Craig Wood
Wood in 1933
Personal information
Full name	Craig Ralph Wood
Born	(1901-11-18)November 18, 1901 Lake Placid, New York, U.S.
Died	May 7, 1968(1968-05-07) (aged 66) Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Sporting nationality	United States
Spouse	Jacqueline Valentine (1907–1967)
Career
College	Clarkson College[1] Rider College[1]
Turned professional	1920
Former tour	PGA Tour
Professional wins	28
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	20
Other	8
Best results in major championships (wins:2)
Masters Tournament	Won:1941
PGA Championship	2nd:1934
U.S. Open	Won:1941
The Open Championship	2nd:1933
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 2008(member page)

Craig Ralph Wood (November 18, 1901 – May 7, 1968) was an Americanprofessional golfer in the 1930s and 1940s, the winner of 21PGA Tour titles including twomajor championships and a member of threeRyder Cup teams(1931,1933,1935).

Wood was the first player to lose all fourmajor championships in extra holes.^[2] His major wins came late in his career at age 39, winning the first two of1941, theMasters andU.S. Open.^[3]

Born inLake Placid, New York, Wood turned professional in 1920 at age 18.

Despite his two major championships, he is probably most well known as the victim ofGene Sarazen's famousdouble eagle in the 1935 Augusta National Invitational (now known as theMasters Tournament). The shot left the two players tied at the end of regulation and Sarazen went on to victory in a 36-hole playoff.

This was Wood's fourth runner-up and third playoff loss in a major in just two years. In the1933 British Open atSt Andrews,Denny Shute had defeated Wood in another 36-hole playoff. In the spring of 1934, Wood was the runner up by a single shot toHorton Smith at thefirst Masters and later that year he was defeated on the 38th hole byPaul Runyan in thePGA Championship, then amatch play event. At the1939 U.S. Open he birdied the 72nd hole and was again in a playoff, but this timeByron Nelson was the winner, making Wood the first player to lose all fourmajor championships in extra holes.Greg Norman is the only other player to suffer this fate.

At age 39 in 1941, Wood finally beat his "jinx" in noteworthy fashion. He won the eighth1941 Masters Tournament in April, its first wire-to-wire champion with rounds of 66-71-71-72=280 for a three-shot victory over runner-upByron Nelson. Two months later, he won the 45thU.S. Open, held atColonial Country Club inFort Worth, Texas. His score of 284 (+4) was three strokes ahead ofDenny Shute, another on-course nemesis. This was the first time the winner of the Masters had won the U.S. Open in the same year for the first half of thegrand slam. Subsequent winners of the first two majors wereBen Hogan (1951, 1953),Arnold Palmer (1960),Jack Nicklaus (1972),Tiger Woods (2002), andJordan Spieth (2015).

Wood died inPalm Beach, Florida in 1968 at age 66, of a heart attack.^[4] He was the second Masters champion to die, preceded byHorton Smith in 1963 and followed byJimmy Demaret in 1983. Wood and his wifeJacqueline (1907–1967) are buried inNorth Elba, New York, just south of Lake Placid.

• In 1954, the Lake Placid Golf and Country Club changed its name to the "Craig Wood Golf Course" in honor of him^[5]
• In 2008, Wood was elected to theWorld Golf Hall of Fame on the PGA Tour ballot^[6]

• 1929 (2)Oklahoma City Open,Hawaiian Open
• 1930 (2)New Jersey PGA Championship, Reddy Tee Tournament
• 1931 (1) Harlingen Open
• 1932 (3)New Jersey PGA Match Play Championship,San Francisco National Match Play Open,Pasadena Open
• 1933 (2)Los Angeles Open, Radium Springs Open
• 1934 (2) Galveston Open Championship,New Jersey Open
• 1936 (1)General Brock Open
• 1938 (1) Augusta Open-Forest Hills
• 1940 (2)Metropolitan Open,Miami Biltmore International Four-Ball (withBilly Burke)
• 1941 (2)Masters Tournament,U.S. Open
• 1942 (1)Canadian Open
• 1944 (1)Durham Open

Major championships are shown inbold.

Source:^[7]

Note: This list may be incomplete.

• 1925Kentucky Open
• 1928New Jersey PGA Championship
• 1926 Kentucky PGA Championship
• 1929Pasadena Open (January)
• 1934Lakes Open
• 1938New Jersey PGA Championship
• 1942Metropolitan PGA Championship
• 1943Golden Valley Four-Ball (withJimmy Demaret)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
1941	Masters Tournament	3 shot lead	−8 (66-71-71-72=280)	3 strokes	Byron Nelson
1941	U.S. Open	2 shot lead	+4 (73-71-70-70=284)	3 strokes	Denny Shute

NYF = tournament not yet founded
NT = no tournament
WD = withdrew
DQ = disqualified
CUT = missed the half-way cut
R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place

• Most consecutive cuts made – 21 (1934 PGA – 1944 PGA)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 4 (1939 Masters – 1940 U.S. Open)

• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins
• List of men's major championships winning golfers

• Craig Wood at theWorld Golf Hall of Fame
• PGA of America: Metropolitan Section – Craig Wood
• GolfCompendium.com – Craig Wood
• Craig Wood Golf Club – Lake Placid / North Elba, New York
• Craig Wood atFind a Grave

• American male golfers
• PGA Tour golfers
• Ryder Cup competitors for the United States
• Winners of men's major golf championships
• World Golf Hall of Fame inductees
• Golfers from New York (state)
• People from Lake Placid, New York
• Sportspeople from Essex County, New York
• 1901 births
• 1968 deaths
• 20th-century American sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2024