Historic Merion Clubhouse Scoresheets
from Hogan's 1950 U.S. Open
The 1950 U.S. Open at Merion is
among the most celebrated tournaments in all of golf history. Because of Ben
Hogan's historic comeback from a near-fatal car crash a year prior, this
would've been true regardless of whether photographer Hy Peskin even snapped
the now-iconic image of Hogan's 1 iron shot on the 72nd hole. But
fortunately for us, Peskin did take that photograph (quite amazingly, the
only photo Peskin took all day), and the rest is history.
What is often overlooked is the fact that Hogan's famous 1 iron shot did not
win him the tournament. It merely got him into an 18 hole playoff with Lloyd
Mangrum and George Fazio to be played the following day.
Offered here are the actual orignal calligraphy scoresheets from the Merion
Clubhouse from that historic playoff at the 1950 U.S. Open. As many of you
likely remember, golf professionals used to be trained in calligraphy in
order to hand-write these large scoresheets inside the clubhouses during a
golf tournament. Those scoresheets were almost always discarded. Fortunately
for us, the actual scoresheets from the 1950 U.S. Open were saved.
Included in this lot are two actual scoresheets from the 1950 U.S. Open. The
first, which would've been produced sometime after Sunday's Round but before
Monday's playoff began, includes the names of all three men in the playoff
and their scores for the entire tournament. The second, is the actual 1950
U.S. Open Playoff scoresheet that would've been updated as scores came in
from the course.
These scoresheets have been verified as authentic by Merion historian John
Capers, who was able to photo match them with a photo in the Merion
archives.
The rarity of these pieces cannot be overstated, as they are certainly
worthy of display at Merion, in the Ben Hogan Room at the USGA Museum or any
other golf museum in the world.
These large, delicate scoresheets
each measure approximately 36" wide by 30" high.