Former NCAA champion golfer for the LSU Tigers, Freddie Haas, Jr., passed away Monday at the age of 88.
Haas had a long professional career after leaving LSU, but is most well known as the man who stopped legendary Byron Nelson’s 1945 record PGA Tour winning streak at 11.
He was an amateur participating in the Memphis Open, where he beat Nelson for the first of his five tour victories.
Haas grew up Dermott, Ark., and earned an athletic scholarship to Arkansas after winning two state titles in 1932 and 1933.
An uncle who happened to be in the state senate took Haas to play in the Louisiana state amateur tournament in Baton Rouge and the 17-year-old lost in the finals to Bobby Anderson, a freshman at LSU.
It happened that Huey Long was watching the finals. Long told Haas to forget about Arkansas and come build a national championship team at LSU.
Haas told LSU that the first thing the school needed was a golf course and Long asked him where.
“I saw a lot of cows grazing across the street from the stadium,” Haas said. “That would be a good place.”
“Son,” Long replied, “LSU is an Agricultural and Mechanical school. If I moved those cows, the farmers would be very upset.”
The school would eventually buy a local country club and then sell it back to Baton Rouge for $750,000 and many years later, built a golf course on the LSU campus — where Hass had seen the cows grazing in 1933.
In 1937, two years after Long’s death, after winning the SEC title, the national championship became a reality at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh as Haas beat teammate Paul Leslie for the individual title.
It was the first time two golfers from the same school reached the national finals.
Before turning pro, Haas won approximately 125 amateur tournaments and played on both Walker Cup and Ryder Cup teams. In 1966 he won both the PGA senior championship, besting Sam Sneed, and the world senior championship.
Haas was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Writers Hall of Fame in 1978.
Funeral arraignments are incomplete at this time.
Material for this story courtesy of the Louisiana Sports Writer Association.
