Horton Smith

American professional golfer

Horton Smith (May 22, 1908 – October 15, 1963) was an American professional golfer, best known as the winner of the first and third Masters Tournaments.

Born in Springfield, Missouri, Smith turned professional in 1926 and won his first tournament, the Oklahoma City Open in 1928. In 1929 he won eight titles. This was an era of expansion and reorganization for professional golf. The PGA Tour was founded in 1934, and Smith was one of the leading players of the early years of the tour, topping the money list in 1936. He accumulated 30 PGA Tour titles in total, the last of them in 1941, and his two major championships came at the Masters, at the inaugural tournament in 1934 and again in 1936 (the latter was the first Masters to end on a Monday due to rain). Smith was a member of five Ryder Cup teams: 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935, and 1937. His career Ryder Cup record was 3–0–1, his only blemish a halved singles match against Bill Cox in 1935 at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey. Smith was the only golfer to defeat Bobby Jones during the latter's Grand Slam year of 1930, at the stroke play Savannah Open in February. He played in every Masters through 1963, the year of his death.

Smith served in the U. S. Army Air Forces during World War II in the special services division coordinating athletics and was discharged as a captain. After the war, he became the club pro at Detroit Golf Club in Michigan in 1946, where he remained until his death. He was president of the PGA of America from 1952 to 1954. During that time black professionals continued to be excluded from PGA events despite Smith stating that he would support reviewing this rule when, in January 1952, Bill Spiller was excluded from the San Diego Open while former boxer Joe Louis was allowed to play as an invited amateur. The "Caucasian only" clause in the PGA of America's constitution was not amended until November 1961. When he resigned as head professional of Oak Park Country Club in 1936, his elder brother Renshaw (1906–1971) replaced him at the club in River Grove, Illinois.

Smith died in 1963 at age 55 of Hodgkin's disease in Detroit. He had lost a lung to cancer six years earlier,
Smith was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1960, awarded the Ben Hogan Award by the golf writers for overcoming a physical handicap and continued active participation in golf. In 1962, he was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. The PGA of America bestowed the Horton Smith Award, presented annually since 1965, to a PGA professional who has made "outstanding and continuing contributions to PGA education." On July 2, 2020, it was renamed the PGA Professional Development Award by the board of directors because Smith had been a supporter of the PGA's "Caucasian only' membership clause that was part of their by laws from 1934 to 1961. A golf tournament at the Detroit Golf Club is named for him. He is attributed with being the first professional golfer to study putting as a means to beat his opponents. In September 2013, Horton's green jacket, awarded in 1949 for his Masters wins in 1934 and 1936, sold at auction for over $682,000; the highest price ever paid for a piece of golf memorabilia. It had been in the possession of his brother Ren's stepsons for decades.