Henry Picard changed his grip and won the 1938 Masters!

“Did You Know”
Henry Picard changed his grip and won the 1938 Masters!

In January 1938, Hershey Country Club professional, Henry Picard, was in California for the beginning of the PGA Winter Tour. Even though Picard won the Pasadena Open late that month, the word in central Pennsylvania was that he was ailing. After losing to Jimmy Demaret in the semi-finals of the San Francisco Match Play in mid February, Picard headed home to Hershey for a rest. His problem was his left thumb and the beginning of arthritis in his hands.  

After a break from the Tour, Picard was in Florida in the second week of March for the Hollywood Open, where he finished in a tie for 31st, 16 strokes behind Byron Nelson, his Reading CC neighbor, who won.  While in Hollywood he happened upon Alex Morrison, a renowned golf instructor, who was teaching golf at the Hollywood Beach Hotel for the winter months. Picard mentioned his problem with the thumb.

Next on the PGA Tour schedule was the International Four-Ball at the Miami Country Club. Picard and Johnny Revolta were the defending champions, having won the tournament three straight years. With 16 two-man teams, all matches were 36-holes. The tournament did not go badly for Picard, but he and his partner lost by 4&3 in the semi-finals. The team that beat them was referred to by the newspapers, as the little-known Ben Hogan and Willie Goggin.    

On the way north to defend a pro-am title at St. Augustine, Picard visited Morrison in Hollywood. Even though he had won 14 times on the PGA Tour something had to be done to ease Picard’s discomfort. Morrison showed Picard a way to grip the golf club that would relieve the pressure on his ailing left thumb. Rather than the overlapping Vardon grip, it was an interlocking of the index finger of his left hand and the little finger of his right hand. Some golfers were using an interlocking grip, but this was different. Morrison had Picard place his left thumb behind the shaft of the club, like a baseball player would hold a baseball bat.

The grip wasn’t a new idea, but very few golfers used it. Two great golfers, Gene Sarazen and Jock Hutchison, played with that grip throughout their entire careers.  

In the pro-am at St. Augustine, Picard and his protégée Frank Ford lost in the second round.

The North and South Open in Pinehurst was next on the PGA Tour schedule. Still working on his new grip, Picard tied for 8th, fourteen strokes behind the winner. Two days later the PGA Tour was in Greensboro where a young Sam Snead picked up his first of eight Greensboro Open victories. Picard finished in a tie for 11th, 16 strokes behind Snead.  Newspaper articles mentioned the difficulties Picard was experiencing with his iron shots, and how much time he was spending on the practice tee.

From there the PGA Tour moved to Augusta, Georgia for the fifth running of Masters. The smart money was not on Picard, but then his golf game started to show promise. In a side exhibition on Tuesday, Picard and Sam Snead were to take on Bobby Jones and Augusta National’s professional Ed Dudley, but with the Greensboro Open having concluded the day before, Snead was still in Greensboro. A two-passenger airplane was sent for Snead to deliver him to Augusta. It was Snead’s first time in an airplane. During the flight to Augusta the pilot turned to check on his passenger. Snead was sleeping. In the exhibition Picard and Snead routed Jones and Dudley, who was the professional at the Philadelphia Country Club during the summer months, with a pair of 69s.

The first two rounds of the Masters were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, with 36 holes on Sunday. The field of 44 players began play at 12:30 on Friday. As play began, rain arrived. Even though quite a few played more than nine holes, the first day’s play was wiped off the books. The schedule was revised to 18 holes on Saturday, 36 on Sunday and 18 on Monday.

On Saturday Picard posted a 71, three strokes behind the leader. On Sunday Picard moved into a one stroke lead with two rounds of 72. On Friday Picard had told sportswriter Grantland Rice “I can’t play this golf course”, even though he had finished fourth in 1935. Playing the final round on Monday with 3,000 golf fans in attendance, Picard started birdie-birdie and played the first nine in 32 strokes. He three-putted the tenth and eleventh greens, but from there he chipped and putted his way to a 38. His score of 70 and four rounds of 285 stokes won the $1,500 top money by two strokes.

On returning home to Hershey, Picard sent Morrison a telegram inviting him to stop in Hershey on his way north to his summer employment, to provide more advice on his grip.  Great golfers were always trying to learn more.

The next year Picard was the leading money winner on the PGA Tour with earnings of $10,303 and won six times, which included defeating Byron Nelson in the final of the PGA Championship.

Milton Hershey wanted to have someone on the PGA Tour carrying the Hershey Foods banner, so Picard, with arthritis in his hands and a young family, left Hershey CC at the end of 1940. Picard turned the Hershey CC position over to Ben Hogan, who took over for ten years.

Picard continued to teach golfers the Morrison method at clubs like CC of Harrisburg, Canterbury CC and Seminole GC. A renowned golf instructor, Alex Morrison, was an early advocate of high speed photography for teaching golf, and wrote two books on golf instruction.