Lawson Little
Lawson Little | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Personal information | |||||
Full name | William Lawson Little Jr. | ||||
Nickname | Cannonball | ||||
Born | Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island | June 23, 1910||||
Died | February 1, 1968 Monterey, California | (aged 57)||||
Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||||
Weight | 200 lb (91 kg; 14 st) | ||||
Sporting nationality | United States | ||||
Spouse | Dorothy Hurd (m. 1936-1968) | ||||
Children | Linda, Sandra, Sonya, William Lawson III | ||||
Career | |||||
College | Stanford University | ||||
Turned professional | 1936 | ||||
Former tour(s) | PGA Tour | ||||
Professional wins | 9 | ||||
Number of wins by tour | |||||
PGA Tour | 8 | ||||
Best results in major championships (wins: 5) | |||||
Masters Tournament | T3: 1939 | ||||
PGA Championship | T17: 1946, 1951 | ||||
U.S. Open | Won: 1940 | ||||
The Open Championship | T4: 1935 | ||||
U.S. Amateur | Won: 1934, 1935 | ||||
British Amateur | Won: 1934, 1935 | ||||
Achievements and awards | |||||
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William Lawson Little Jr. (June 23, 1910 – February 1, 1968) was an American professional golfer who also had a distinguished amateur career.
Little was born in Newport, Rhode Island, and lived much of his early life in the San Francisco area, where his father was a senior military officer. Little was one of the most dominant amateur players in the history of the sport, capturing both the British Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, then regarded as major championships, consecutively in 1934 and 1935. He remains the only player to have won both titles in the same year more than once. Little's winning margin of 14 and 13 in the 1934 British final remains the record for dominance. Bob Dickson, Harold Hilton and Bobby Jones are the only other golfers to have won the two titles in the same year.
Little graduated from Stanford University in 1934 and is a member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. He won the James E. Sullivan Award for outstanding amateur athlete in 1935. Little was a student of golf instructor Ernest Jones.
Little turned professional in April 1936, and he won eight times on the PGA Tour including one professional major, the 1940 U.S. Open. This tally was considered somewhat disappointing; he was said to have lost interest in golf during World War II, when the major championships were cancelled, and to have focused his attention more on the stock market. He carried up to 26 clubs in his bag, and this prompted the United States Golf Association to introduce the 14-club limit in 1938.
Little died in Monterey, California in 1968. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1980.
Amateur wins (9)
- 1928 Northern California Amateur
- 1929 Orinda Country Club Fourth of July Invitational
- 1930 Northern California Amateur
- 1932 Broadmoor Invitational
- 1933 Colorado Match Play Championship
- 1934 U.S. Amateur, British Amateur
- 1935 U.S. Amateur, British Amateur
Professional wins
PGA Tour wins (8)
- 1936 (1) Canadian Open
- 1937 (2) Shawnee Open, San Francisco National Match Play Open
- 1940 (2) U.S. Open, Los Angeles Open
- 1941 (1) Texas Open
- 1942 (1) Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Lloyd Mangrum)
- 1948 (1) St. Petersburg Open
Professional major championship is shown in bold.
Other wins
- 1934 Northern California Open (as an amateur)
Major championships
Professional wins (1)
Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1940 | U.S. Open | 1 shot deficit | −1 (72-69-73-73=287) | Playoff 1 | Gene Sarazen |
1 Defeated Sarazen in an 18-hole playoff - Little 70 (−2), Sarazen 73 (+1).
Amateur wins (4)
Year | Championship | Winning score | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|
1934 | U.S. Amateur | 8 & 7 | David Goldman |
1934 | British Amateur | 14 & 13 | James Wallace |
1935 | U.S. Amateur | 4 & 2 | Walter Emery |
1935 | British Amateur | 1 up | William Tweddell |
Results timeline
Amateur
Tournament | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
U.S. Amateur | QF | R16 | DNQ | R32 | SF | 1 | 1 |
The Amateur Championship | 1 | 1 |
Professional
Tournament | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 6 LA | T20 | T19 | T10 | T3 | |
U.S. Open | T25 LA | CUT | T38 | T42 | ||
The Open Championship | T4 LA | CUT | ||||
PGA Championship |
Tournament | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | T19 | 8 | T7 | NT | NT | NT | T21 | T14 | T40 | T23 |
U.S. Open | 1 | T17 | NT | NT | NT | NT | T10 | T31 | CUT | CUT |
The Open Championship | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | 10 | T32 | ||
PGA Championship | NT | R32 | R64 | R64 |
Tournament | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 9 | 6 | WD | T38 | 65 | T72 | T28 | |
U.S. Open | CUT | CUT | CUT | T45 | T35 | CUT | ||
The Open Championship | ||||||||
PGA Championship | R32 | R64 |
LA = low amateur
NT = no tournament
WD = withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
DNQ = did not qualify for match play portion of U.S. Amateur
R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = round in which player lost in match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Sources: Masters,[1] U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur,[2] British Open[3]
Summary
Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 19 | 18 |
U.S. Open | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 9 |
The Open Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
Totals | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 21 | 44 | 35 |
- Most consecutive cuts made – 13 (1940 Masters – 1948 PGA)
- Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (three times)
U.S. national team appearances
Amateur
- Walker Cup: 1934 (winners)
See also
References
- ^ "Past Winners & Results". Masters Tournament. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
- ^ USGA Championship Database Archived 2010-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Muirfield – 1935 Results – Lawson Little". The Open. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
External links
- American male golfers
- Stanford Cardinal men's golfers
- PGA Tour golfers
- Winners of men's major golf championships
- World Golf Hall of Fame inductees
- Golfers from Rhode Island
- Golfers from California
- James E. Sullivan Award recipients
- Sportspeople from Newport, Rhode Island
- Sportspeople from San Francisco
- 1910 births
- 1968 deaths