The Next-to-Last Amateur: Remembering U.S. Amateur Champion Charlie Coe

Charlie Coe receives the Havemeyer Trophy from USGA President John Ames at the 1958 U.S. Amateur (AP Wire Photo)

Thank God it was a 36-hole match. That thought crossed Charlie Coe’s mind several times as he fiddled with his swing on the first nine of his final match at the 1958 U.S. Amateur. During his semifinal match, a 3 and 2 win over Roger McManus, he couldn't get comfortable in his stance. The insecurities that plagued him the previous year were threatening to resurface yet again. After the match, Coe confided to reporters that he felt "confused and in a poor mental state." The oil properties broker from Oklahoma City once possessed a swing that was envied by some of the best in the game. While watching Coe play at Oak Hill during the 1949 U. S. Amateur, it was said that Byron Nelson turned to Chicago Tribune sportswriter Charles Bartlett and whispered, “That’s what I try to look like when I swing.”

The Human One-Iron: 6’1” 140 lb Charlie Coe (USGA )

Coe went on to win the '49 Amateur, dominating Rufus King by a margin of 11 and 10, prompting some to hail him as the best amateur golfer since Bobby Jones. He won the 1950 Western Amateur and reached the finals of the British Amateur in 1951. He won two Trans-Mississippi Amateur titles, in 1952 and again in 1956, but over the past couple of years, his game had fallen a few rungs. He could be red hot—like when he broke Gene Littler's course record at Oklahoma City Country Club, shooting an 11-under 60 on July 5, 1957—but overall, he had become, as Herbert Warren Wind put it, "just another capable player." His low point came at the 1957 Masters, where he limped home with an 86 in the tournament's opening round. Moments later, realizing he had signed for an incorrect score on one of the holes, he returned to the scorer's table to correct his error. Initially penalized two strokes for the mistake, he was ultimately disqualified due to a change in USGA rules the previous year.

After that dreadful Masters performance, Coe decided to tear his swing apart and reconstruct it, settling on a shorter, more compact swing that proved to be just the fix he needed. In addition to the swing overhaul, he enlisted the help of his good friend Bud Wilkinson, head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners football team, who helped rebuild Coe's will to win and reinforced his belief that he actually could win again. Wilkinson advised him on his training methods—his diet, strength, and conditioning—and on how to stay physically relaxed during the heat of competition. Coe returned to Augusta with renewed confidence in 1958 and finished in a tie for 23rd place. He was low amateur at the '58 U.S. Open, finishing in a tie with Billy Casper and Marty Furgol for 13th, and at the America's Cup matches—held at Olympic the week before the U.S. Amateur—he anchored the U.S. team and went 4-0 in his singles matches.

The Lake Course at San Francisco’s Olympic Club has not been historically kind to favorites. It was at the Olympic Club that unheralded Jack Fleck had defeated a heavily favored Ben Hogan in an 18-hole play-off to win the 1955 U.S. Open. Fast forward to the 1958 U.S. Amateur, and it appeared that the 6,680-yard par-70 layout would continue its unpredictable trend. Defending champion Hillman Robbins faced an unexpected defeat in the second round at the hands of Martin “The Fat Man” Stanovich. Additionally, William Hyndman, the 1955 runner-up, was taken out in the first round by big-band crooner Don Cherry, and the Bay City’s own Harvie Ward was ousted in round five by Hamilton College All-American Ward Wettlaufer. When the dust finally settled that week, the last two men standing were Charlie Coe and a promising 21 year-old star from the University of Florida named Tommy Aaron.

As they made the turn in their first 18 that morning, Coe thought it a minor miracle that he was only 1-down after playing the outward nine in 3-over par. Spraying balls in different directions, he had scrambled all morning long, but after a bogey at 11 put him 2-down to Aaron, he realized that he was taking the club back too flat. On the next hole, he changed the position of his hands at address and swung with a steeper takeaway, and this time, the change seemed to work. After halving the 12th, Coe won three of the next five holes to take a 1-up lead after 17, and when he spun his approach to within four feet at the 18th and rolled in his putt for birdie, he carried a 2-up lead into the afternoon round.

There was quite a contrast between the two players: the younger, burly ex-high school quarterback versus the poker-faced, older businessman with the physical proportions of a belly putter. At age 34, Coe preferred finishing matches early in order to rest up for the next day's competition. Including his America’s Cup matches the weekend before, Coe had played well over 200 holes of golf in the past week—70 in just the last two days—and fatigue was now becoming a factor as he strode onto the 3rd tee box for the second time that day.

The 3rd at Olympic Club's Lake Course (USGA Photo)

The 3rd hole at Olympic is a downhill, 220-yard par 3 with a large green sloping back-to-front, and deep bunkers on each side. As he stood gazing at the green, with a view of Lake Merced and downtown San Francisco in the background, he figured if he played par golf the rest of the way, he could win the match. Golf Digest's Derek Duncan once wrote that "the most dangerous place at Olympic Club, if not off the fairways or embedded in the sand, has always been in the lead during a final round." Coe went for the trifecta.

Starting the hole with a 2-up lead, he came over the top on his tee shot, pulling it into the bunker left of the green. He chunked his next shot, leaving it in the bunker; then blasted his next shot all the way through the green; and chipped his fourth shot well past the cup. With a routine par, Aaron had cut the lead to one as they headed to the 4th.

Rather than lose control of his emotions, Coe regained his focus. He hit driver-3 iron into the 4th and drained a 15-footer for birdie to get back to 2-up, then sat back as Aaron made mistake-after-mistake on the next four holes. Coe won five consecutive holes, and when both players made par at the 9th, Coe's lead was 6-up at the turn. He played the next five holes even par, finally closing out the match at the par-4 14th, holing a 25-footer for birdie for a 5 and 4 win.

The birdie at 4 had been the turning point. "That gave me a big lift, and gave me the confidence I needed badly," he said afterward. He knew he could hit some good iron shots, but was glad he had time enough to correct his swing. "That's the advantage of a 36-hole match," he told Don Selby, "You can afford to experiment a little. In an 18-hole match, I couldn't have taken the chance." When asked if he was playing better golf now than when he won the Amateur in 1949, he demurred, saying, "The older you get, the better you think you can play, but it might not always be true." On this day, it didn't really matter. After a nine year hiatus, Charlie Coe was back on top.

One thing about Coe. He didn’t just think he could play well. He went out and did it. At the 1959 Masters, a third round 67– still the lowest third round score by an amateur at the Masters—propelled him to a 6th place finish. A few months later, he made it back to the finals at the ‘59 U. S. Amateur and played what some feel was one of the most exciting matches in U.S. Amateur history against 19 year-old Jack Nicklaus. All even after 35 holes, Coe came one rotation of the ball away from sending the match to extra holes, as the young Ohio State Buckeye rolled home an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 1-up victory. "I didn't feel that I'd lost the match," Coe recalled in later years, "I was just beaten by a very good player."

Coe seemed to save his best golf at Augusta National. At the 1961 Masters, he shocked everyone when he shot two consecutive 69's to become only the third amateur to finish runner-up in the tournament. Paired with Arnold Palmer in the final round, Coe narrowly missed a 10-foot try for eagle at the 15th and a 25-footer for birdie at 18, either of which would have put him in a playoff with eventual champion Gary Player, and had to settle for a tie with Palmer for 2nd with a 72-hole total of 281. He continued his his impressive run at the Masters, finishing T-9 in 1962—his third top-10 finish in four years—and with a T-23 finish in 1970, Coe became the only golfer to finish as low amateur at The Masters Tournament in four straight decades.

In 1963, he reached the semi-finals of the U.S. Amateur before losing to R.H. Sikes. he won the Mount Vernon Classic, and made his final appearances in the America's Cup and Walker Cup Matches. In all, he played on six America's Cup teams and six Walker Cup teams, including 1959, when he served as playing captain. In 1964, he was honored by the U.S.G.A. with the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the organization, in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.

Despite all of his successes, he never turned professional. "When I was growing up, golf was a gentleman's game," he told The Daily Oklahoman in 1998, "It was played by the amateur. You didn't think of it as a pro sport." Besides that, he was married and had three children. The thought had crossed his mind once during the early 1950's, but when he asked his wife, Elizabeth, what she thought, she quickly nipped it in the bud. "You can do anything you want," she told him, "but if you think I'm going to raise a family and live out of a suitcase, you're crazy." At the height of his prime, Coe realized he could make a better living in the oil business than he could hopping from town-to-town playing tournaments during the warm months and running a pro shop in the off-season. Armed with a degree from the University of Oklahoma and a family legacy spanning five generations in the oil and natural gas industry, the decision was a no-brainer.

A consummate gentleman off the course, Coe was a fierce competitor from other opening tee shot to the final putt. Harvie Ward once said that Coe was the only amateur golfer he ever feared. Friend and fellow Oklahoma Sooner Jimmy Vickers was even more complementary. "Charlie was in the very top echelon of golfers in the world," he said. "He was as good as Hogan. He was as good as Nelson. He was as good as anybody who played the game anywhere in the world. He just did not choose to put it out there. When he played with them, he played equal with them. And had he played, in my opinion, he would've been on of the three dominant players in golf for about ten or fifteen years. I don't think anyone could have touched him during that time." Augusta National caddie Carl Jackson, who had certainly seen his share of elite golf over the years, agreed. "He was as talented as those guys," he told Dr. Stephen Prescott, "He would have made his mark. That's golf's loss that he didn't pursue a professional career."

But was it really? Charlie Coe became one of the most celebrated amateur golfers in the nation, elevating the game on both a local and national level, while providing a comfortable living for his family and running his family's oil and natural gas business. The Ardmore, Oklahoma native remained loyal to his native state and alma mater, giving back to golf through his time, his talents, and his resources. "From his earliest days as a student at the University of Oklahoma, Charlie Coe's accomplishments have been a great source of pride for his alma mater," O.U. president David Boren said. "Above all, Charlie Coe will be remembered at the university as a loyal and generous alumnus who constantly sought to provide opportunities for students in the future."

In 1998, three years before his death, the University of Oklahoma, where Coe won three individual and team Big 7 Conference championships, named its new $700,000 golf practice facility in his honor. The Charlie Coe Golf Learning Center is an indoor-outdoor facility that includes driving ranges, locker rooms and offices for the men's and women's teams. Its beneficiaries now populate the PGA, LIV, Kornferry, and LPGA tours, as well as the amateur ranks. They include players like Max McGreevy and Brad Dalke, who led Oklahoma to its second NCAA National Championship in 2017; Chris Gotterup, who won this year's Genesis Scottish Open and finished 3rd at The Open Championship in back-to-back weeks; Abraham Ancer; Hunter Haas; Anthony Kim; and Kendall Dye.

Coe was posthumously named an honoree by Jack Nicklaus at the 2006 Memorial Tournament. His legacy was further cemented by his induction into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. A biography written by Dr. Stephen M. Prescott, The Last Amateur: The Life of Charlie Coe, was published in 2023.

The Charlie Coe Golf Learning Center--University of Oklahoma

Charlie Coe still owns or shares 14 amateur records at The Masters Tournament, including most starts (19), best finish (T-2, shared with Frank Stranahan and Ken Venturi), most top-10 finishes (3 in '59, '61, and '62), most low amateur finishes (6), most cuts made (15), and lowest 72-hole score (281 in '61). Given his success at The Masters, it comes as no great surprise that Coe became a member at Augusta National and sometimes played as a marker at The Masters when the occasion presented itself. In the year 2000, Coe was joined at Augusta National by the club's current chairman, Fred Ridley. Ridley, who won the U.S. Amateur championship in 1975, holds the distinction of being the last U.S. Amateur champion who never turned professional, a connection that highlights the rich history and tradition of the club, where amateur excellence is celebrated equally alongside professional achievements.

In today's current environment—where money rules the professional game and even amateurs make hefty sums on their name, image, and likeness—we may never see the likes of Charlie Coe or Fred Ridley ever again. This weekend at the Olympic Club, as Jackson Herrington and Mason Howell punch their tickets to next year's Masters at this year's U.S. Amateur, some might even wonder if we need to. I believe we do. Amateurs like Coe and Ridley are the backbone of the game. They exemplify not only how to play and excel at golf, but to do it while living our own lives, working our own jobs, and making our own unique contributions to society. We don't all have to be champions, but we do need to do our part to preserve and nurture the traditions of the game. Far from being a "loss to the game of golf," people like Charlie Coe embody the mission of the USGA—to lead with integrity and respect, serve people of different backgrounds and perspectives, and inspire through a shared passion and a commitment to excellence.

Maybe we should all aspire to be The Last Amateur.