William (Bill) Hyndman III: Amateur Golf Star
William (Bill) Hyndman III was a lifelong amateur golfer from Pennsylvania who once beat Jack Nicklaus in U.S. Amateur match play, but never actually won the U.S. or British Amateur titles. He did win dozens of other important amateur tournaments, represented the United States numerous times in international team events, and once hit what Bobby Jones said was "the greatest clutch shot" he ever saw. And when he finally did win a USGA championship, Hyndman set a record as oldest USGA champion.
Date of birth: December 25, 1915
Place of birth: Glenside, Pennsylvania
Date and place of death: September 6, 2001, in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania
Also known as: Hyndman went by "Bill," and he was often during his career (and still is today) referred to in news stories and in golf scores as "Bill Hyndman." "Big Bill" was a nickname, and he was sometimes called Billy.
His Biggest Wins
- 1958 Sunnehanna Amateur
- 1961 North and South Amateur
- 1964 International Mixed Foursome Championship (partnered by Carolyn Cudone)
- 1966 Middle Atlantic Amateur
- 1967 Sunnehanna Amateur
- 1968 Trans-Mississippi Amateur
- 1973 U.S. Senior Amateur
- 1974 Northeast Amateur
- 1983 U.S. Senior Amateur
- Philadelphia Amateur: 1935, 1958, 1965
- Philadelphia Open: 1968, 1969
- Patterson Cup: 1946, 1947, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1969
- Crump Cup: 1952, 1954, 1967, 1969
- American Seniors Golf Association Stroke Play: 1970, 1971, 1974, 1978, 1980
- American Seniors Golf Association Match Play: 1973, 1977
So Close in the Amateur Majors
Bill Hyndman is one of those golfers whose name you just expect to see on the list of U.S. Amateur winners and British Amateur champions. But, surprisingly, you don't. He probably ranks as one of the most-surprising omissions from those rosters of champions, especially considering that he finished runner-up four times in those two "amateur majors."Hyndman was already 40 years old when he first reached the championship match in the U.S. Amateur. That happened in 1955. Alas, he found the great Harvie Ward waiting for him, and Ward beat Hyndman for the trophy, 9 and 8.
Hyndman reached the championship match of the British Amateur three times, once in his mid-40s and twice in his mid-50s. He even beat Jack Nicklaus one year, but couldn't claim the trophy.
It was the 1959 British Amateur in which Hyndman defeated Nicklaus in the semifinals by a score of 4 and 3. But in the championship match, future PGA Tour winner Deane Beman downed Hyndman, 3 and 2.
In the 1969 British Amateur, at age 53, Hyndman defeated Dale Hayes (future European Tour winner) 2 and 1 in semifinals. But he lost to Michael Bonallack, 3 and 2, in the championship match.
The championship match of the 1970 British Amateur was the first repeat final — Hyndman vs. Bonallack — in the tournament's very long history. Unfortunately for Hyndman, the outcome also repeated. Hyndman, at age 55, led 1-up after the morning 18, but stumbled in the afternoon. Bonallack beat him for the title, 8 and 7.
Hyndman played the U.S. Amateur 13 times, surprisingly advancing beyond the Round of 64 only three times. In addition to the runner-up finish in 1955, Hyndman went out in the quarterfinals in both 1959 (losing to Charlie Coe) and 1960 (losing to the eventual champ, Deane Beman).
He played in the British Amateur five times, finishing second three times, and going out in the quarterfinals in 1965 and Round of 32 in 1966.
More About Bill Hyndman
William Hyndman III frequently represented the United States in international golf. That included two times, 1958 and 1960, as a Team USA member in the World Amateur Team Championship (a k a Eisenhower Trophy).The 1958 Eisenhower Trophy (in which Hyndman tied for medalist with Australian Bruce Devlin and Brit Reid Jack) was especially significant: It was the very first one played, it took place on The Old Course at St. Andrews, and Bobby Jones was the American team captain.
The tournament came down to a very close finish between Australia and the USA. Hyndman, the last American golfer on the course, needed to play the final two holes in 1-under par to tie Australia and force a playoff. Jones later said he never imagined Hyndman going for birdie on the Road Hole 17th, he hoped only for a par there with a chance to birdie the 18th.
Hyndman had different ideas on the Road Hole, considered one of the world's toughest par-4s at that time. He pulled 4-iron for his approach into the treacherous green, guarded by a pot bunker in front, with the road and stone wall behind. But playing just a bit of fade, Hyndman's perfectly struck shot cleared the bunker, nearly hit the flagstick, and stopped about eight feet from the cup.
He sank the birdie, then parred the 18th to get Team USA into a playoff against Team Australia. Which, anticlimactically for the Americans, Australia won.
But Hyndman's Road Hole approach so impressed Jones that why Hyndman got home to Philadelphia he discovered that Jones had sent him a framed, inscribed photo of the hole. Jones' inscription said:
"The 17th hole, the Road Hole, St. Andrews, where I saw Billy Hyndman hit the greatest clutch shot of my life." — Bob Jones(But another one of Hyndman's bold choices earned a different sort of appraisal from another legend: Playing in the 1956 Masters, Hyndman faced a downhill putt of about 36 feet on the 11th green. Playing too aggressively, his putt raced past the hole, off the green, and into water. U.S. Open winner and future Hall of Famer Lloyd Mangrum commented, "That was the dumbest putt I ever saw.")
In the 1960 World Amateur Team Championship, Hyndman was part of a ridiculously strong United States team that also included Jack Nicklaus, Deane Beman and Robert W. Gardner. Not surprisingly, Team USA dominated, winning that year by 42 strokes over Australia. Hyndman tied for fourth place individually (Nicklaus was medalist).
Hyndman played for Team USA in the Walker Cup five times, but did not make his debut until age 41.
In the 1957 Walker Cup, he beat Frank Deighton 7 and 6 in singles. In the 1959 Walker Cup, Hyndman partnered Tommy Aaron to a 1-up foursomes win over Joe Carr/Guy Wolstenholme, then, in singles beat Doug Sewell, 4 and 3.
In the 1961 Walker Cup, Hyndman won his foursomes match, then beat David Frame, 7 and 6, in singles. In the 1969 Walker Cup, he partnered Joe Inman to a Day 1 foursomes win, then halved Charlie Green in Day 2 singles.
And in the 1971 Walker Cup, Hyndman, at age 55, set a record (that still stands) as the oldest American to earn a Walker Cup team berth, and he remains the second-oldest ever for either team. He halved Roddy Carr in Day 1 singles, then lost to David Marsh, 1-down. Unfortunately, his final Walker Cup match, the loss to Marsh, provided Team GB&I its winning point.
Over his five Walker Cup appearances, Hyndman was 3-0 in foursomes, 3-1-2 in singles, and 8-1-2 overall.
He also repped Team USA three times (1958, 1960, 1961) on the Americas Cup team. That was a competition played every-other-year from 1952 to 1967 between amateur teams representing the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Hyndman was, as one golf encyclopedia put it in the 1970s, "a supremely elegant player" who "will be remembered as a kindly but formidable opponent with a classical style."
Although something of a late developer on the national scene, Hyndman was making waves in Philadelphia-area golf circles from a young age. He won the Philadelphia Junior Boys Championship in 1932. And he took his first Philadelphia Amateur Championship in 1935.
It was 20 years before Hyndman made the U.S. Amateur final, 23 years before he won the Philadelphia Amateur again in 1958. What was he doing in the intervening years? He was definitely playing good golf (he reached the championship match of the 1941 Pennsylvania State Amateur).
But he was also working, carving out a successful business career as the founder and owner of the William Hyndman III Insurance Agency.
Along the way, Hyndman won the first of his 10 titles in the Philadelphia staple Patterson Cup (one of the oldest continously played stroke-play tournaments in America) in 1946. He went on to claim that title in 1947, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1962, 1964, 1968 and 1969.
He first played the U.S. Amateur in 1949. And Hyndman first won the very prestigious Crump Cup at Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey in 1952 (and won it again in 1954, 1967 and 1969).
His runner-up finish in that 1955 U.S. Amateur got him into his first professional majors in 1956, when he played both The Masters and the U.S. Open. Hyndman eventually played The Masters nine times, with a best finish of tied 18th in 1959. (Hyndman aced the 12th hole during the 1959 Masters, the most-recent Masters hole-in-one by an amateur.) He eventually played the U.S. Open nine times, as well, with a best showing of tied 13th in 1957. His final start in a professional major resulted in a 63rd-place finish in the 1974 U.S. Open, when he was 58 years old.
Another of Hyndman's biggest wins was the 1961 North and South Amateur at Pinehurst. There he defeated the estimable Dick Chapman in the title match, 4 and 3.
Hyndman finally won that elusive USGA championship in 1973, at age 57, taking that year's U.S. Senior Amateur. The USGA's tournament history explained that "this victory marked the end of a long quest for Hyndman; for more than 20 years he had been one of the country's leading amateurs, but he had never won a national championship."
He began that 1973 U.S. Senior Amateur by earning medalist honors in the stroke-play qualifying. And he did that again in 1975, plus, at age 70, in 1986.
In his title defense in 1974, Hyndman lost in the quarterfinals. But he made it into semifinals again in 1977, and the quarterfinals in 1980, 1982, 1985 (at age 69) and 1986 (age 70).
And he won the 1983 U.S. Senior Amateur at age 67. At that time, that made Hyndman the oldest-ever winner of any USGA national championship (a record since broken).
Hyndman also won the American Seniors Golf Association stroke play championship in 1970, 1971, 1974, 1978 and 1980; and the ASGA's match play championship in 1973 and 1977. There was also a victory in the 1980 Philadelphia Senior Amateur.
Hyndman won numerous other tournaments over the decades, smaller local and regional events. Those included many club championships at the Philadelphia-area Huntingdon Valley Country Club. In fact, Hyndman won that club championship in six different decades.
And he won his final club championship in 1990, but at Adios Golf Club in Florida. That gave him club championship titles in seven decades.
Hyndman continued practicing and playing golf nearly every day into his 80s. He lived across the street from the eighth green at Huntingdon Valley Country Club. When the club decided in the 1990s to enclose its course and build a fence around the perimeter, it left a small gap in the fence by the eighth green specifically for Hyndman's use.
Hyndman was 85 years old when he died in 2001. He was the subject of a 2024 biography by author John Riley titled A Will to Win: Legendary Amateur Bill Hyndman’s Story of Perseverance and Triumph (affiliate link).
Hyndman is a member of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, Golf Association of Philadelphia Hall of Fame, and National Senior Amateur Hall of Fame.
Hyndman had sons who followed him into both the insurance industry and into championship golf. William Hyndman IV, known as Buck Hyndman, won the Huntingdon Valley CC club championship 10 times, the Pine Valley club championship, and the All-Army Golf Championship. Thomas Hyndman, just like his father, won the Philadelphia Boys Junior Championship, as well as some trophies as an adult, but had to give up competition in his 30s due to arthritis. Buck and Thomas both worked for the William Hyndman III Insurance Agency. Hyndman's descendants remain deeply involved in Philadelphia golf to this day.
The Philadelphia chapter of the PGA stages the William Hyndman III Memorial Classic tournament each year. And the Golf Association of Philadelphia names a William Hyndman III Player of the Year award winner each year.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
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Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
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Gibson, Nevin H. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1964, A.S. Barnes and Company.
Golf Association of Philadelphia. Joseph H. Patterson Cup, Winners, https://gapgolf.org/joseph-h-patterson-cup/.
Graffis, Herb. "Swinging Around Golf," Golfdom, March 3, 1964, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/golfd/article/1964mar3.pdf.
Kerrane, Tom. "The Golf Association of Philadelphia Hill of Fame: William Hyndman III," Golf Association of Philadelphia Magazine, Volume I Issue 3, https://members.gapgolf.org/pdf/2008_hyndman_magazine_july_august_issue.pdf.
LifeCelebration.com. Obituaries, Mr. William Hyndman IV, https://www.lifecelebration.com/obituary/mr-william-hyndman-iv.
National Senior Amateur Hall of Fame. Inductees, https://nsahof.com/inductees-2/#tab-id-2.
The (Landsdale, Pa.) Reporter. "Champion golfer Hyndman passes away at the age of 85," September 12, 2001, https://www.thereporteronline.com/2001/09/12/champion-golfer-hyndman-passes-away-at-the-age-of-85/.
The R&A. Royal and Ancient Championship Records 1860-1980, Peter Ryde editor, 1981, Royal and Ancient Golf Club St. Andrews.
Sommers, Robert T. Golf Anecdotes, 1995, Oxford University Press.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990, Triumph Books, 1992.
United States Golf Association. 46th Walker Cup Match Media Guide, 2017, Player Records.
