Gene Sarazen biography

 Gene Sarazen biography

Gene Sarazen, byname of Eugene Saraceni, (born February 27, 1902, Harrison, New York, U.S.—died May 13, 1999, Naples, Florida), distinguished American skilled golfer of the Nineteen Twenties and ’30s. His double eagle—i.e., his rating of three strokes beneath par—on the par-five fifteenth gap within the final spherical of the 1935 Masters Tournament is likely one of the most well-known pictures within the historical past of the sport.

Born to impoverished Italian immigrants, Sarazen started caddying when he was eight. He received the U.S. Open in 1922 and in 1932, additionally successful the British Open (Open Championship) in 1932. He received the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) championship thrice (1922, 1923, and 1933) and the Masters Tournament in 1935. With that victory on the Masters, he turned the primary participant to attain a profession Grand Slam in golf (that's, successful the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, the PGA Championship, and the Masters Tournament throughout one’s profession, a feat solely Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Tiger Woods have since achieved). Sarazen additionally performed on six consecutive Ryder Cup groups.

It was Sarazen who invented the golf membership generally known as the sand wedge. This specialised membership permits golfers to extra simply hit out of sand traps (bunkers). The introduction of the sand wedge to the sport lowered scores and finally led to the redesign of many golf programs so as to hold them at their earlier degree of issue.

After retiring from energetic competitors in 1973, Sarazen labored to advertise the sport of golf and wrote quite a few books on the topic. His autobiography, Thirty Years of Championship Golf, was revealed in 1950.