Eddie Lowery
Encyclopedia
Caddy
In golf, a caddy is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives insightful advice and moral support. A good caddy is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the best strategy in playing it. This includes knowing overall yardage, pin...
, amateur golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
er, and businessman.
Lowery is best known as the 10-year-old caddy
Caddy
In golf, a caddy is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives insightful advice and moral support. A good caddy is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the best strategy in playing it. This includes knowing overall yardage, pin...
of Francis Ouimet
Francis Ouimet
Francis DeSales Ouimet was an American golfer, who is frequently referred to as the "father of amateur golf" in the United States. He won the 1913 U.S. Open, and was the first American elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews...
during the 1913 U.S. Open held at The Country Club
The Country Club
The Country Club, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest country club in the United States. It holds an important place in golf history, as it is one of the five charter clubs that founded the United States Golf Association, and has hosted numerous USGA tournaments including the...
in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
, which Ouimet won in a playoff over Harry Vardon
Harry Vardon
Harry Vardon was a Jersey professional golfer and member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. He won The Open Championship a record six times and also won the U.S. Open.-Biography:Vardon was born in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands...
and Ted Ray
Ted Ray (golfer)
Edward R. G. "Ted" Ray was a British professional golfer born on the Isle of Jersey. He won two major championships and contended in many others during the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:...
. An iconic photograph of Lowery and Ouimet striding down the fairway together is one of the most memorable in American golf history. It was used as the logo for the United States Golf Association
United States Golf Association
The United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...
's Centennial celebrations, appears on the cover of Mark Frost
Mark Frost
Mark Frost is an American novelist, television/film writer, director, who is best known as a writer for the TV show Hill Street Blues and co-creator of the show Twin Peaks.-Personal life:...
's account of the 1913 Open The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf and inspired a memorial statue in Brookline. Lowery was prominently featured in the 2005 film The Greatest Game Ever Played
The Greatest Game Ever Played
The Greatest Game Ever Played is a 2005 biographical sports film based on the early life of golf champion Francis Ouimet. The film was directed by Bill Paxton; Shia LaBeouf plays the role of Ouimet. It is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures...
, portrayed by actor Josh Flitter
Josh Flitter
Joshua Alexander "Josh" Flitter is an American actor. He is known for playing Corky in Nancy Drew, Eddie in The Greatest Game Ever Played, and voiced Rudy in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who!.-Life and career:...
.
Lowery and Ouimet remained life-long friends, and when Ouimet died in 1967, Lowery was one of the pallbearer
Pallbearer
A pall-bearer is one of several funeral participants who helps carry the casket of a deceased person from a religious or memorial service or viewing either directly to a cemetery or mausoleum, or to and from the hearse which carries the coffin....
s.
Biography
Lowery was the fifth child born in Newton, MassachusettsNewton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
to John and Maria Lowery (née Curran), who were Irish immigrants. He moved to San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and championed the rising amateur careers of Ken Venturi
Ken Venturi
Kenneth Venturi is an American former professional golfer and golf broadcaster.-Early years and amateur career:Venturi was born in San Francisco, California. He learned golf from an early age, and developed his game at Harding Park Golf Course and other public courses in the area...
(1964 U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
Champion), Harvie Ward
Harvie Ward
Edward Harvie Ward, Jr. was an American golfer best known for his amateur career. He is best known for winning both the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur....
(1955 & 1956 U.S. Amateur Champion), and Tony Lema
Tony Lema
Anthony David "Tony" Lema was an American professional golfer, who rose to fame in the beginning of golf's modern era, but had his young life and career cut short in an aircraft accident. His most prestigious victory was the 1964 British Open.-Biography:Lema was born in Oakland, California, to...
(1964 British Open
The Open Championship
The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
Champion), among others. Lowery played at Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park (San Francisco)
Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California, was dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln in 1909 and includes about of the northwestern corner of the San Francisco Peninsula....
in San Francisco. He died in 1984 in Riverside County, California
Riverside County, California
Riverside County is a county in the U.S. state of California. One of 58 California counties, it covers in the southern part of the state, and stretches from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the state border with Arizona. The county derives its name from the city of Riverside,...
.
He became a multi-millionaire as an auto dealer in San Francisco. Lowery and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
were friends and they both played in the 1951 British Amateur. He enjoyed sponsoring young amateur golfers, such as two of his employees: Venturi and Ward. In 1956, he arranged a match between these two amateurs and two golf pros, Ben Hogan
Ben Hogan
William Ben Hogan was an American golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game...
and Byron Nelson
Byron Nelson
John Byron Nelson, Jr. was an American PGA Tour golfer between 1935 and 1946.Nelson and two other well known golfers of the time, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, were born within seven months of each other in 1912...
, a friendly four-ball match at Cypress Point Club
Cypress Point Club
Cypress Point Club is a private golf club in California. The club has a single eighteen hole course, one of eight on the Monterey peninsula near Monterey, California. The course is well known around the world for its series of three holes that play along the Pacific Ocean: the 15th, 16th and 17th,...
. The amateurs played a strong game but the pros took the match, 1-up. Venturi years later told a newspaper, "It was the best golf I've ever seen." This match was chronicled in depth in Mark Frost
Mark Frost
Mark Frost is an American novelist, television/film writer, director, who is best known as a writer for the TV show Hill Street Blues and co-creator of the show Twin Peaks.-Personal life:...
's 2007 book The Match.
Lowery also served on the Executive Committee of the United States Golf Association
United States Golf Association
The United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...
. His sponsorship of Harvie Ward led to problems, because Lowery had claimed certain disallowable business expenses for tax write-offs, and Ward, who had trusted Lowery's USGA expertise, had his amateur status revoked in 1957, at a time when he had won the previous two consecutive U.S. Amateur titles.