Best Golfer from Every State: New Jersey Golf and Vic Ghezzi

We continue our best golfer series by checking out New Jersey golf, and one-time major winner Vic Ghezzi.

Like Nevada earlier in the series, New Jersey finds itself with a fair amount of golfers that call the state their home. Few of them are actually from there, but Vic Ghezzi is (sorry, no Getty Images of Ghezzi, there is a link at the bottom that has him though).

It came down to Ghezzi and one other golfer, who was actually born in the year that Ghezzi won his only major. Jim Colbert nearly dethroned Ghezzi, but when it came down to it, he wasn’t quite able to. Colbert dominated on the senior tour, winning 20 times. His lack of success at majors and on the PGA Tour, at least in comparison to Ghezzi, was the deciding factor.

That makes Vic Ghezzi the top product of New Jersey Golf.

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As for many athletes who played professional sports in the early 40s, the career of Ghezzi could’ve looked a lot different if not for the War. I read about this a lot growing up when it came to baseball players (I read every baseball book I could get my hands on… a couple of times). I don’t know too much about golf back then though, other than some of the big names.

Ghezzi is one who, if everything fell correct, could’ve been remembered as being right below the tier of Snead, Nelson, and Hogan. Elected to the Ryder Cup three separate times in 1939, 41, and 43, he was unable to play in any of them due to the War. Major tournaments also started being canceled right at the time Ghezzi was getting into his groove.

In 1941 at the PGA Championship, Ghezzi had cruised through the quarterfinals and eeked out a win in the Semifinals against Lloyd Mangrum. He found himself against a big dog in the finals in Byron Nelson himself. It was a back and forth match and it looked like Nelson was going to add another major to his resume through the first 27 holes. He was up three holes, and there wasn’t a lot of golf left.

He would lose the next three holes, and they were even with six left. Each winning two more, they were tied through 36. Ghezzi would win on the second playoff hole to earn his first major victory.

It took a victory over Mangrum and Nelson to earn him that major, and five years later at the U.S. Open, he found himself in a showdown with both of those men again for a chance at his second major.

Sometimes, you just need more golf to figure out a winner. You know, like a baseball game needs the 19th inning sometimes to figure out a winner. Four rounds weren’t enough, and neither was a fifth, as the three were still tied. Ghezzi was up two strokes with five holes left but would card three bogeys as Mangrum would card two bogeys, winning by a stroke, as Ghezzi would fall just short.

Next. Best Golfers from Every State: New Hampshire Golf and Jane Blalock. dark

He would finish his career with just the one major win, to go along with a total of 11 wins on the PGA Tour. He was inducted into both the New Jersey Hall of Fame as well as the PGA Hall of Fame, the latter of which happened in 1965. All of his accomplishments lock down his standing as the best to come from New Jersey Golf.

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