Virtual U.S. Open: Palmer, Boros and other challengers
By Bill Felber
Ralph Guldahl, 1937, 1938 (1932-1941), -1.12
Lloyd Mangrum, 1946 (1945-1954), -1.12
One of the dominant players of the 1930s, Guldahl won consecutive U.S. Open titles in 1937 and 1938. At Oakland Hills in 1937, he holed a 65-foot eagle putt on his way to a finishing 69 that held off a young Sam Snead by two strokes.
One year later, as the defending champion, Guldahl overcame an opening 74 and a four-stroke deficit through 54 holes to win by six strokes. Part of it was his own game – Guldahl closed with a 69 – and part was due to the collapse of his main challengers, none of whom broke 79.
At his Open peak – between 1932 and 9141 – Guldahl landed seven top 10s, including a runner-up finish to Johnny Goodman at North Shore in 1933. Guldahl missed a four-footer on the 72nd hole that would have thrown him into a tie with Goodman.
Mangrum was only launching his professional career when World War II broke out. Enlisting in the Army, he was wounded at Normandy, marched with Patton, and was wounded again at the Battle of the Bulge. He returned in 1946 a toughened player and proved it by winning that year’s Open in a three-way playoff with Vic Ghezzi and Byron Nelson at Canterbury.
That playoff, much of it conducted in heavy rain and occasional lightning that did not stop play was won by a serene Mangrum despite bogeys in those dangerous conditions on the final two holes.
Mangrum attributed his relaxed demeanor during outside influences such as that 1946 playoff to his combat experiences. “I don’t suppose that any …who were combat soldiers will ever be able to think of a three-putt green as one of the really bad troubles in life,” he once remarked.