Gene Sarazen

“That is one title I want on my books, Walter; if there’s any one thing I want to accomplish in golf, it’s to win [The Open].”

So said the great Gene Sarazen to the equally sublime Walter Hagen ahead of The Open at Royal St George’s in 1928.

Sarazen had failed to qualify for Royal Troon by a single stroke in 1923 and finished T41 at Royal Liverpool the following year.

The Open was a Championship which fascinated him, but one he considered beyond even his own showstopping powers, and he didn’t attempt to qualify for the next three editions.

However, having won the US Open and PGA Championship (twice) in the early 1920s, he believed his career would have been left unfulfilled without a Claret Jug to his name. So Sarazen sailed to England for another attempt in 1928, when he confided in Hagen.

Already a two-time Champion Golfer, Hagen responded: “Gene, you can never win [The Open] unless you have a caddie like the ones I’ve had.”

In an unusually generous offer between rivals, Hagen loaned Sarazen his own caddie, Skip Daniels – with whom Hagen had won both his Claret Jugs – for The 63rd Open.

Daniels was known for his unrivalled knowledge of the Kent links of Royal St George’s, Deal and Prince’s, the only three courses he worked at.

In his autobiography, Thirty Years of Championship Golf, Sarazen later wrote: “Daniels and I had become very close friends by the eve of the [C]hampionship. I made up my mind that I would follow his advice at all times.”

In the heat of Open battle, however, Sarazen decided to trust his raw power rather than his caddie's learned advice and attempted to hit a wood out of the rough at Royal St George’s famous par-5 14th, Suez Canal.

Sarazen only managed to hack his ball 20 yards nearer the hole, leading to a costly double-bogey; and two dropped shots which were ultimately the difference between Sarazen (294), who finished runner-up and Hagen (292), who collected a third Claret Jug.

“Before I die, I’m going to win an Open Championship for you,” was a tearful Daniels’ promise to Sarazen as they parted ways that May day.

An eighth-place finish at Muirfield (in 1929) and a third-place finish at Carnoustie (1931) followed, by which time Sarazen had “developed such a complex about this [C}hampionship that my subsequent attempts to win it took on the overcharged emotional proportions of a crusade.”

This crusade led him to Prince’s in 1932 during what he classed as the greatest year of his golfing life.

A hitherto poor bunker player, Sarazen had invented the sand wedge a year earlier – inspired by the mechanics of an aeroplane’s centre stick during a flying lesson with Howard Hughes – and, having spent months practising with his new club, he believed he was at the peak of his powers as he sailed to England on the Bremen ship with Fred Astaire for company.

Prince’s – fit for a King

Prince’s holds a unique place in Open history. It is the only course to have staged the Championship on just one occasion – and Sarazen ensured it would be a memorable one.

This picturesque track, just along the Kent coast from Royal St George’s, will have a key role to play ahead of The Open’s return to St Andrews, having been selected to host Final Qualifying for golf’s original championship in 2027.

Prince’s was a Final Qualifying venue in 2011 and then again from 2018 to 2022 with two-time US Open winner Retief Goosen being perhaps the biggest name to have qualified from the course, in 2018.

On the eve of The Open in 1932, Sarazen said: “I think that Prince’s is one of the greatest golf courses I’ve seen.”

The Sarazen Bunker, near the 9th green, was opened by two-time Champion Golfer Padraig Harrington in 2011 [below] to mark Sarazen’s unparallelled achievement at Prince’s.

In 1932, a promising practice session at Stoke Poges in Slough led Sarazen to employ his young caddie from that round for the upcoming Open.

Sarazen – who struck a hole-in-one at Royal Troon’s famous ‘Postage Stamp’ at The Open of 1973, aged 71 – initially believed that Skip Daniels, now four years older and visibly more frail, may not have been physically able to carry his bag for 72 holes.

However, following a few on-course disagreements with his new caddie during his practice rounds at Prince’s, ‘Squire’ decided to reunite with Kent’s finest looper.

“You have to play well when you’re partnered with a champion,” said Sarazen.

Sarazen would go on to dominate the field. He led by one after the opening round and held a three-stroke advantage over Percy Alliss (father of Peter) at halfway.

He extended that lead to four – over Arthur Havers, the Champion Golfer of 1923 – by the third round and would eventually win by five from Macdonald Smith, becoming just the third Champion Golfer, after Ted Ray and Bobby Jones, to lead outright after every round of a 72-hole Open.

Upon being presented with the Claret Jug he declared: “I must be the happiest man living today.”

Sarazen, ably assisted by Daniels and his own innovative ‘sand iron’, played magnificently all week and eagled the par-5 8th hole in both the third and final rounds – following some sage advice from Daniels.

He was the only player in the field in the red, signing for a five-under 283; a new Open record.

“It is a card of which I am very proud,” he said.

Having waited nine years to add to his three major titles, Sarazen followed up his success at Prince’s with another US Open victory just two weeks later. A sixth major arrived at the PGA Championship 12 months later.

And when he triumphed at the second edition of the Masters in 1935 Sarazen became the first man – and one of only six in history – to win the venerated Career Grand Slam.

A golfing immortal, forever connected to Prince's.