“The No.2 Wood”

Over the next four years, a semi-final loss at the PGA was his only performance of any note in the Majors, and it was felt that his time had been and gone. However, in 1939, a sixth place finish at the Masters indicated that his game was returning and he went into the 1939 US Open at the Philadelphia Country Club with renewed confidence. He played brilliantly, and birdied the final hole of regulation play to tie with Byron Nelson and Denny Shute. In the playoff, Wood looked to have the title won, but Nelson birdied the last to tie. With no sudden-death (and Shute eliminated), Wood and Nelson went out again the next day to play another 18. Unbelievably, his opponent produced yet another “shot heard around the world” at the fourth hole when Nelson holed a 210yd 1-iron for an eagle. Wood was shattered. He eventually lost by 3 shots, becoming the first man to lose all four Majors in playoffs, a dubious honour later matched by the Great White Shark.
Lesser players would never have recovered from this, but Wood came back the following year, 1940, and posted two top-10 finishes, finishing seventh at Augusta and fourth in the US Open at Canterbury. It set him up nicely for 1941, the year that wiped away all of the previous disappointments in style.