Handicapped golfer Ed Furgol cashes his winning U.S. Open tickets

Hogan, Snead, Nelson beaten by journeyman.

After his great victory at Baltusrol in the U.S.Open, Cary Middlecoff, no mean shotmaker himself, paid Furgol a great compliment by saying, "Ed can hit any kind of a shot with as good technique as any player today."

IN THE WORLD OF GOLF, the name Furgol is a synonym for courage, fortitude and guts. From the time he was 12 years old Ed Furgol never had an outside chance of playing good golf. He had no right to aspire to be a golf professional and an outstanding one. He shouldn't even have dreamed of winning the greatest of all championships, the United States Open.

Yet he did all of those things. It is a saga of a man overcoming a severe handicap which has set an example for every golfer to follow. If Ed Furgol could accomplish so much despite a seemingly insurmountable physical deficiency, then every man and woman alive should take great heart.

A Tragic Accident

The story stems back to a tragic day in New York Mills, N. Y., on the outskirts of Utica. Two weeks before his twelfth birthday a little Polish boy was swinging on a playground trapeze. He fell. The left arm was broken and the youngster walked an excruciating mile to his home with the bone protruding through the flesh of his upper arm. The local doctor did his best to repair the damage but when the cast was removed two months later, his heart fell. The arm had not set properly.

A year and two desperate operations later the boy was told the terrible news. His left arm never would return to normal. The elbow had set into bent rigidity and the arm would be six inches shorter than his right arm.

Even worse, atrophy had set in the extensor muscles of the injured arm from elbow to shoulder and the boy would go through life with that area withered and weak, just bone covered with flesh. He was sentenced to life as a cripple.

It isn't hard to picture the kindly old doc and his sympathy for the youngster. This kid from a poor family of immigrants just didn't have a chance in a community where big, strong men had difficulty making a living. And never again would he be able to play any sport.

If so, the medic did not perceive the fierce determination of the lad or his awesome capacity to work out his chosen destiny. Once the shock and pain of his disability were past young Furgol went back to battle his way. He has been battling ever since and his accomplishments are worthy to become a legend.

Young Furgol would not permit his misfortune to interfere with the daily things a boy of his age can do. He did odd jobs, peddled papers and caddied at the nearby private golf club. It was there he was bitten by the golf bug.

It doesn't take much imagination to realize what the youngster went through when he started to play this game in which full-bodied people have difficulty. The rest of the kids could take hold with both hands, imitate their patrons and hit the ball pretty well. Furgol, with his crippled left arm, couldn't keep up.

But there was no handicap on Furgol's ambition. He determined he was going to be a good golfer and he stuck to it. By himself he worked out ways he could overcome his disability. Maybe he failed to realize then what a long and tedious path he was to follow. But knowing Ed, not even this would have deterred him.

But he never eased up on his ambition to be a star golfer. Even as a youngster Ed Furgol developed callouses on his hands from constantly hitting balls. They were to be the badge of his career and his ambition until that wonderful day in 1954 when he won the United States Open championship.

With the casual cruelty of children, Furgol had tough going in the teen-age days following his accident. But it only intensified his efforts, made him work harder to prove he could do it. Even today Furgol remembers an axiom which he constantly repeated to himself, to step up his spirits. It went, "You've got a chance if you want it badly enough."

Furgol wanted it, and gradually he began to get it. By the time he was 18 he was the best public links golfer in Utica. But that wasn't enough. Ed Furgol wanted to become a professional, not just in name but a full-fledged master of the game.

He even went to work on the local course, first cutting greens and then driving a tractor to further his chances. Then he tried learning the trade of a metal polisher. He thought one time of becoming a professional boxer. The kid could fight, too. That powerful right hand was a surprise weapon, and by now the left arm, despite its withered upper half, was powerful of forearm and hand. His constant devotion to exercise had assured that.

Furgol tried out his skill at the manly art as an amateur. He fought three times and won twice, once by a knockout, once by a decision. But when he tried to turn professional, the New York State Boxing Commission's local official took one look at his arm and turned down his application vehemently.

By 1938 Furgol was looking beyond the Utica horizon for more golf worlds to conquer. He went to Detroit to play in the National Public Links championship and did well. He also found he liked Detroit very much and jobs were more available than at home. He went back to his old job as metal polisher in the motor city but with one purpose in mind-to save enough to hit the golf trail.

Never for a minute did he lose sight of his long-nursed ambition.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

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