It has been a very good two years for the just turned 44-year-old Tiger Woods. After a five-year period of scandals, surgeries and substandard play, Woods had a breakthrough moment when he won the 2018 Tour Championship. He then shocked the golfing world in April of 2019 when he won the Masters, giving him his 15th career major title as well as his first since the 2008 United States Open. Tiger topped off 2019 with a victory in the Zozo Championship in Japan and then led Team USA to a razor-thin victory in the Presidents Cup in December.
When Tiger won the 2019 Masters, the pundits and the talking heads started talking about his triumph in terms of being the greatest golfing comeback of all time. It seemed to be too similar to those conversations about which basketball player is the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan or LeBron James? The so-called experts fail to even consider the career of such past stars as Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson (my favorite for greatest of all time), Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. From my perspective, Tiger’s problems and struggles were self-inflicted ones. My other thought is that while his victory at Augusta National last April was an iconic golf moment, it doesn’t even fall among the top three of great golf comebacks.
Ben Hogan was hit by a Greyhound bus on a foggy remote Texas road in February of 1949, was hospitalized for months, was told he would never play golf again, and went on to recover to the extent that he won six major championships in the 1950s and was an impact player through 1960. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, an Olympic star in track and field in 1932, was one of the founding members of the LPGA Tour. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953, had major surgery in 1954, and one month later, while wearing a colonoscopy bag, captured the Women’s U.S. Open. It was her 10th and final major. The cancer returned in 1955. Babe won her final two LPGA events in 1955 and passed away in September of 1956.
And then there’s Stewart Murray “Skip” Alexander Jr. Skip was born in Philadelphia in 1919 and spent the majority of his childhood in Durham, North Carolina. He was introduced to the game of golf as a caddie during his teen years. He went to Duke University, played on their three NCAA Championship teams in the late 1930s, and was a two-time individual NCAA titlist. Skip won the 1940 North Carolina Amateur, and the following year he took home the prestigious North and South Amateur title at neighboring Pinehurst. He turned pro in late 1941. The earliest part of his professional career was interrupted by World War II. He spent four years in the military and was stationed in the Philippines for the majority of the war.
Skip Alexander returned to professional golf at the conclusion of the war and won the Carolinas Open and the Gainesville Open in 1946. He captured the Tucson Open in 1948 and then won the National Capital Open in Washington D.C. later that summer. Skip was a top-10 money winner who was a member of the victorious American Team in the 1949 Ryder Cup Matches at Ganton Golf Club in England. His captain was Ben Hogan.
The 1950 season was more of the same as Alexander continued to be an impact golfer on tour. He won the Empire State Open in New York and in late September of 1950, he was the third-leading money winner behind Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. Then on Sept. 24, 1950, he took a flight from Kansas City to Louisville. The plane crashed and Skip was the sole survivor. However, he was burned over 70 percent of his body and his hands were horribly scarred. He would spend the next seven months in the hospital and had to go through 18 surgeries. His fingers needed to be amputated, but a desperate Skip convinced his doctors to take out his knuckles and reform his fingers so that they’d be locked into the form of a golf grip. The surgery was a success, but for all intents and purposes his career was over.
Because of his 1950 successes, Skip was 10th in Ryder Cup points when the matches visited Pinehurst in 1951. Skip hadn’t played competitively, but playing captain Sam Snead included him on the team. He didn’t play in any of the team matches, but on singles day Dutch Harrison was sick and Snead suggested that Alexander give it a try. Teammate Ben Hogan strongly objected since the matches were contested at 36 holes in those days. Nonetheless, Skip played against England’s top golfer, John Panton, a three-time Ryder Cupper who won 39 tourneys in Europe. Alexander was basically cannon fodder for the previously unbeaten Panton.
As fate would have it, Alexander played great at Pinehurst that day, the site of his North and South Amateur victory. Although his hands bled through his bandages and two golf gloves as well as his grips, Skip had a miracle day and ended up defeating Panton by a decisive 8&7 margin (eight holes up with seven holes to go). The American team won by a 9 ½ to 2 ½ total. is Ryder Cup exploits were front page news. It was Skip Alexander’s last hurrah. He would never again be able to be an impact player in American professional golf circles.
From 1951 through 1985, Skip was the head professional at St. Petersburg Country Club in Florida. He won the Ben Hogan Award in 1959 for his recovery as well as successes following the plane crash. In 1986 he was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the Duke University Hall of Fame. In 1953 his son, Stewart Murray Alexander III, was born. He went by the nickname, Buddy. Buddy won the 1986 United States Amateur at Shoal Creek. He spent the majority of his career as a college golf coach, serving at Georgia Southern, LSU and Florida State from 1977 through 2014. His Florida State teams won the NCAA championship in 1993 and 2001.
Skip Alexander retired in St. Petersburg and passed away in October of 1997. His career was sadly cut short by the plane crash, and yet he had the fortitude to not only come back and secure a winning point for Team USA in the 1951 Ryder Cup, but he was also able to serve as a dedicated and popular country club teaching professional for 34 years. Very much a product of the Depression, World War II, and the ever growing PGA Tour, Skip was unable to parlay his golfing abilities to financial success because of his serious injuries following the plane crash. Nonetheless, his lengthy recovery and Ryder Cup exploits in 1951 made for a most impressive golf comeback story, right up there with Ben Hogan and Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Nowadays the name Skip Alexander will draw a blank with even the most serious fans of the game. Yet his story definitely needs to be told today and his comeback was definitely one for the ages.
