championship winners. But Harbert outlasted Bolt 1-up in a dramatic 39- hole semifinal shootout and defeated defending PGA Champion Burkemo on the 37th hole in the final to have his name engraved on the coveted Wanamaker Trophy as the 36th PGA Champion. After Burkemo won three of the initial four holes in the final, Harbert played the next 29 holes in 8 under par and allowed Burkemo to win only one hole the rest of the match.
Dutra Wins in 1932
You might say Olin Dutra was the Rich Beem of his time. When he arrived at Keller Golf Club in St. Paul for the 1932 PGA Championship, Walter Hagen, Horton Smith, Henry Picard, Paul Runyan, Craig Wood and Bobby Cruickshank were the overwhelming favorites, but none of the era’s “name” players survived the rigorous match-play format to advance to the 36-hole Championship final. In one of the greatest comebacks in PGA Championship history, Cruickshank, however, did orchestrate one of the greatest comebacks in PGA Championship history, overcoming a 9-down deficit against Al Watrous through 22 holes to win nine of the next 11 holes and eventually score a 1-up victory on the 41st hole when Watrous missed a three-foot putt.
Dutra, of Santa Monica, Calif., was the low qualifier for the 32-player match-play championship at 140 and played 196 holes over the six days of the Championship in an astonishing 19-under-par to secure his first of two major championships (he also won the 1934 U.S. Open by a stroke over Gene Sarazen at Merion). Dutra, who had advanced to the match-play quarterfinals in 1927 before falling to Al Espinosa, defeated Frank Walsh 4-and- 3 in the 36-hole finale for the ‘ 32 Championship. Runner-up Walsh was a profile in courage, rebounding from a fractured skull suffered in an automobile accident eight weeks earlier to advance to his first PGA final. ●
Roger Graves is PGA Magazine’s senior writer and a longtime PGA
Championship Journal contributor.