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Sunday, February 20, 2022

Dear Harvey: The Jack Burke Sr. Golf Legacy Tree

John Joseph Burke Sr.
Dear Harvey:

Thanks for writing The Little Red Book, the number one selling golf book. Since joining Austin Country Club, 20 years ago, I have learned much about the game we love. For example, many influential golf coaches with Texas ties were from your era. It has also been fun to learn about golf traditions here in The Kingdom.

I am told you based your teachings on lessons from Jack Burke Sr. in Houston. (Burke Sr. moved to Houston from Philadelphia, a hotbed for golf in the US in the early 1900s.) Burke Sr., of course, taught his son, Jackie Burke, who won the 56 Masters. He also worked with Claude Harmon, who won the Masters in 1948. Additionally, he influenced Jack and Dick Grout when they were teenagers, and both spent considerable time in Texas. 

From that list of Burke's protégés came some rather remarkable golfers. From Claude Harmon, his three sons: Dick, Craig, and Claude Harmon Jr. (i.e., Butch.) From Butch, of course, came Tiger. From Grout, none other than Jack Nicklaus. And from you, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. Plus, you were an essential coach to Davis Love II, who brought us Davis Love III. In the forward of the 20th Anniversary Edition of your book, Davis Love III notes that his father must have started ten thousand sentences with the words, "As Mr. Penick would say . . ."

Furthermore, with three daughters, I am super proud that you were instrumental in founding the LPGA and worked with five LPGA Hall of Famers: Betty Jameson, Judy Rankin, Betsy Rawls, Kathy Whitworth, and Mickey Wright. The women you worked with won nearly 250 LPGA tournaments! I find this all quite remarkable, and it makes me proud to be a Texan and a member of your club.

I promise to write more soon.

gPage

Letters to Harvey from The Kingdom:

Other 'golfy' scribblings:
"Millions of people were charmed by the homespun golf advice dispensed in Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, a sports classic that became the best-selling sports book of all time. Yet, beyond the Texas golf courses where Penick happily toiled for the better part of eight decades, few people knew the self-made golf pro who coaxed the best out of countless greats -- Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright -- all champions who considered Penick their coach and lifelong friend." - Kevin Robbins, author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf.
"And if you play golf, you are my friend." - Harvey Penick
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