Golf History

March 11, 1956, the LPGA Titleholders Championship was won at Augusta Country Club by Louise Suggs by one shot over Patty Berg. It was her third Titleholders victory.

 

March 3, 1920,  Julius Boros was born in Fairfield, Connecticut. He had a wide-ranging career at winning majors, the first in 1952 at the U.S. Open and second at the 1963 U.S. Open. He also won the 1968 PGA. The latter two he won at the expense of Arnold Palmer, who Boros sometimes called “my pigeon.”

February 25, 1957, Augusta National Golf Club announced it would institute a 36-hole cut for the low 40 and ties in the Masters.

 

February 24, 1976, Zach Johnson was born Iowa City. The Drake graduate has won two majors, the Masters in 2007 and Open Championship in 2015, and in his 12 PGA Tour victories he’s also won The Colonial twice.

 

February 3, 1876, Albert Spalding began a sporting goods company, with $800, manufacturing a golf ball among balls for several sports.

January 30, 1965, at its 71st annual meeting, in New York, the USGA approved changing the U.S. Open format to four daily 18-hole rounds instead of two days of 18 holes and a final day of 36.

 

January 13, 1978, Arnold Palmer shot a 68 in the second round of the Phoenix Open. He followed that with 71-67 in the next two rounds to finish fifth, a rare top-10 result for the legendary player who was five years past his last PGA Tour victory and was age 48.

 

January 7, 1963, Arnold Palmer shot a 66 and won the Los Angeles Open to earn $9,000. He shot rounds of 69-69-70-66—274.

December 16, 1960,  Arnold Palmer was honored by the Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce at Ligonier Valley Junior High School. And in 2012, Palmer played the Father-Son Challenge with grandson Will Wears; they shot 80-76 for 18th.

 

December 3, 1972, Jack Nicklaus won the Walt Disney World Open at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, the final tour event of the season. The $30,000 first-place money made him the first PGA Tour player to earn $300,000 for a season. Nicklaus, 32, was in his 11th tour season. He shot 68-68-67-6—267 and finished the year with $320,542.26.

 

December 1, 1939, one of the most talented shotmakers in golf history, Lee Trevino, was born in Dallas, Texas. Trevino won a pair of three majors each: U.S. Open, Open Championship and PGA and won 29 PGA Tour events in all.

November 14, 1888, the St. Andrews Golf Club, in Yonkers, New York, is believed to have opened, making it likely the first golf club in America. It had just six holes.

 

November 4, 1951, the 9th Ryder Cup ended at Pinehurst Resort’s No. 2 Course with the United States defeating Great Britain, 9½-2½, under the guidance of playing captain Sam Snead. Arthur Lacey was non-playing GB skipper. The format only had four foursomes matches on Day 1 and eight singles matches the second day.

October 29, 1985, the LPGA Tour defeated the Japanese LPGA, 19-17, at the Nichirei International at Tsukuba Country Club in Ibarangi, Japan.

 

October 25, 1999, one of the most shocking tragedies in golf history took place when three-time major champion Payne Stewart—who had more championships to be won at just age 42—died in a private plane crash when the plane’s occupants were deprived of oxygen in a structural failure.

 

October 22, 1967, Ryder Cup, ended  at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The United States enjoyed a record 15-point victory over Great Britain. Ben Hogan captained the U.S. squad to its final 23½-8½ margin.

 

October 16, 1983, the Ryder Cup, 25th playing, ended on this date at PGA National with the U.S. winning, 14½-13½. Bernard Gallacher's missed short putt on 17 losing to Tom Watson 2 & 1 ended up being the U.S.’s winning point, but also key was Lanny Wadkin's 18th-hole wedge shot that gave him a win on the hole and a halve of his match with Jose Maria Canizares.

 

October 2, 1876, The Open Golf Championship was held at St Andrews, with Bob Martin ruled the champion when fellow Scotsman Davie Strath refused to take part in a playoff after the two of them finished with a 176 total.  Strath decided against playing because of a dispute with the Royal & Ancient.

September 26, 2016, Arnold Palmer died at age 87. In addition to his seven majors, Palmer is one of the most memorable figures in team golf history and led the Ryder Cup in numerous statistical categories and was a two-time winning captain

 

September 23, a couple of Open Championships ended on this date in the 1800s. In 1868, at Prestwick, Young Tom Morris won the ninth Open by three shots over his father, Tom Morris, Sr., at just age 17 when he shot 154.  In 1892, at Muirfield, Harold Hilton also won by three over John Ball, Hugh Kirkaldy and Sandy Herd.

 

Septemeber 18, 1863, the Open Championship was played with Willie Park, Sr., winning by two shots over Tom Morris, Sr., also known as Old Tom. Park shot 168 in three 12-hole rounds played in one day, beating out the field of 14 players at Prestwick Golf Club. On this date in 1892, the winner of the 1924 U.S. Open, Cyril Walker, was born in Manchester, England. He came to the U.S. in 1914 and was working out of Englewood Country Club when he won the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. But he died destitute in 1948 in New Jersey at age 55.

 

September 16, 1953, 1976 U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate was born in Macon, Georgia. His victory came as a 22-year-old rookie with great promise for many more majors that never came, partly due to a subsequent shoulder injury.

August 29, 1908, the U.S. Open Championship ended at the Myopia Hunt Golf club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, when Fred McLeod defeated fellow Scot Willie Smith by six strokes in an 18-hole playoff. It was McLeod’s only major victory.

 

August 28, 1994, Tiger Woods, won his first of three straight U.S. Amateur titles. He won the 94th playing by coming back against Trip Kuehne and winning 2 up at the TPC Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

 

August 21, 1920, the third PGA Championship ended Jock Hutchison defeated Douglas Edgar 1-up at Flossmoor Country Club in Chicago in the 36-hole final.

 

August 19, 1984, At age 44, Lee Trevino showed he could still win a major when he held off Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins at Shoal Creek to win the PGA Championship. Trevino shot 69 in the final round and finished 15 under par. The victory was his sixth and final major and came 10 years after he'd won his first PGA.

 

August 13, On this date the PGA Championship was won by Justin Thomas in 2017 at Quail Hollow, by Steve Elkington in 1995 at Riviera, Payne Stewart won in 1989 at Kemper Lakes, and Gene Sarazen won in 1933 at Blue Mound.

 

August 9, 2018,  The 100th playing of the PGA Championship began at St. Louis at Bellerive Country Club. The first time the PGA  began on an August 9 was in 1973 at Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland. It ended in a milestone result: Jack Nicklaus won by four shots, and it was his 14th major, moving him ahead of Bobby Jones' total, which had been the record for 43 years.

August 1, 1914,  Lloyd Mangrum was born in Trenton, Texas. A decorated World War II Army veteran, Mangrum won 36 tour events and won the 1946 U.S. Open. He finished second twice at the Masters. His distinguished appearance, which made him look like the image of a riverboat gambler, made Mangrum quite notable. He was made a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1998.