Passings of 2008

Remembering Tempestuous Tommy, The Real McKay, Ol' Sarge and more

Tommy Bolt, photographed Aug. 15, 2002, in Cherokee Village, Ark.

By Cliff Schrock

Photo By Dom Furore

February 2009

One was unpredictable. One was unshakable. And one was unimposing. But taken together, Tommy Bolt, Jim McKay and Orville Moody were key individuals in major-championship history, and their unique talents and personalities made lasting impressions. They are also linked as three of the notable golf figures who died in 2008 and are remembered here.

BOLT
IRASCIBLE BUT TALENTED

From Bobby Jones to Tiger Woods, golf's best have tried to put their misplays behind them by using the occasional blowup to let off steam. Arguably the greatest, or most notorious, at blowing a valve was Thomas Henry Bolt, whose sweetheart of a nickname, Tommy, was often replaced or added to with Thunder, Terrible Tempered or Tempestuous. Bolt, who died Aug. 30 at age 92, was so well known for his temper tantrums, swearing and occasional "helicopter heaves" that the unsavory behavior undoubtedly delayed his entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Bolt never denied he had an anger and club-throwing issue, but he said people chose to shape their opinion of him by that sole personality trait rather than his shotmaking skill, which was considerable and helped him win 15 PGA Tour events and play on two U.S. Ryder Cup teams in the 1950s.

When Bolt discussed his legendary behavior -- which was Question No. 1 in any Bolt interview -- he preferred to speak from his backwoods persona ingrained from being born near the Ozarks in Haworth, Okla., just a few miles from the Arkansas border. At those times he was charming and amiable. He referred to himself in the third person as Ol' Tom, arguing that "dozens" of other pros had tempers and tossed clubs, but that he had the ironclad reputation and photographers hunted him down as a marked man, shutters ready to fire, waiting to capture a club in the air or Ol' Tom in mid-heave.

One of golf's memorable photos is Bolt in a fit of anger at the 1960 U.S. Open. It's a stark black-and-white shot of the 42-year-old ready to slam his driver into the lake on the 18th hole at Cherry Hills. Bolt said that was an example of how he was a man in the viewfinder, that what he was actually doing was trying to clobber the noisy carp in the lake. Never mind that he had hit two balls in the water off the tee and was heading for an 80 and a WD. "If a photographer hadn't just happened to be there, my reputation might be better today," he complained in 1977.

But the manic behavior helped Bolt discover his showman side. He would sometimes toss a club to satisfy those people expecting a sideshow, perhaps realizing that deep down all golfers have a need to slam a club but most of us are too committed to the game's gentleman code of conduct. "I've thrown a few just for the man who came out to see me do it," he said. "I've missed two-foot putts and heard people say to each other, 'You'd better duck.' "

Bolt would get amusement out of mentoring other tormented souls. He often cited Arnold Palmer as being one of the notable club-throwers of the 1950s and said he told Palmer the common advice to always throw the club ahead of you "so you can pick it up on your way." Another bit of wisdom was, "Never break your driver and putter in the same round."

And what heavy clubs they were. In his PGA Tour days, he estimated he swung clubs swing-weighted at D-7 or D-8. He thought weight meant distance. When he got to senior tour age, he felt distance equated to how fast and how squarely you could hit the ball. He went to a 44-inch driver with a C-9 swingweight that weighed 13<½> ounces.

Bolt was already 34, a self-admitted "late starter," when he began playing the tour in 1950 (he turned pro in 1946), but his penchant for anger had already been noticed. When he was assigned to the Special Services during World War II, he played a lot of golf during his four-year enrollment, once serving as the pro at a Rome-area club. Seeing Bolt play, the late writer Merrell Whittlesey, filing for Stars and Stripes, wrote that "the clubs flew like shrapnel."

Bolt's hair-trigger behavior inspired sharp opinion. He was fiery and fierce to some, colorful and competitive to others. One of his sponsors felt his temper indicated he had spunk and spirit. At home, wife Mary Lou said her husband was at ease, that he left all his anger on the course.

Bolt could get belligerent with the gallery over his behavior as well and banter with the more outspoken members. But it was the clubs that took a pounding. In one example, a 1953 round at Las Vegas, he broke the head off his putter and bent the shaft of his driver around a tree, finishing with his 2-wood for a driver and putting with a 2-iron.

Like most anger-challenged golfers, however, the edgy behavior meant there was talent and determination below the surface. He was praised as a great shotmaker and ball striker who could hit the same shot with a 3-wood or a 3-iron. He won his first tour event in 1951, and 11 victories later he had his greatest triumph when he won his lone major, the 1958 U.S. Open, in his home state at Southern Hills in Tulsa.

The brutal heat -- said to be 95 in the shade -- didn't affect Bolt, who was the coolest thing going and played with a rare calm. Even a double bogey on 18 in his third round to close out a 69 didn't heat him up. "I knew I was going to win," he said. "It just became less of a runaway."