Fred Corcoran

In addition to golf, his diverse career also included the world of baseball, boxing, hockey, football as he at one time managed the business affairs of Sam Snead, Ted Williams, Babe Zaharias, Stan Musial, Tony Lema, Ken Venturi, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Weiskopf and Pete Gogolak.

[2] Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Corcoran started in golf as a nine-year-old caddie at Belmont Country Club, carrying bags for Francis Ouimet and Alexa Stirling.

Among his innovations was the first tournament leaderboard that reflected birdies, pars and bogies, marked in different colored crayons, a method that caught on immediately and is used around the world today.

During World War II, Corcoran worked for the Red Cross and USO, staging golf exhibitions with the help of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and bringing sports shows to the troops with Lefty Gomez and Jack Sharkey.

Few disputed Corcoran's skills and worth, but budgets were tight and prize moneys low in the wake of the Great Depression, and professional golf in the USA was but a shadow of what it would become decades later.

He also managed the career of Babe Zaharias, entering her into the 1945 Los Angeles Open as the first woman to play a PGA Tour event.

In 1955, Corcoran took over the ailing Canada Cup, which traveled the globe to promote international goodwill through golf with team and individual championships.

In 1975, Corcoran was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the lifetime achievement category, and he won the William D. Richardson Award in 1960.