Forerunner of modern technique

Byron Nelson is mostly remembered for having won 11 consecutive tournaments and 18 total tournaments in 1945

Ian Nelson’s is a remarkable story. He grew up close to Ben Hogan and both men caddied at the same golf club. Where it was said they squared off for the club’s caddie championship in 1927, with Nelson winning.

Although Nelson turned professional in 1932, it would be five years before he won his first Major, the US Masters Championship. To confirm his arrival, he was selected for that year’s Ryder Cup squad.
While the pre-war period was good to Nelson, his career really took off during the war. While Hogan and many of the other top professionals were sent off to war, Nelson was forced to stay home because it took his blood 13 minutes instead of two to congeal. During the 1940s, he played in 133 tournaments and was in the money list in every one of them. At that time that meant the top 10. He had 11 consecutive wins in 1945 and won the PGA Championship. He was also that year’s leading money earner.

Starting in 1942 and ending in 1946, Byron Nelson finished in the Top 10 in 65 consecutive tournaments. Over that full time period, Nelson finished out of the Top 10 only once, winning 34 times and finishing second 16 more times. Nelson’s 1945 season is the best ever by a male golfer. He won 18 times, including 11 tournaments in a row. He did it with a 68.33 stroke average that was not bested for another 55 years.

Nelson was among the first of a new generation of players who developed a full swing with increased leg drive leading the downswing; this is the forerunner of modern golf technique as practiced by top players, right to the present day. Nelson is sometimes credited as being the father of modern golf swing. He refined the changes for a couple of years, and then took his game to the highest level of competition, the PGA Tour.

The story goes that his wife suggested that he played goal in order to raise the money to buy their own ranch rather than touch their savings. Nelson achieved that goal in 1946. He played his last tournament in 1955 to be a rancher, later becoming a commentator and lending his name to the HP Byron Nelson Championship, the first PGA Tour event to be named for a professional golfer.

In 1974, Byron Nelson received the Bob Jones Award, the highest honour given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.

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