Jimmy Clark: PGA Tour Winner in 1950s

Jimmy Clark was a professional golfer on the PGA Tour whose tournament appearances mostly came in the 1950s. He is best-known for two things: First, as an amateur, he once set a 36-hole scoring record for all USGA competitions ... and then broke his own record the next time the same tournament was played. Second, as a pro Clark won only twice on the PGA Tour, but they happened in the same year (1952) and the same golfer was runner-up both times.

Full name: James Cummings Clark Jr.

Date of birth: April 24, 1921

Place of birth: Scottsville, Virginia

Date and place of death: December 7, 2010, in Bermuda Dunes, California

His Biggest Wins

Clark won twice on the PGA Tour:

In the Majors

Clark made 14 starts in majors over his career, first in 1946 and last in 1964. All but one of them was in the U.S. Open or PGA Championship (he played The Masters once, never the British Open). His best finish, and his only finish higher than 33rd in any major, was a tie for fifth place in the 1953 PGA Championship. Clark advanced to the quarterfinals that year before losing to Felice Torza, 1-down.

More About Jimmy Clark

Jimmy Clark was born in Virginia, but by the time he was playing high-level golf — by age 20 — he was a Californian. And he remained so the rest of his life.

He first gained national notice at the 1941 USGA Amateur Public Links Championship (a USGA national championship that is no longer played today). In the 36-hole, stroke-play qualifier preceding the match-play bracket, Clark earned medalist honors with a score of 135. That lowered the tournament record by three strokes. But it wasn't just a tournament record: That 135 was the lowest 36-hole stroke total recorded in any USGA championship to that time. Clark wound up advancing to the semifinals in match play before bowing out.

The U.S. Amateur Public Links wasn't played again until 1946, due to World War II. (Clark served in the U.S. Marines during the war, taking part in multiple battles in the Pacific theater, including Bouganville in 1943 and Guam in 1944.) And in that 1946 Publinx, Clark lowered his own records by one, scoring 134 in the stroke-play qualifying rounds. (He lost in the first round of match play.)

Clark's 36-hole tournament record and USGA record both eventually fell. But in both 1941 and 1946, his first-round score was 64, and that established a Public Links 18-hole scoring record. The U.S. Amateur Public Links tournament was played from 1922 through 2014, and only one golfer ever went lower in the event's stroke-play qualifying (Danny Green, 63 in 2004).

Clark turned pro later in 1946. He made his first start in a PGA Tour tournament in 1948, and didn't make his last start until 1974. But the bulk of his PGA Tour appearances happened during the 1950s.

Clark joined the tour full-time in 1950, and had his first two Top 10 finishes that year. He improved to seven Top 10 finishes in 1951. But 1952 was the one big year of his PGA Tour career, the one year during which both his tour wins happened.

In that year of 1952, Clark made 21 starts and finished in the Top 25 in 15 of them. Only three of those were Top 10 finishes, but two of those three Top 10s were victories.

His best previous finish in a PGA Tour event was third place as Clark, 30 years old, started the final round of the 1952 Azalea Open tied atop the leaderboard with Bill Nary. He went out and shot 68 in that final round, posting a tournament-record 272 total. That was good for a 3-stroke win over runners-up Jim Turnesa and George Fazio.

A few months later, in August, Clark won again at the 1952 Fort Wayne Open, and Turnesa was again the runner-up. They finished 72 holes tied, then Clark won an 18-hole playoff, 69 to 70.

That was it for Clark's victories. But he did have a couple more close calls. At the 1955 Baton Rouge Open, Clark lost a playoff to Bo Wininger. And he finished second to Doug Sanders in the 1963 Greater Greensboro Open.

Clark made more than 20 starts on the PGA Tour from 1950-55, dropped to 17 in 1956, and played a reduced schedule through the rest of the 1950s. He increased his tour play again for a few years in the early 1960s, but made fewer than 25 starts total from 1965-on, until his final start in the 1974 Magnolia Classic.

For his career, Clark made 284 starts in official PGA Tour tournaments. In addition to his two wins and two second-place finishes, he posted seven thirds, 18 Top 5s and 31 Top 10s.

Later, Clark made made 17 starts on the Champions Tour from 1980-83, with no Top 10s.

Off the tour, Clark became associated with Laguna Beach Country Club in Laguna Beach, California, from its opening in 1951, and by 1953 was the pro there. In the 1970s and 1980s, he ran Jimmy Clark's Golf Shop, first in Huntington Beach, California, and later in Palm Desert, California.

Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alyta, Ken. "Clark Captures First in Azalea Tournament," The (Durham, N.C.) Herald-Sun, March 31, 1952.
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Golfdom. "Sportsvision Shoots New Golf Series," July 5, 1953.
Hall, Bob. "Pros Tell What Makes Good Shop Assistants," Golfdom, August 1953.
PGA Tour. 1982 Senior Tour Book, Jimmy Clark, Tournament Players Association.
PGA Tour. Players, Jimmy Clark, PGATour.com, https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions/player/01199/jimmy-clark/career.
Person, Jerry. "A Look Back," Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2007.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990, Triumph Books, 1992.
USGA.org. Championships, "U.S. Amateur Public Links Records," https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/media/online-media-center/usga-records/u-s--amateur-public-links-records.html.