He was the “King of Swat” six decades before John Daly. Denver Country Club’s Johnny Rogers will be remembered, among other things, for a 380-yard drive he hit off the first tee on April 14, 1929.
Rogers was awesome, a Louisianan who began caddying at age 10 at East Lake in Atlanta, where he studied under Stewart Maiden, the famed teacher of Bobby Jones. Rogers then went off to World War I. After a tour with MacGregor in Dayton, he became assistant at Dayton Country Club, moved to Shanophen in Pennsylvania as head man, won the Pennsylvania Open, then played his first U.S. Open in 1920, the same year Jones debuted.
Johnny came to Denver Country Club in 1927, the same year he finished 16th in the U.S. Open, to have a brilliant career as player and teacher, one of Colorado’s great golf pioneers and legends.
Also in Colorado, Johnny won the Rocky Mountain Open in 1942.
