Tommy Bolt, one of a kind

September 3, 10:38 AMGolf ExaminerDave Seanor

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 One thing I’d always wanted to do was spend a day with Tommy Bolt. He used to hold court at Black Diamond Ranch, a couple of hours from my home in Orlando. Colleagues who visited always returned smiling, after being regaled by Bolt’s off-color jokes, advice about marriage and yarns from the 1950s, when “Terrible Tommy” was a force in pro golf.

     I never got the chance. Bolt died Aug. 30 in Cherokee Village, Ark . The 1958 U.S. Open champ was 90, or 92, or 93, depending on what source you want to believe. In any case, he was a piece of work.

     Bolt won 15 times on the forerunner to the PGA Tour, but was more famous for his temper. Although he claimed to have actually thrown clubs in competition only a half dozen times, Bolt milked the “Tempestuous Tommy” (or “Thunder” Bolt) moniker for all it was worth.

     In 2002, the year Bolt belatedly joined the World Golf Hall of Fame, he told Golf Digest: “It thrills crowds to see a guy suffer. That's why I threw clubs so often. They love to see golf get the better of someone, and I was only too happy to oblige them. At first I threw clubs because I was angry. After a while it became showmanship, plain and simple. I learned that if you helicopter those dudes by throwing them sideways instead of overhand, the shaft wouldn't break as easy. It's an art, it really is.”

     Like Vijay Singh today, Bolt played some of his best golf at mid-life. He was 40 (we’re pretty sure) when he won the Open at Southern Hills, beating Gary Player by four shots. Those were the days when the national championship concluded with 36 holes on Saturday. Bolt held a one-shot lead after 54 holes of what was dubbed the “Blast Furnace Open,” closing with rounds of 69-72 for a 3-over-par total 283. Bolt was the only player in the field not to shoot 75 or higher during the brutally hot week, on a course with punishing rough.

     After Player had won the 1959 British Open, he and Bolt squared off in a five-game challenge match in South Africa, which Bolt won four games to one on Player’s home turf. In 1971, at age 52 (by most accounts), Bolt finished third in the PGA Championship. Well into his 80s, he often posted rounds in the 60s.

     In a 2002 interview with Golfweek, Bolt praised today’s generation of pro golfers but noted that he and his peers had to contend with far different circumstances.

     “Money was the biggest pressure of all,” he said. “Tiger Woods came out on Tour with his pockets already filled with money. Ever play a $20 Nassau with $5 in your pocket?”

     Bolt was a member of two Ryder Cup teams, with a combined 3-1-0 record in 1955 and ’57. He hadn’t joined the Tour until his early 30s, and hit his competitive stride in 1955 after seeking help from Ben Hogan to cure a persistent hook. Five years later, at the 1960 Memphis Open, Bolt defeated Hogan and Gene Littler in an 18-hole playoff.

     According to his Hall of Fame profile, Bolt was even with Hogan through 16 holes when Tommy stiffed a 2-iron at the par-3 17^th. “When Ben said ‘Nice shot!’ it was like a double clap of thunder to me,” Bolt recalled. “It was the only thing he said to me all day.”

 www.golfdigest.com/magazine/myshot_gd0211

 www.golfweek.com/story/Tommy_Bolt_player_profile