📍Harrison, NY 10528, USA
1902 – 1920“I was born Eugenio Saraceni in February 1902 in Harrison, New York, in a two-family house in a working-class district, the son of Federico Saraceni, an Italian immigrant carpenter who had come to America hoping to make his fortune, and Adela. We were poor, and from a young age I worked at odd jobs, selling newspapers, picking fruit and lighting lamps, to help my family. At eight I began caddying at the Larchmont Country Club, and then at the Apawamis Club in nearby Rye, where the tips were better. In the caddie room I was number 99 and another boy, Ed Sullivan, later famous on television, was number 98. I loved the game and practised whenever I could. My father wanted me to follow him into carpentry and thought golf was a waste of time, and I left school after the sixth grade. During the First World War, when the family moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, I worked in a munitions factory and fell ill with pleurisy, and the doctors told me to find work outdoors. Golf was my answer. I took a job as an assistant professional at the Brooklawn Country Club, and changed my name to Gene Sarazen because I thought it sounded more like a golfer's name. At twenty I won the US Open and the PGA Championship, and in 1935 my double eagle at the Masters, the shot heard round the world, made the tournament famous. I was the first man to win all four major championships, and I invented the modern sand wedge.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today