It's no secret that I've got a soft spot for guys that have won the Canadian Open.  Leo Diegel, Sam Snead and Tommy Armour immediately spring to mind.  I also love unsung heroes of the golf world.  I wrote a lot about a bunch of them in the original Sevam1 Blogspot blog.  There are still a bunch of fellas and maybe even some gals that I still would like to write a bit about.  Today I want to talk about the late great and totally unheralded Ted Kroll.

Ted is interesting to me mainly because I have heard him mentioned so frequently and fondly by Mr. Burke.  He fought in WWII in which he was wounded 4 times earning 3 Purple Hearts.

On the course, Kroll never won a major but he played in 3 Ryder Cups and he won 8 times on Tour.  In his 19 years on Tour Kroll came in the top 10 in 11 majors, had 128 Top 10 finishes and came runner up 20 times.  In short, this guy had some game.

1956 was Mr. Burke's biggest year on Tour.  Incidently it was also a big one for his good friend Ted Kroll who won the Tucson Open, Houston Open and The World Golf Championship that year.  He came runner up to Mr. Burke in the PGA Championship that year, 4th in the US Open behind winner Cary Middlecoff, Julius Boros and Ben Hogan.

His 1962 win over Charlie Sifford at the 1962 Canadian Open was his final victory on the big tour and the round of 60 that he shot at the 1954 Texas Open was not bettered until Al Geiberger's 59 in 1977.

There is not a lot of swing video of Ted Kroll online but below is some great footage of Mr. Burke speaking about him along with Lloyd Mangrum and at about  the 2:37 mark of the 1953 Ryder Cup home movie footage below.

Enjoy,

Sevam1