Two-time major champion Jack Burke Jr. dies at age 100

Jack Burke Jr. (Google Images)

According to Jim McCabe of pgatour.com on Friday, two-time major champion Jack Burke Jr. of  Fort Worth, Texas passed away at the age of 100. Burke Jr. died 10 days prior to his 101st birthday.

Burke Jr. won both of his major titles in 1956. The first came at the Masters and the second came at the PGA Championship. When Burke Jr. won the Masters, he posted a four-round score of +1. He defeated American amateur Ken Venturi of San Francisco, California by a stroke, American Cary Middlecoff of Halls, Tennessee by two strokes, and Americans Sam Snead of Ashwood, Virginia and Lloyd Mangrum of Trenton, Texas by three strokes.

What everyone will most remember about Burke Jr.’s performance at Augusta 68 years ago was his remarkable comeback. Burke Jr. delivered the biggest comeback in the history of the Masters tournament. Heading into the fourth and final round, Burke Jr. was eight strokes back of Venturi. At the time, Burke Jr. was in fourth place at +2, while Venturi was leading at -6. Then in the final round, Venturi completely collapsed as he shot a score of eight-over-par 80, while Burke Jr. shot a round of one-under-par, to improve to two-over-par to one-over-par.

When Burke Jr. won the PGA Championship, he beat Ted Kroll of New Hartford, New York 3&2. This was during the time when match play instead of stroke play was used to determine the PGA Championship winner. Lionel Hebert of Lafayette, Louisiana was the last match play champion in 1957, before organizers moved to stroke play in 1958. Burke Jr. won 16 PGA Tour events overall, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000.