Maurice Bembridge: Fought Snakes, Set Records, Won Tourneys
Date of birth: February 21, 1945
Place of birth: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
Date and place of death: March 2, 2024, in Uzwil, Switzerland
His Biggest Wins
Bembridge won in European events both before and after today's European Tour was established in 1972. The following victories marked with an asterisk (*) are official European Tour wins:- 1969 Sumrie Better-Ball (partnered by Angel Gallardo)
- 1969 News of the World Match Play
- 1971 Dunlop Masters
- 1973 Martini International*
- 1974 Piccadilly Medal*
- 1974 Double Diamond Strokeplay*
- 1974 British PGA Championship*
- 1975 German Open*
- 1979 Benson & Hedges International Open*
- 1968 Kenya Open
- 1969 Kenya Open
- 1972 Lusaka Open
- 1979 Kenya Open (Safari Tour)
- 1996 Jersey Seniors
- 1998 Swedish Seniors
In the Majors: Masters Record After Snake Encounter
Bembridge never won a major, and had only two Top 10 finishes in majors: fifth in the 1968 British Open, and tied ninth in the 1974 Masters. He played The Open Championship 19 times from 1966-86, and played in four Masters Tournaments during that period. He never played in a U.S. Open or U.S. PGA Championship.But Bembridge left his mark on the majors with one, single round: his final round in that 1974 Masters Tournament. As a result of that one round, he held or shared several Masters Tournament records for years to come. But he had to get past a snake first.
Bembridge was well down the leaderboard when the Masters' final round started in 1974. But he went out and scored 34 on the front nine, a pretty good score. Then he kept making birdies. By the time Bembridge hit his drive on the par-5 13th hole, he knew he had a special round going.
But there was a problem: As he approached his ball in the fairway, Bembridge and his caddie could see that sitting right next to it, sunning itself, was a venomous cottonmouth snake (also called a water moccasin). This was in the days when Masters players were required to use regular Augusta National caddies, and Bembridge's caddie wasn't going anywhere near that snake. In fact, he skeedaddled into the woods.
And from the safety of those woods, the caddie warned Bembridge, "He's going to get you, he's going to kill you!"
But Bembridge wasn't going to let a deadly snake get in the way of this round he was playing. Plus, he literally had a plane to catch to make it to the European Tour's Spanish Open on time. He couldn't afford to slow down. He took out his 2-iron, carefully approached the snake, and whacked it on the head. Then he used the blade of the iron to lift the stunned but wriggling snake, and tossed it into the Rae's Creek tributary beside the fairway.
Bembridge then took that 2-iron and knocked his ball into the green, then 2-putted for another birdie — his fourth in a row.
Bembridge wound up scoring 64 that day, needing only 11 putts on the back side, and finished tied for ninth place. Maybe that 64 doesn't sound as impressive today, but in 1974 only Lloyd Mangrum, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus had previously scored 64s in The Masters. Bembridge shared the Masters' 18-hole scoring record until Nick Price recorded the first 63 in 1986.
Bembridge had a 30 on the back nine, and to that point only Ben Hogan had previously scored 30 on the Augusta National back nine. But Bembridge was the very first golfer in Masters history to score 64 in the final round, and, as this is written, nobody has ever gone lower in a Masters final round.
Suddenly Bembridge was internationally famous, which started with his interview on the CBS broadcast from Butler Cabin. Delayed by the hulabaloo and in danger of missing that plane, CBS executives raced him to the airport in a limousine, and put him on a charter plain to Spain.
Decades later, Golf Digest referred to Bembridge's 64 as "the greatest Augusta round time has forgotten."
More About Maurice Bembridge
English golfer Maurice Bembridge was a traveller across the golf world in the 1960s through 1980s: He played tournaments across Europe, in Asia, North America, Africa and Oceania, and won in several of those regions, too. For a time in the 1970s and 1980s he was attached to a club in France while living in the United States.He never won a lot, but Bembridge did win some of the most-important tournaments in Europe.
According to Peter Alliss, "Bembridge has always been better with his irons than he is with his woods, where he lacks both power and consistency. He uses shafts half an inch or so longer than standard to give himself a wider swing arc." But other accounts of his game praise the straightness of his drives.
One of the ways Bembridge made a name for himself was in the Ryder Cup, in which four times — 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1975 — he played for Team Great Britain & Ireland. That was an era of near total Team USA domination (although GB&I forged a tie in 1969). But Bembridge had some good showings, although his overall record was 5-8-3.
- 1969 Ryder Cup: This was a very testy contest right up until Jack Nicklaus' concession of Tony Jacklin's short putt on the last green that ensured a tie (and infuriated captain Sam Snead). Bembridge was involved in the first-day fireworks in his foursomes match with partner Bernard Gallacher against Lee Trevino/Ken Still. Throughout the match, Still tried to rattle Bembridge by intentionally standing too close to him when Bembridge was putting. Bembridge had to repeatedly ask Still to move. On the 13th hole, Still went over-the-top by making everyone, even fans, move away from Bembridge. But Bembridge/Gallacher won the match, 2 and 1. In fourballs, Bembridge had one loss and one halve. And in singles, he was matched up against ... Ken Still. And beat him again, 1-up. But Bembridge lost a second singles match to Miller Barber, 7 and 6.
- 1971 Ryder Cup: Bembridge split two doubles matches on Day 1, winning in foursomes and losing in fourball, both with partner Peter Butler. Bembridge did not play on Day 2 or in singles.
- 1973 Ryder Cup: On Day 1, Bembridge and his partners twice faced the American team of Jack Nicklaus/Arnold Palmer. In foursomes, Nicklaus/Palmer easily beat Bembridge/Edward Polland. But in fourball, Bembridge and Brian Huggett beat the two legends, 3 and 1. Bembridge/Huggett partnered twice more on Day 1, beating Chi Chi Rodriguez/Lou Graham in foursomes, then halving Lee Trevino/Homero Blancas in fourballs. And in singles? Bembridge only had to play Jack Nicklaus twice in the same day. In the morning singles on Day 3, Bembridge played Nicklaus to a draw. In the afternoon singles, Bembridge took Nicklaus to the final green where the Bear eked out a 2-up victory.
- 1975 Ryder Cup: Bembridge was 30 years old in his last Ryder Cup appearance. He lost twice in doubles, then in singles fell to Bob Murphy, 2 and 1.
He began competing, mostly in tournaments specifically for assistant pros, in 1965. In 1966 he won the Llandudno Assistant Professionals' Tournament. In 1967, he moved to Little Aston Golf Club and won the much bigger PGA Assistants' Championship plus a couple other titles.
Bembridge's first really big victory was an international one, the 1968 Kenya Open (a title he would win twice more, including in 1969). That same year he had what turned out to be his career-best Open Championship finish of fifth.
After winning the Sumrie Better-Ball in 1969, Bembridge took the prestigious News of the World Match Play crown. That tournament, later known as the British PGA Matchplay Championship, was played under the "News of the World" title sponsorship for the last time that year. And in the championship match, Bembridge beat Dai Rees, 6 and 5.
Another pre-European Tour victory was in the 1971 Dunlop Masters (aka the British Masters) by two strokes over Peter Oosterhuis. As noted at the top, Bembridge didn't win a lot, but his victories tended to be high-quality.
The European Tour was founded in 1972 and Bembridge went on to six official wins on that circuit. The first was in the 1973 Martini International.
But 1974 was Bembridge's glory year: It was the year of his record-setting Masters final round (and his only other Top 10 in a major), and he won three times on the European Tour. Bembridge took the Piccadilly Medal event by five strokes over runner-up Oosterhuis, and beat Bob Charles by a stroke for the Double Diamond Strokeplay trophy.
The biggest of his career wins was in the 1974 British PGA Championship where, once again, Oosterhuis was the runner-up (by a stroke). Bembridge closed with a 65 in the final round to earn that title.
He won the German Open in 1975, then went four years before his next, and last, European Tour victory at the 1979 Benson & Hedges International Open.
The last year in which Bembridge made double-digit starts on the European Tour was 1987, and his final start on the Euro Tour was in 1991. Bembridge played 283 tournaments on the circuit, with six official wins, two seconds, three thirds, and 29 total Top 10 finishes.
In the 1990s, Bembridge began focusing on golf instruction. He became an instructor based in Niederburen, Switzerland, at Ostschweizerischer Golf Club.
But when he turned 50 in 1995, he began competing again on the European Seniors Tour. Bembridge had two senior victories. He last played on the senior circuit in 2016. For his senior golf career, he made 283 starts and, in addition to the two wins, had eight seconds, one third-place showing, and 39 total Top 10 finishes. He also got involved in tour administration in the 2000s, serving on the European Seniors Tour committee for nine years, and as chairman of the tour from 2007-2011.
Bembridge was 79 years old when he passed away in 2024.
Bembridge had an uncle who was a golf pro and also played tournament golf. Sam Bembridge tied for 46th in the 1927 British Open, in which he played the first two rounds with the eventual winner, Bobby Jones.
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(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.
EuropeanTour.com. Players, Maurice Bembridge, https://www.europeantour.com/players/11/.
Huggan, John. "The greatest Augusta round time has forgotten," Golf Digest, April 5, 2024, https://www.golfdigest.com/story/masters-greatest-round-no-one-remembers-maurice-bembridge.
Nash, Bruce, and Zullo, Allan. The Golf Hall of Shame, 1991, Simon and Schuster.
The Professional Golfers' Association. "How a snake almost derailed Bembridge’s Augusta course record," July 4, 2022, https://www.pga.info/news/how-a-snake-almost-derailed-bembridge-s-augusta-course-record/.
The Professional Golfers' Association. "Maurice Bembridge (1945-2014)," April 3, 2024, https://www.pga.info/news/maurice-bembridge-1945-2024/.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
The Sunday Morning Herald. "The golfer who met a venomous snake on Augusta’s 13th fairway with a two-iron," March 11, 2024, https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-golfer-who-met-a-venomous-snake-on-augusta-s-13th-fairway-with-a-two-iron-20240311-p5fbgd.html.
The Sunday Times. Obituary, "Maurice Bembridge," March 25, 2024, https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/maurice-bembridge-bb7kxnbqs.
