Johnny McDermott Video
Narrated by Jack Whitaker
On November 8th Johnny McDermott is being inducted into
the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. McDermott, a native of Philadelphia
came within one stroke of winning three straight U.S. Opens. He lost the 1910
tournament in a three-way playoff and then won the next two in 1911 and 1912.
He was the first American born to win the U.S. Open and is still at age 19 the
youngest. We are excited to announce that a video depicting McDermott’s career
is now on our website—trenhamgolfhistory.org. This video, a TelRa production,
was narrated by Jack Whitaker.
Pete Trenham
Philadelphia’s
own Johnny McDermott is featured in this video tribute narrated by
long time sportscaster, Jack Whitaker. Born in 1891, McDermott
learned to play golf as a caddy at the old Aronimink Golf Club in West
Philadelphia. In 1910 he lost a three- way playoff for
the U.S. Open at the Philadelphia Cricket Club but the next year he was
victorious in Chicago, becoming the
first American born golfer to win the U.S. Open. In 1912 he
successfully defended his title in Buffalo. 100
years after winning two U.S. Opens back-to-back, McDermott is being recognized
in his hometown with his induction into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.
Today John McDermott is America’s
forgotten hero, most recently described in a national golf magazine as an ‘abrasive,
combative, embarrassing, insane bigot best left forgotten.’
That’s not the John McDermott who is remembered at the
Atlantic City Country Club, where he was the golf professional in 1911 when he
was the first native born American and at 19 years old, the youngest to win the
us open, - and he won it twice, back-to-back, defending his title, what Walter
Hagen said was the mark of a true champion.
At ACCC McDermott was
quiet, proud and determined. He didn’t drink, smoke or curse and dutifully
attended mass every morning before beginning work.
The John McDermott who returned in his later years was
quiet, shy and reserved, yet you could see it in his eyes, the broken vision of
what might have been. Maybe he was arrogant to his foreign opponents and
obsessive about practice, but what one man says is abrasive, obsessive, rude,
combative and bigoted others recognize as young, arrogant, competitive and
proud. Maybe that’s what it takes to be the first American champion, to successfully
defend your title, and to be the youngest to win the US Open championship.
Young, arrogant and competitive were all attributes
attributed to America
and Americans as nation at that time – the turn of the 19th century,
when John McDermott was born in West Philadelphia to an
Irish American family, the son of mailman. Like Leo Fraser and others who
discovered the game of golf at an early age, McDermott knew his calling and dropped
out of school to become a golf professional.
Beginning at the old Aronomick club, McDermott first
distinguished himself by winning the Philadelphia Open, and then tying the
Smith brothers from Scotland in the 1910 US Open, losing in the playoff to Alex,
who tried to console the youngster saying, ‘better luck next time,’ to which
the eighteen year old McDermott responded, ‘‘I’ll beat you the next time you
big lout.’’
While that might be considered rude to some, McDermott did
beat Smith the next time they played, and he beat everyone else he played over
the next two years, during which time he won two Philadelphia Opens, two US
Opens and every other tournament he entered. He also had a standing challenge
to play anyone for any amount of money, a challenge few took up, as McDermott
was clearly recognized as on the top of his game and one of the best golfer in
the world at that time. And at 20 years old, it was said that if he lived up to
his potential he could be the best ever.
Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, from the British Isle of Jersey,
were the best golfers in the world, and among
the best of all time, but they didn’t participate in the two US Opens McDermott
won, so there was the nagging suggestion that if Vardon and Ray had
participated, perhaps McDermott would not have won. So there was much anticipation
for the 1913 US Open, when the best British golfers would meet head to head
with the best Americans, including McDermott, the spunky two time winner, defending
national champion and odds on favorite to win the open.
But a week before the championship, most of the open field
were entered in a popular regional tournament at Shawnee-on-Delaware,
where the first great showdown between American and British golfers would take
place.
On this trip to America,
Vardon and Ray were accompanied by Wilfred Reid, of Sherwood Forest,
Nottingham, a formidable tournament player who would
later become the golf pro at ACCC.
Though there was some animosity among the British as Wilfrey
and Ted Ray got into fist fight, things were more light-hearted on the American
side of the locker room. When twenty year old Walter Hagen showed up, having
quit his assistant pro job to try to make living as a full time tournament player,
he said, ‘I’m here to help you beat the foreigners,” getting a laugh out of McDermott,
who went on to win the tournament handily, by eight strokes.
In the Shawnee
locker room, flush with victory, McDermott gave a short speech that would
change the nature of the game of golf forever.
Since the tournament had received widespread media attention,
there were reporters present from all of the major newspapers in America
and Great Britain
when McDermott stood up, welcomed the foreign guests and promised them they
wouldn’t take the US Open trophy home with them. While some, including the USGA
officials, considered McDermott’s remarks rude and ordered him to apologize,
which he did, McDermott also said he was misquoted in the news. These were news
articles that took golf off the sports pages and put it on the front pages of
newspapers throughout America
and the world.
Thanks to Pete Trenhan for finding and passing on a news
report in which McDermott tried to clarify the situation, in which he said, “I
have been horribly misquoted in the papers, and people not cognizant of the
true facts are censuring me right and left. The correspondence, as well as some
of the golfers at Shawnee, took,
my words in the wrong light and this caused all the trouble. They should have
looked at them in a broadminded manner and not taken exception to a few
harmless words, delivered in a laughing manner.”
“The papers read, ‘The open champion, with a sneering twirl
of his mouth, jumped on a chair and said, the visiting English golfers may as
well go back home, as their quest of the American open championship honors
would get them nowhere in particular.’ My exact words were ‘I Wish Ray and
Vardon great success, but the people of this country needn’t worry or fear as
to the cup going to the other side. The professional gloves are able enough to
take care of the trophy and protect it, as conditions are all in their favor,
just as much as they were in the visitors’ favor on their home courses across
the pond.’ I then dwelt shortly on the method of scoring, saying that ours was equal
to the system abroad, and hence all of the American professionals were sure of
holding their own under any scoring plan.”
“On dismounting, it was called to my attention that the
Englishmen were hurt and felt insulted at these words. I was told to see them
personally, and I apologized to Vardon, Ray and Reid, beseeching his pardon if
either thought my words were directed at slurring, and likewise told the
newspapers. I meant nothing less than my words ordinarily would have been
interpreted. The Americans, in my opinion, were equally clever at the game as
foreigners, and hence would fully able to hold their own with all ‘invaders’ to
this side, being especially favored with familiarity with home greens and other
conditions. I am broken hearted over the affair, and the way the papers used my
speech. No harm was meant, and I am certainly sorry that my talk has been taken
up in this manner.”
In any case, the cat was out of the bag, and the greatest
game was set up for the 1913 US Open at Brookline.
It wasn’t the greatest game because of what happened on the course, or because
the young, unknown amateur Francis Ouimet kept McDermott’s promise that the US
Open trophy would not travel across the pond, it was the greatest game because
McDermott made it so.
And now we have the Walker
and Ryder Cups and other intense international rivalries –friendly team
competitions between nations, in part sparked by Johnny McDermott.
So for a slightly built, brash teenage dropout, McDermott
accomplished quite a lot in his first 21 years –– after the first dozen years
of domination by British and Scottish professionals, becoming the first
American to win the national championship, he was the first American to defend
his title, which hasn’t been done very often, he helped spark the intense national
rivalry that exists today, and is still today, the youngest champion ever.
Certainly the arrogant, combative, bigoted McDermott is best
left forgotten, but unfortunately the insane part is true. While he
accomplished a lot in his first 21 years, the rest of his life was pretty
simple.
Totally under control on the golf course, where he was the master,
things he had no control over began to affect his life. It all started
innocently enough, when McDermott missed a ferry in England
and arrived late to the British Open and didn’t play. Then on the way home his
steamship was in a collision, and he survived the harrowing experience in a
lifeboat.
Arriving home he learned his stock portfolio had tanked. The
final straw was a letter from Vardon canceling a proposed visit to the ACCC for
what would have been a popular exhibition. One late October morning the once
spunky, arrogant and proud McDermott was found unconscious on the pro shop floor,
having apparently suffered a nervous breakdown. As something that doctors of
that day knew little of, McDermott spent the rest of his life in and out of sanitariums,
most notably Norristown hospital, where a six hole golf
course was laid out over the grounds for him to play as a form of therapy.
Wilfred Reid was at the very first meeting of the PGA,
where one of the items on the agenda was to start a fund and hold a tournament
to raise money for the medical care of John McDermott. The cost of the institutions
often left McDermott at home where his two sisters, took care of him, sometimes
dropping him off at a local golf course, where the pro would match him with
strangers who didn’t know him.
Tim Debaufree and others played a round with McDermott in
his later years, and said that he still used his old wooden clubs and refused
to use a golf tee, preferring to pinch a piece of sand into a mound like they
did in the old days. And he played remarkably well, especially his chip shots
onto the green. Then his golf clubs were stolen from the back of his sister’s
car, and he didn’t play as often.
In the end his sisters drove him around to the various
clubs, including ACCC, where he was treated as an honored guest, and where the
McDermott room in the clubhouse is named after him. He had lost the fire in his
eyes and the passion in his heart. Gone was the arrogance and combative spirit,
but there was still a sense of pride in his accomplishments and a vision in his
eyes that reflected what might have been had John reached his potential and
become the greatest golfer ever.
A few months before he died, McDermott’s sister dropped him
off at the 1972 US Open at Merion, where for awhile, dressed in his shabby and
wrinkled suit, he was stationed alone against a wall, in the way of a busy
assistant pro who ordered him out of the pro shop. Others recognized him
however, and the assistant pro was told, “do you know you just kicked a
two-time US Open Champion out of my pro shop?”
Arnold Palmer recognized McDermott, went up to him, put his
arms around him and asked him how his game was going. McDermott reportedly said
his long game was okay but his putting needed some work, and they both agreed
that all they could do was practice.
A few weeks later
McDermott died in his sleep and is now buried next to his sisters at a cemetery
in nearby Yeadon. Since they never married, the sisters gave one of McDermott’s
US Open medals to Leo Fraser, and after he died, the Fraser family decided to
donate the medal to the USGA, where it is on display at their museum at Far
Hills, NJ.
Now, when ever they mention Johnny McDermott we can think of
him as he was, a young, arrogant, obsessive, competitive champion in the true
sense of the word. We can remember him as the first American, the first American
defender, still the youngest to have won the national open championship. We can
think of McDermott whenever Americans are pitted against foreign golfers, and
we can remember him every time a young, brash, arrogant and hot kid comes
along, who they say, if he lives up to his potential, can be the best ever.
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