Tommy Armour (1895-1968) was the third of only nine golfers in history to win the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship, and became one of the greatest golf teachers of any generation.  While not achieving the ultimate measure of golfing greatness, he did, however, win the Western Open, an event then regarded as a major championship, as well as three Canadian Opens and 24 other events in the United States.  His success was considerable given the fact that he lost an eye during World War I.  Armour played the game with a conservative philosophy:  "It is not solely the capacity to make great shots that makes champions, but the essential quality of making very few bad shots."  When he won his first British Open at Carnoustie in 1931, famed golf writer Bernard Darwin said of his performance:  "I do not believe that (J.H.) Taylor or (Harry) Vardon at their best ever gave themselves so many possible putts for three with their iron shots as he does." Darwin once wrote. "His style is the perfection of rhythm and beauty." 

After he retired from competitive golf, Armour became one of the most successful instructors in the world. Based at Winged Foot in the summer and the Boca Raton Hotel in the winter, Armour taught both duffers and the world's best golfers, using the same philosophies and techniques that were part of his best-selling book, How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time.  His was the first golf book I ever read.

Armour was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.