Ed Dudley: The Golfer's Bio and Wins

Ed Dudley was a 15-time winner on tour, and later had a very successful career as a club pro (he was Augusta National's first head pro), administrator and instructor.

Full name: Edward Bishop Dudley

Date and place of birth: Feb. 19, 1901, in Brunswick, Georgia

Date and place of death: Oct. 25, 1963, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Significant Wins
1928 Southern California Pro
1929 Pennsylvania Open Championship
1929 Philadelphia Open Championship
1930 Shawnee Open
1930 Pennsylvania Open Championship
1931 Los Angeles Open
1931 Western Open
1932 Miami International Four-Ball-x
1933 Philadelphia Open Championship
1933 Hershey Open
1935 True Temper Open Championship
1936 Shawnee Open
1936 Philadelphia Open Championship
1937 Sacramento Open
1939 Walter Hagen 25th Anniversary-y

Above are Dudley's 15 credited PGA Tour wins. He won the Philadelphia Open Championship a fourth time in 1940, but that year's tournament is not counted as a PGA Tour event. (x-parters with Tommy Armour; y-partners with Billy Burke)

In the Majors
Ed Dudley never won a major, but he was always a competitive player — he recorded 19 Top 10 finishes, the first in 1928 and the last in 1944. His best finish in a major was third place at the 1937 Masters; he finished in the Top 10 at the Masters seven out of eight years from 1934 through 1941. ... In 1937, Dudley finished in the Top 10 at all four majors — the first golfer to finish in the Top 10 at all four men's majors in the same year.

Notable Notes: Ed Dudley was an accomplished PGA Tour player in the 1920s into the 1940s, although most of his 15 tour victories happened in the 1930s. He was particularly adept at winning in Pennsylvania, for some reason, which later led to his induction into the Hall of Fame of the Philadelphia chapter of the PGA of America.

Dudley was a very big golfer for his time at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds; he was called "Big Ed." ... He played in three Ryder Cups — 1929, 1933, 1937 — with a 3-1 record in his matches.

In 1932, Dudley was hired by fellow Georgian Bobby Jones as the first head golf professional at Augusta National Golf Club. He later spent 22 years as head pro at the Broadmoor Club in Colorado, until 1957, while also serving as "winter pro" at Augusta during much of that time.

Among his students as an instructor were President Dwight Eisenhower, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. ... Dudley was president of the PGA of America 1942-48.

Photo credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library; Copyright Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library. licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.