Golf Star Bobby Locke Dead at 69

South African Bobby Locke, a dominant international golfer in the late 1940s and ‘50s and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has died in a Johannesburg nursing home at the age of 69.

The South African Press Assn. said Locke died Monday night of meningitis, an inflammation of membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. He entered the nursing home Sunday and went into a coma, five days after presenting an award at a Johannesburg golfing banquet.

Locke won the British Open in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957, and took open titles in Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand and Egypt during his career. He won the South African Open nine times. In 1947, his first year on the U.S. circuit, he won four of his first six tournaments, finished second in the U.S. Open and was second in earnings.

Locke was remembered on the course for impeccable conduct and style of dress. Long after open-neck golf shirts and pastel trousers came into fashion, Locke continued to play in plus-four trousers that ended at the knee, a white dress shirt and a tie.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame at Pinehurst, N.C., in 1977.