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A photo of Jerry Barber was on display during his induction ceremony into the SCGA Hall of Fame.
A photo of Jerry Barber was on display during his induction ceremony into the SCGA Hall of Fame.
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Jerry Barber didn’t play his first full season on the PGA Tour until he was 33, an age when most golfers have established their careers and some have already experienced their greatest achievements.

He played his final tour event in San Diego when he was 77, shot his age in the opening round and six shots better in the second.

In between, Barber left a lasting imprint on the game. He won seven times on the PGA Tour, including the 1961 PGA Championship. He played on two Ryder Cup teams and was playing captain in ’61, a season he was also named PGA Player of the Year. And he had a successful career on the Senior PGA Tour, even though he was well into his 60s by the time it was established.

Barber, along with longtime Los Verdes and Lakewood professional Len Kennett, was inducted into the Southern California Golf Association Hall of Fame on Oct. 25 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City.

Kennett, 89, has been instrumental in women’s and junior golf programs throughout his career and recently oversaw the 61st year of the Len Kennett Junior Golf Championship. Kennett was also one of the first individuals to open stores away from courses at which golfers could buy discounted top-of-the-line equipment. Previously, pro-line equipment had been available only at pro shops.

Barber’s greatest lasting influence probably came from the hard-working, principled example he set throughout his life.  And he passed on what he considered an unmatched love of golf to his children, who in turn have passed that passion on to the next generation.

“A fellow once said he loved the game more than anyone,” said Tom Barber, Jerry’s son and head professional at Griffith Park, as his father was for almost three decades. “My dad said, ‘More than anyone? I don’t think so.’ I don’t believe anyone loved the game more than Dad did.”

Tom spoke from experience. He was 9 in 1952 when he spent the first of nine summers with his father on tour. They traveled by car from tour stop to tour stop. Tom listened intently to stories and got to meet national figures most other kids saw only in newspapers, such as Babe Didrickson, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer.

“It was like nothing I could possibly imagine,” he said. “I was on the ground floor as the tour was really forming. I spent most of my time on the putting green, in the swimming pool, following Dad around the course. It was second to nothing.”

Tom also saw firsthand the kind of dedication it took for his father, who was only 5-feet-5 and about 138 pounds, to remain competitive on tour.

“My dad said to me while we were driving down the highway one time, ‘They may be able to beat me, but nobody will outwork me.”

He remembered caddying for his father in the 1959 Southern California PGA Championship, which his father won. They would arrive at Recreation Park Golf course and Jerry practiced before his first round of the day, practiced afterward, played another round and practiced again until dark. He wore his 16-year-old son out.

“I never made it to the freeway awake on the drives home that week,” Tom said.

Barber’s commitment to practice, particularly on his short game, paid off. His PGA Championship title came after he sank putts of 20, 40 and 52 feet in the last three holes to force a playoff with Don January. He set a scoring record in winning the 1960 Tournament of Champions that stood for 28 years. Sam Snead said Barber was the best player he’d ever seen from 100 yards and in.

His relentless practice philosophy carried over into his teaching as well.

Tom’s son Jeff is director of instruction at Tregnan Golf Academy at Griffith Park. He fondly remembered practicing sand shots and Jerry telling him after each progressively better shot to do it again. He eventually hit one to about 1 1/2 feet

“My grandfather said, ‘That’s it. I’ll be back in about five hours and you better still be here.’”

Barber was one of the first players on tour who incorporated a strict physical workout and diet regimen into his routine. He ran, worked with weights to specifically develop muscles to benefit his game, ate an exceedingly healthy diet and didn’t drink or smoke. He became a close friend of early fitness guru Jack LaLanne and helped develop a device that attached to a door to improve strength and flexibility.

“My father knew he’d have to be physically fit to compete with guys who were outdriving him. He was a fitness nut,” Tom said.

Jerry Barber knew that golf wasn’t always a fair game, and disappointment was a big part of it. In the 1950 Los Angeles Open at Riviera,  Barber, playing early in rainy weather, finished his round with a 10-shot lead. But when conditions deteriorated as the day progressed, play was halted. Rules at the time called for a complete washout of the day’s scores, which meant Barber would have to replay his third round.

After the round, Tom said, Barber returned home and told his wife Lucile, “Don’t get upset, honey; they’re probably going to wash this out.”

They did, and Barber caught a miserable cold before resuming.  “He was so sick, he didn’t even recognize my mother in the gallery the last two rounds,” Tom said. “He never told anyone.” Snead would eventually beat Ben Hogan in a playoff to win the tournament.

“My father never made excuses,” Tom said. “You could never tell if he shot a 61 or an 81; he just believed every day you should try to improve on what you did the day before.”

Barber’s final full year on tour was 1963. He restricted his traveling after learning his wife had contracted cancer and began his longstanding relationship with Griffith Park in 1965. Lucile died in 1968.

Barber had a strong sense of what he considered right and wrong and acted accordingly. He signed Charlie Sifford’s application to the PGA, which had a Caucasians-only clause in its bylaws until 1961. Sifford would become the first African American to win a PGA Tour event.

Barber’s PGA Championship victory gave him a lifetime exemption on the PGA Tour, but the senior tour operated under different rules, and he eventually lost his exemption.

“He thought it was unfair that the exemption on the PGA Tour did not extend to the senior tour. He thought the guys who had helped set up the game should be able to benefit a little from it.”

So in 1994, at age 77, Barber played in the Buick Open in San Diego and the L.A. Open on his PGA Tour exemption.

“Dad said he was making a statement about how some of the older players had gotten pushed out of making some of the money that was now available,” Tom said. “He knew some people were upset, and there were some negative stories, but he didn’t care. It was important to him.”

Barber was 78 when he died Sept. 23, 1994, because of a faulty heart valve, the same problem Tom had had corrected only two years before. Jerry Barber died only a few months after his final two tour events.

“His doctor said my father’s body was 55 years old,” Tom said. “He said Dad would easily have lived to be 100.”