Dutra gutted out Open win in 1934

AFTER HOSTING six USGA championships, and 4 years removed from Bobby Jones completing his unprecedented Grand Slam there at the U.S. Amateur, Merion Golf Club finally got a U.S. Open in 1934.

The winner was already a major champion. Just not the one that most would have picked.

Olin Dutra, a 33-year-old Californian who had won the PGA Championship 2 years earlier, had lost nearly 20 pounds right before the Open due to a bout with amoebic dysentery, a painful intestinal infection brought on by food poisoning. After two rounds, he trailed leader Bobby Cruickshank by eight shots. Then, on the eve of the 36-hole final he had another attack, which forced him to snack on sugar cubes throughout the day. Still, he closed 71-72 to beat 54-hole leader Gene Sarazen by a stroke. The same Sarazen who had won the Open in 1922 and '32, as well as three PGAs and a British Open. He would add a Masters title the following year, which is best remembered for his historic final-round eagle 2 on the 15th hole at Augusta National.

Dutra was the first Open champ born in the Golden State. His older brother Mortie finished 28th. Olin would finish third the following April at Augusta, two out of the Sarazen-Craig Wood playoff.

Dutra had tied for seventh at the two previous Opens. After spending a short time in the hospital in Detroit on his trip east from Los Angeles (where he was the head professional at the prestigious Brentwood Country Club), there were actually some doubts whether the Monterey native would even be able to play. It was his brother who convinced him not to withdraw.

Doctors ordered him to drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration. He opened with a 4-over-par 74, and followed with another 74. That left him tied for 18th, eight off the lead. Cruickshank, after a pair of 71s, was at 142, two ahead of Sarazen.

On the final morning, playing in windy conditions that he had become accustomed to from growing up on a peninsula, Dutra improved to a 71. That put him in a tie for fourth with Ralph Guldahl (who would win the Open in 1936 and '37 and the 1939 Masters), one behind Wiffy Cox, two behind Cruickshank and three in back of Sarazen.

Sarazen teed off at 2:50 in the afternoon, with Horton Smith. Dutra went out 15 minutes later in the last group, with fellow Californian Lawson Little, a renowned amateur. Dutra and Sarazen both shot 38 on the front side, while Cruickshank, in the third-to-last twosome, had gone one lower to catch Sarazen, who most of the galleries were following. But Dutra made birdies at Nos. 10 and 15, while Sarazen took a triple bogey on the 11th, where Jones had made history. Even though he three-putted for bogeys on the closing two holes, Dutra carded a 72 for a 293. Sarazen's 76 left him at 294. Cruickshank also finished with a 76 to tie for third at 295 with Harry Cooper (71) and Cox (75).

Dutra's 36-hole comeback remained the largest deficit anyone had overcome until Arnold Palmer matched it in 1960.

As O.B. Keeler wrote in the July 1934 issue of American Golfer, Dutra had no expectations by the time he arrived at Merion, even though it had been very much on his radar for awhile.

"Seems like a little bit of tough luck," Dutra told Keeler. "I had been working along toward this tournament all winter, you see . . . And I really was playing pretty well. And then this blamed bug comes along."

Turns out it didn't matter. Only made the story better. What did matter was Dutra's ability to play all kinds of different shots to fit the prevailing weather.

"He has style, accuracy, plenty of range," Keeler wrote. "And there was wind at Merion, all three days, but not always the same wind. This was right up the Senor's avenue. Some of the most delightfully artistic strokes I witnessed were off the irons and pitching tools of the big Spaniard, punching low shots into the wind, straight as a rule line, or holding the ball up in a crossing current, or banking it craftily against a cushion of air."

It was enough to catch the attention of none other than Jones.

"His action is a model of compactness, which accounts in large measure for his effectiveness in wind," he told Keeler. "Altogether, Dutra's golf is of the sort that shows best under adverse conditions and on a tough, extracting course. It is definitely championship golf."

And who else should know any better?

Dutra would play in eight more Opens, the last in 1948. The best he could do was a tie for 12th the following June. But he did it once, under adverse circumstances. And that's forever.

When asked how he felt, Dutra replied: "How would you feel if your fondest dream came true? I'm glad I did it. This will certainly give the old boy a big kick."

Tom Creavy closed with a 66 (after going 79-76-78), which was one better than previous Merion record set in a qualifying round at the 1924 Amateur. It was also a new low for an Open, a record that wouldn't be broken for 13 years. In 1950, Lee Mackey Jr. would open with a 64 at Merion.

This was the year when Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan made their Open debuts. Both missed the cut. Nelson would win his lone Open 5 years later at the only major ever hosted by Philadelphia Country Club. And Hogan, of course, would win the second of his four Opens the next time it returned to Ardmore, 16 years later, in what would go down as perhaps the all-time storyline.

But that week, as it often does, ultimately belonged to a rather unlikely suspect.

THE DAILY NEWS COVERS THE OPEN: Check out PhillyDailyNews.com's U.S. Open page for our guide to the tournament at Merion.