James Dodson - American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf

Billy Joe Patton, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, and Sam Snead

L ETS BEGIN WITH PERHAPS the most memorable Masters ever played, the last time Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, or Ben Hogan won a major golf championship.

The year was 1954, and the unlikely star who outshone the three greatest players since Bobby Jones was a genial, wisecracking, thirty-two-year-old lumber broker from the foothills of North Carolinas Blue Ridge Mountains, an unknown amateur named William Joseph PattonBilly Joe to his friends back home in tiny Morganton.

Prior to his unlikely summons to Augusta, the most outstanding items on Billy Joes rsum were lone victories in the Carolina Amateur and the Carolina Open and a somewhat surprising appointment as an alternate to the 1953 Walker Cup team, which netted him the Masters invitation. He was known for his sharp wit and infectious storytelling, his blazing backswing and go-for-broke style of play that often sent his drives anywhere but the fairway. His buddies back at the Mimosa Hills Country Club were almost as amused as they were impressed by his unexpected new honor. Several made a point, in fact, of asking Billy Joe to at least bring home an autograph by Ben Hogan or Sam Snead.

Five decades later, not long before he passed away, Billy Joe Patton sat on a pretty terrace at the retirement home where he lived in Morganton, and recalled the most remarkable week of his life.

I drove down to Augusta on Monday of Masters week very excited that I would finally get to meet Snead, Hogan, and Nelson. Id only seen Byron and Ben play in Greensboro and Asheville. I also decided that, with nothing to lose, I would just try to have some fun. The instant I turned up Magnolia Lane, though, my heart was racing like you cant believe.

In those days, players parked right in front of the clubhouse. So I parked and got my clubs out of the trunk and noticed a Cadillac convertible sitting nearby with a fella wearing a banded straw hat sitting there talking to a lady. Oh, my God, I said to myself. Thats Sam Snead. I tried not to disturb them, but as I passed Sam Snead looked over at me, winked, and tipped his hat.

I knew it was going to be a fun week, Billy Joe recalled fifty-five years after the fact, with a roguish little twinkle in his eyes. That was the first time I ever saw Sam Snead.

But it wouldnt be the last. With a homemade golf swing that was quicker than a frightened hummingbird, Billy Joe entered the tournaments annual long-drive contest on Wednesday afternoon and won it with a poke of 338 yards, the first time an amateur had ever done so. Members of the press swarmed around the well-dressed Carolinian with gray-flecked hair and neat rimless eyeglasses, discovering a fellow who was not only having the time of his life but also charming fans with every utterance and unorthodox swing. Are you planning to hit the ball that hard in the tournament? one of them demanded. Billy Joe smiled. Well, he drawled pleasantly, I didnt come this far to lay up, thats for sure. You didnt pay to see me play it safe.

He followed up this disarming swagger by shooting 70 on a cold and blustery opening day to tie veteran E. J. Dutch Harrison for the first-round lead. Only two other players in the field, Lloyd Mangrum and Jack Burke Jr., managed to shoot under par that day. Defending champion Ben Hogan got around the course in 72, former champion Sam Snead in 74. And Byron Nelson, who retired from competitive golf at the end of the 1946 season but never missed an opportunity to compete in the Masters, split the difference between his great rivals with an opening 73.

Going in, these three were the unchallenged favorites at golfs most prized invitational event, more or less in that order. Each, after all, had won the Masters twice. Between them they owned twenty-one major championships, nine Vardon trophies for the years lowest scoring average, eleven Player of the Year honors, fourteen Ryder Cup appearances and no fewer than thirteen PGA Tour records. But on the heels of his extraordinary year in 1953, when he won five of the eight events he entered and captured the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open, Ben Hogan had announced his plans to dial back his appearances and join his longtime friend and rival Byron Nelson in retirement.

Many felt Slammin Sammy Snead wouldnt be far behind. Though he still displayed the silkiest natural swing ever seen in championship golf, within a month he would turn forty-two, an old man by tour standards. For the record, Byron had already reached that mark, and Hogan would hit it later that year in August.

There was an unmistakable feeling that an era was ending that year at Augusta, says Bill Campbell, the other outstanding amateur in the field that week, a thoughtful West Virginian playing in his fourth Masters. Something of a protg of Sneads, he would go on to anchor eight Walker Cup teams and eventually serve as president of the United States Golf Association. Everyone knew why Sam and Ben and even Byron were there. Each one wanted one more major title, ideally the Masters, because they each owned two titles and together they had more or less put the Masters on the map. Everyone was watching to see who would take the rubber match, so to speak. But thats what makes what Billy Joe accomplished all the more wonderful. He stole the show from the three greatest players who ever played at one time, on the greatest stage in golf.