Par for the course

Jack Burke Jr. loves golf so much that he hands out the official rules of the game like some people hand out business cards.

His friends and fellow professional golfers say Burke, who attended Rice prior to World War II, knows the game as well as anyone living today and better than many of the greats who have gone on to those big greens in the sky.

He is a legend in the game, having won 17 titles including the 1956 Masters and PGA Championship. That same year, he was named the PGA player of the year. He competed on five Ryder Cup teams and twice was team captain. With his friend and partner Jimmy Demaret, he created the famous Champions Golf Club in north Houston. In 2000, he was named to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Not a bad legacy for a guy who plays strictly by the rules.

Burke says he knows what it takes to be a winner, which is why he chose Rice University as the home for the Earl Elliott Humanities Scholarship Fund. The fund provides scholarships for Rice humanities undergraduates and was created this year by Champions Golf Club, the Houston Golf Association, and the PGA Tour, Inc. in memory of the late Earl Elliott, who died last year. Elliot was a Houston-area lawyer and an avid golfer who organized some of the most important golfing events in Houston’s golf history. He served as general chairman of the U.S. Open and the Tour Championships and as a committee member of the United States Golf Association for more than 25 years.

“Rice is one of the best schools in the whole United States,” says Burke, who was instrumental in establishing the scholarship. “I don’t know of a better place for the Earl Elliot scholarship to be. I wanted to do something for Earl that was permanent.”

“Jack Burke has a deep respect for excellence in all fields,” says Rice history professor Ira Gruber. “He sought to honor Elliott by supporting students who had demonstrated academic excellence at Rice.”

When Burke compliments Gruber, who is a member of the Champions Golf Club, it’s not for his academic achievements. “He has the correct feeling for the game,” Burke says. “He can explain it, and he knows the rules.”

Saying that someone knows the rules is probably one of the highest compliments Burke can offer. He is obsessed with and loves golf. On first meeting him, a visitor to Champions would probably find Burke intimidating just because of the sheer energy he exudes. Though well into his 70s, he acts like a man in his 20s. He knows the rules of golf like a priest knows the catechism. On a deeper level, his obsession with the rules of golf is a belief that rules, whether in the form of laws or traditions, are what make our society work.

“Only in games do you learn rules,” Burke says. “The only value games have is they keep civilization reasonably civilized, because there are rules to conduct games.”

Ask Burke what makes him a great golfer, and he will tell you, “knowing the rules.” Then he will hand you two pocket books, both of which are published by the United States Golf Association: The Rules of Golf and Decisions on the Rules of Golf. “This is like the law of the country,” Burke says, stabbing The Rules of Golf with his index finger. Decisions on the Rules of Golf, he says, is fascinating in its detail. Take rule 16-1a/7, for example, quoted from the 616-page Decisions: “A player removed with his hand an embedded acorn on his line of putt. The acorn was not solidly embedded, so it was a loose impediment. The player then repaired the depression in which the acorn lay.” According to the decision book, the repair is a violation of rule 16-1a, which covers damaged holes and procedures for players.

Burke’s passion for golf can be traced directly to his parents, from whom he learned the game as soon as he could handle a club. His mother, Quo Vadis Quayle, was raised in Fort Worth where she met Jack’s father, Jackie Burke, a golf pro from Philadelphia. The elder Burke played in the 1920 U.S. Open, finishing in a four-way tie for second just one stroke behind the winner Edward Ray. Later, the elder Burke moved his family to Houston to take a job as golf pro at the River Oaks Country Club, a position he held until he died in 1943.

Some of Burke’s earliest golfing memories are of playing golf with his mother at the River Oaks Country Club. He used a four-iron to whack a ball while she played. As an older boy during the Great Depression, he was not allowed in the club house, so he hung out with the caddies who taught him the essentials of the game.

His education in golf continued at home, too. During mealtimes, the elder Burke held court with some of the leading golf pros of the day. Frequent guests at the family table were men like Henry Picard, who won the 1938 Masters and the 1939 U.S. PGA; Craig Wood, a runner-up in five major championships before winning the Masters; Ben Hogan, who is known as one of the greatest golfers who ever lived; and Byron Nelson, who won five national championships.

It was at the table that Jack, the oldest of eight children, heard tales of golf and learned his father’s teaching style. “He was such a teacher that all these guys would come down to him,” Burke says of his father. “He would not say, ‘You should do this.’ He taught pretty much in parables, and he taught things that would last you throughout your career. I teach the same way.”

Burke Jr. is recognized as one of the greatest living golf teachers, and today, professional players like Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw, and Steve Elkington still turn to him for advice. In a World Golf Hall of Fame profile of Burke, fellow Hall of Famer Gary Player says, “Whenever anybody needed any help, we would go to Jackie and say, ‘Jackie, I’m struggling with my game,’ and he would help you kindly.”

As a young man hanging around the River Oaks Country Club pro shop, Burke met Jimmy Demaret, who also was later inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Along with some caddies, they would sneak out on the links, where they were forbidden to play, and practice. Their friendship grew through the years, and in 1957, they partnered to create Champions Golf Club in Houston with two courses, Cypress Creek and Jack Rabbit.

Despite Burke’s love for golf, his father discouraged him from playing professionally. For one thing, Burke’s hands were small, which limited the power of his swing, but Burke compensated by developing a good touch in his fingers and other skills, such as the ability to judge distance. So, undeterred by parental discouragement, he went professional and qualified for his first U.S. Open in 1941.

Burke also was a student at Rice in 1941 when World War II began. He left school to join the Marine Corps, where he served as a martial-arts and drill instructor. In 1946, after being mustered out of the service, he turned pro rather than return to school.

During the 1950s, Burke won the Vardon Trophy and competed on five Ryder Cup teams for which he was twice captain. “My business was the playing of the game,” he says about his pro years. “Judgment was a lot of it. The judgment of picking out a five-iron over a four-iron. I could judge the wind, the lines that I had. The minute I teed off, I started judgment on the next shot. I didn’t wait until I got to the ball.”

All of his skills came to play in 1956, when he won the Masters and PGA Championship and was named PGA Player of the Year. He is best known for his come-from-behind win in that year’s Masters tournament. Ken Venturi, a 24-year-old amateur, had an eight-stroke lead at 210 going into the final round. All the golfers faced a 50-mile-an-hour wind and blowing rain, and the scores were high that day. Just hitting the greens was a challenge. Burke was the only player to hit the 17th green. Even putting was a hurdle, because the rain made the grass slick. Burke tightened his putting stance and took smaller strokes using a technique he calls “tap putting.” On that 17th hole, he hit a 15-foot putt and claims the wind drove it half the way there. At the end of the day, he’d shot a 71 and took home the coveted green jacket worn only by the winners of the Masters.

Golf, Burke says, is a mental game that requires positive thinking. Being competitive and striving to be the best is a never-ending challenge for him. Every week he has to make changes and adjustments to his game. He plays four rounds of golf each week, each round taking five hours.

“I don’t have a coach,” Burke says. “I don’t exactly have Vincent Lombardi behind me to tell me what to do. I’ve got to be Vincent Lombardi and everything all in one man. I’ve got to coach myself, encourage myself, tell myself to keep going all day long. People ask, ‘Why do you keep going?’ And I say, ‘That’s all I’ve ever known.’ I was trained not to be so-so. I had to go where good was.”

For more information about the Earl Elliott Humanities Scholarship Fund, contact Jeanette Zey in the Office of Development at 713-348-4675 or jzey@rice.edu.

-Philip Montgomery