By JOHN LYON
With the 2025 Masters Tournament here, it’s a great time to pay tribute to one of the greatest golfers who ever lived Dr. Cary Middlecoff who won the 1955 Masters 70 years ago. And he was a dentist.
This was his 10th attempt to conquer the rolling his of Augusta National and his experience had him believing he had a good chance to contend. After a first round of even par 72, including 2 bogeys and 2 birdies, Cary was in a good position starting his 2nd round. The “voluntary unemployed dentist” as Bobby Jones described him, birdied the 1st hole went on to par the next four holes.
On the 6th hole, “Doc”, Cary’s accepted nickname, started his now famous string of birdies. The 34 year old dentist birdied the next 4 holes to make the turn at 5-under par to shoot a record 31 on the front nine. After 3 straight birdies on the back nine, Cary approached the 13th hole nervous. Doc was one of the most unusual gofers on Tour, in part to his tall, lanky appearance (6’2”) and his many fidgety movements on almost every shot. Cary was known to tug at his visor, take a long gander at the hole, hike up his trousers, take another tug at his visor, loosen his neck muscles, take another look at the hole before striking it.
Despite of his quirky swing movements, Cary was a popular player to the estimated 8,000 fans following him that famous Friday as Doc was very intense. Fans liked that he never tried to hide his emotions and Cary’s facial expressions could tell it all. Much different from Ben Hogan, Cary’s best friend, who never showed any emotion and rarely spoke during a round.
Cary hit his tee shot on the famous par 5 13th 470 yard hole at the time, a little right and chose his spoon for his 2nd shot. The gallery hushed as Middlecoff hit “a fine, solid shot, the ball clearing the creek and landed on the green and rolled to back edge of the green before stopping,” according to Golf Digest writer Herbert Warren Wind.
The large crowd echoed shouts of approval off the countless pine trees as Cary approached the green to inspect his putt. After looking over every angle this extremely long and difficult putt, Cary tapped his ball. The crowd held their breathe as the ball crept down the green, rolling and rolling in what seemed an eternity, Cary’s ball took a slight break at the end and fell into the hole.
Cary’s eagle will always be remembered because he went on win the 1955 Masters and was the longest putt holed in a major tournament since Bobby Jones sank a 120-foot putt in the 1927 British Open. After another birdie at the 15th and a 3-putt bogey on the 17th, Middlecoff has shot himself a 65. Cary added another even par 72 in the 3rd round.
On Sunday Cary wasn’t scheduled to tee off until 1:42 pm. After waking up at 8:00 o’clock, he had 5 and a half hours until his tee time. “I read the paper, drank some coffee, played some phonograph records of Glenn Miller, read some magazines and it was still only 11:00 o’clock. Then I bathed and shaved, ate a big breakfast, killed some time in the locker room and hit a few practice shots, it was nearly 1:42 pm. I thought it would never come,” Middlecoff explained.
Cary was matched with Byron Nelson which was great for him because Byron had a calming effect on everyone he played with. Doc had played with Byron many times before and was relaxed as they called his name on the 1st tee. After a par on the 1st hole, Cary birdied the par 5 2nd hole. With a par on 3 and 4, Cary sank a tough putt on the difficult 5th hole for bogey.
Playing much faster than the previous 3 rounds, Cary chattered nervously and played efficiently and proceeded to birdie the 6th and 7th holes and shoot a 2-under par on the front nine. The 10th hole at Augusta is a long par 4 played down the mountain away from the clubhouse towards Amen Corner. (10, 11 & 12). Cary his his 2nd shot into the sand trap and didn’t get the ball out on his 1st attempt. A double bogey 6 caused the good doctor to be a bit shaky on the 11th hole tee box. He hit a short drive and was forced to hit a 2-iron into the green that is protected by water on the left. His shot held the green and 2-putts later Cary’s jitters were over.
A nice birdie on the short par 12th and Cary knew he had the victory.
“I don’t see what can happen now, do you?” Cary asked Nelson as they walked to the 13th tee.
Bryon said, “No I don’t.”
Cary layed up to the green and made par and another easy par on the 14th with another birdie on 15 and a par on the par 3 16th. A harmless bogey on 17 and Doc hit a fabulous 6-iron to within 6 feet and sank the putt to win in style. His final round of 70 allowed Cary to run away from the field winning by 7 shots over his buddy Ben Hogan that was a Masters ecord held for 10 years.
As Herbert Warren Wind said ”it was in all ways a magnificent victory for the Memphis dentist who had trained for dentistry himself but gave up his practice in January 1947 to try the much more precarious one of drilling irons to pins.”
(Johnny Lyon was the publisher and owner of Mid-South Golfer Magazine, a GWAA member and past champion and currently president of Jackets Required inc. selling embroidered blazers to the golf industry. His email jacketsrequired@comcast.net.)
