It’s one of the archetypal American dreams: Small-town boy grows up and finds a way to make it big in Hollywood.
Well, in a sense that was the real-life story of Eddie Merrins, one of the few significant sports ties between LSU and UCLA, who play Saturday in Tiger Stadium (2:30 p.m., ABC).
Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Merrins played golf at LSU in the 1950s and did so very well. He was NCAA runner-up in 1952 and led the Tigers to back-to-back Southeastern Conference team titles in 1953-54 by winning SEC individual champion honors. He went on to compete in more than 200 professional events, winning a pair of PGA Tour titles.
But being a teaching professional, not a touring pro, turned out to be Merrins’ true calling. In 1962, he became the head professional at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles after prior stints at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia and two other clubs in New York.
“The game of golf is a very selfish game in the sense that you’re the only one who gets any real enjoyment out of what you do,” Merrins once said. “But in teaching, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve helped somebody.”
Over the next five decades, Merrins became a teaching pro to the stars at Bel-Air. He instructed a “Who’s who” of celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, Jimmy Stewart, Hugh Grant, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Celine Dion, Ringo Starr, and NFL stars such as Tom Brady, Jerry Rice and Marcus Allen. Professional golf legends such as Ben Crenshaw, Ray Floyd, Vijay Singh, Tom Kite and Amy Alcott also sought out advice from the 5-foot-7 Merrins, who became known as “The Little Pro.”
There were countless others, including a fellow groomsman at a wedding who once asked him for a swing tip as the bride was walking toward the altar.
Merrins obliged.
“He said he was having problems with his balance,” Merrins later said. “What was I supposed to do?”
A train full of members from Merion and their families traveled to New York for Merrins’ marriage to his wife Lisa. It was indicative of the kind of affection “The Little Pro” engendered in people.
“He was always above the fray,” said David Reneker, a Bel-Air Country Club member who took lessons from Merrins, his friend. “He always had so much class and dignity and calmness.
“He had the perfect personality for a bunch of Type-A business and entertainment people. He was so revered and respected.”
Merrins’ most famous swing key? “Swing the handle, not the clubhead,” a reference to the proper way to produce a free-flowing swing by focusing on one key thought.
When he gave lessons, Merrins brought a tennis racket with him to the practice tee. The idea, his son Mason Merrins said, was to try to show students that the golf swing was similar to a two-handed tennis stroke, a more natural athletic motion to most people.
In addition to his duties at Bel-Air, Merrins served as golf coach at UCLA from 1975-89, with former U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin among his star players. Merrins’ 1988 Bruins won the NCAA championship.
“He loved teaching the young players,” Mason Merrins said. “It was his way to keep his competitive fire going.”
Though he spent more than six decades living and coaching in California, Merrins’ love of LSU never left him.
“He still would root for the Tigers until the day he left us,” said Mason Merrins, who figures his father would have leaned toward the Tigers over the Bruins on Saturday.
Today, Eddie Merrins’ name is enshrined in more than a dozen halls of fame, including those at LSU, UCLA and his home state of Mississippi.
Merrins died in Los Angeles in November at age 91. His legacy lives on, though, through a nonprofit organization known as Friends of Golf he started to benefit junior golf in Southern California. To date, the program has donated more than $10 million to junior golfers not only in California but also across the country.
A fundraising tournament for Friends of Golf, the first without Merrins, will be held at Bel-Air in October. A club where Merrins is still fondly remembered as a classic Southern gentleman, a man who would always conduct lessons in jacket, tie and Ben Hogan cap.
“Bel-Air had a lot of personalities,” Mason Merrins said. “New money. Old money. His style of being a Southern gentleman served him well in his long tenure at the club. He treated the top celebrities and the caddies just the same.”
It’s hard to think of a better epitaph than that.