Craig Wood (golfer)

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Craig Ralph Wood (November 18, 1901 – May 7, 1968) was an American professional golfer in the 1930's and 40's, the winner of 21 PGA Tour titles including two major championships and a member of three Ryder Cup teams (1931, 1933, 1935). He was born in Lake Placid, New York and died in Palm Beach, Florida.

Despite his two major championships Craig Wood is probably most well known as the victim of Gene Sarazen's famous double eagle in the 1935 Augusta National Invitational (now known as the Masters). The shot left the two players tied at the end of regulation and Sarazen went on to victory in a 36 hole playoff.

This was the fourth runner-up and third playoff loss for Wood in a major in just 2 years. In the 1933 British Open at St. Andrew's Denny Shute had defeated Wood in another 36 hole playoff. In the spring of 1934 Wood was the runner up by a single shot to Horton Smith at the first Masters and later that year he was defeated on the 38th hole by Paul Runyan in the PGA Championship which was then decided by match play. After Sarazen's shot, Wood was left with his second consecutive Masters runner-up and a reputation of being "jinxed". At the 1939 U.S. Open he birdied the 72nd hole and was again in a playoff, but this time Byron Nelson was the winner, making Wood the first player to lose all 4 major championships in extra holes.

In 1941, at the age of 39, Wood finally beat his "jinx" in noteworthy fashion, winning the Masters and becoming its first wire-to-wire champion with rounds of 66-71-71-72=280 and a 3 shot victory over Byron Nelson. Only 3 other men have equalled his wire-to-wire feat, Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972) and Raymond Floyd (1976). He followed his Masters success by winning the 45th U.S. Open at The Colonial Club in Ft. Worth, TX. His score of 284 beat out another former nemesis Denny Shute by 3. This was the first time someone had successfully captured the first two major championships of the year.

[edit] PGA Tour wins (21)

1928 (1) New Jersey PGA
1929 (2) Oklahoma Open, Hawaiian Open
1930 (2) New Jersey PGA, Oklahoma City Open
1931 (1) Harlingen Open
1932 (3) New Jersey PGA Match Play, San Francisco Open-Match Play, Pasadena Open
1933 (2) Los Angeles Open, Radium Springs Open
1934 (2) Galveston Open Championship, New Jersey Open
1936 (1) General Brock Open
1938 (1) Augusta Open-Forest Hills
1940 (2) Metropolitan Open, Miami-Biltmore Four-Ball (with Billy Burke)
1941 (2) The Masters, U.S. Open
1942 (1) Canadian Open
1944 (1) Durham Open

Major championships are shown in bold.

[edit] Results in major championships

Tournament	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
The Masters	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF
U.S. Open	T51	DNP	CUT	T46	T16
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T5

Tournament	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
The Masters	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	2	2	T20	T26	T34	6
U.S. Open	T9	DNP	T14	3	DQ	T21	T66	T36	DNP	2
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	2	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	T17	DNP	2	DNP	T3	T17	DNP	DNP

Tournament	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
The Masters	T7	1	T23	NT	NT	NT	DNP	T52	DNP	34
U.S. Open	4	1	NT	NT	NT	NT	CUT	DNP	CUT	T27
The Open Championship	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	T17	T17	T5	NT	T9	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T33

Tournament	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
The Masters	DNP	DNP	59	T61	71	62	70	CUT	CUT	CUT
U.S. Open	CUT	T47	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

Tournament	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964
The Masters	WD	CUT	DNP	WD	WD
U.S. Open	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
DQ = Disqualified
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10