Eric Monti: Tour Winner, 'Teacher to the Stars'
Date of birth: December 6, 1917
Place of birth: Pekin, Illinois
Date and place of death: February 1, 2009, in Laguna Woods, California
Nickname: Sheik
His Biggest Wins
Eric Monti had three wins in official PGA Tour tournaments:- 1955 Miami Beach Open
- 1959 Hesperia Open Invitational
- 1961 Ontario Open
In the Majors
Monti played in 20 major championships over his career, first in the 1948 U.S. Open and last in the 1965 U.S. Open. His best finish was a tie for sixth place in the 1961 U.S. Open. That was Monti's only Top 10 finish in a major. His other best finishes included tied for 11th in the 1949 U.S. Open, tied 20th in the 1958 PGA Championship, and tied 21st in his final start in a major in the 1965 U.S. Open.
More About Eric Monti
One of Groucho Marx's best-known lines was this: "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member." But Groucho did eventually join the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles because it was the only golf club in L.A. at the time that accepted Jewish members.For that reason, Hillcrest CC became home to many famous entertainers — comedians, actors and others — on the Hollywood scene who were, for racist reasons, turned down by other clubs.
What does this have to do with Eric Monti? Monti moved to California in the early 1940s, becoming an assistant pro at Los Angeles Country Club. In 1945, he was hired by George Fazio as an assistant at Hillcrest CC. When Fazio left, Monti and Mortie Dutra became co-head pros at Hillcrest in 1950. And in 1955, Monti took over as solo head pro — a position he held at Hillcrest until 1989.
And in that role, Monti became known as "the teacher to the stars," the man who provided instruction to all the celebrities who joined Hillcrest. Just a few of Monti's pupils, in addition to Groucho: the other Marx brothers, Jack Benny, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Danny Kaye, Danny Thomas, Henry Fonda, Buddy Hackett, Don Rickles, Milton Berle and George Burns. (Frank Sinatra once scheduled a lesson with Monti, then failed to show up.)
Monti was also called, according to the 1989 book Changing the Course (affiliate link), "the most long-suffering soul in Hollywood" because he had to deal with those personalities and how bad most of them were at learning golf. (Burt Lancaster was, Monti said, the best of his famous golf pupils.) Monti once said of Groucho, "He's so terrible (at golf) it hurts to watch him play."
One story Monti liked to tell was how Hillcrest had a rule that golfers could remove their shirts as long as they were finished with the first hole and out of sight of the clubhouse, and so long as they put the shirt back on for the ninth hole, which was back in view of the clubhouse. One day, Harpo Marx eached the ninth and put his shirt back on. But took his pants off.
In the early 1970s, Monti became Dinah Shore's instructor. But Shore, even though she was hosting a tournament on the LPGA Tour that later became (and still is) an LPGA major, could not find any clubs in Los Angeles that would take her as a member because she was unmarried. (Some clubs in the area at that time probably didn't allow any women, but, apparently, all of them had a no-unmarried-women rule.) After she told the newspapers about it, Monti's Hillcrest made Shore a member, becoming the first club in the area willing to accept an unmarried woman as a member.
Monti's proximity to so many celebrities boosted his own profile. He appeared as himself in a sketch on the Jack Benny Show (affiliate link):
He also appeared in the 1952 Tracy-Hepburn movie Pat and Mike (affiliate link). And Monti played Bob Rosburg in a 1960 episode of the television series All Star Golf.
Eric Monti got started in golf when he began caddying at the ripe old age of 6 in his hometown of Pekin, Illinois. He eventually won the city championship seven times.
He turned pro in 1943, at the age of 26. Monti made his first starts in PGA Tour events in 1947, and had his first Top 10 finish (tied ninth) that year in the Tucson Open.
In 1948, he played a full season on tour, making 26 starts. But that was one of only three years (along with 1949 and 1955) in which he made more than 20 starts on the tour. In only two others (1950 and 1962) did he make as many as 10 starts.
But he did record those three victories. The first, in 1955, was by two strokes over runner-up Rosburg in the Miami Beach Open. Monti had his best finish on the money list that year, 36th.
His win in the 1959 Hesperia Open was by four strokes over Jay Hebert, Jack Fleck and Bob Duden. And to claim the 1961 Ontario Open, Monti won a playoff against Bobby Nichols and George Bayer.
Monti twice was the third-round leader in the Los Angeles Open, only to struggle in the final round. In 1955, he scored 77 in the final round and fell to eighth place. Monti led the 1960 Los Angeles Open by four going into the final round, then shot 80 and finished seventh.
Monti made his last PGA Tour start in 1965. PGA Tour statistics show he made 140 starts in official tour events. He made the cut in 131 of them, and recorded 28 total Top 10 finishes. He had no second-places, but was runner-up to Charlie Sifford (after a playoff) in the 1957 Long Beach Open, a PGA Tour-affiliated event but that year one not counted as an official tour tournament.
Monti was in his mid-60s by the time the Senior PGA Tour launched in 1980 and made only three starts in official Senior Tour events. He did play the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf for many years, into the 1990s, often partnering with Paul Runyan.
As a golf instructor, Monti's mantra was to keep teaching simple. He once told the Los Angeles Times, "You can get too involved in technicalities. If you get people thinking about too many things, you'll destroy them. I tell my assistants to stay with simple, fundamental things."
Monti is a member of the Southern California Golf Hall of Fame and the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Associated Press. "Eric Monti Tour winner and teacher to stars dies," NBC Sports, https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/article-associated-press-eric-monti-tour-winner-and-teacher-stars-dies.
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 3, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
Florence, Mal. "Hillcrest Pro Eric Monti Retires With a Smile," Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1989.
Glick, Shav. "The First Lady of Golf," Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2003.
Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. Inductees, Eric Monti, https://www.gpshof.com/golf-eric-monti.
May, Peter. Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford & Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA, 2024, Rowman & Littlefield.
PGATour.com. Players, Eric Monti, Career/Results, https://www.pgatour.com/player/05428/eric-monti/overview.
Thurber, Jon. "Eric Monti dies at 91; former golf pro at Hillcrest Country Club in L.A.," Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2009, https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-eric-monti12-2009feb12-story.html.
