Ken Bousfield, who has died aged 80, was the first winner of the PGA Championship and his successes as a pioneering full-time tournament golf professional had an inspiring influence on the creation of the European Tour.
The toughness of his character as a war-time Royal Marine Commando was in strict contrast to the quiet, gentlemanly, soft-spoken nature he showed on the golf course, but the same inner courage and calmness under pressure helped make him a highly respected champion with victories spread over 25 years. He turned professional in 1938, being elected that year to the Professional Golfers’’ Association, and in 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the PGA.
Ken Bousfield, was born in Marston Moor, Yorkshire, on October 2, 1919. He launched his tournament golf career as the winner of the 1947 Assistants Championship at Coombe Hill, Surrey,the club to which he became attached for the whole of his career after joining as an assistant pro to Archie Compston in 1935. Dick Burton, who became the Coombe Hill Club professional, encouraged him to devote his life to tournaments rather than follow the then more fashionable route of running a shop. Ken was made an Honorary Member of Coombe Hill in 1959.
Short off the tee with a long, slow, fluid swing, remorselessly steady and accurate, and with a tremendous short game, Ken Bousfield’’s deceptive toughness guided his career to a peak in 1955 when he won the inaugural PGA Championship, at Pannal, the German Open, and the PGA Match Play Championship at Walton Heath where he beat the renowned head-to-head challenger Eric Brown in the final. He remains the only player to have won the PGA Championship and the PGA Match Play Championship in the same year.
He won no fewer than 19 titles, including the Belgian (1958), German (1955, 1959), Portuguese (1960, 1961) and Swiss (1958) Opens, and his enduring skill was seen again when winning the 1972 British Seniors PGA Championship.
Ken Bousfield’’s considerable feats included victory in the 90-hole Dunlop Tournament at Southport and Ainsdale in 1957. It was a gruelling test that called on all his Commando fitness. He scored 70,70,70,71,72 and never took more than five at any hole.
Ken Bousfield was selected for six Ryder Cup matches. He made a winning debut in 1949 when partnering Fred Daly to victory in the foursomes at Ganton, Scarborough, and in all he won five of his ten matches which was a remarkable record during a time when the United States dominated the Ryder Cup. He went out on a winning note by beating Jerry Barber at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1961.
One of the “old school” quite prepared to put his own money on the line, he partnered John Jacobs in 1956 to beat Harry Weetman and Arthur Lees in a highly publicised challenge match at the RAC, Epsom. The stakes amounted to £400 a head, then considered an enormous sum to risk.
In recent years his love for golf was kept alive through regular friendly matches with his close friend Max Faulkner, the 1951 Open Champion.
Neil Coles, Chairman of the PGA European Tour Board of Directors, said: “Ken was a lovely man with whom I played for many years at Coombe Hill and especially in Cancer Relief Exhibition matches. We have lost a player whose outstanding achievements will remain as testimony to his superb playing skills.”
Ken Schofield, Executive Director of the European Tour, said: “In Ken Bousfield’’s passing we lose a great player who bridged the generation now connected by the European Tour and indeed through the Volvo PGA Championship for which Ken set the standard of champions. He was a wonderful Ryder Cup player, a wonderful exponent of match-play which was epitomised by his record notably with his great friend Dai Rees. He was a quiet man with great dignity and his golf gave support to the statement that ‘if you are straight enough you are long enough’’.”
Ken Bousfield is survived by Dawn North, his partner of more than 30 years.
The family are holding a private cremation and have requested no letters or flowers.
