March 2024

March 28, 2024, six times a PGA Tour event has been decided after an eight-hole, sudden-death playoff, the most holes it has taken to decide a winner. (Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum played 11 holes for the 1949 Motor City Open but were stopped by darkness and declared co-champions.) The first of the eight occasions was on March 28, 1965, when Dick Hart beat Phil Rodgers at the Azalea Open. Also on this date, in 1999, Dottie Pepper won the Nabisco Championship (now the ANA Inspiration) for a second time at Mission Hills CC, six strokes ahead of runner-up Meg Mallon.

 

March 25, 1934, the first Masters finished. Then called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, it was won by Horton Smith when he holed a 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole and finished one shot ahead of Craig Wood. That first year, the nines were reversed, and the 17th was today’s par-5 eighth hole. This is the only time the Masters finished in the month of March.

 

March 19, 1950, Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the U.S. Women’s Open (pre USGA run) at Rolling Hills Country Club by nine shots over Betsy Rawls.

 

March 18, 1951, amateur Pat O’Sullivan won the LPGA Titleholders Championship at Augusta C.C. by two shots over Beverly Hanson (also an amateur).

 

March 14, 1936, Bob Charles, 1963 Open Championship winner, was born in Carterton, New Zealand. He is in a select group of the greatest putters ever.

 

March 11, 1956, LPGA Tour’s Titleholders Championship of Women's Golf was won for the third time by Louise Suggs in a close contest with Patty Berg. She secured the win by one shot at Augusta Country Club.

 

March 5, 1956, Mickey Wright (PGA of America, Hall of Famer), got her first LPGA Tour victory on this date. Wright was ranked the 9th greatest golfer of all time and the top woman Golfer by Golf Digest Magazine in 2000.