James Douglas Edgar was an English professional golfer

Professional golfer

In golf the distinction between amateurs and professionals is rigorously maintained. An amateur who breaches the rules of amateur status may lose his or her amateur status. A golfer who has lost his or her amateur status may not play in amateur competitions until amateur status has been reinstated;...

 and golf writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

.

Edgar was born in Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He won the French Open in 1914. He coached the young player Tommy Armour

Tommy Armour

Thomas Dickson Armour was a Scottish-American professional golfer. He was nicknamed The Silver Scot.Armour was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at Fettes College and the University of Edinburgh....

, who became a prominent professional after 1920; Armour later praised Edgar as having helped him the most. The legendary Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon was a Jersey professional golfer and member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. He won The Open Championship a record six times and also won the U.S. Open.-Biography:Vardon was born in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands...

 stated that Edgar was on his way to becoming a player who could surpass everyone.

Edgar emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in April 1919, following World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. He was the head professional at Druid Hills Golf Club

Druid Hills Golf Club

The Druid Hills Golf Club is a private country club located on 740 Clifton Road, N.E., in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia.Founded in 1912, the club's facilities include golf, dining, tennis, fitness, and swimming. In 2003 the golf course underwent a major rehabilitation...

 in Atlanta. Edgar played frequently with the young Bobby Jones

Bobby Jones (golfer)

Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer, and a lawyer by profession. Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete on a national and international level...

 at the Atlanta Athletic Club

Atlanta Athletic Club

The Atlanta Athletic Club , founded in 1898, is a world-renowned private athletic club in Johns Creek, Georgia, a suburb 23 miles north of Atlanta. The original home of the club was a 10-story building located on Carnegie Way, and in 1904 a golf course was built on Atlanta's East Lake property...

 (the site of today's East Lake Golf Club

East Lake Golf Club

The East Lake Golf Club is located in the neighborhood of East Lake which is in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. East Lake Golf Club was the home club of the legendary golfer Bobby Jones. It is also the permanent home of The Tour Championship.-History:...

) from 1919-1921. He mentored and coached Jones during this period as well. Jones developed into one of the dominant golfers of the 1920s.

Edgar won the Canadian Open in 1919 at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club by a record 16 strokes (a winning margin which still stands for a PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 event), with Jones second, and came back the next year to win that title again. He lost the 1920 PGA Championship

1920 PGA Championship

-Bracket 2:-Bracket 3:-Bracket 4:-Final four:-External links:*...

, one of golf's majors, in a match play

Match play

Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; this is as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes...

 final to Jock Hutchison

Jock Hutchison

Jack Fowler "Jock" Hutchison was a Scottish-American professional golfer.Hutchison was born in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland but later moved to the United States and became a U.S. citizen in 1920. He won two major championships, the 1920 PGA Championship and the 1921 Open Championship at the St Andrews...

. During 1919-20, Edgar was among the top players in the world.

Edgar wrote a golf book entitled The Gate to Golf, based on his discoveries made in England. Edgar had an ailing hip which he could not turn freely. Through experimentation, he found that a restricted hip turn still allowed a repeatable swing with excellent power and control. This book proved to have significant impact on golf instruction, right up to the present time.

Edgar's death was mysterious. He was found late at night on an Atlanta street, bleeding heavily from a deep wound in his leg, and died in the street before any trained help could arrive. The case was turned over to police, but never solved. He left a wife and two children in England. In an article published in Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

in April 2010, writer Steve Eubanks wrote that Edgar was having an affair with a married Atlanta woman, and that this likely played a central role in Edgar's death. Eubanks' article was an excerpt from his book To Win and Die in Dixie, a biography of Edgar published later that year.

PGA Tour wins (3)

• 1919 Canadian Open
• 1920 Canadian Open, Southern Open

Results in major championships

Tournament	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921
U.S. Open U.S. Open (golf) The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	NT	NT	T21	T20	DNP
The Open Championship The Open Championship The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...	CUT	CUT	43	T50	DNP	T26	T38	T47	T20	T39	T14	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	DNP	T26
PGA Championship PGA Championship The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	NYF	DNP	NT	NT	QF	2	DNP

Note: The Masters Tournament was not founded until 1934.

NYF = Tournament not yet founded

NT = No tournament

DNP = Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut

R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match play

"T" indicates a tie for a place

Yellow background for top-10