Burke and Demaret: The Wit and Wisdom of Golf's Most Colorful Duo

By Bill Pelham

"Burke and Demaret-The Wit and Wisdom of Golf's Most Colorful Duo", is a collection of stories that pays tribute to two of the game's most legendary golfers and visionaries. It focuses on their lives long after the bright lights of competition on the PGA Tour had ended, giving the reader a close-up look a

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Pelham Publishing
• Release date: Apr 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9781962730037

Bill Pelham

Bill Pelham is a professional golfer who worked as an assistant golf professional at Champions Golf Club (from 1971-1976) in Houston before leaving to play the PGA Tour. Though he never won, his five-year Tour career included playing in five major championships. He has written two stories for Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul and Golfer's Soul II, honoring both his father and the late Arnold Palmer.

Book preview

Introduction

By Bill Pelham

I guess one could say the art of storytelling is almost like that of a dying tradition - much like eating dinner every evening as a family at six o’clock sharp, or going out to play with your friends, unsupervised, until your parents call you home as sunlight fades into dusk.

Storytelling, over the centuries, is how generations have stayed connected and memories preserved. Each time one is told, especially that which is remembered by more than one, it continues forward and reminds us of just how good our lives have been. We often remember a time when life seemed simpler and we would relish every breath; every moment.

I love storytellers, and yet, it seems as though it is getting harder and harder to find the time or the inclination to bring together a group of friends, colleagues, or kindred spirits, and remember those who have come before us - people that have made a huge difference in each of our lives.

For me, and a few others who have been affiliated with Champions Golf Club, the time has come to pay homage, not only to the golf club itself, but to the members and staff, past and present, and most especially to the owners – Jackie Burke and Jimmy Demaret.

I have had the great pleasure of playing and competing on many of the finest golf and country clubs in the country – from Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, to Pebble Beach, in Monterey, California. I’ve played in kick-around games with my friends at clubs like Shinnecock and Kiawah Island, and competed with fellow professionals at the highest level on the PGA Tour. I’ve seen and played the great venues like Merion, Oak Hill, Baltusrol, Bandon Dunes, Olympic, The Country Club at Brookline, and Pine Valley. Each club has had their unique place in history, and some are still making history today. But to me, Champions has surpassed them all.

It dawned on me today while sitting in the presence of 93 year-old Jack Burke that his declining health had caused his world to shrink so much, regrettably, that he had been reduced to experiencing what he could only see on this 500 acre tract of land called Champions Golf Club. His focus had turned inward so much in recent years, that the only golf he has experienced at the club level is that which he has walked on every day for more than 59 years. Certainly, he could see a lot of what is going on in the world of golf by watching TV, but I don’t think he has set foot on another golf course in nearly four years. And even that was a fantasy land…..Augusta National.

I thought how sad it was that he might not fully realize what he has overcome in Houston to bring his golf club to its rightful place in history, towering above the rest in so many ways – not so much in the number of championships that were given by the PGA, PGA Tour, or USGA, but what he has accomplished as a promoter of the game to a golfing membership the likes of which we may never see again.

We’re like pioneers, Pelham, he used to say to me. We’re pioneering here in Texas. Hell, we’ve just got to teach these dumb bastards not to touch the ball every chance they get! We’re fifty years behind the clubs in the Northeast!

With that one simple commandment drummed into each of us who played and worked there, he was able to cure our deafness to the games traditions. He was able create and mold a staff and a membership that was devoted to the game, thirsty for competition, and driven to be the best golfers they could be.

I would simply ask this question. Where in the United States has there ever been a club owned by two former Masters Champions, Hall of Famers who were mentored by former Masters, PGA, U.S Open, and Open Champions (and Hall of Famers), and who had as members of their club, former PGA Champions from four different decades. Name me one, and I’ll buy you a steak dinner. There simply are none. That one fact alone, in my opinion, has made this club stand head and shoulders above all the rest.

While the club has had its ups and downs over the years, Jack Burke remains proudest of the fact that in their sixty-year history, there has never been one assessment. Hell, most of these fancy clubs here in Houston go bankrupt every year and all they do is assess their members. Many of them are just restaurants now.

While his opinion might be slightly overblown, there is a lot of truth in his convictions. Golf is slowly dying on the vine, and Jackie knows exactly what is needed.

We need pros who understand that the word PRO, stands for the word PROMOTE! We’ve stopped promoting the game and the game is suffering as a result. Once again, Jackie is right on target.

In the pages ahead, I am going to try to divorce myself as much as I can from the process of telling stories – stories that not only reflect the era of their times, but reveal how others were changed forever as a result of their wit and wisdom. I’ll apologize in advance if it sounds like I am speaking more about myself than of the people who deserve the accolades. The fact is, most of the people you will read and hear stories about, are folks that I have known and loved for more than 40 years.

For a great majority, the stories in this book are accurate with little embellishment. A few, mainly due to the fact that those of whom I speak are no longer alive and can verify, are still being told today as if they are legend.

Many of us owe all of our success in golf to these men, Jackie Burke, Jay Hebert, Jimmy Burke and Jimmy Demaret. It is their contributions that will make this book what it is, and maybe alter your line of thinking about one of the most unique eras in golf we have ever witnessed.

I hope that you will enjoy my accounting of these men and the golf club called Champions from a different perspective than perhaps any story that has ever been told. From the near caustic and irascible nature of Jack Burke, to the whimsical flare of Jimmy Demaret, I hope you will enjoy the stories you are about to read.

Enjoy summed up Demaret’s approach to life. He, and Jackie, wouldn’t want it any other way.

CHAMPIONS

In Search of a Home

"I’ve been babysitting you and your brother, Jimmy for more than fifty years!

- Jimmy Demaret to Jackie Burke

Tradition doesn’t come easily in a game whose origins date back to Scotland and the 1300’s. But in the comparatively short sixty year existence of Champions Golf Club, Jack Burke, Jimmy Demaret, and a host of others committed to their vision, created a diamond from a lump of coal.

Before we go any further, I want you to understand just what was accomplished along the banks of Cypress Creek thirty miles north of downtown Houston. Many new to Houston might think that this burgeoning community was here from day one. Nothing could be farther from the truth. That area of Houston was once as wild and untamed as the Old West that likely infused Jackie Burke’s pioneer mentality.

The 500-acre tract that graced the corner of Champions Drive and FM 1960, and was later to become Champions Golf Club, was once a dense thicket of pines and oaks, so remote and isolated from metropolitan Houston in 1956 that it was considered a ride into the country. Though Houston was one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, its population was barely 700,000 – one sixth its current size. The 35-story Gulf Oil Building was the tallest building in downtown and had been for almost 30 years.

For all intents and purposes, the north side of the city ended on a line near Little York Road, almost ten miles south of FM 1960. Highways, if you could call them that, basically consisted of Interstates 10 and 45, with no beltways, loops, or other methods to expedite travel in some quadrants of the city. FM 1960 was called Jackrabbit Road, and together with SH 149, were sleepy two lane roads with hardly any traffic or business establishments in sight.

Today’s road is seven lanes wide, with thousands of businesses, many including ‘Champions’ in their name.

Most Houstonians surely thought the project was folly, being so far out of town at that time. And most assuredly, it was not Burke or Demaret’s first choice when considering a location. Burke had found a site near Meyerland, in southwest Houston, where he had sold a number of homes to supplement his meager Tour earnings. In fact, he tried in vain to sell my parents a home in that same subdivision before they finally settled on another home a few blocks away.

With purses in the tens of thousands of dollars and only $3000 to the winner, money was not something Tour players made a lot of in those days, and Jackie had a growing family to support. He knew there was no way that he would be able to support them playing the Tour for a living!

The 200 acre tract in Meyerland was just small enough that Burke figured he could go it alone, but when his primary investor demanded 51% ownership, he knew he could never go that route and began serious talks with his long-time pal, three times Master Champion, Jimmy Demaret. Allying in a partnership just might enable them to garner a larger property too.

Like Burke, Demaret was looking to end his remarkable career in competitive golf and settle down in the Houston area. Jimmy had known Jackie since he was a small child, and in many ways, you could never find greater opposites. Demaret had worked for Jackie’s father, Jack Burke, Sr., caddying and buffing clubs at River Oaks during the 1920’s. He was thirteen years Jackie’s elder, and often babysat the Burke boys while working for Jack Sr.

It was a simple testimony to their incredible and unlikely partnership. There was an undeniable chemistry between the two, and in the world of golf, they were tantamount to golfing legends in the city of Houston. Our city has never produced two finer golfers, and it remains that way to this day.

Burke and Demaret now began looking for other tracts of land, coming close to purchasing 500 acres near Katy that would have been a 36 hole facility had all the pieces fallen together. A series of legalities eventually quashed that site acquisition, and they began to look anew with their good friend Horace Norman. Their ‘ride into the country’ with Norman culminated in the purchase of 500 acres of land, bordering Cypress Creek, for a price of $600 an acre. Norman, Burke, and Demaret, convinced friends Mike Souchak, Les Lemak, Bob Hogan, Bennett Coulson, and Jackie’s brother, Eddie, to participate in the purchase of the property.

The land was originally bought as an investment only, but when it was learned that Houston was going to build a new airport in northern Harris County, it became perfectly clear to all parties that this was the location for which they had been searching to build their golf course.

Two major steps lay ahead. They had to pick a golf course architect and hire a public relations and advertising firm to promote and sell memberships. Ralph Plummer was selected to be the golf course architect to build the first eighteen holes called Cypress Creek. Demaret had worked with Plummer while building golf courses with John Bredemus in the mid 1920’s. They helped him build Memorial Park Golf Course, Hermann Park Golf Course, and Colonial Country Club, now known as Brae-Burn Country Club. Plummer would eventually finish the old Pine Forest and Westwood Country Clubs after Bredemus’ sudden death. In the thirty years that followed, Plummer had built more than 50 golf courses around the country, including Ben Hogan’s final stomping grounds, Shady Oaks in Ft. Worth.

They needed an aggressive advertising and public relations firm to handle the task of membership sales and turned to Weldon Weekley, and Jack Valenti to complete the job. Valenti would later go on to serve in the Johnson administration and president of the Motion Picture Association of America. One of Valenti’s historic contributions was giving ‘Champions’ its classic name.

Together with Weekley and Valenti, Burke and Demaret went to work creating the ‘seed’ money they’d need to start construction. They needed 500 members paying an initiation fee of $500 and $16 a month in dues, to get started. Sales started briskly, slowed briefly for a few harrowing weeks, then filled a few months later. Champions was on its way.

Construction had already begun with a great deal of assistance from both Burke and Demaret. They took an active role in assuring that the course met their stringent specifications – Demaret hitting hundreds of golf shots on various holes to get a better idea of how to build them, and both moving stakes and redirecting the ‘flow’ of the course to suit their needs. The three men made a great team. Once the mounding was in, you would find Burke and Demaret out on the course laying rope on the ground to strategically place the bunkers.

In June of 1958, more than a year from the day they first broke ground, Ralph Plummer turned Cypress Creek over to its new owners. In his own words, it was the masterpiece of all the work that he had accomplished in his lifetime. Nearly a year later, in April 1959, Champions officially opened and invited the general public to come see the facility for the first time.

More than 6,000 people responded, lured by the opportunity to see the likes of Bing Crosby, Mickey Mantle, Randolph Scott, Jim Garner, and a host of Tour professionals including Ben Hogan, Mike Souchak, Bob Rosburg, and Jay Hebert. As long as Demaret’s presence graced Champions, visiting celebrities and dignitaries were never far behind.

But the real genius in the master plan that Burke and Demaret developed was to build a golf club where golf and competition lay as its foundation. Care was taken in every detail, including the modest clubhouse and spacious locker rooms. Both men had seen the mistakes of other clubs around the country, making social activities or tennis equal that of the golf operation.

Even though the golf course was quite young, work began immediately in attracting major championships. By 1964, less than five years after their grand opening, Champions was selected to host its first world-class competition - the 1967 Ryder Cup. Shortly after that announcement, another monumental accolade was bestowed them. For only the third time in its seventy-year history, the USGA had chosen a site to conduct their Open Championship in the state of Texas. Champions was picked to host the 1969 U.S. Open.

Soon after that announcement, the Houston Golf Association requested Champions assistance in hosting their annual Tour event, The Houston Open, in 1966. It would be renamed The Champions International. Horrific weather that spring almost caused a complete cancellation of the event, but Arnold Palmer convinced his colleagues to come back in October and resume play. Despite a weather delay of nearly six months, the inaugural Champions International was played crowning Arnold Palmer its first champion. Palmer struck a spectacular six iron to within 12 feet of the cup on the 72nd hole, and holed his birdie putt for a one-stroke victory. I was one of many in the gallery that day that witnessed his dramatic finish.

The Ryder Cup went off without a hitch, and produced America’s largest margin of victory in Ryder Cup history. Once again, Palmer was in the thick of things with 5 points earned in three days of competition. Even though the Ryder Cup was nothing close to its present day’s popularity, with Ben Hogan’s captaincy and a team loaded with the Tour’s elite, Champions was unavoidably thrust into the national spotlight.

Palmer’s late bid to win his second U.S. Open died on the fifteen hole of the last round in 1969. He began the day with his fourth straight chip-in birdie on the first hole and charged within a shot of the lead with four holes to play.

However, his untimely three-putt after a brilliant recovery shot from the left trees took all the wind from his sails, and he finished a distant three shots back of eventual champion, Orville Moody. A Palmer victory would have done even more to elevate the stature of Champions, but it wasn’t meant to be. Moody would always remain a popular champion, but it would be his last and only victory on the PGA Tour.

With the conclusion of the Open, Burke and Demaret could focus more on their love of amateur golf. They hosted The Southern Amateur where Ben Crenshaw broke the all-time scoring record. The Champions Cup, a team best ball medal play event was likely the first local amateur tournament to be broadcast on live television. It continues to attract the nation’s best amateurs.

Burke always held amateurs first and foremost in his heart, knowing full well who was responsible for the health and growth of the sport. There would be an eighteen-year lull in professional competition at the club, but in 1990, the USGA returned once again to Champions, this time to determine its Amateur champion, John Harris. The USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur would follow eight years later crowning Virginia Derby