Just Golf

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In It From the Beginning: 1934

By ADAM SCHUPAK


STUART, FLORIDA — Samuel Henry Ball hasn’t discovered the fountain of youth, but the secret to his longevity, he said, is simple: a Dewars on the rocks each day and a happy marriage.

Who can argue? Ball, better known as Errie, is 102 and had his driver’s license renewed two years ago. Truth be told, Ball has reluctantly surrendered the keys to his shiny black Cadillac, and now makes the four-mile, or more than six-kilometer, drive from home to the golf club in the passenger seat.

“I’m starting to feel my age,” he said.

Yet every April, the pro emeritus at Willoughby Golf Club feels young again at the sight of the emerald fairways of Augusta National on his television screen. Ball is the last surviving competitor from the inaugural Augusta National Invitational Tournament, as the Masters was called in 1934.

Golf was in his blood. Born Nov. 14, 1910, in Bangor, Wales, Ball learned the game at Lancaster Golf Club in England, where his father, W.H. (Harry) Ball was the professional. Uncles and cousins were club professionals, too, as was John Ball, his great-uncle and an eight-time winner of the British Amateur and the 1890 British Open.

In 1926, Ball exhibited his promise, qualifying for the Open Championship as a teenager. There, he first witnessed Bobby Jones, who later co-founded the Masters, strike a golf ball. “His swing was poetry in motion,” Ball said.

They met four years later at Royal Liverpool in England, where Jones captured the second leg of his Grand Slam. With his Uncle Frank recruiting him to come to America and work as his assistant at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ball asked Jones, a member there, for advice. What had been a game played almost exclusively by the upper class, was becoming for the first time a part of the fabric of American life, Jones told him.

That was good enough for Ball. He landed in New York on Sept. 27, 1930, the same day Jones won the U.S. Amateur to complete the Grand Slam at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania.

Among Ball’s mementos is a framed copy of his original application for membership in the P.G.A. of America. The date: June 20, 1931. Dues at the time: $5. For a lesson, he charged $1.50.

“My uncle Frank took half of it,” Ball remembered. “So I got 75 cents.”

It felt like a fortune.

Ball has been married for 76 years. In 1936, while making an eight-day trip across the Atlantic, Ball met a Virginia girl, Maxie Wright. She was engaged. So was he. No matter, they were married two months later. She’s 98 and remains the brightest light in his life. The memories flood back, but the name of the ship? It was so long ago he can’t remember.

“It may be the Mayflower,” he joked.

The details of the first Masters, however, are etched in his memory. Ball still savors the letter from Jones, dated Feb. 7, 1934, congratulating him on his new post as the pro at Mobile Country Club in Alabama and encouraging him to play at Augusta.

In starting a tournament just months after the repeal of Prohibition, 72 men created a tradition like none other. Back then, there was corn liquor on the course and kegs of beer on the first and 10th tees. Heading into the final round, Ball stood in a tie for 22nd place, a stroke behind Jones and 11 off the pace set by the eventual winner, Horton Smith. Ball figured a round of par or better would get him invited back next year. He began with a couple of pars, and then crouched over a 15-foot birdie putt after landing his 6-iron tee shot on the back edge of the green, his ball resting against a clump of grass at what was then the par-3 third hole (now the 12th).

“You know that bunker in front?” he said. “My putt nearly trickled in it.”

Ball has not forgotten how it all went wrong. His putter froze, and when he finally pulled the blade back, he smacked the ball clear across the green. Four shaky putts later, he had carded a six.

“I blew it,” he said. “Shot 86.” That was the highest score of the week. He plummeted to a tie for 38th.

Twenty-three years passed before he returned to Augusta in 1957, tied for the longest stretch between appearances. He missed the cut by three strokes with scores of 75 and 78, and never returned.

“I prefer to remember it the way it was when I was there,” he said.

Those memories remain vivid. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, amid an outpouring of affection, Ball’s blue eyes watered, and it was as if he had been transported back in time.

“I feel that I’ve been called to the first tee at Augusta National,” he said. “Errie Ball, Willoughby Golf Club. Play away.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/sports/golf/10iht-srmalegend10.html?ref=golf&pagewanted=print