Byron Nelson

Byron Nelson with the 1937
Masters Trophy

I am an avid golfer and a huge fan of professional golf, so to be flipping through an issue of Time magazine from 1937 and find a piece about legendary Byron Nelson was a great excitement to me. This issue of time was published April 12, 1937 just weeks after the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Even if you are not a golf fan you surely know the significance of this tournament, or at the very least have heard of it. The Masters is the first of four majors on the PGA tour, and winning any one of those tournaments was quite an accomplishment, but especially the Masters.

This particular year the young golfer from Texas, Byron Nelson came from behind to win the tournament by two stokes and seal his first major victory. During this tournament Nelson set the record for the lowest first-round score at 66, this record wouldn’t be broken until 1976. At the time Byron Nelson was known by some on the Professional tour, but he wasn’t a significant player in the field. But with this first major win Nelson put his name on the map. He went on to win four more major events, had two Ryder Cup appearances, and won 52 professional events in all. Anyone who is from the area also knows of a tournament that takes place right here in Fort Worth in early May, The Byron Nelson Championship. So for me to grab a completely random issue of time magazine and be flipping through the pages and find someone who is so relevant to my life and my interests was awesome.

Though this article may not be a stereotypical coming of age story I can definitely say that this was a coming of age experience of sorts for the young Byron Nelson. Winning the masters launched his career as a professional golfer to a whole new level and put his name on the map. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be in his position on that day. For me it would be an amazing experience to just set foot on the grounds of Augusta National, much less play in the tournament and then go on to win it. An event like that surely has to have some sort of significant impact on all aspects of your life, especially as an aspiring golfer. So in my opinion there is no question that this was a coming of age experience for young Byron Nelson.

What intrigued me most of all about the magazine as a whole was flipping though the pages and reading articles that I now know as history, using Byron Nelson as an example, I know that he went on to win four majors, and have a tournament named after him, but a the time none of the readers knew that. For all they new this was the first and only tournament he would ever win. I obviously understood this concept before I undertook this project, but actually looking over the materials as they were when published added a new dimension to this exercise. The publication as a whole was so very different that what I am used to seeing today. There are hand drawn ads depicting new products that everyone must have and pictures of people that only exist in history books today. All of these are so simple and plain compared to the vivid and sexy images in today’s publications. It is really like stepping back into a time machine and reliving history as it was actually happening.