Ouimet, Francis D.
Golf
b. May 8, 1893, Brookline, MA
d. Sept. 2, 1967
Ouimet's victory in the 1913 U. S. Open over two great English golfers, Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, was a great boost for American golf. It almost didn't happen, because Ouimet didn't plan to play in the tournament.
He had taken vacation time earlier in the year from his job at Wright and Ditson, a sporting goods manufacturer, to play in the U. S. Amateur, where he was eliminated in the second round. He submitted his entry for the Open because Robert Watson, president of the U. S. Golf Association, asked him to, but Ouimet had no intention of taking more time off for a tournament he wasn't likely to win.
Shortly before the Open, his supervisor saw Ouimet's name in the list of entrants and asked him about it. Ouimet said he would like to watch Vardon and Ray, but he wasn't going to compete. "As long as you're entered, you'd better plan to play," the supervisor said.
The tournament was held at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Ouimet knew the course well. He'd grown up across the street and he'd caddied there for years, starting when he was eleven. He'd even played there a few times, in the early morning, but never completed a full round because greenskeepers invariably chased him off the course.
Ouimet astounded everyone by tying Vardon and Ray after 72 holes. After sixteen holes of the eighteen-hole playoff, he led Vardon by one shot, Ray by two. Ouimet birdied the seventeenth hole while Vardon took a bogey and the young American became the first amateur ever to win the Open, finishing with a 72 to a 77 for Vardon and a 78 for Ray.
His victory was front-page news and it did a great deal to change the public image of golf, which had previously been viewed as a sport for the very wealthy. As Herbert Warren Wind wrote, "Here was a person all of America, not just golfing America, could understand—the boy from 'the wrong side' of the street, the ex-caddie, the kind who worked during his summer vacations from high school--America's idea of the American hero."
Ouimet also went the U. S. Amateur in 1914 and 1931, the French Amateur in 1914, the Western Amateur in 1917, the Massachusetts Amateur in 1913-15, 1919, 1922, and 1925, and the Massachusetts Open in 1932. In 1951 he became the first non-Briton ever elected captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. An eight-time member of the Walker Cup team, he captained the team in 1932 and 1934.
Tthe Francis Ouimet Caddie Scholarship Fund was founded in 1949 by some of Ouimet's friends. It now awards nearly $1 million annually to about 350 students.