A fairy tale without a happy ending. (August 12, 1891, August 1, 1971), the first American-born golfer to win the US Open, in 1911 and 1912, and the youngest champion in the history of that event, in which he won the first time when he was only 19 years old. He was the first player to go under par for 72 holes in a renowned tournament, which he did in the 1912 US Open. He was undoubtedly one of the best players in the world between 1910 and 1914. McDermott was born on August 12, 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a letter carrier and a housewife. He was a good student at West Philadelphia High School, but dropped out before graduating to become a professional golfer. He worked as a caddie at Aronimink Golf Club, and learned a great deal from that course professional Walter Reynolds.
McDermott’s first pro job was at Merchantville Golf Club in New Jersey. He then moved to Atlantic City Country Club, where his practice regimen became legendary. When he was not yet 18, he made his debut at the U.S. Open in 1909, carding a total of 322 strokes and placing 49th in the final standings.
The first sixteen U.S. Opens, the first edition of which dates from 1985, had been won by British players who had learned the game in England or Scotland, and who either traveled to the United States to play tournaments or, in most cases, lived in North America and worked as club professionals. By 1910, the United States was beginning to generate its own professionals in appreciable numbers.
McDermott improved his game dramatically within a year, and lost in an 18-hole playoff to Alex Smith in the 1910 U.S. Open, held in Philadelphia; Macdonald Smith, Alex’s younger brother, contested that playoff as well, which they had reached tied at 298 strokes after 72 holes. In early 1911, McDermott challenged Philadelphia-area professionals in matches of $1,000 each. After winning three of those matches in a row, the competition faded away.
The following year he won the U.S. Open by three strokes at the Golf Club of Chicago, after another three-way playoff, where he beat George Simpson and Mike Brady, after the three had tied at 307 strokes.
McDermott is still the youngest champion of that tournament. He won it at the age of 19 years, 10 months and 12 days, and was the first native-born American to do so. In 1912, he retained his title at Buffalo Country Club in New York State. He computed 294 strokes over the four rounds on a par-74 course, a score of two under par, making him the first man to break par for 72 holes in a top-level event.
After his second consecutive U.S. Open victory, McDermott’s earnings skyrocketed, and he had golf clubs marketed under his name, promoted golf balls and was hired for his high level of golf for lucrative exhibition matches.
McDermott made his first attempt at the British Open in 1912, but failed to qualify for the championship. However, he returned to Great Britain the following year and tied for fifth place in the Open, which was played at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club. This was the best result by an American player in the British tournament at that stage.
In 1913, McDermott won the Western Open, then the second most prestigious professional tournament in the United States. He also won the Philadelphia Open on three occasions: 1910, 1911, and 1913.
Also in 1913, McDermott won the Shawnee Open in Pennsylvania, finishing ahead of Englishmen Harry Vardon and Ted Ray.
After his 1913 victory over Vardon and Ray, he boasted excessively, was criticized by his colleagues and the public for it, and had to apologize. As defending champion, he finished eighth, four strokes behind the leaders, in the 1913 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Boston. He finished ninth in the next edition of the tournament, which was won by Walter Hagen at the Midlothian Club near Chicago.
In 1914 McDermott visited the United Kingdom again to compete in the British Open, but, due to travel difficulties, he arrived too late to play. On his way back to the United States, his ship, the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, collided with another ship, a merchantman, in the English Channel in poor visibility due to fog. The ship returned to port and the passengers were re-embarked on another vessel the following day. This incident apparently had a serious effect on him. Shortly thereafter, back home, he fainted when he entered the clubhouse of the Atlantic City Country Club, where he was the pro. He was only 23 years old.
McDermott, suffering from mental illness, spent the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes or living with his family in Philadelphia. He competed sporadically in regional tournaments in the 1920s, but without notable success. He occasionally attended major tournaments near his home as a spectator, and attended the 1971 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club six weeks before his death.
Although McDermott was the first American to win the U.S. Open, it is Francis Ouimet’s victory in that tournament in 1913 that is most often cited as the key event that sparked a great deal of interest in golf in the United States. Ouimet won in a playoff against Vardon and Ray (widely regarded as the best golfers in the world at the time), which resulted in a huge increase in Americans’ attraction to golf. McDermott, along with Ouimet and Walter Hagen, all three born between 1891 and 1893, represented the new wave of American-born golfing talent. All three proved they could compete on equal terms with the best players in the world, and American dominance in golf would be established in the early 1920s, with the emergence of stars such as Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones.
But for his illness, John McDermott might have become the greatest of them all.
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