RIP Tommy Bolt

CHEROKEE VILLAGE, Ark. — Tommy Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion who had one of golf’s sweetest swings and most explosive tempers, has died. He was 92.
His wife, Mary Lou Bolt, said he died Saturday after “his liver shut down.”
“He was the best man I ever knew,” she said Wednesday.
Bolt won 15 Professional Golfers Association events and several more titles on the seniors tour. Yet his temper gained him the most notoriety.
Nicknamed “Terrible Tempered Tommy” and “Thunder,” Bolt was often fined and suspended by the PGA Tour for slamming clubs and using abusive language. He set up a special fund from his winnings to pay the fines.
“I’ve busted a few clubs in my time,” Bolt recalled after retiring from the Tour. “I think it’s all right for a man to break his golf clubs, every one in the bag if he wants to. They’re his clubs. He’s the one to suffer.
“As for throwing clubs, that’s something else. That could be dangerous.”
Bolt joined the tour in 1950 and won his first title, the North and South Open, the next year. Bolt won at least one tournament through 1955, a year he won four times.
In 1958, he won the U.S. Open by four strokes over 22-year-old Gary Player. He also won the Colonial Open that year. His last PGA win came at the Pensacola Open in 1961.
Bolt enjoyed success in the seniors ranks. He won the U.S. National Seniors Open five times, the PGA Seniors, and the 1978 Australian Seniors.
“I’m converted,” he said about his calm demeanor on the course. “I’m sweet as pie now.”
Bolt served overseas with the Army during World War II. Survivors include a son, Thomas Walker Bolt.

To add, a great story often told by Dan Jenkins: One year at the Masters, Jenkins referred to the 39-year-old Bolt as being 49. Bolt bursts into the media center to confront Jenkins. Dan says: "Sorry, Tommy ... it was a typographical error." Bolt replies: "Bullshit ... it was a perfect 4 and a perfect 9."

 

So with all the politics over on the other board, this is pretty much just going to be an 'RIP' and 'Running (sport)' board, I guess.

 

. . . leaving Tiger as the undisputed greatest living on-course temper-tantrum artist in the history of the game.

 

There's non-sports news that doesn't involve politics, although it was sometimes hard to tell by the way the threads ended up being jacked.

Oh, yeah ... RIP. I'll admit to throwing a couple of clubs my own self, so Mr. Bolt sounds like my kind of golfer.

 

Well, you're dead wrong about that. He's not even in the top-10. The top-five red asses, on-course, are:

1. Bolt
2. Pat Perez
3. Woody Austin
4. Billy Maxwell
5. Tom Weiskopf

 

Bolt must have gotten involved in the golf club business because the first set of golf clubs I ever owned were passed down to me by my grandfather, and each iron had Bolt's name printed on them. RIP.

 

Weiskopf sure as hell had his moments . . . but Tiger's sheer passive-aggressive bitchiness reflects utter mastery of the art form . . .

 

One of the classic stories always attributed to Bolt . . . He's out on the course and has 200 yards to the hole. He asks his caddie what club he should hit and the caddie replies, "It's an 8-iron."

"An 8-iron!?" says Bolt in a huff.

"Yes," the caddie continues, "it's the only club you have left."

I got to know Tommy a little; nice gentleman.

RIP.

 

Craig Stadler has to be on this list somewhere

 

No. 2 should be 1-A and No. 5 should be moved up. By his own admission, Weiskopf was one of the biggest red-asses on the planet, never mind the golf world.

Woody Austin had nothing on Weiskopf.

 

C'mon, guys. Where's Steve Jones? He didn't earn the nickname "Volcano" by accident.