Bio of Golfer Ed 'Porky' Oliver
Full name: Edward Stewart Oliver Jr.
Date of birth: September 6, 1915
Place of birth: Wilmington, Delaware
Date and place of death: September 21, 1961, in Wilmington, Delaware
Nickname: Porky, because, yes, he was a hefty man for his time in golf: He weighed around 225-240 pounds on a 5-foot-9 frame. Some of his fellow pros also referred to him as "Pork Chops" or "Old Pork Chops."
His Biggest Wins
Porky Oliver is credited with eight official wins on the PGA Tour:- 1940 Bing Crosby Pro-Am
- 1940 Phoenix Open
- 1940 St. Paul Open
- 1941 Western Open
- 1947 San Antonio Texas Open
- 1948 Tacoma Open Invitational
- 1953 Kansas City Open
- 1958 Houston Open
- 1940 Mid-South Better Ball (partnered by Clayton Heafner)
- 1945 Delaware Open
- 1948 Pacific Northwest PGA Championship
- 1949 Northwest Open
- 1949 Philippine World Open
- 1949 Washington State PGA Championship
- 1949 Idaho Open
- 1949 Esmeralda Open
- 1956 Massachusetts Open
- 1956 Greenbriar Invitational
- 1959 Jamaica Open
- 1959 Montana Open
In the Majors
Ed Oliver played in 30 majors from his first in 1939 (U.S. Open, t20) to his last in 1960 (Masters, t20). He had 10 Top 10 finishes, including three runner-up finishes. His second-place finishes happened in these majors:- 1946 PGA Championship: Trivia question: What happened in Byron Nelson's last-ever match in the PGA Championship? Answer: He bogeyed the 36th hole of a quarterfinal match and lost to Ed Oliver. Oliver (who beat Chandler Harper in the Round of 16) then defeated Jug McSpaden 6-and-5 in a Porky-vs.-Jug semifinal showdown. In the championship match, Oliver led Ben Hogan, 3-up, after the morning 18. but Hogan took control of the match by scoring 30 over holes 19-27, and Hogan bested Oliver, 6-and-4.
- 1952 U.S. Open: Oliver began the final round in third, three strokes behind the leader, Julius Boros, and two behind second-place Hogan. He ended it in solo second, four back of Boros but one better than Hogan.
- 1953 Masters: Oliver was in second place after three rounds, four behind Hogan. He scored 70 in the final round to finish on 279, matching the Masters Tournament scoring record. Unfortunately for Oliver, Hogan shattered that record with a 274, winning by five over Porky.
So, while the tournament official serving as starter was on a lunch break, six golfers took it upon themselves to tee off earlier than their allotted tee times: Oliver, Leland Gibson, Ky Laffoon, Claude Harmon, Dutch Harrison and Johnny Bulla. They didn't bother asking or telling the USGA.
When the USGA did hear about it, all six were disqualified from the tournament for starting out of order, but they didn't learn that until finishing their rounds. That was hard on the other five, but for Oliver it was heartbreaking: His score of 287 would have tied him for the lead with Lawson Little and Gene Sarazen. He would have gone into an 18-hole playoff against Little and Sarazen.
Instead, Oliver was DQ'd. Newspaper accounts the next day told of Oliver sitting alone at his locker for a long period after the DQ, a tear occasionally running down his face. He was quoted saying, about missing the playoff, "It's not just the honor of having a chance to win the Open. I need the money, and I need it badly."
A flood of telegrams from golf fans taking Oliver's side arrived at USGA headquarters, lambasting them for enforcing the rules. Some things never change in golf.
Oliver tied for third in the 1947 U.S. Open, three strokes behind winner Lew Worsham. He tied sixth in the 1946 U.S. Open, tied eighth in the 1947 Masters and 1958 PGA Championship, and reached the Round of 16 (technically a tie for ninth place) in the match-play PGA in 1947, 1948 and 1954.
More About Ed 'Porky' Oliver
Ed Oliver was a fun, cheerful, friendly man, very popular both with fans and fellow pros. He enjoyed interacting with spectators on the practice range before tournaments (not to mention during tournaments), and liked to show off trick shots when doing so. He would also intentionally hit bad shots, then turn to fans watching on the range and ask, "What did I do wrong?" as if he really didn't know. After listening to replies, he'd then play a perfect stroke and turn back to the fans, "Boy, you sure helped me sort that out!"Nearly everyone in golf just called him Porky. References to his weight and girth were very common in stories about him (as they were later for young Jack Nicklaus, a k a "Fat Jack"). They even appeared in obituaries. For example, Golfdom magazine eulogized him thusly: "In spite of his success as both a playing and home club pro, Ed will be remembered as a jolly fat man who never allowed the grimness of competition to dull his sense of humor. Perhaps that was the real secret of his success as a tournament player."
In another Goldom article, the magazine said of his 1946 PGA Championship final against Hogan: "Stories about Ed's appetite have become legendary. In the 1946 PGA Championship, Porky had Ben Hogan three down after the end of 18 holes. During the lunchtime break, Ed went in and helped himself to the buffet while Hogan hurried to the practice tee and polished his game while Porky was polishing his plate. There are those who say Oliver ate himself out of that title."
Despite his eight wins on tour (and many more off it), Oliver developed a reputation as a bridesmaid, a hard-luck golfer, due to his many second-place finishes. He also once made one of the highest single-hole scores in PGA Tour history, a 16. It happened during the 1954 Bing Crosby Pro-Am, on the 16th hole at Cypress Point.
But that "jolly fat man" talk often obscured just how good Oliver was, something that his fellow pros knew well. Sam Snead, who Oliver said gave him the "Porky" nickname, once said of Oliver: "On a given day, Porky could beat any golfer who ever lived. But golf to Porky was just a means to have fun."
Oliver was born in and grew up in the Wilmington, Delaware, area. Like so many other future pro golfers of his era, he got into the game through caddying. He started at DuPont Country Club when he was 11 years old, later moving to Wilmington Country Club. One of his friends and competitors during childhood was another future PGA Tour winner, Dave Douglas.
In 1933 and 1934, Oliver won back-to-back titles in the Philadelphia (Wilmington, Del., was part of the Philadelphia PGA District) caddie championship tournament. Then he turned professional at age 18.
It wasn't long before Oliver made his first PGA Tour start. It happened in the 1936 Hershey Open, and he finished 14th.
Oliver started 11 times on the tour in 1937 and, in the Pennsylvania Open, recorded the first of his 21 career PGA Tour runner-up finishes.
But 1940 was his breakout year: He won three times, had one second-place finish, and, but for that unfortunate DQ, would have at least been in a playoff at the U.S. Open. And those three victories were in significant tournaments at the time: first in the Big Crosby Pro-Am, then in the Phoenix Open and St. Paul Open. He also partnered with Clayton Heafner to win the 1940 Mid-South Better-Ball, not a tour event but at the time a big tournament nonetheless.
The biggest win of his career happened the following year. It happened in the 1941 Western Open, where Hogan and Nelson tied for second, three strokes behind Oliver. (Oliver was runner-up in the Western Open in both 1947 and 1948, in 1948 losing a playoff to Hogan.)
His golf career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the U.S. Army. He also met his wife, Clara, during the war — she was an officer in the Nurses' Corps. They eventually had four children.
Oliver got back on tour in 1946 and had a couple of runner-up finishes, including his championship match loss in the PGA to Hogan.
In some ways, 1947 was Oliver's career year. Not in terms of victories — he had three in 1940, one (the Texas Open) in 1947. But he finished a career-best fourth on the season-ending PGA Tour money list, he finished in the Top 10 in 17 of his 23 starts, he finished in the Top 10 in all three majors he played (including third in the U.S. Open), and had five runner-up finishes. Oliver lost in a playoff to Bobby Locke in the high-dollar All American Open. Two of his other second-place showings were in big events, too, the Western Open and Canadian Open. He also made his Ryder Cup debut (more on that below) in 1947.
Oliver lost in playoffs two other times in his PGA Tour career: to Hogan in the 1948 Western Open, and to Cary Middlecoff in the 1950 St. Louis Open. But he won a five-way playoff at the 1948 Tacoma Open, beating Middlecoff, Vic Ghezzi, Fred Haas and Charles Congdon. (At the time, it was the largest playoff in PGA Tour history.)
He had no tour wins in 1949, but six wins off the tour, including the Esmeralda Open, which was counted as an official PGA Tour tournament in some other years.
It was five years from the 1948 Tacoma playoff win until Oliver's next tour victory, the 1953 Kansas City Open. And five more years after that to the next (and what turned out to be the last), the 1958 Houston Open. But Oliver was often in the mix, as seen in his money-list finishes in the early 1950s: 10th in both 1951 and 1952, seventh in 1953.
Oliver also made his other two Ryder Cup teams in the early '50s, playing for Team USA in 1951 and 1953. In the 1947 Ryder Cup, Oliver partnered with Lew Worsham for a whopping 10-and-9 (36-hole match) victory over Henry Cotton/Arthur Lees. That tied the Ryder Cup record for largest foursomes margin, and since 36-hole matches are no longer played, it's a record Oliver will always share. In singles that year, Oliver defeated Charlie Ward, 4 and 3.
But in the 1951 Ryder Cup, Oliver lost both his matches. He and partner Henry Ransom fell to Ward/Lees in foursomes, 2 and 1; and in singles, Lees beat Oliver, 2 and 1. In the 1953 Ryder Cup, Oliver played only in foursomes. Teaming with his childhood friend Dave Douglas, Oliver got a 2-and-1 win over Harry Weetman/Peter Alliss. Team USA defeated Team GB&I in all three Ryder Cups he played, with Oliver compiling an overall 3-2-0 match record.
His final two wins were in 1959, both off the tour: the Jamaica Open and Montana Open.
PGA Tour stats show that Oliver made a total of 328 starts in official-money tournaments. He had eight wins, 21 second-place finishes, 15 thirds, 68 total Top 5 finishes, and 134 total Top 10s.
Oliver was still playing well right up to the end of his career, in his mid-40s. In 1960, he made eight official starts, with a tie for fourth in the Bing Crosby Pro-Am and a tie for ninth in the Houston Open. His final PGA Tour start was in the 1960 Colonial National Invitation, one week after Houston, where he tied for 44th place.
A heavy smoker much of his life, Oliver was diagnosed with lung cancer early in 1960. He left the tour in May for surgery to remove the lung. At the time of his last start, Oliver was 13th on the all-time PGA Tour money list.
Oliver maintained a publicly cheerful and optimistic outlook, always hoping to get back to golf. Through testimonials and dinners in his honor, he helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for cancer research and awareness. Golf clubs around the U.S., and especially those where the pro was an old tour friend of Oliver's, held "Porky Oliver Days" to chip in, both for cancer research and for Oliver's own finances. He had a second surgery to remove more cancer.
The PGA of America chose Jerry Barber to captain Team USA in the 1961 Ryder Cup, but named Oliver "honorary captain." He planned to travel with the team to England if he was healthy enough.
But he wasn't. Oliver died about a month before the 1961 matches, only 46 years old.
A golf course in Oliver's hometown of Wilmington, Del., was renamed in his honor in 1983: Ed Oliver Golf Club. And he was the subject of a 2022 biography written by author John Riley titled How He Played the Game: Ed 'Porky' Oliver and Golf's Greatest Generation (affiliate links). (Oliver himself contributed to the 1949 book The Golf Clinic: Six Master Golfers Tell How to Improve Your Game. He also authored a booklet that came out in 1960 called Golf Tips from Ed 'Porky' Oliver.)
Oliver is a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the Caddie Hall of Fame.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Delaware Sports Museum & Hall of Fame. Inductees, Edward "Porky" Oliver, https://desports.org/edward-porky-oliver/.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
Gelbert, Doug. The Great Delaware Sports Book, 1995, Cruden Bay Books.
Golfdom. "Barber Leads Ryder Cup Team's Invasion of England," September 1961.
Golfdom. "Ed Oliver Looked for Laughs Along with Tournament Prizes," October 1961.
Graffis, Herb. "Swinging Around Golf," Golfdom, April 1952.
Meriden (Conn.) Journal. "Cancer Takes Porky Oliver," Associated Press, September 21, 1961, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UORIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JQINAAAAIBAJ&pg=5878,2076451.
PGA of America. PGA Media Guide 2012, 1946 PGA Championship.
PGA of America. Ryder Cup 2023 Media Guide, Ryder Cup Records.
PGATour.com. Players, Ed Oliver, https://www.pgatour.com/player/17534/ed-oliver.
Scharff, Robert. Golf Magazine's The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1970, Harper and Row.
Sommers, Robert T. Golf Anecdotes, 1995, Oxford University Press.
Western Golf Association Evans Scholars Foundation. "Porky Oliver inducted into Caddie Hall of Fame," August 17, 2022, https://wgaesf.org/the-latest-news/1896-porky-oliver-inducted-into-caddie-hall-of-fame.