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Lawson Little

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 an Army Colonel stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco. 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. This feat was referred to as the "Little Slam". 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 attended Stanford University 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. Little spent much of his early professional career traveling the country with Bobby Jones and fellow golfers Horton Smith, Jimmy Thomson, and Harry Cooper with the intentions of growing the game of golf in a Spaulding-sponsored effort called The Keystones of Golf. 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 raised his family in a house that sat on Fairway One of the Pebble Beach golf course and stayed actively involved in the golf world well into his twilight years. He was an active was a photographer and sports writer for many publications and would hold golf clinics at the Masters and Crosby events. Little died in Monterey, California, in 1968 at the age of 57. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1980.

Amateur record (19 wins)

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

Professional wins

PGA Tour wins (8)

Professional major championship is shown in bold.

Other wins

Major championships

Professional wins (1)

1 Defeated Sarazen in an 18-hole playoff - Little 70 (−2), Sarazen 73 (+1).

Amateur wins (4)

Results timeline

Amateur

Professional

  Win
  Top 10
  Did not play

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

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur

See also

References

  1. ^ "Past Winners & Results". Masters Tournament. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  2. ^ USGA Championship Database Archived 2010-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Muirfield – 1935 Results – Lawson Little". The Open. Retrieved November 7, 2013.

External links