West Virginia's Denny Shute finally gets his due

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Mark Cubbage/WGHOF

Denny Shute garnered headlines around the country after winning the 1930 Los Angeles Open, considered one of the most significant tournaments of the day. This medal was given to Shute following that victory.

What will you remember about the '08 season? That was the simple question we asked PGATOUR.COM staffers and freelance contributors, who responded with a series of short essays that we will post during November (click here for the archive link).

Champagne Tony Lema. Bruce Edwards. Jeff Julian.

People always remember tragedies.

Had you ever heard of Mina, S.D. before Payne Stewart's plane crashed there in 1999?

My hometown, Huntington, W. Va., re-entered the nation's sporting consciousness again in 2006 when the movie "We Are Marshall" brought the horror of the 1970 Marshall football team's plane crash to the big screen.

I was, however, reminded earlier this year that it's not only the bad news that gets remembered. Huntington, W. Va. can now lay claim to two Hall of Fame golfers -- a fact many more prominent cities have yet to achieve.

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When the World Golf Hall of Fame announced this summer that Denny Shute had been selected via the Veteran's Category, all of West Virginia should have been rejoicing. Shute, one of golf's brightest stars of the 1930s, would take his rightful place alongside Huntington native Bill Campbell, one this country's finest amateur golfers and the only man to head both the USGA and The R&A.

Hermon Densmore Shute, known as Denny, was born in Ohio but learned to play golf in Huntington at an early age. His father, a former golf pro from England, settled in Huntington to take the same position at Cabell Country Club. When Shute was 30 months old his father fashioned a set of clubs for him.

"The advantages of this early beginning are simple," Franklin Porter wrote in the July 15, 1933 edition of The Bystander. "Golf becomes as natural as walking, talking, eating with a knife and fork. In Denny's case he began to play golf before he had mastered such two-syllable words as 'divot,' 'three-putt,' and 'dammit,' unmistakable in their importance to the golfer."

As a teenager, Shute proved Porter's point, winning his first West Virginia State Amateur Championship in 1923, then again in 1925. In 1927, he added the Ohio Amateur title to his growing list of accomplishments.

In an impressive 10-year span, beginning in 1929, Shute won three major championships -- the 1933 British Open and back-to-back PGA Championships in 1936 and 1937. He also claimed 13 additional professional titles (including one of the era's most significant in the Los Angeles Open) and competed on three Ryder Cup teams.

What impresses me the most about Shute's career is that it took 63 years -- and a guy named Tiger Woods -- for someone else to win back-to-back Wanamaker trophies.

So with pride I remind you of Denny Shute's career and his mark on a small town in West Virginia. His addition to the Hall of Fame is certainly no tragedy. Yet, he'll be remembered forever.

Joe Mossburg, a technical producer for PGATOUR.com and native of W. Va., hopes to one day be remembered in a similar light for his bass fishing skills.