Born: 31 March, 1916, in Haworth, Oklahoma.
Died: 30 August, 2008, in Batesville, Arkansas, aged 92. THE United States's Ryder Cup golfer Tommy Bolt had what the great Ben Hogan described as "the sweetest swing". He said: "
If we could've screwed another head on his shoulders, he could have been the greatest who ever played the game."
But Bolt's career was hampered by a fiery temper, as he often launched a club through the air further than many of us amateurs can hit a ball. The fans called him "Terrible Tommy", but they loved him just the same. To the media, he became known, inevitably, as Thunder Bolt.
He famously told a young Arnold Palmer: "Always throw your clubs ahead of you. That way, you won't waste energy going back to pick them up."
Bolt won the US Open in 1958, 14 other PGA Tour titles and later five Seniors (now known as Champions' Tour) trophies before retiring at the ripe old age of 74. By then, he had subdued his famous temper and spent his latter years as a highly-respected citizen and coach. He also confessed that the club-throwing had early on become as much showmanship as temper, helping bring in the crowds and get him "column inches".
Despite a late start to his career due to his service as a GI in the Second World War, Bolt was at the top of the US golfing tree in the mid-1950s, bridging the gap between Hogan and Sam Snead before him, and young whippersnappers such as Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player who were bursting on to the scene.
After four US PGA Tour wins in 1955, he was a shoo-in for that year's Ryder Cup, held in Palm Springs, California. At the time, it was the US versus Great Britain and Ireland, before we called in the continental Europeans, and with only eight singles and four foursomes at stake.
Bolt won both his matches, including his singles against Ireland's Christy O'Connor, helping ensure an 8-4 win for the home side.
Two years later, in 1957, however, Bolt and his compatriots suffered one of the greatest upsets in Ryder Cup history. The scene was the Lindrick Club in Yorkshire, where the fans were in the players' faces and Bolt did not like it one bit. The Americans were 3-1 up after the foursomes but Bolt's 4-and-3 singles defeat by Scotland's Eric Brown – Europe's top golfer at the time – propelled GB and Ireland, including Peter Alliss, to a shock victory, our first since 1933 and our last as a team without continental European assistance.
Bolt, an honest, working-class boy from Oklahoma, said he had never experienced such aggressive fans, and he declined to come over for the Open Championship despite his successes at home. In 1958, a year after the Ryder Cup débacle, he waltzed through the US Open in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beating the young Gary Player by four strokes. The last day, the Saturday, included 36 holes, since Sunday was still considered "the Lord's Day" in the Bible Belt.
It was to be Bolt's only major, though he came close a few times, notably in the 1971 US PGA, when, already 55, he finished third behind Nicklaus.
In the late 1970s, Bolt's pulling power remained as great as many of the bigger names, though "Fore, Left!" meant you had to watch out for one of his clubs as much as one of his balls. He once famously questioned his caddie's suggested club for a shot out of the rough. "But, Mr Bolt, it's the only club left in the bag," came the reply.
"Here's irony for you," Bolt liked to say. "The driver goes the shortest distance when you throw it. The putter flies farthest, followed by the sand wedge." His favourite advice to young players was: "Never break your driver and your putter in the same round."
At the peak of his career, Bolt was sponsored by a Scotch whisky firm. "It's tough to stay off the sauce when they're paying you to drink it," he said, adding that he eventually regulated his drinking by carefully monitoring the redness of his nose.
Tommy Bolt, whose autobiography was titled The Hole Truth, was indicted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. He played throughout his eighties, still able to post a score less than his age.
He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou, and their son.
The full article contains 756 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
