Francis Ouimet

Francis DeSales Ouimet (May 8, 1893 – September 3, 1967) was an American golfer. He is widely known for winning the 1913 U.S. Open, and was the first American elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. His father, Louis, was a French-Canadian immigrant and his mother was an Irish immigrant. He married Stella M. Sullivan on September 11, 1918, with whom he had two daughters : Jane Salvi and Barbara McLean.cite web |title=America's triumph: Remembering a legend |url=http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/1999/sept/21/ouimet21.htm |quote=The year was 1913. He was a young man of modest means, but he shook up the exclusive world of golf. |first=Rob |last=Duca |publisher="Cape Cod Times" |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20001215080700/http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/1999/sept/21/ouimet21.htm |archivedate=2000-12-15 |accessdate=2007-12-12]

Career

Ouimet won the 1913 U.S. Open as a 20-year-old amateur playing at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he used to caddie, playing against Britons Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. Ouimet's victory after an 18-hole playoff against Vardon and Ray was widely hailed as a stunning upset over the strongly-favored Britons. He was the first amateur to win the U.S. Open.

He also won the U.S. Amateur Championship twice, in 1914 and 1931. He played on the first eight Walker Cup Teams and was Captain of the next four for a team record of 11-1. In 1951 he became the first American elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and in 1955 was the first-ever winner of the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.

Ouimet has been named to every Golf Hall of Fame, and has a room named after him in the USGA Museum. His wish was to remain an amateur for his whole career: he decided before his U.S. Open success that he wanted to work in the world of business. However, in 1916, the USGA, in one of the most controversial decisions in their history, stripped Ouimet of his amateur status. Their reasoning was that he was using his celebrity to aid his own sports goods business, and was therefore making a living from golf. This was at the time when caddies were not allowed to continue caddying after they reached the age of sixteen years old unless they declared themselves professionals. The decision was greeted with uproar from Ouimet's fellow golfers. In 1918, Ouimet enlisted for the U.S. Army, and the USGA quietly resinstated his amateur status at the same time. He would go on to win his second U.S. Amateur Championship 13 years later in 1931. He did not bear a grudge against the Association, and served on several committees.

Tournament wins

* 1913 U.S. Open, Massachusetts State Amateur
* 1914 U.S. Amateur, Massachusetts State Amateur, French Open Amateur
* 1915 Massachusetts State Amateur
* 1916 French Open
* 1917 Western Amateur
* 1919 Massachusetts State Amateur
* 1920 North and South Amateur
* 1922 Massachusetts State Amateur
* 1925 Massachusetts State Amateur
* 1931 U.S. Amateur
* 1932 Massachusetts Open
* 1934 Boston Open

Major championships

Wins (1)

¹ Defeated Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff - Ouimet 72, Vardon 77, Ray 78

Performance in Majors

Ouimet participated in the U.S. Open 6 times and The Masters once.

;U.S. Open
* 1913 - Won
* 1914 - T5
* 1915 - T35
* 1919 - T18
* 1923 - T29
* 1925 - T3
* T = tied

Masters
* 1941 - Withdrew

Effect on U.S. golf

Ouimet's U.S. Open success is credited for bringing golf into the American sporting mainstream. Before his surprising win over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, golf was dominated by British players. In America, the sport was restricted to players with access to private facilities—there were very few public courses (the first, Van Cortlandt Golf Course in The Bronx borough of New York City, had opened in 1895). Ten years after his 1913 victory the number of American players had tripled and many new courses had been built, including numerous public ones.

Depictions

In 1988, a portrait of Ouimet appeared on a commemorative 25 cent United States Postal Service postage stamp in his honor. [Scott catalog # 2377.]

In 2002, Mark Frost wrote a biographical account of Ouimet's U.S. Open victory titled "The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf". Shortly afterward, Frost was tapped by Walt Disney Studios to write a motion picture adaptation. "The Greatest Game Ever Played" was released in theaters in 2005. The film starred Shia LaBeouf as Ouimet, was directed by Bill Paxton, and produced by Larry Brezner.

Appearing on the cover of "The Greatest Game" is a photograph of Ouimet at the U.S. Open with his ten-year-old caddy, Eddie Lowery. This iconic image is one of the best known in American golf, and was used as the logo for the United States Golf Association's Centennial celebrations. A statue of Ouimet and Lowery based on the photograph stands in Brookline, Massachusetts.

References

* Gibson, Nevin H. "The Encyclopedia of Golf" (A.S. Barnes & Company, 1958)
* Frost, Mark "The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf" (Hyperion, 2002)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.ouimet.org/about/about-francis.html Francis Ouimet Biography from the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund]
* [http://www.wghof.com/hof/member.php?member=1089 World Golf Hall of Fame profile]
* [http://www.hickorygolfers.com/articletemplate.php?art=darwin_usopen1913.htm 1913 U.S. Open by Bernard Darwin]
* [http://www.hickorygolfers.com/dublincore/dckeyword.php?dc_searchstring=ouimet Electronic Resources] From SoHG Archives
* [http://www.hickorygolfers.com/swings/index.php Hagen Swing Sequences - Brassie, Iron and Putt] From SoHG Master Classes