ESPN.com · Jul 27, 2016
The tragic life of Cyril Walker
Cyril Walker rose from obscurity to become U.S. Open champion in 1924 and then fell off the map of the golfing landscape.SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- It was raining on the night of Aug. 5, 1948, when a diminutive, disheveled man shuffled into a Hackensack, N.J., police station. The man had nothing left, nowhere else to go. He asked the sergeant, Ralph Pinot, if he could sleep in a prison cell to have shelter for the night. The sergeant obliged.
The man's name was Cyril Walker. He was the 1924 U.S. Open champion. The next morning, he was found dead, slumped over on a chair in that prison cell.
The official cause of death was listed as pleural pneumonia. He was 55 years old.