Jackie Burke Jr. dies just short of 101st birthday
John Joseph (Jackie) Burke
Jr. passed away on January 19th just 10 days short of his 101st birthday at his home in Houston. Burke was the oldest living major champion and was still impactful in the game of golf as the owner/manager of the Champions Golf Club in Houston, site of the U.S. Open, the Ryder Cup, and most recently the 2020 Women's United States Open.
Born in 1923, Burke was the son of Jack Burke Sr., a club professional at River Oaks Country Club in Houston. In those days the top golfers had stable country club jobs and joined the tour for short increments. Burke Sr. won six times during his career and is best known for his runner-up finish to Englishman Ted Ray in the 1920 U.S. Open. He competed in the U.S. Open on a regular basis from 1907 to 1930. Burke Sr. also won the 1941 Senior PGA Championship.
Jackie Jr. was a very good golfer from a young age and played one year of collegiate golf at Rice University. He qualified as an 18 year old amateur to play in the 1941 U.S. Open. Jackie decided to turn professional in 1942 and served as the teaching professional at Galveston Country Club. His job at Galveston was short lived as World War II had broken out and he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Burke served from 1942 through 1946 and spent his time in the states teaching combat skills to new enlistees.
Upon the conclusion of World War II Burke got a job as a professional at Hollywood Golf Club in New Jersey. He then moved on to serve as an assistant pro at the renown Winged Foot Club in New York, serving under Claude Harmon Sr. In 1948 Jackie parlayed his Winged Foot experience into receiving the head professional job at Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, New York. He also started to dabble on the PGA Tour and played in a handful of events in the late 1940s. In early 1949 Jackie finished in third place in the Long Beach Open and later that summer he won the Metropolitan Open at Metropolis C.C., beating Gene
Sarazen by six.
The 1950 season was a breakout year for Burke Jr. In January he came in third at the Los Angeles Open and then won the Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. In February he won the Rio Grande Valley Open in Texas and the following month he was atop the leader board at the St. Petersburg Open in Florida. That summer he won the Sioux City Open in Iowa. At the conclusion of the 1950 season Burke finished in fifth place on the tour's money list.
Burke was winless in 1951 but the following year he got on a roll and ended up winning four consecutive tour events during the winter months. He won the Houston Open in mid-February, besting Doug Ford by six strokes. The following week he won the Texas Open, repeating the feat with a six shot victory over Frank Stranahan. During the first week of March Jackie survived a three way playoff that included Tommy Bolt to win the Baton Rouge Open. The following week the tour moved on to Florida and Burke won big once again, besting Al Besselinck to win for a second time at St. Petersburg. Later that year he picked up a fifth victory by winning the Miami Open in December, beating Dick Mayer in a playoff. Burke was the recipient of the 1952 Vardon Triphy for low stroke average for the year. The following June Burke captured the Inverness Invitational in Ohio. He was winning at a time when first place netted $5,000.