Willie Hunter: Beat Jones, Won on PGA Tour
Willie Hunter first became famous as an amateur golfer in his native Great Britain in the 1920s. Then he emigrated to the United States, where he became an influential club pro, serving nearly 30 years at Riviera Country Club. He defeated Bobby Jones in match play and also won a handful of PGA Tour titles in the 1920s and 1930s.
Full name: William Irvine Hunter
Date of birth: January 28, 1892
Place of birth: Forest Row, England
Date and place of death: October 18, 1968, in Palm Springs, California
Nickname: Wee Willie
His Biggest Wins
- 1921 British Amateur Championship
- 1926 California State Open*
- 1927 California State Open*
- 1928 Southern California Open*
- 1934 Southern California Open*
- 1936 San Francisco Match Play*
- 1936 Catalina Open*
- 1939 Southern California PGA Championship
- 1942 Southern California PGA Championship
- 1943 Southern California Open
(*PGA Tour tournaments)
In the Pro Majors
Willie Hunter's first appearance in a professional major was in the 1920 British Open, where he earned low amateur honors by placing 26th. His last was in the 1952 Open Championship.Hunter played the British Open five times with a best finish of tied 17th in 1931. He played the U.S. PGA Championship twice, and the U.S. Open 15 times.
His overall best finish was solo eighth in the 1926 U.S. Open. Hunter also had Top 20 finishes in the U.S. Open in 1925 (t13), 1930 (t17), 1934 (t14) and 1948 (15th).
More About Willie Hunter
Willie Hunter was born in England but always played under the Scottish flag. He was, as one of his sons once put it, "as Scots as the heather at Troon."His father, Harry Hunter, was the professional at Royal Cinque Ports, a onetime British Open links in Deal, England. Harry had been, in 1902, one of the original members of the British PGA, which was the first Professional Golfers' Association in the world.
One of the earliest mentions of Willie playing tournament golf is his entry in the 1913 French Open. But his golf career (and everyone else's at the time in Europe) was interruped by World War I, during which he served in France in the Royal Engineers.
Willie's career took after the war, and he was called "one of Britain's most-promising amateurs."
His real coming out as a top golfer happened in 1920, when he was 28 years old. That year, Hunter reached the quarterfinals of the British Amateur and finished as low amateur (tied 26th) in the British Open.
Then Hunter became famous in 1921: He won the British Amateur, and he beat Bobby Jones in the U.S. Amateur.
In the 1921 British Amateur, Hunter defeated Ted Blackwell, 7 and 6, in quarterfinals, and then Ernest Holderness, 4 and 3, in the semifinals. In the championship match, Hunter thrashed Allan Graham (who had eliminated Jones in the Round of 32) by a 12-and-11 score.
In the 1921 U.S. Amateur, Hunter met Jones in the quarterfinals. Jones had won his first two matches by scores of 12-and-11 and 9-and-8. And Jones outdrove Hunter by 30 to 60 yards on almost every hole in their match. (A later biographical entry about Hunter in a golf encyclopedia described his game this way: "Willie had no great length, but there was a professional crispness about his iron play and he played with refreshing speed.")
Jones was 2-up after 25 holes, but at the 26th Jones attempted to carry some very tall trees at the corner of a dogleg. He failed. Hunter won that hole and the next to square the match, and defeated Jones by a 2-and-1 score. But Hunter's run ended in the semifinals against another long hitter, Robert Gardner.
In his 1922 title defense at the British Amateur, Hunter reached the semifinals. He was 1-up with four holes to play against Holderness. With a short putt to go up 2-up with three holes left, Hunter not only missed but laid himself a stymie and wound up losing the hole. Holderness came back to win the match and went on to win the title.
In the 1922 U.S. Amateur, Hunter was knocked out in second round by eventual champ Jess Sweetser.
Hunter had been working in England as a postal clerk in 1921 when he took a three-month trip to the U.S. to play in that year's U.S. Amateur. By 1922, Hunter was partners in a New York-based company importing British golf apparel and goods.
Still playing as an amateur, his first tournament win in the States was in the 1923 Southern California Amateur. He reached the championship match again the following year. And Hunter also reached the title match of the 1924 Pacific Northwest Amateur, falling to O.F. Willing. During these years Hunter became well-known on the West Coast, from his tournament play and from playing many team matches and exhibitions with George Von Elm.
Hunter's first professional victory was in the 1926 California State Open, which he won by eight strokes over Von Elm and Jack Tarrant. He repeated as champ in 1927.
There are some accounts that state Hunter was influential in founding the Los Angeles Open, still played on the PGA Tour today. When he died in 1968, the Associated Press obituary said that Hunter "is credited with conceiving the idea of the Los Angeles Open." That tournament was established in 1926. Hunter never won, but did finish second twice: in 1933 to Craig Wood and in 1934 to Macdonald Smith.
Hunter was always a club pro first, a tournament pro second. He did play many PGA Tour events over the years, particularly in the 1930s, but his tournament play was sporadic.
On the PGA Tour his best year might have been 1934, when he had a 13-stroke victory (over runner-up Ralph Guldahl) in the Southern California Open, and also had three second-place finishes (the Los Angeles Open, the Agua Caliente Open, and, to Guldahl, the West Golf Club Open Championship).
Or it might have been 1936, when he won two consecutive weeks — first at the San Francisco Match Play, then the following week at the Catalina Open.
The 1989 book The History of the PGA Tour (affiliate link), compiled by journalist Al Barkow with the cooperation of the PGA Tour, lists Hunter with six PGA Tour wins, six runner-up finishes, four third-place showings, and 40 total Top 10 finishes in tour events.
After turning 50, Hunter played in the Senior PGA Championship 11 times, last in 1955 at age 63. His best finish in the biggest (and one of very, very few) national tournaments for senior golfers in his era was tied 7th in 1954.
Hunter was a very influential club pro in California. In 1931, he was the pro at Montebello Park municipal golf course. But he was famous as the club pro at Riviera Country Club, one of the coveted jobs in the industry. Hunter took over as head pro at Riviera in 1936 and had the job for nearly 30 years, retiring in 1964. At that time, one of his sons, Mac Hunter, replaced him as Riviera pro.
Hunter served as Southern California PGA president in 1926-31, 1933-38 and again in 1951. Today he is a member of the SoCal Golf Hall of Fame.
Willie Hunter died in 1968 at the age of 76.
He had multiple family members through the years who also made an impact on golf. His son Mac won a national junior tournament in 1947 by beating Arnold Palmer in the championship match; and in 1962 was named the Southern California PGA Professional of the Year.
There are also two other family members who share Willie Hunter's name, which can easily lead to confusion. Both were older than the man this biography is about.
The golfer usually referred to as Willie Hunter Sr. was our Willie Hunter's uncle, the brother of Harry Hunter. Willie Hunter Sr.'s son, who was our Willie Hunter's older cousin, is usually referred to as William Hunter. Both Willie Hunter Sr. and William Hunter show up in some old golf books and old tournament histories, although usually earlier than our Willie Hunter's initial appearances beginning in the 1920s.
Another cousin, Ramsay Hunter, was a longtime pro at various clubs in America and Canada, and in 1919 hired the 17-year-old Gene Sarazen as an assistant pro.
Photo credits:
First: Los Angeles Times, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Second: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Barkow, Al. The History of the PGA Tour, 1989, Doubleday.
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Willie Hunter, 76, Former Golfer Dies," Associated Press, October 19, 1968.
Gibson, Nevin H. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1964, A.S. Barnes and Company.
PGA of America. Senior PGA Championship Media Guide, 2018.
Rice, Grantland, and Keeler, O.B. The Bobby Jones Story, Tupper & Love, Atlanta, 1953.
The R&A. Royal and Ancient Championship Records 1860-1980, Peter Ryde editor, 1981, Royal and Ancient Golf Club St. Andrews.
Seaton, Douglas. "The 'Hunter' Golfing Dynasty," Famous North Berwick Golfers, http://www.northberwick.org.uk/hunter.html.
SoCal Golf Hall of Fame. Inductees, Willie Hunter, https://www.socalgolfhof.com/members/view/willie-hunter-1989.
Southern California Golf Association. "SCGA History, Part 2: 1920-1939," https://www.scga.org/about/scga-history/part-2.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
Stockton Evening and Sunday Record. "Willie Hunter, 76, Dies," Associated Press, October 19, 1968.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990, Triumph Books, 1992.
