MyTurn
by JIM DUCIBELLA
John O’Donnell won
five Virginia State
Opens between
1948 and 1955.
H
e’s the only golfer to win the
Virginia PGA Open and the
Maryland State Open in the
same year.
He is almost certainly the only teen-
ager to caddie in a PGA Championship
(for Gene Sarazen) and later compete in
the match play and medal play editions
of that event.
He teamed with Arnold Palmer in what
is reputed to be his last exhibition as an
amateur and, six days after Palmer turned
pro in 1955, teamed with him again in a
match involving Chandler Harper. Both
happened in Virginia.
He gave one of the country’s first Black
club professionals his start when he
hired Walter “Chink” Stewart, then just
16, as his assistant.
He hosted one of America’s first televi-
sion golf shows. “Par in the Parlor” aired
on Norfolk’s only TV station, WTAR, at
today’s prime hour for local news, 6 p.m.
His name?
John O’Donnell.
O’Donnell came to mind as I thought
about the Virginia Golf Hall of Fame
(virginiagolf halloffame.com). A ll 14
40
members (soon to be 19)
have contributed sig-
nificantly to Common-
wealth golf, and beyond.
Now, perhaps, the chal-
lenge is identifying can-
didates less well known,
but no less deserving. I
don’t know if O’Donnell
fits that criteria, and I
don’t know the family.
But I sought out O’Don-
nell’s son, also John.
His dad’s profession-
al life was interspersed
w ith enter ta ining ,
occa siona lly booz y
a ne c dot e s i nvolv i ng
Walter Hagen and Ben
Hogan, Bobby Cruick-
shank and Herman Keiser, Sam Snead
and Palmer and Lew Worsham, among
many others. With so little money to be
made on the Tour, O’Donnell stayed close
to home.
Turning pro at age 17, he came from
Maryland to Richmond’s Country Club of
Virginia in 1940 at the behest of Cruick-
shank. The story goes that that’s where
he joined Palmer, Billy Joe Patton and
future USGA president Harry Easterly
for Palmer’s farewell amateur exhibition.
Joining the Navy, he was stationed at
Sewell’s Point in Norfolk. There, he taught
boxing champ Gene Tunney’s fitness pro-
gram and O’Donnell’s son said his dad gave
lessons alongside Paul Runyon and Harper.
Imagine seeing that trio on the range at
the same time. Sewell’s Point is where he
helped Palmer launch his pro career.
Following the war, he became the pro at
Sewell’s Point, and there his moments of
brilliance surfaced. Five times between
1948 and 1955, he won the Virginia State
Open. In ‘54 he won the title in Maryland
and Virginia, besting players the caliber
of Worsham and Jack Isaacs, with whom
he had a friendly rivalry.
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 9
He had his moments in the national
PGA as well, though they didn’t end well.
In 1956, he missed an 18-inch putt on the
last hole to beat Snead and move into the
semifinals of match play. He lost in 20 holes.
“Dad was one of the worst putters
ever—except from 40 feet,” O’Donnell
said. “From 40 feet, a good putt leaves
you with a two-footer. Those were the
ones he couldn’t make. He could ‘yip’ like
his putter had a mind of its own.”
Four years later, at Firestone—and at
the age of 47—O’Donnell trailed leader Jay
Hebert by just three shots after 36 holes of
what had become stroke play. But he couldn’t
stay out of unforgiving rough, his putter
betrayed him again and he finished 60th.
There’s more to that story. The flam-
boyant Hagen and O’Donnell hit the
town after the second round, which his
son quipped, “explains what happened
to dad the next couple of days.”
The two pros talked about O’Donnell’s
inability to escape the rough. The Haig
promised to make him a club that would
solve the problem.
“It was laminated wood, with a short
shaft and a bit of a rounded bottom,”
O’Donnell said. “I’d call it a great prede-
cessor to the hybrid.”
How much more human pro golf seemed
then. O’Donnell and father attended an
Open in which courtesy cars ferried play-
ers to their hotel—but only when they were
full. Entering one car, they found Hogan,
alone, waiting for more passengers.
Keiser and O’Donnell were lucky to
see Keiser win the 1946 Masters. After a
round at Princess Anne CC followed by
an enthusiastic session at the 19th hole,
Keiser got behind the wheel of their car.
Virginia Beach offered passenger rail
service then and Keiser backed into an
oncoming train. Somehow, neither man
was hurt.
But Keiser nearly lost more than his
claim to fame, and O’Donnell’s triumphs
likewise never would have happened.
vsga.org
Lost, But Not
(Completely) Forgotten