Jack Fleck

{{Infobox golfer

| name = Jack Fleck

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| fullname = Jack Donald Fleck

| nickname =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1921|11|8}}

| birth_place = Bettendorf, Iowa, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|3|21|1921|11|7}}

| death_place = Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S.

| height = {{height|ft=6|in=1}}

| weight = {{convert|167|lb|kg st|abbr=on}}

| nationality = {{USA}}

| spouse = Carmen Fleck (m. 2001)
Lynn Burnsdale Fleck
(m. 1949–1975, her death)

| partner =

| children = Craig H.

| college = None

| yearpro = 1939

| retired =

| extour = PGA Tour
Senior PGA Tour

| prowins = 9

| pgawins = 3

| otherwins = 4 (regular)
2 (senior)

| majorwins = 1

| masters = T11: 1962

| usopen = Won: 1955

| open = DNP

| pga = T7: 1962

| wghofid =

| wghofyear =

| award1 =

| year1 =

| award2 =

| year2 =

| awardssection =

}}

Jackson Donald Fleck (November 8, 1921 – March 21, 2014) was an American professional golfer, best known for winning the U.S. Open in 1955 in a playoff over Ben Hogan.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=niFcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TVUNAAAAIBAJ&pg=803%2C1803645 |work=Youngstown Vindicator |agency=Associated Press |title=Jack Fleck Registers 69 to Beat Ben Hogan by 3 Strokes for National Open Title |last=Grimsley |first=Will |date=June 20, 1955 |page=7}}{{cite magazine |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1129837/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213062811/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1129837/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |magazine=Sports Illustrated |title=Jack, The Giant Killer |last=Wind |first=Herbert Warren |author-link=Herbert Warren Wind |date=June 27, 1955 |pages=17–23}}{{cite news

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-11-sp-12007-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |last=Bonk |first=Thomas |title=He wasn't Hogan's hero |date=June 11, 1995 |access-date=January 12, 2014}}

Early years

Born in 1921 and raised in Bettendorf, Iowa,{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4688 |publisher=Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture |title=Jack Fleck (1921- ) |access-date=January 12, 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.sportspundit.com/athlete/7566/ |title=Sports Pudit |access-date=December 7, 2010}} Fleck's parents were poor farmers who had lost their land in the 1920s. He attended Davenport High School and played on its golf team. Fleck started as a caddie for a local dentist in the mid-1930s, turned professional in 1939,[http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/19720402/SPORTS11/50626015/Jack-Fleck-Davenport-1972 Jack Fleck, Davenport, 1972] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120728144033/http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/19720402/SPORTS11/50626015/Jack-Fleck-Davenport-1972 |date=2012-07-28 }} and worked as an assistant golf pro at the Des Moines Country Club for five dollars a week prior to World War II. He joined the military in 1942 and served in the U.S. Navy as a quartermaster;{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5yEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7GQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4732%2C3335087 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |last=Thimmesch |first=Nick |agency=Family Weekly magazine |title=Meet the new king of golf |date=September 18, 1955 |page=4 }} he participated in the D-Day invasion from a British rocket-firing ship off Normandy's Utah Beach.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=c6xWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vOgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7113%2C5298790 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |last=Murray |first=Jim |author-link=Jim Murray (sportswriter) |title=Jack Fleck: lonesome anti-hero |date=January 31, 1967 |page=11}} Within two weeks after his discharge from the service, Fleck was on the PGA's winter golf tour with pro friends trying to qualify for PGA Tour events.

Pro career

After a few years of competing in local and PGA Tour events, Fleck decided to play full-time on the Tour for two years. Within six months, Fleck had his first win — on the biggest stage in men's professional golf — at the 1955 U.S. Open. Fleck won an 18-hole Sunday playoff by three strokes over his idol, Ben Hogan, at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.{{cite web |title=Biographical information from Jack Fleck Golf |url=http://www.jackfleckgolf.com/about.html |access-date=June 15, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905063627/http://www.jackfleckgolf.com/about.html |archive-date=September 5, 2006 }} His first round deficit of nine strokes (behind Tommy Bolt), was the greatest number overcome by a U.S. Open winner.[http://usga.usopen.com/2009/history/usopen-records.html U.S. Open Records] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004092537/http://usga.usopen.com/2009/history/usopen-records.html |date=2011-10-04 }} - Best Comeback by Winner, Final 54 Holes The following year he resigned his job as a municipal club pro in Davenport and moved to the Detroit area in October 1956.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8WwrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=s9kEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2382%2C628393 |newspaper=Spencer Daily Reporter |location=Spencer, Iowa |agency=Associated Press |title=Jack Fleck takes job as club pro in Detroit |date=October 11, 1956 |page=9 }}

Fleck made three playoffs on tour in 1960, winning at the Phoenix Open in February.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=16BIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=awsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3395%2C2180936 |newspaper=News and Courier |location=Charleston, South Carolina |agency=Associated Press |last=Wood |first=Bob |title=Jack Fleck wins Phoenix golf title |date=February 16, 1960 |page=2B }}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-TRWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9OcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6691%2C1407046 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |title=Jack Fleck is mining gold on golf's tournament trail |date=April 3, 1960 |page=2-sports}} He tied for third at the U.S. Open in 1960, and won his third and last tour event in October 1961, The Bakersfield Open, also in a playoff.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nQMuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bTEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2874%2C3503965|newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |location=Rome, Georgia |agency=Associated Press |title=Jack Fleck nips Bob Rosburg in Bakersfield Open playoff |date=October 2, 1961 |page=7}} Fleck finished in the top ten at the PGA Championship in 1962 at Aronimink near Philadelphia, a tie for seventh, then left the tour in 1963. He was a club pro in Wisconsin, Illinois, and California (Plumas Lake CC), and attempted a comeback on tour in 1970.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=u0hQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QVcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6794%2C430127 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Evening Independent |last=Robinson |first=Bill |title=Remember me?: Fleck is back to try again |date=March 3, 1970 |page=1C}} Following the death of his wife Lynn in 1975, he qualified for the U.S. Open in 1977 at age 55, but missed the cut.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gXY0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=UiQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3174%2C5809009 |newspaper=Times-News |location=Hendersonville, North Carolina |agency=Associated Press |last=Grimsley |first=Will |title=Jack Fleck's story is one of life's ironies |date=June 18, 1977 |page=7 }}

Less than two years later, Fleck won the PGA Seniors' Championship in February 1979,{{cite web |url=http://www.pgamediaguide.com/seniorpgachamp_detail.cfm?tournament_id=339&date=1979&tourn_name_id=1 |publisher=PGA of America |title=Tournament Info for: 1979 Senior PGA Championship |date=February 1–4, 1979 |access-date=January 12, 2014}} also won in a playoff,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=otciAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7ssFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5528%2C3728218 |newspaper=Palm Bach Post |title=Fleck triumphs in playoff |date=February 5, 1979 |page=B7}} a year prior to the formation of the Senior PGA Tour.{{cite journal|title=Jack Fleck's visit to Valhalla |journal=Golf Digest |first=Bill |last=Fields |url=http://www.golfdigest.com/newsandtour/index.ssf?/newsandtour/gw20040604fields.html |date=June 4, 2004 |access-date=June 15, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040706023900/http://golfdigest.com/newsandtour/index.ssf?%2Fnewsandtour%2Fgw20040604fields.html |archive-date=July 6, 2004 |url-status=dead }} He was inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame in 1990.{{cite web |url=http://www.iowagolf.org/HTML/Hall_of_Fame/1990/JackFleck.html |title=Jack Fleck, Davenport |publisher= Iowa Golf Association |access-date=January 28, 2012}}

In 1993, needing money to salvage a little golf course he owned in rural Arkansas that had been damaged by flooding, a place he called Li'l Bit of Heaven, he sold his 1955 U.S. Open gold medal. He lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas with his wife Carmen Fleck.{{cite book |title=Be a Golf Tour Champion |first=Jack |last=Fleck}}

Personal

Fleck met his first wife, Lynn Burnsdale of Chicago, when she stopped in the municipal course's pro shop in Davenport in 1949 with a club that needed repair. They were married six weeks later and late the next year added their only child, a son. Fleck wanted to name him Snead Hogan Fleck, but they settled on Craig, after Craig Wood, the winner of the Masters and U.S. Open in 1941. Lynn is credited with encouraging him to play on tour in the early 1950s and again in the early 1970s. She died in 1975 and Fleck remarried in 1980. He married his wife Carmen in 2001. He died on March 21, 2014, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, at the age of 92.{{cite news |url=http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/jack-fleck-upset-hogan-1955-us-open-dies-94/ |title=Jack Fleck, upset Hogan in '55 U.S. Open, dies at 92 |work=Golf Channel |first=Al |last=Tays |date=March 21, 2014 |access-date=March 22, 2014 |archive-date=February 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228031033/http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/jack-fleck-upset-hogan-1955-us-open-dies-94/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/03/21/jack-fleck-obituary.html |title=Jack Fleck, 1955 U.S. Open champ, passes away |publisher=PGA Tour |date=March 21, 2014}} He was the oldest living U.S. Open champion at the time of his death.{{cite news |last=Crouse |first=Karen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/sports/golf/jack-fleck-was-unlikely-winner-of-55-us-open.html |title=Finally Passing Test of Time |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 2, 2012 |access-date=January 12, 2014}}

Professional wins (9)

=PGA Tour wins (3)=

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

! Legend

style="background:#e5d1cb;"

|Major championships (1)

Other PGA Tour (2)

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

!No.

!Date

!Tournament

!Winning score

!To par

!Margin of
victory

!Runner-up

style="background:#e5d1cb;"

|align=center|1

|align=right|Jun 19, 1955

|U.S. Open

|align=right|76-69-75-67=287

|align=center|+7

|Playoff

|{{flagicon|USA}} Ben Hogan

align=center|2

|align=right|Feb 15, 1960

|Phoenix Open Invitational

|align=right|68-68-71-66=273

|align=center|−11

|Playoff

|{{flagicon|USA}} Bill Collins

align=center|3

|align=right|Oct 1, 1961

|Bakersfield Open

|align=right|71-71-69-65=276

|align=center|−12

|Playoff

|{{flagicon|USA}} Bob Rosburg

PGA Tour playoff record (3–2)

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

!No.!!Year!!Tournament!!Opponent(s)!!Result

style="background:#D0F0C0;"

|align=center|1

|1955

|U.S. Open

|{{flagicon|USA}} Ben Hogan

|Won 18-hole playoff;
Fleck: −1 (69),
Hogan: +2 (72)

style="background:#D0F0C0;"

|align=center|2

|1960

|Phoenix Open Invitational

|{{flagicon|USA}} Bill Collins

|Won 18-hole playoff;
Fleck: −3 (68),
Collins: E (71)

style="background:#F2C1D1;"

|align=center|3

|1960

|St. Petersburg Open Invitational

{{flagicon|USA}} George Bayer

|Lost to birdie on first extra hole

style="background:#F2C1D1;"

|align=center|4

|1960

|Insurance City Open Invitational

|{{flagicon|USA}} Bill Collins, {{flagicon|USA}} Arnold Palmer

|Palmer won with birdie on third extra hole
Collins eliminated by birdie on first hole

style="background:#D0F0C0;"

|align=center|5

|1961

|Bakersfield Open

|{{flagicon|USA}} Bob Rosburg

|Won with birdie on first extra hole

=Other wins (4)=

1952 RGCC Shelden Invitational
1954 RGCC Shelden Invitational
1964 Illinois PGA Championship
1965 Illinois Open Championship

=Senior wins (2)=

1979 PGA Seniors' Championship
1995 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf - Demaret Division (with Tommy Bolt)

Major championships

=Wins (1)=

class="wikitable"

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

style="background:#FBCEB1;"

| 1955

U.S. Open

3 shot deficit

+7 (76-69-75-67=287)

Playoff ¹

{{flagicon|USA}} Ben Hogan

¹ Defeated Hogan in an 18-hole playoff – Fleck 69 (–1), Hogan 72 (+2).

=Results timeline=

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;"|

|T43

|T26

|T39

|T18

align=left|U.S. Open

|CUT

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|T52

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:lime;"|1

|CUT

|T26

|CUT

|T19

align=left|PGA Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|R64

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|style="background:yellow;"|R16

|R32

|R64

|WD

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

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

!Tournament

!1960

!1961

!1962

!1963

!1964

!1965

!1966

!1967

!1968

!1969

align=left|Masters Tournament

|T34

|WD

|T11

|42

|CUT

|DQ

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|U.S. Open

|style="background:yellow;"|T3

|T27

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|CUT

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|CUT

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|PGA Championship

|CUT

|T19

|style="background:yellow;"|T7

|WD

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|T20

|T49

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

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

!Tournament

!1970

!1971

!1972

!1973

!1974

!1975

!1976

!1977

align=left|Masters Tournament

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

align=left|U.S. Open

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

|CUT

align=left|PGA Championship

|style="background:#eeeeee;"|

Note: Fleck never played The Open Championship.

CUT = missed the half-way cut (3rd round cut in 1960 PGA Championship)

DQ = disqualified

WD = withdrew

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

"T" = tied

=Summary=

Totals	1	0	1	2	4	10	34	21
class=wikitable style=text-align:center !Tournament !! Wins !! 2nd !! 3rd !! Top-5 !! Top-10 !! Top-25 !! Events !! Cuts made
align=left\|Masters Tournament	0	0	0	0	0	2	10	7
align=left\|U.S. Open	1	0	1	2	2	3	13	6
align=left\|The Open Championship	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
align=left\|PGA Championship	0	0	0	0	2	5	11	8