine (1907–1967)

| partner =

| children =

| college = Clarkson College
Rider College{{cite web |url=https://www.njsga.org/news/post/hall-of-fame-spotlight-craig-wood |title=Hall of Fame Spotlight: Craig Wood |publisher=New Jersey State Golf Association |date=March 25, 2019}}

| yearpro = 1920

| retired =

| extour = PGA Tour

| prowins = 28

| pgawins = 21

| otherwins = 7

| majorwins = 2

| masters = Won: 1941

| usopen = Won: 1941

| open = 2nd: 1933

| pga = 2nd: 1934

| wghofid = craig-wood

| wghofyear = 2008

| awardssection =

}}

Craig Ralph Wood (November 18, 1901 – May 7, 1968) was an American professional golfer in the 1930s and 1940s, the winner of 21 PGA Tour titles including two major championships and a member of three Ryder Cup teams {{nowrap|(1931, 1933, 1935)}}.

Wood was the first player to lose all four major championships in extra holes.{{cite news |url=https://apnews.com/9dd3c18629344dbeb339b4899ed568a0 |work=Associated Press News |title=Craig Wood, a study in major championship heartache |date=April 5, 2016 |access-date=April 12, 2016}} His major wins came late in his career at age 39, winning the first two of 1941, the Masters and U.S. Open.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ruEcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h2QEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1908%2C7289699 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |agency=Associated Press |title=Craig Wood makes top Comeback of Year |date=December 21, 1941 |page=7 }}

Playing career

Born in Lake Placid, New York, Wood turned professional in 1920 at age 18. Despite his two major championships, he is probably most well known as the victim of Gene Sarazen's famous double eagle in the 1935 Augusta National Invitational (now known as the Masters Tournament). The shot left the two players tied at the end of regulation and Sarazen went on to victory in a 36-hole playoff.

This was Wood's fourth runner-up and third playoff loss in a major in just two years. In the 1933 British Open at St Andrews, Denny Shute had defeated Wood in another 36-hole playoff. In the spring of 1934, Wood was the runner up by a single shot to Horton Smith at the first Masters and later that year he was defeated on the 38th hole by Paul Runyan in the PGA Championship, then a match play event. At the 1939 U.S. Open he birdied the 72nd hole and was again in a playoff, but this time Byron Nelson was the winner, making Wood the first player to lose all four major championships in extra holes. Greg Norman is the only other player to suffer this fate.

At age 39 in 1941, Wood finally beat his "jinx" in noteworthy fashion. He won the eighth 1941 Masters Tournament in April, its first wire-to-wire champion with rounds of 66-71-71-72=280 for a three-shot victory over runner-up Byron Nelson. Two months later, he won the 45th U.S. Open, held at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. His score of 284 (+4) was three strokes ahead of Denny Shute, another on-course nemesis. This was the first time the winner of the Masters had won the U.S. Open in the same year for the first half of the grand slam. Subsequent winners of the first two majors were Ben Hogan (1951, 1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tiger Woods (2002), and Jordan Spieth (2015).

In 1954, the Lake Placid Golf and Country Club changed its name to the "Craig Wood Golf Course" in honor of its native son.{{cite web |url=http://www.craigwoodgolfclub.com/course/ |title=Craig Wood Golf Club – The Craig Wood Story |access-date=January 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102191540/http://www.craigwoodgolfclub.com/course/ |archive-date=January 2, 2014 }}

Death

Wood died in Palm Beach, Florida in 1968 at age 66, of a heart attack.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nTUmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cf4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3804%2C4750940 |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |location=Pennsylvania |agency=Associated Press |title=Ex-golfing great, Craig Wood, dies |date=May 9, 1968 |page=12 }} He was the second Masters champion to die, preceded by Horton Smith in 1963 and followed by Jimmy Demaret in 1983. Wood and his wife {{nowrap|Jacqueline (1907–1967)}} are buried in North Elba, New York, just south of Lake Placid. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame 2008 on the PGA Tour ballot.{{cite web |url=http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/06/24/uswomensopen/index.html |title=Career female amateur joins World Golf Hall of Fame |publisher=PGA Tour |date=June 24, 2008 |access-date=January 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930061415/http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/06/24/uswomensopen/index.html |archive-date=September 30, 2012 |url-status=dead }}

Professional wins (28)

=PGA Tour wins (21)=

1928 (1) New Jersey PGA Championship
1929 (2) Oklahoma City Open, Hawaiian Open
1930 (2) New Jersey PGA Championship, Reddy Tee Tournament
1931 (1) Harlingen Open
1932 (3) New Jersey PGA Match Play Championship, San Francisco National Match Play Open, Pasadena Open
1933 (2) Los Angeles Open, Radium Springs Open
1934 (2) Galveston Open Championship, New Jersey Open
1936 (1) General Brock Open
1938 (1) Augusta Open-Forest Hills
1940 (2) Metropolitan Open, Miami Biltmore International Four-Ball (with Billy Burke)
1941 (2) Masters Tournament, U.S. Open
1942 (1) Canadian Open
1944 (1) Durham Open

Major championships are shown in bold.

=Other wins (7)=

:Note: This list may be incomplete.

1925 Kentucky Open
1926 Kentucky PGA Championship
1929 Pasadena Open (January)
1934 Lakes Open
1938 New Jersey PGA Championship
1942 Metropolitan PGA Championship
1943 Golden Valley Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret)

Major championships

=Wins (2)=

class="wikitable"

!Year!!Championship!!54 holes!!Winning score!!Margin!!Runner-up

style="background:#D0F0C0;"

| 1941

Masters Tournament

3 shot lead

−8 (66-71-71-72=280)

3 strokes

{{flagicon|USA|1912}} Byron Nelson

style="background:#FBCEB1;"

| 1941

U.S. Open

2 shot lead

+4 (73-71-70-70=284)

3 strokes

{{flagicon|USA|1912}} Denny Shute

=Results timeline=

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;text-align:center;"

!Tournament

!1925

!1926

!1927

!1928

!1929

align=left|U.S. Open

|T51

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|CUT

|T46

|T16

align=left|The Open Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|PGA Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:yellow;"|QF

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;text-align:center;"

!Tournament

!1930

!1931

!1932

!1933

!1934

!1935

!1936

!1937

!1938

!1939

align=left|Masters Tournament

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|NYF

|style="background:yellow;"|2

|T20

|T26

|T34

|style="background:yellow;"|6

align=left|U.S. Open

|style="background:yellow;"|T9

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|T14

|style="background:yellow;"|3

|DQ

|T21

|T66

|T36

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:yellow;"|2

align=left|The Open Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:yellow;"|2

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|PGA Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|R32

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:yellow;"|2

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:yellow;"|SF

|R32

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;text-align:center;"

!Tournament

!1940

!1941

!1942

!1943

!1944

!1945

!1946

!1947

!1948

!1949

align=left|Masters Tournament

|style="background:yellow;"|T7

|style="background:lime;"|1

|T23

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|NT

|WD

|T53

|T43

|34

align=left|U.S. Open

|style="background:yellow;"|4

|style="background:lime;"|1

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|NT

|CUT

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|CUT

|T27

align=left|The Open Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|NT

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|PGA Championship

|R32

|style="background:yellow;"|QF

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|NT

|style="background:yellow;"|R16

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|R64

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;text-align:center;"

!Tournament

!1950

!1951

!1952

!1953

!1954

!1955

!1956

!1957

!1958

!1959

align=left|Masters Tournament

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|59

|62

|71

|62

|70

|CUT

align=left|U.S. Open

|CUT

|T47

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|The Open Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|PGA Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;text-align:center;"

!Tournament

!1960

!1961

!1962

!1963

!1964

align=left|Masters Tournament

|WD

|CUT

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|WD

align=left|U.S. Open

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|The Open Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|PGA Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

NYF = tournament not yet founded

NT = no tournament

WD = withdrew

DQ = disqualified

CUT = missed the half-way cut

R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match play

"T" indicates a tie for a place

=Summary=

Totals	2	5	2	12	16	25	55	42
class=wikitable style=text-align:center !Tournament !! Wins !! 2nd !! 3rd !! Top-5 !! Top-10 !! Top-25 !! Events !! Cuts made
align=left\|Masters Tournament	1	2	0	3	5	7	25	17
align=left\|U.S. Open	1	1	1	4	5	8	19	14
align=left\|The Open Championship	0	1	0	1	1	1	1	1
align=left\|PGA Championship	0	1	1	4	5	9	10	10

Most consecutive cuts made – 21 (1934 PGA – 1944 PGA)
Longest streak of top-10s – 4 (1939 Masters – 1940 U.S. Open)

References

External links

{{World Golf Hall of Fame|craig-wood}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160426141847/http://met.pga.com/Hall-of-Fame-Craig-Wood.html PGA of America: Metropolitan Section – Craig Wood]
[https://www.golfcompendium.com/2020/08/craig-wood-golfer.html GolfCompendium.com – Craig Wood]
[http://www.craigwoodgolfclub.com/ Craig Wood Golf Club – Lake Placid / North Elba, New York]
{{Find a Grave|8260475}}

{{navboxes

|title=Craig Wood in the Major Championships

|list1=

}}

{{navboxes|title=Craig Wood in the Ryder Cup

|list1={{1931 United States Ryder Cup team}}

}}

Category:American male golfers

Category:PGA Tour golfers

Category:Ryder Cup competitors for the United States

Category:Winners of men's major golf championships

Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees