Dick Metz: Profile of 1930s, '40s Golf Champion
Full name: Richard Craig Metz
Date of birth: May 29, 1908
Place of birth: Arkansas City, Kansas
Date and place of death: May 5, 1993, in Arkansas City, Kansas
Nickname: Handsome Dick
His Biggest Wins
Dick Metz is credited by the PGA Tour with eight wins in official tour tournaments:- 1937 Thomasville Open
- 1937 Hollywood Open
- 1939 Oakland Open
- 1939 Asheville Open
- 1939 St. Paul Open
- 1939 San Francisco National Match Play Open
- 1940 Chicago Open
- 1949 Cedar Rapids Open
Metz's other wins outside the PGA Tour include the 1930 Texas Pro Sweepstakes, 1931 Southwest Open, 1935 Mid-South Pro-Pro (partnered by Gene Kunes) and 1939 Illinois PGA Championship.
He also had these victories in senior golf:
- 1960 Senior PGA Championship
- 1960 World Senior Championship
In the Majors
Dick Metz never won a major, but did finish second once and recorded a good number of Top 10 finishes. His first appearance in a major was in the 1933 PGA Championship, his last in the 1959 U.S. Open.Unfortunately for Metz, he was famous during his career for one that got away. At the 1938 U.S. Open, Metz was in second place at the halfway point. Following a 70 in Round 3, he held a 3-stroke lead over the second-place golfer, and was four in front of third-place Ralph Guldahl.
But in the final round, Metz ballooned to a 79 while Guldahl scored 69. That 10-shot swing sent Metz from four ahead of Guldahl at the start of the final round to finishing six strokes behind Guldahl, in solo second place.
Adding insult for Metz, his collapse was later memorialized in Dan Jenkins' novel Dead Solid Perfect (affiliate links used in article, commissions earned). The narrator of Jenkins' novel explains at one point what happened to Metz in the 1938 U.S. Open, then says, "For a while on the tour in those days ... when a man hit a real bad shot, he would say, 'I Dick Metz'd it'."
Metz was in good position at the 36-hole mark of another major, too. In the 1947 U.S. Open, he shared the second-round lead with Chick Harbert at 139, tying the tournament's then-record score for the first two rounds. But Metz scored 78-74 in the final two rounds and dropped to 13th place.
But Metz kept recording good showings in the U.S. Open: sixth at age 44 in 1952, seventh in 1953, and, at age 50 in 1958, he had a share of the first-round lead before finishing seventh.
Metz also had Top 10 finishes in the U.S. Opens of 1935 (t10), 1939 (t7), 1940 (ninth), 1941 (t10) and 1946 (eighth). His best showing in The Masters was tied for eighth, which he achieved in both 1938 and 1947. He also tied for 10th in the 1948 Masters.
Metz reached the semifinals of the 1939 PGA Championship, his best showing in that major, before losing to the eventual champ, Henry Picard. He also made the quarterfinals in 1934 and the Round of 16 three other times. Metz never played in the British Open.
More About Dick Metz
Dick Metz picked up golf beginning at age 12 at Arkansas City (Kansas) Country Club, a couple miles from the family plot where Metz was learning to work the land and cattle. He would be involved in both golf and ranching for the rest of his life.Metz turned pro 1927, but it was five years before he played his first PGA Tour event. That was the 1932 Los Angeles Open, and it was an auspicious debut: Het tied for second place.
Metz wasn't a great driver or a great putter, but was very good at everything in-between. In his 1962 Book for Senior Golfers, Paul Runyan wrote, "There have been very fine golfers whose striking of the ball has been excellent except at the two ends. Dick Metz particularly comes to mind. If his putting and driving had been as good, relatively, as his fairway woods, his long irons and his medium irons, his many near-misses would have been wins. Why he couldn't extend this mastery of the intermediary phases to both ends always puzzled me."
But Metz did well enough to be one of the consistently good players on tour through the 1930s, in particular, and into the 1940s. His first big pro win was the 1933 Pennsylvania Open, and he teamed with Gene Kunes to take the 1935 Mid-South Pro-Pro Bestball. These are not counted as official PGA Tour wins today, but those tournament fields were full of recognizable names.
At the 1936 St. Paul Open on the PGA Tour, Metz lost in a playoff to Harry Cooper. But his first tour win came in 1937 in another playoff — Metz bested Ed Dudley to take the Thomasville Open.
Metz also won the Hollywood Open in 1937, finished second in the Miami Biltmore Open, and finished in the Top 10 in eight out of his nine tour starts.
He had another big win in 1938, partnering with Ky Laffoon to claim the Miami International Four-Ball. But again, today the PGA Tour does not count that as an official tour victory.
His four wins in 1939 are all "official," though. Metz beat Dutch Harrison in a playoff to win the Oakland Open, then, in his next start, claimed the San Francisco National Match Play Open by beating Horton Smith in the championship match. Metz also won the Nashville Open and St. Paul Open in 1939, as well as finishing runner-up in the New Orleans Open.
That was also the year of his best finishes in majors, his second-place in the U.S. Open, and semifinals showing in the PGA Championship. Metz made 17 PGA Tour starts in 1939, was in the Top 10 11 times, had the four wins and five total Top 5 finishes. He finished fifth on the money list, his career best.
And Metz would have played in the 1939 Ryder Cup, except that it was canceled due to World War II. He had one additional victory that year off the tour in the Illinois PGA Championship.
In 1940, Metz claimed the Chicago Open by one stroke over runners-up Ben Hogan and Johnny Revolta. His eighth and final official PGA Tour victory didn't happen until 1949, in the Cedar Rapids Open. In-between, Metz lost in a playoff to George Fazio at the 1946 Canadian Open.
Metz's last PGA Tour start was in 1960. For his career, Metz made 278 PGA Tour starts and finished in the Top 25 in more than 80-percent (232) of them. In addition to his eight official career wins, Metz finished second 17 times, third 13 times, and had 135 Top 10 finishes.
There was no pro tour for "senior" (50-and-over) golfers anywhere in the world at the time Metz hit his 50s in 1958. But Metz predicted one was coming, even if he missed on the timing. He told the New York Times in 1960, "I even foresee a tournament tour for professionals 50 years and older. Some of the best will soon be in that age group, including Sam Sneed and Ben Hogan, along with Jimmy Demaret, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard and others."
It actually took until 1980 before the Senior PGA Tour (later called the Champions Tour and now PGA Tour Champions) was launched, by which time Metz was in his 70s. He did make six starts on the Senior Tour from 1980 to 1983.
But Metz also managed to record one big senior victory much earlier. He won the Senior PGA Championship in 1960 (when it was called the PGA Seniors' Championship). And that victory sent him into the World Senior Championship, which he claimed by beating Reg Horne, 2 and 1.
At the height of his fame, Metz wrote two golf instructional books, both published in 1940: The Secret to Par Golf and Short Cuts to Improve Your Golf. He also contributed to a third book published in 1940, Golfmasters: A Sure Way to Better Golf.
Metz also featured in some short instructional films, including (along with Jimmy Thomson and Ed Dudley) one called Smooth Approach; and (with Thomson and Horton Smith) another titled Follow Through.
Starting during his early PGA Tour years, Metz, in addition to his tournament play and golf pro jobs, was also a rancher. And as his golf activities lessened, his ranching interests grew. According to the New York Times' obituary of Metz, "he had operated ranches in Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama and Kansas."
Metz died by suicide at age 84 in 1993. Metz's wife told the New York Times that "her husband had been despondent after declining health forced him to abandon active ranching and lease out the ranch he had operated near Arkansas City, his boyhood home."
Police in Arkansas City told the Times that Metz, "who was 84 and in ill health, drove his pickup truck to the parking lot of a local funeral home, parked it and climbed into the rear before shooting himself in the head."
Metz is a member of the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor. "Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor golf tournament raises more than $17k," Community Matters, June 2019.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
Jenkins, Dan. Dead Solid Perfect, 1974, Atheneum.
Kansas Golf Foundation. Kansas Golf Hall of Fame, Inductees, Dick Metz, https://www.kansasgolffoundation.org/hall-of-fame/dick-metz.
The New York Times. "Dick Metz, 84, Dies; Golfer and Rancher," May 8, 1993, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/08/obituaries/dick-metz-84-dies-golfer-and-rancher.html.
Oak Park Country Club. "OPCC Head Golf Professionals," https://oakparkcountryclub.org/head-golf-professionals.
PGA of America. Senior PGA Championship 2018 Media Guide, Past Results/Tournament Records.
PGATour.com. Players, Dick Metz, https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions/player/05421/dick-metz/overview.
Runyan, Paul. Book for Senior Golfers, 1962, Dodd Mead & Company.
Sommers, Robert T. Golf Anecdotes, 1995, Oxford University Press.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
Werden, Lincoln A. "Dick Metz Eyes World Links Title," The New York Times, June 26, 1960, https://www.nytimes.com/1960/06/26/archives/dick-metz-eyes-world-links-title-pga-senior-king-leaving-today-for.html.
