Golfer George McLean: Early PGA Pro Killed in Car Crash

George McLean played tournaments in the earliest years of the PGA Tour and continuing into the 1930s. He had multiple strong showings in the PGA Championship, and was a member of Team USA in a competition that was part of the Ryder Cup's origins.

Full name: George Louis McLean

Date of birth: September 1, 1893

Place of birth: Yonkers, New York

Date and place of death: March 26, 1951, in Waterloo, New York

His Biggest Wins

McLean had wins in two official PGA Tour tournaments:

• 1923 Shawnee Open
• 1923 Westchester Open

In the Majors

George McLean first played in a professional major at the 1915 U.S. Open, and last in the 1932 U.S. Open. He made 16 total starts in tournaments we today classify as majors.

His best finishes in those majors were the three times he reached the semifinals of the match-play PGA Championship. McLean played in the inaugural 1916 PGA Championship, losing in the second round. When the tournament returned after World War I, he made it to the semifinals in the 1919 PGA Championship. His match wins that year included against Johnny Farrell and Mike Brady, before he lost to Fred McLeod.

In the 1920 PGA Championship, McLean fell to J.D. Edgar in the semis. And in the 1923 PGA Championship, McLead defeated (among others) Willie Ogg and Joe Kirkwood Sr. en route to the semifinals. But in those semis, he lost to the eventual champ, Walter Hagen, by a 12-and-11 score, which shares the record for worst defeat in the 36-hole-match era of the PGA Championship.

McLean's best U.S. Open finish was tied for fifth place in 1919. He also had Top 20 finishes in the 1916 U.S. Open (t20) and 1926 U.S. Open (t16), and reached the quarterfinals of the 1921 PGA Championship.

More About George McLean

Like most pros of his era, George McLean was a club pro first and a tour player second. After all, his first starts in big pro tournaments pre-date the creation, in 1916, of what eventually became known as the PGA Tour.

McLean worked at several clubs, all in New York and noted below, while playing a few events a year on the fledgling tour. Eventually, according to PGA Tour stats, McLean made 45 starts in tournaments that today are classified as official tour events. He had the two wins, 10 Top 5 finishes, 19 Top 10 finishes, and was in the Top 25 in 33 out of those 45 starts.

His first brush with a tour win was in the 1917 War Relief Tournament staged by the PGA in place of the canceled PGA Championship. McLean tied Willie Macfarlane, but lost the 18-hole playoff, 80 to 76.

He was still looking for that first win in 1921 when, in the Garden City Open, McLean finished second by one stroke to Johnny Farrell.

But McLean's game was respected by his fellow pros, a fact made clear by his inclusion in a team of U.S.-based pros who traveled to Scotland in 1921 to play a British team in a series of matches. The squad, captained by Walter Hagen, was there primarily to play in the 1921 Open Championship (McLean's only appearance in the British Open), but the team matches were arranged beforehand.

That competition, played at Gleneagles and won by the British side, 9-3, was one of the formative events in the history of the Ryder Cup. Some of the obituaries written about McLean upon his death in the early 1950s referred to him being part of "the first Ryder Cup team." That's not true, as the first, official Ryder Cup was played in 1927. But McLean was part of the competition's origin story.

McLean's two PGA Tour wins happened in the same year, 1923. First was his victory in the Shawnee Open. Newspaper articles referred to McLean winning "after threatening for years to break through." He tied Harry Hampton at 288, then beat Hampton in the 18-hole playoff, 74 to 76.

Then, in the 1923 Westchester Open, McLean won by three strokes over second-place Joe Turnesa. For the victory, McLean received a gold medal, a first-place check of $100, and $25 bonus for having the low round of the tournament (70 in the final round).

But McLean had no more wins or second-place finishes after 1923. His final starts in tour events were in 1932, the same year as his final start in any major.

McLean, a native New Yorker, worked at multiple clubs in the state over his career. Those included Dunwoodie Golf Course in Yonkers, Great Neck Golf Club in Great Neck, and Grassy Sprain Golf Club in Bronxville.

In 1939 he became head pro at Seneca Falls Country Club, a position he held until his tragic death in 1951 in an automobile crash. McLean was "killed instantly," according to newspaper reports, when his car collided with another at a highway intersection in Seneca County, N.Y. McLean's wife was seriously injured, and the driver of the other vehicle also perished.

The magazine Golfdom, in its notice about McLean's passing, said of him, "He was widely known as a fine teacher and a delightful comrade in golf."

Sources:
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf (affiliate link), Volume 3, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Graffis, Herb. "Notes Around Golf," Golfdom, April 30, 1951.
The Meriden (Conn.) Daily Journal. "George McLean Wins Shawnee Tournament," July 17, 1923, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sjpIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9gANAAAAIBAJ&pg=5123,4607295&dq=shawnee&hl=en.
New Britain (Conn.) Herald. "McLean Beaten," July 28, 1917.
PGA of America. PGA Championship Media Guide 2012, Tournament Recaps for PGA Championships of 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923.
PGA Tour. Players, George McLean, https://www.pgatour.com/player/16998/george-mclean/career.
Seneca Falls Country Club. "History of Seneca Falls Country Club," https://senecafallscountryclub.com/club-history/.
The Yonkers (N.Y.) Herald Statesman. "McLean Takes Westchester Open Away From Macfarlane," September 8, 1923.