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Horton Smith (b. May 22, 1908, Springfield,
Missouri d. 1963) was an American golfer, who is
probably best known as the first man to win the
Masters Tournament.

==Tournament career==

Smith's turned professional in 1926 and won his
first tournament, the Oklahoma Open in 1928. In
1929 he won eight titles. This was an era of
expansion and reoganisation for professional golf.
The PGA Tour was founded in 1934, and Smith was
won of the leading players of the early years of
the tour, topping the money list in 1936. He
accumulated 32 PGA Tour titles in total, the last
of them in 1941. Smith's two major championships
both came at the Masters, the first at the
inaugural tournament in 1934 and the second in
1936. He played for the United States in the Ryder
Cup five times.

==Miscellanea==

*Rated as the finest chipped and putter of his era
by Byron Nelson. Co-author of a 1961 book, The
Secret of Holing Puts.
*Smith was the last man to defeat Bobby Jones in
match play before Jones retired in 1930.
*According to the World Golf Hall of Fame Smith
was the first man to use a sand wedge, although
the concave wedge he invented was later banned by
the USGA and superseded by a style introduced by
Gene Sarazen.
*Smith was inducted into the World Golf Hall of
Fame in 1990.
*President of the Professional Golfers'
Association of America 1952-1954
*The PGA of America annually grants the Horton
Smith Award to a PGA professional who has made
"outstanding and continuing contributions to PGA
education." 

==See also==

Golfers with most PGA Tour wins