Felix Serafin: PGA Tour Golfer in 1930s

Felix Serafin was a golf pro who made about 100 starts on the PGA Tour, mostly in the 1930s. He was born in Pennsylvania, lived his whole life there, and all of his professional tournament wins happened in that state.

Date of birth: May 23, 1905

Place of birth: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Date and place of death: August 9, 1966, in Kingston, Pennsylvania

His Biggest Wins

Serafin is credited with four victories by the PGA Tour:

• 1931 Pennsylvania Open
• 1933 East Falls Open
• 1936 Pennsylvania Open
• 1939 Hershey Open

Off the tour, Serafin won the 1948 Anthracite Open. All five wins listed here happened in Pennsylvania.

In the Majors

Felix Serafin was among the early starters in Round 1 of the 1938 Masters. And he got off to a blazing start, despite playing in a steady rain: He scored 32 on the front nine, and got to 5-under early on the back nine.

Given that there were only four scores below 70 recorded over the four completed rounds of the tournament, who knows where Serafin's stellar first round would have taken him. Fact is, we can't know, because the round was wiped out.

That first round was eventually halted for the day by the rain. And at The Masters in those days, that meant all the scores recorded before the first day's play was stopped were just throw out. Serafin's great scoring was for naught.

In the restarted first round the next day, Serafin scored 72. He went on to finish in a tie for sixth place, which still turned out to be his best career finish in a major.

Serafin made 23 starts in major championships over his career, first at the 1927 U.S. Open, last in the 1947 Masters. He had one other Top 10 finish: Serafin went out in the Round of 16 (losing to Sam Snead) at the 1938 PGA Championship, technically a tie for ninth place. He had several Top 20s, all in The Masters: 19th in the 1937, 16th in 1939, 19th in 1941 and 18th in 1942.

More About Felix Serafin

There are many stories about pro golfers of yesteryear whose first "golf club" was actually just a stick of some sort, or a carved branch. Felix Serafin is the only one we've come across whose first "club" was, according to Philadelphia PGA pro and historian Peter Trenham, a brake lever from a railroad car.

That's what young Serafin, born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., first started knocking around a golf ball with. He got deeper into golf working as a caddie, which he started doing at a young age at the city's Wyoming Valley Country Club. In 1921, when he was just 16 years old, Serafin was hired as an assistant pro at the club.

Serafin's first start in a tournament that the PGA Tour today counts as an "official tour event" was in the 1925 Shawnee Open, in Pennsylvania. His first appearance in a major was in the 1927 U.S. Open, played at Oakmont Country Club, in Pennsylvania. Serafin was born, grew up, worked, lived and died in Pennsylvania, and played most of his golf inside the state, too.

The first of his four career wins in PGA Tour events was in the 1931 Pennsylvania Open, which he claimed by three strokes over runner-up Ed Dudley. Serafin was runner-up to Dick Metz in that tournament in 1933, then won it again in 1936 (by four over Al Espinosa).

Serafin finished second in the 1935 Hershey Open, losing a 36-hole playoff. He finished 72 holes tied with Ted Luther, and a playoff was scheduled for 18 holes. But they tied again, each scoring 76. So they played another 18, and that time Luther got the better of Serafin.

But Serafin did get his biggest victory by winning the Hershey Open in 1939. He bested runners-up Ben Hogan and Jimmy Hines by two strokes.

PGA Tour statistics show Serafin made 100 starts in events the tour today counts as official tournaments. The first was in 1925 and last in 1949, although he was mainly competitive in the 1930s. In addition to his four victories, Serafin was runner-up four times, third place once, had 13 Top 5 finishes and 29 Top 10 finishes.

In addition to the two second-place finishes mentioned above, his runner-up finishes were to Denny Shute in the 1934 Riverdale Open, and to Paul Runyan in the 1935 North & South Open.

In 1950, playing in the Philadelphia PGA's section championship, Serafin won the tournament's long drive prize with a drive of 307 yards.

Serafin became the head professional at Scranton (Pa.) Country Club in 1928, and held that position until 1943. (In 1928 he was brought to Berwick Golf Club in Broomall, Pa., for a 2-week stint as an instructor, offering lessons for $1. The second week was rained out, but Serafin gave 112 lessons the first week.)

In 1943, he switched to Fox Hill Country Club near his hometown. Serafin remained the head pro at Fox Hill until his death, at age 61, in 1966.

Sources:
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 3, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Graffis, Herb. "News of the Golf World in Brief," Golfdom, September 1963.
Regina, Tony. "A toast to 100 years at Berwick," Golf Association of Philadelphia, https://gapgolf.org/berwicks-centennial/.
Pennsylvania Golf Association. Pennsylvania Open, Past Champions, https://www.pagolf.org/uploads/html/openyby.html.
The Pittsburgh (Pa.) Press. "Luther Takes Hershey Golf," August 26, 1935, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8yEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hksEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2098%2C4038948.
PGA Tour. Players, Felix Serafin, https://www.pgatour.com/player/18425/felix-serafin.
Trenham, Peter C. "A Chronicle of the Philadelphia Section PGA and its Members," Leaders and Legends 1940-49, http://philadelphia.pga.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1940-1949-Leaders-Legends-4.pdf.
Trenham, Peter C. "A Chronicle of the Philadelphia Section PGA and its Members," 1950-59, http://philadelphia.pga.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1950-1959-Section-History28.pdf.