Shelley Mayfield Bio: Golfer Was PGA Tour Winner in 1950s
Full name: Charles Shelley Mayfield
Date of birth: June 19, 1924
Place of birth: Liberty Hill, Texas
Date and place of death: March 22, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas
His Biggest Wins
Mayfield is credited with three official wins on the PGA Tour:- 1953 St. Paul Open
- 1955 Thunderbird Invitational
- 1956 Baton Rouge Open
- 1954 San Francisco Open
- 1957 Long Island Open
In the Majors
Mayfield played in 20 major championships: three Masters, nine U.S. Opens, and eight PGA Championships. His first start in a major was in the 1953 U.S. Open, his last in the 1965 U.S. Open.Mayfield had four Top 10 finishes, all from 1954 to 1956. His best showing in a major was a loss in the semifinals of the match-play 1955 PGA Championship. Mayfield's match victories included against Gene Sarazen and Claude Harmon. He lost to Doug Ford, the eventual champion, in the semis.
Mayfield also tied for sixth place in the 1954 U.S. Open, reached the quarterfinals (technically a tie for fifth) in the 1954 PGA Championship, and tied for eighth in the 1956 Masters.
More About Shelley Mayfield
Shelley Mayfield grew up in Central Texas, born near Austin and raised near San Antonio, and after moving around to different parts of the country as a golf professional, lived out his life in South Texas.He started playing golf at age 14 in the small city of Seguin, where he helped lead the high school team — coached by the notoriously volatile Lefty Stackhouse — to state championships.
In his late teens and early 20s, Mayfield had some successes in local and regional amateur tournaments, and caught the eye of some notable club pros. In 1948, at age 24, he turned pro and went to work as an assistant to Claude Harmon at two of the most-famous clubs in the USA, Winged Foot Golf Club in New York and Seminole Golf Club in Florida. He would work club pro jobs into the 1980s (more on that below).
Mayfield made his first starts on the PGA Tour in 1948, but just a handful. In 1951, he made 12 starts, the first of just six years in which Mayfield reached double-digit starts on tour. That wasn't because he couldn't have played the tour full-time longer, but because, as was true of many tour golfers prior to 1960, he found it more rewarding financially to work at clubs.
But Mayfield did have successes on tour and was a respected player. His first brush with victory was in the 1953 Houston Open, where he got into a 5-man, 18-hole playoff. Mayfield scored 71 in the playoff, but Cary Middlecoff won it with a 69. (Jim Ferrier, Earl Stewart and Bill Nary were also in the playoff.) That would remain Mayfield's only runner-up finish on tour.
But four months later, Mayfield got his first tour victory at the 1953 St. Paul Open. He won by two strokes over second-place Dutch Harrison.
Mayfield won again in 1954 in the San Franciso Open, although that playing of the tournament is not counted today as an official tour event. Mayfield won despite bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes in the final round, because Cary Middlecoff, leading to that point, missed a 10-inch par putt on the 17th and double bogeyed the 18th.
His second PGA Tour victory happened in the 1955 Thunderbird Invitational in an 18-hole playoff against Mike Souchak and Fred Haas. Haas scored 70, but Mayfield and Souchak tied at 69 and had to continue into sudden-death holes. Mayfield won it on the second extra hole (the 20th playoff hole overall).
His third and final tour victory was in the 1956 Baton Rouge Open. Mayfield won by three strokes over a quintet of runners-up: Jimmy Demaret, Doug Ford, Walter Burkemo, Fred Hawkins and Fred Haas.
Mayfield's tour starts dropped into the single digits again in the mid- and late 1950s, although he didn't make his final start in an official tour event until 1967.
PGA Tour statistics show Mayfield with 151 career starts in official tour tournaments. In addition to his three victories and one runner-up finish, Mayfield finished third six times, and in the Top 10 27 times. Of those 151 starts, 104 of them were in the years 1951-55.
And during those years and after, Mayfield was working club pro jobs. Following two years assisting Harmon, he became head pro at Rockaway Hunting Club in Cedarhurst, New York. From 1955-63, he was at Meadowbrook Golf and Polo Club on Long Island.
It was while at Meadowbrook that Mayfield won the 1957 Long Island Open by seven strokes over Al Brosch. That was his only victory in the major Long Island PGA section tournaments, but he had multiple second-place finishes. Mayfield was runner-up in the Long Island PGA Championship four times: 1956, 1957 and 1958, plus 1960 (to Brosch). He was also twice runner-up in the Metropolitan Open: in 1957 to Wes Ellis and in 1959 to Jim Turnesa.
Mayfield moved back to Texas in 1963 and became head pro at Brook Hollow Country Club in Dallas, a position he held until 1982. He was a frequent playing partner to Ben Hogan in those years. He also became well-known as an instructor.
Mayfield also got into golf course architecture, working with profilic designer Dick Wilson on multiple projects. Those included Doral Country Club in Florida, plus the La Costa and Bay Hill clubs in California. And for many years (including long after he retired from tour), Spalding made Shelley Mayfield golf clubs for men, women and juniors.
In 1982, Mayfield retired to a ranch in South Texas. Today, he is a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame.
According to legendary golf instructor Harvey Penick's book The Wisdom of Harvey Penick (affiliate link), Mayfield was one the first golfers to popularize a swing in which the left heel (for right-handed golfers) stayed planted on the ground rather than lifting. Mayfield was doing that in the 1950s, as part of his natural motion. It was something Penick advised against, but keeping the left heel on the ground became something that was widely (but certainly not unanimously) taught during the distance explosion that began in the early 2000s.
Mayfield, though, told Penick that it wasn't part of a plan. Mayfield "didn't keep his left heel on the ground on purpose, it was just his natural, individual style," Penick wrote. "Often when people imitate the swing of a top player, they will pick out a peculiarity to copy. The so-called flying elbow of Nicklaus or the open stance of Lee Trevino will be what they imitate. Shelley told me he wished his left heel had let itself come up in his backswing, but it just wouldn't do it."
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
Glenn, Rhonda. "Mayfield Dies At 85," United States Golf Association, February 14, 2015, https://www.usga.org/articles/2010/03/mayfield-dies-at-85-2147485840.html.
The New York Times. "Mayfield Takes Golf Tourney on Coast As Middlecoff Falters on Last Two Holes," Universal Press, May 3, 1954, https://www.nytimes.com/1954/05/03/archives/mayfield-takes-golf-tourney-on-coast-as-middlecoff-falters-on-last.html.
Penick, Harvey, and Shrake, Bud. The Wisdom of Harvey Penick: Lessons and Thoughts from the Collected Writings of Golf's Best-Loved Teacher, 1997, Simon & Schuster, https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0641/97028126-s.html.
PGATour.com. Players, Shelley Mayfield, Career, https://www.pgatour.com/player/16851/shelley-mayfield.
Texas Golf Hall of Fame. Members, Shelley Mayfield, https://www.texasgolfhof.org/exhibit/shelley-mayfield.
White, Gordon S. "Shelley Mayfield Gets 214 to Capture Long Island Open by Seven Strokes," The New York Times, May 23, 1957, https://www.nytimes.com/1957/05/23/archives/shelley-mayfield-gets-214-to-capture-long-island-open-by-seven.html.
