Bobby Locke was too good to ignore and, some believed, too good to tolerate. A four-time Open Championship winner from South Africa, Locke arrived in the United States in 1947 and quickly established himself as one of the most dominant players on the PGA Tour. Within two years, however, his remarkable success had become entangled in a controversy that ended with the tour imposing a ban on him in 1949.

After winning the 1949 Open Championship in Britain, rather than immediately returning to the U.S. for the Inverness Four-Ball and Western Open, Locke stayed back in Europe to fix a putting issue.

The official dispute centered on Locke’s failure to honor tournament commitments. But the severity of the punishment raised eyebrows, particularly among those who believed American professionals were determined to protect their livelihoods from an increasingly dominant foreign challenger.

Locke’s record was difficult to argue with. He won 11 tournaments in fewer than three seasons in the United States, finished in the top four in 34 of his first 59 events and demolished the field by 16 strokes at the 1948 Chicago Victory National, a margin that remains a PGA Tour record. In an era when tournament prize money was relatively scarce, his success posed a direct threat to American players competing for the same rewards. His lucrative appearance fees only added to the resentment.

The circumstances fuelled suspicions that the disciplinary dispute was not the whole story. Claude Harmon, the 1948 Masters champion, was famously associated with the blunt assessment: “Locke was simply too good. They had to ban him.”

Whether jealousy drove the PGA’s decision remains a matter of debate. What followed, however, was unmistakably controversial. British writers condemned the punishment, and prominent American journalists, including Arthur Daley of The New York Times, questioned the treatment of the South African champion.

Authorities lifted the ban in 1950. Locke did not immediately return to America, choosing instead to wait until tournament promoter George S. May offered him a financial guarantee to compete at the Tam O’Shanter tournament in Chicago. Locke accepted the offer and promptly won, delivering a fitting response to the controversy that had interrupted his American career.

His greatness, meanwhile, extended far beyond the United States. Locke won the Open Championship in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957, alongside nine South African Open titles, six South African Professional Championship victories and numerous international tournaments. He recorded 15 PGA Tour victories and established himself as one of the most accomplished international golfers of his generation.

His putting was the defining feature of his game. Using an old gooseneck putter, Locke deliberately worked the ball from right to left, imparting heavy topspin and concentrating on speed rather than simply playing the apparent break. His touch became the stuff of golfing legend. Gary Player famously said that if his life depended on sinking a six-foot putt, he would choose Locke. Sam Snead also regarded him as the greatest putter he had ever seen.

Yet the story of a champion who seemed almost invincible on the greens ended in tragedy off the course.

In 1960, a horrific railway crossing accident left Locke with serious injuries, double vision, migraines and memory problems. His health deteriorated, his golfing career effectively ended, and alcohol problems and troubling incidents marked his later years. In one particularly serious episode, a dispute over payment for painting work ended with Locke shooting the painter, Big Boy Ndlovu, in the shoulder. Locke faced an attempted-murder charge.

He died in Johannesburg in March 1987, aged 69, after contracting meningitis. Thirteen years later, his wife, Mary, and daughter, Carolyn, died together in a suicide pact, bringing another devastating chapter to the family’s story.

Locke’s legacy remains inseparable from both his brilliance and the controversy surrounding his career. Historians may never conclusively determine the exact motives behind the 1949 ban, but its severity and the backlash it provoked guaranteed its place in golf history.

The PGA Tour could suspend Bobby Locke, but it could not diminish his achievements. A war veteran, a four-time major champion and one of the greatest putters the game has known, Locke remains a towering figure in international golf. His story also reminds us that sporting greatness offers no immunity from personal tragedy—and that the man behind the legend can be far more complicated than the record books suggest.