George Sargent: Won U.S. Open, Innovated Golf Instruction
George Sargent was an English golfer whose greatest successes happened in America: He won the U.S. Open in 1909, and through the 1940s was the head pro at a succession of major American clubs. He also was an innovator in golf instruction who played a big part in popularizing the use of film to analyze golf swings.
Full name: George Jonathan Sargent
Date of birth: August 2, 1882
Place of birth: Brockham, Surrey, England
Date and place of death: June 18, 1962 in Atlanta, Georgia
His Biggest Wins
- 1909 U.S. Open
- 1912 Canadian Open
- 1918 Minnesota State Open
Winning the U.S. Open and Other Finishes in Majors
George Sargent played in the U.S. Open 16 times, but the 1909 U.S. Open was his first. And he won it — the fourth time a golfer won the U.S. Open on his first try. And only Francis Ouimet in 1913 has since added his name to that list.Sargent also won the 1909 U.S. Open with a new tournament scoring record of 290. He lowered the previous mark — Alex Smith's 295 in 1906 — by five strokes. Sargent's record stood until Chick Evans won on 286 in 1916.
Sargent opened with a 75 in 1909, seven behind David Hunter's 68 (which was the first sub-70 round in U.S. Open history). But Hunter was never a factor after scoring 84 in Round 2. Sargent was five off Tom McNamara's lead after 36 holes.
He moved into second place and closed the gap on McNamara to two strokes with a 72 in Round 3. And in the final round Sargent shot 71 to McNamara's 77, winning by four strokes.
Sargent later tied for third in the 1914 U.S. Open, and tied fourth in 1916. He also had Top 10 finishes in 1911, 1912 and 1915.
Sargent played in all three of the other professional majors, too, including the inaugural Masters in 1934, but had no other Top 10 finishes. His first start in a major was in the 1901 British Open, his last in the 1956 Masters.
More About George Sargent
George Sargent was an Englishman by birth, and he grew up in Epsom, near the famed Epsom Downs racetrack. His first golf swings were using a stick to swing at pebbles in imitation of the golfers he saw at Epsom Downs Golf Club.At the age of 12, he began working at the club as a caddie. He soon began a clubmaking apprenticeship with the Epsom Downs pro, and by his late teens was a pro himself.
In 1899, at age 17, Sargent came under the tutelage of Harry Vardon at Ganton Golf Club in North Yorkshire, England, working as an assistant to the legend. Vardon, impressed by Sargent's nascent golf game, hooked him up with a private golf instructor. Two year later, Sargent made his debut in the Open Championship and finished 32nd.
In 1905, pursuing work and following a wave of Scottish and English golf pros moving to North America, Sargent sailed to Canada for a job at Royal Ottawa Golf Club. It was while he was there that he finished second in the 1908 Canadian Open, and, a year later, won the 1909 U.S. Open.
In 1912, Sargent won the Canadian Open by one stroke over runner-up Jim Barnes. He set another tournament scoring record, this one 299 — he was the first golfer to break 300 in the Canadian Open.
His tournament play was always sporadic, and the tournament scene in North America at that time was not well-organized. but Sargent just missed out on another huge title, finishing second in the 1916 Western Open. He tied Jock Hutchison, one stroke behind winner Walter Hagen.
His last win in a tournament of note was in the 1918 Minnesota State Open, when Sargent was 36 years old.
Sargent's Club Pro Stops and Film Instruction Contributions
The PGA of America was formed in 1916, and Sargent was one of the charter members. Shortly after, he became president of the PGA and served in that role from 1921 through 1926.As the PGA president, Sargent helped raise money through Golf Illustrated magazine to send a team of U.S.-based pros to Scotland. They played in the Open Championship, but, before that, took on a team of Britain-based pros in a team, match-play tournament that was one of the formative events in the creation of the Ryder Cup.
Later, Sargent was a founder of the PGA Seniors organizations, and helped create the tournament known today as the Senior PGA Championship.
After moving from Canada to the U.S. in the 1910s, Sargent worked as a club professional at some of the most notable clubs in America. He was the head pro at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, 1912-24; at Interlachen Country Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1924-28; at Chevy Chase Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland, 1928-32. In 1932, Bobby Jones convinced Sargent to take the head pro job at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, Georgia, and Sargent held that position until his retirement in 1947.
Some sources claim that Sargent was the first golf pro to set up movie cameras, film the golf swing, and use that film to provide instruction to his students. (For example, Peter Alliss wrote in a 1980 book that Sargent "is thought to have been the first man to use film for golf instruction.")
That is probably stretching it, but Sargent was definitely highly influential in popularizing the use of film by golf instructors.
In 1930, Sargent wrote an article for Golfdom magazine titled, "Pros Look to Movies for Big Help in Teaching." He described the process of using movie cameras and film of the golf swing as a teaching tool. He described his technique for filming and for analyzing what he caught on film.
Several years earlier (circa 1927-30), Sargent had undertaken a project for the PGA of filming the swings of some of golf's legends. Among those Sargent filmed were Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Harry Vardon and Joyce Wethered.
Sargent wrote that one of the things that most stood out about the process for him was discovering that much accepted "wisdom" about the swing was wrong.
"Prior to the entrance of the motion picture camera into golf instruction we were all inclined to accept as gospel certain long established statements about what the old masters thought they saw," Sargent wrote (and emphasis his).
But using film showed him that what a golfer thinks or feels he's doing and what he is doing can be two different things. Using cameras, Sargent wrote, was an antidote in those cases where it turned out that a pro was "teaching golf one way and playing it another."
Sargent made no claim in the article to having been the first golf instructor to use a film camera as part of his instruction. There were other golf pros who were working with cameras by this time, too. (Howard Beckett at Atlanta's Capital City Club was doing it as early as 1924.)
But Sargent's article in the April 1930 issue of Golfdom definitely brought the technique into the spotlight and spurred tremendous growth in its use.
Today, Sargent is a member of the PGA of America Hall of Fame, Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and Ohio Golf Hall of Fame.
He had multiple sons who followed him into becoming a golf professional. Harold Sargent took over as pro at East Lake when George retired in 1947. Harold also served as PGA of America president (1958-60), making them the first father-son duo to do so. And like his father, Harold is also a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.
Another son, Alfred Sargent, became pro at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio; and a third son, Jack Sargent, became pro at Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta.
In 2019, a biography of George Sargent was published, written by Heather Tweed, a great-niece of the golfer, entitled George Sargent: Forgotten Golfing Innovator.
Photo credit: National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
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.
Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Sargent, George Jonathan, https://eehe.org.uk/25694/sargentjs/.
Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. Members, George Sargent, https://host.gsga.org/hall-of-fame/members/george_sargent.
Golfdom. "Pioneer of Movie Teaching Tells His Experiences," June 1930, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/golfd/article/1930jun58.pdf.
New York Times. "George Sargent, Golf Champion, 79," Associated Press, June 19, 1962, https://www.nytimes.com/1962/06/19/archives/george-sargent-golf-champion-79-winner-of-us-open-in-09-dies-headed.html.
Ohio Golf Hall of Fame. Inductees, George Sargent, https://www.ohiogolf.org/hall_of_fame/inductees/george-sargent.
Sargent, George. "Pros Look to Movies for Big Help in Teaching," Golfdom, April 1930, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/golfd/article/1930apr54.pdf.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
USGA. U.S. Open Records, USGA.org, https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/media/online-media-center/usga-records/u-s--open-records.html.
