Frederick J. Daly (11 October 1911 – 18 November 1990) was a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

, best known for winning

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...

at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake. Born in

Portrush Portrush () is a small seaside resort town on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It neighbours the resort of Portstewart in County Londonderry. The main part of the old town, including the Portrush railway station, railway stati ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

, he was the first Irishman from either side of the border to win the Open and the first to play in the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

. He remained the only Irish winner of the Open until

Pádraig Harrington Pádraig Peter Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three men's major golf championships, major championships: The Open Championship in 2 ...

won it in

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and the only Northern Irish

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winner until Graeme McDowell won the U.S. Open in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Early life

Daly was born in Causeway Street,

on 11 October 1911, the son of Daniel and Anne Daly. His father was a blacksmith. He was the youngest of their six children. He attended a Public Elementary School in Portrush.

Golf career

Daly was first at Mahee Island Golf Club from 1931 before moving to Lurgan Golf Club in 1934, staying there until 1939. He started competing in domestic Irish events in 1936. He competed in the Irish Open, where he missed the cut, and two weeks later, winning the Ulster Professional Championship, beating Ernie Patterson in the final. At the end of the season he was selected to play for Ireland in their annual match against Scotland. He halved his foursomes match and lost in the singles but Ireland won the match convincingly. Daly represented Ireland in the Triangular Professional Tournament in 1937 and Llandudno International Golf Trophy in 1938. In early 1939 he moved to the City of Derry Golf Club. Later in 1939 Daly was runner-up in the Irish Professional Championship and fifth in the Irish Open, the leading Irish player. Domestic Irish events continued during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and Daly won both the Ulster Professional Championship and the Irish Professional Championship in 1940. In 1943 Daly was runner-up in the Irish Professional Championship behind Harry Bradshaw and he won the Ulster Championship again in 1941, 1943 and 1944. Daly moved from the City of Derry club to Balmoral Golf Club at the start of 1944. Immediately the war was over, Daly embarked on his tournament professional career. In September 1945 he travelled to Scotland, for the

Daily Mail Tournament The Daily Mail Tournament was a professional golf tournament played in the United Kingdom. The ''Daily Mail'' sponsored the St Andrews Tournament in 1919 and in 1920 continued their sponsorship with the start of the Daily Mail Tournament. The even ...

, played on the

Old Course at St Andrews The Old Course at St Andrews, also known as the Old Lady or the Grand Old Lady, is considered the oldest golf course in the world. It is a public course over common land in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, and is held in trust by the St Andrews Links ...

. Daly finished joint third behind Charlie Ward and could have been higher but for a 7 at the 14th hole of his final round. Daly played his first full season of tournament golf in 1946. The highlight of the season was winning the Irish Open at Portmarnock Golf Club, where he finished four ahead of Bobby Locke, becoming the first Irish winner. He was also fourth in the Spalding Tournament on the Old Course, winner of the Ulster Professional Championship, tied for 8th in the

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

, winner of the Irish Professional Championship, quarter-finalist in the

News of the World Match Play The British PGA Matchplay Championship was a match play golf tournament that began in 1903 and ran until 1979. Between 1903 and 1969, the event was sponsored by the now defunct British newspaper the '' News of the World'', and was commonly known ...

, tied for fifth in the Dunlop Masters and finished the season by winning the Irish Dunlop Tournament at the Castle Club in Dublin. 1947 was an exceptionally successful year for Daly. He became the first Irish winner of the

, the first Irish winner of the

and the first Irishman to play in the

. He was the first Irishman to win an important professional tournament in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. 1947 was a busy season on the British circuit with a number of new tournaments. Daly played in three events before the Open, finishing third in the

, tied for third in the Spalding Tournament and tied for seventh in the Manchester Evening Chronicle Tournament. The

was held at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake. After a first round 73, Daly scored 70, the best round of the day, to lead by four strokes. On the final morning Daly scored 78 and was in a four-way tie for the lead. Reg Horne set an early target, finishing on 294. Daly had played well on the back-9 until he took a double-bogey 6 at the 17th. Needing a par-4 at the last to tie with Horne, he holed a 10-yard putt to lead by one. The American amateur Frank Stranahan came to the last hole needing an eagle-2 to tie Daly. He nearly holed his second shot and finished tied with Horne for second place. The following week Daly defended his Irish Open title. He led after two rounds but had a disappointing final day and finished tied for 4th place. Daly returned to competitive golf in September, qualifying as the Northern Ireland representative for the final stages of the

. Daly won his early matches comfortably and then beat Henry Cotton in the semi-final and Flory Van Donck in the final to take the title. He was just the second player, after James Braid in 1905, to win the two most important British tournaments in the same year. Daly finished the British season by competing in the Dunlop Masters, where he finished tied for 9th. The 1947 Ryder Cup was held in early November in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. Daly was one of the first seven members of the British team announced by the selection committee in early September. The contest itself was very one-sided with the Americans winning 11–1. Daly was chosen for both the foursomes and singles but lost both matches heavily. 1948 was another successful season for Daly. He won three events, the Dunlop-Southport Tournament, the Penfold Tournament and the

. He was runner-up in the

, behind Henry Cotton, and was also runner-up in the R A Brand Tournament, the Daily Telegraph Foursomes Tournament and the Dunlop Masters. 1949 was a less successful season, although Daly won the Manchester Evening Chronicle Tournament in June and was a runner-up in the North British-Harrogate Tournament in late-July. He was again selected for the

, played at Ganton Golf Club in September. Britain won the foursomes matches 3–1, with Daly winning his match, but lost the singles 6–2 to lose a close match. Daly was in the last match in the singles, playing Lloyd Mangrum. Daly was 1-up after 10 holes of the afternoon round but then lost the next five holes to lose 4&3, with Mangrum scoring 3-2-4-3-4. Daly was 8 under-4s for the 33 holes in a low scoring match. Daly won three more British tournaments, the Lotus Tournament in 1950 and the Daks Tournament and the

in 1952. At the last-32 stage of the 1952 News of the World Match Play, Daly was involved in the longest sudden-death playoff recorded in a major British tournament, beating Alan Poulton at the 12th extra hole with a long putt for a birdie 3, the match taking over 5 hours. After a quick meal, Daly had to play his last-16 match against a young

Peter Alliss Peter Alliss (28 February 1931 – 5 December 2020) was an English professional golfer, television presenter, commentator, author and golf course designer. Following the death of Henry Longhurst in 1978, he was regarded by many as the "Voice o ...

, the match starting over two hours late. Daly reached the turn in 31 and beat Alliss 6&5 after an hour and 50 minutes. He continued his success in the Open, finishing 3rd in 1950, 4th in 1951 and 3rd in 1952. He played in the 1951 Ryder Cup at

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in early November. The British again lost heavily in America, 9½–2½, although Daly halved his singles match against Clayton Heafner after being 3 down at lunch. In September 1953, Daly reached the semi-final of the

, losing to Dai Rees. This, and his play in the trial matches, earned him a place in the 1953 Ryder Cup team at Wentworth. In the foursomes Daly and Harry Bradshaw were three up at lunch against Walter Burkemo and Cary Middlecoff but the Americans reduced the lead and Daly had to hole from 3 yards at the final hole to win the match. In his singles match against Ted Kroll, Daly was 6 up at lunch and eventually won 9&7 but the British team lost the match 6½–5½ after

and Bernard Hunt failed to win close matches. In 1955 Daly led by 6 strokes after three rounds of the five-round Dunlop Tournament at Wentworth. 36 holes were played on the final day. Daly scored 74 in the morning to retain a one shot lead from Eric Brown but took 77 in the afternoon to drop to third place behind

and Brown. Daly represented Ireland in the first two

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matches that they contested, in 1954 and 1955, playing with Harry Bradshaw. Christy O'Connor Snr replaced him from 1956. He also represented the British Isles in the first two Joy Cup matches in 1954 and 1955. After reaching 50, Daly played in the Teacher's Seniors Championship at Harrogate in 1962 where he was runner-up, 2 strokes behind Sam King. In the late 1960s, previous Open champions were exempted from qualifying and Daly took the opportunity to play in the Open five times between 1970 and 1976, missing the cut each time.

Death

Daly died at his Belfast home of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

at age 79. He left a wife and two children.

Honours

Daly was awarded the MBE in the

1984 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1984 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countri ...

for services to golf.

Tournament wins (28)

Important wins (10)

Other wins (18)

*1936 Ulster Professional Championship *1940 Irish Professional Championship, Ulster Professional Championship *1941 Ulster Professional Championship *1943 Ulster Professional Championship *1944 Ulster Professional Championship *1946 Irish Professional Championship, Ulster Professional Championship, Irish Dunlop Tournament *1951 Ulster Professional Championship *1952 Irish Professional Championship, Irish Dunlop Tournament *1954 Irish Dunlop Tournament *1955 Ulster Professional Championship *1956 Ulster Professional Championship, Irish Dunlop Tournament *1957 Ulster Professional Championship *1958 Ulster Professional Championship

Major championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

''Note: Daly only played in The Open Championship.''
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Team appearances

(representing Great Britain):

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

(representing Ireland):

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

, 1955 * Ireland–Scotland Professional Match (representing Ireland): 1936 (winners) * Triangular Professional Tournament (representing Ireland): 1937 * Llandudno International Golf Trophy (representing Ireland): 1938 * Joy Cup (representing the British Isles): 1954 (winners), 1955 (winners)

References

External links

Brief biography at Balmoral Golf Club siteDictionary of Ulster Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Fred Male golfers from Northern Ireland Winners of men's major golf championships Ryder Cup competitors for Europe Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Portrush 1911 births 1990 deaths