In the history of American sports, there have been golden eras. For whatever reason, there appears to be some strange convergence of talent and timing that results in a golden era in team and individual sports for an extended period of time. In the case of the NBA, I do believe the game’s golden era was dominated by the Lakers and the Celtics, featured Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and ushered in the explosion of the worldwide popularity of the game. My dad would have argued vehemently on behalf of baseball’s golden era of the 1930s and the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig Yankees, Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s, and a St. Louis Cardinal team that included Dizzy Dean and Leo Durocher. The Cardinals were colorful. Pro football experienced a golden era after the NFL-AFL merger with the last years of the dynasty of the Packers, the dominance of the Steelers, the colorfulness of the Raiders, and the perfection of the Dolphins.
Oftentimes I have spoken of golf’s golden era on these pages. Professional golf has some easy to identify eras beginning with the growth of tournament golf. Those earliest golf events on a haphazard national tour featured the likes of amateur great Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen alongside the formation of the PGA of America and the introduction of the Masters. The pre- and post-World War II era was led by such golfers of talent as Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. That threesome aged and golf’s next generation proved to be a part of the game’s golden era. Arnold Palmer won the first of his four Masters in 1958, Jack Nicklaus won the 1962 U.S. Open as a rookie, Lee Trevino came out of west Texas to win the 1967 rookie of the year award, Gary Player won worldwide, Billy Casper was a putting genius, and a bunch of gifted linksters such as Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Tony Jacklin, Al Geiberger, Gene Littler and others dominated leader boards. Television was there as well.
One of the members of golf’s golden era passed away a few weeks ago. Dow Finsterwald died on Nov. 4 at age 93 in Colorado Springs. Finsterwald might be somewhat unknown to fans of the game, but I think that was because he played at a time when his quiet demeanor and frequent cut streak just wasn’t as noticeable to the burgeoning television generation.
Finsterwald was born in Athens, Ohio at the start of the Great Depression in 1929. His father played football at Ohio University and later served as that school’s football coach and basketball coach. Dow worked at the local country club and played college golf at his father’s alma mater, Ohio U. He turned professional prior to his graduation and headed out onto the PGA Tour. Monday qualifying was the rule of the day as there was no Q School back then. The one caveat was that if you made the cut, you could get into the following week’s tournament.
In 1954 Dow won the Carolinas Open, a non-PGA Tour event that has been around since 1923. The following year he won the British Columbia Open on the Canadian Tour. That same year Dow won for the first time on the PGA Tour, prevailing in the 1955 Fort Wayne Invitational by defeating Doug Ford by three strokes. From that point onward, it seemed as if Finsterwald had enough of a top-notch game to win one time each year. In 1956 he won the Carling Open and the following year he won an 18-hole Monday playoff with a 65 to capture the Tucson Open. Later that year he finished second at the PGA Championship at the final time that it was contested at match play. Dow finished the 1957 season by playing for Team USA in the Ryder Cup. It would be the first of four consecutive times that he would compete in the biennial matches.
The following year put Dow Finsterwald in special company as he won the PGA Championship at Llanerich in Pennsylvania. It was the first time that the PGA was contested at stroke play to accommodate the world of televised golf. Dow jumped out ahead of the field with a first-round 67, recorded second- and third-round scores of 72 and 70, and then ran down the leaders with a final-round 67 to beat Billy Casper by two strokes. Two months later he won the Utah Open with a one-stroke victory over Fred Hawkins and Arnold Palmer. The next season was lucrative as Dow won three times on the tour, capturing the Greater Greensboro Open in April, winning for a second time at the Carling in August, and following that up the next month at the Kansas City Open with a win. The run of tournament triumphs would continue in 1960 with victories in the prestigious Los Angeles Open as well as a win in New Orleans. Aside from winning the PGA Championship, Dow had a pair of third-place finishes in the Masters and a third in the 1960 U.S. Open won by Arnold Palmer. He would never play in the British Open. He is fifth on the all-time list of golfers making consecutive cuts at 72 behind Tiger Woods, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin. Dow won the Vardon Trophy in 1957 for having the lowest scoring average on tour. He was also the 1958 PGA Tour player of the year.
The 1962 season marked Dow’s final PGA Tour victory at the 500 Festival Open in Indianapolis. Earlier that spring he was in a three-way playoff at the Masters with Gary Player and eventual champion Arnold Palmer. The next year was his final year of full-time professional golf and from there Finsterwald relocated to Colorado where he served as the director of golf at The Broadmoor for the next 28 years. He also stayed active in the game on various fronts from his television shorts entitled “Dow’s Golf Tip of the Day,” to serving for several decades as a rules official at the Masters, to Team USA’s victory in the 1977 Ryder Cup with Dow serving as the team captain. He was inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame in 2006, was honored by Jack Nicklaus at the 2007 Memorial Tournament with entry into its Captains Club, and was admitted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. He’s also in the Ohio U. Sports HOF.
Dow began a two-decade-long affiliation with the highly regarded Pikewood National in West Virginia at the turn of the century. Alongside his longtime friend and former Ryder Cup teammate Johnny Pott, Finsterwald was actively involved in adding 11 holes to the facility. Pikewood is currently ranked No. 33 by Golf Digest in its ranking of America’s top 100 courses. At the time of his passing, Dow was the pro emeritus at Pikewood.
During golf’s golden age, Dow Finsterwald was a class act who won 12 times on the PGA Tour, was the owner of a major championship, was a four-time member of America’s Ryder Cup team, and served as the winning Ryder Cup captain after his playing days were over. He was somewhat of a Renaissance man with his television portfolio, course design work and officiating experiences. Goodbye to Dow, a card carrying member of golf’s golden era.
