The World Golf Hall of Fame member Cary Middlecoff was born on this date in 1921 in Halls, Tennessee. A Masters and U.S. Open champion, “Doc” was a notorious slow player who tested everyone’s patience, but he was a bright man about the game and was faster in his post-pro career in doing TV work and consulting for Golf Digest. His knowledge was a great asset as a TV commentator and as a GD Instruction Panelist. Middlecoff trained to be a dentist but left his practice to play golf professionally. He won three majors, the 1949 and 1956 U.S. Open and 1955 Masters. At Golf Digest panel meetings, a staffer was assigned the task of keeping Doc well stocked with candy bars.
Ben Hogan’s score of 275 won the Los Angeles Open on this date in 1948. Lloyd Mangrum was four strokes behind at Riviera C.C. And Shaun Micheel won one PGA Tour event, but it was the 2003 PGA Championship, a major. He was born on January 5, 1969, in Orlando, Florida.
Marvin (Vinny) Giles was born on this date in 1943. He was a well-decorated career amateur who won the U.S. Amateur and Amateur Championship in the 1970s. He became a successful sports agent with his Pros Inc. agency. And one-time major winner and 13-time PGA Tour winner David Toms was born on this date in 1967 in Monroe, Louisiana. Toms won the 2001 PGA as well as the 2018 U.S. Senior Open.
On this date in 1981, Johnny Miller won golf’s first-ever 1-million dollar tournament in a playoff with Seve Ballesteros. It was known as the Million Dollar World Challenge at Sun City, South Africa. Also on this date in 1993, Mark Brooks won the Pebble Beach Invitational by five shots.
On this date in 1948, Ben Hogan shot a 68 to trail leader Jack Harden by one in the first round of the Los Angeles Open at Riviera Country Club. Hogan would win the event for the second year in a row. Also, one of America’s finest amateur golfers ever, Marvin (Bud) Ward, winner of the 1939 and 1941 U.S. Amateur, died on this date in 1968 at age 54.
On this date in 1965, Arnold Palmer served as the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses parade. With the theme of "Headlines in Flowers,” Arnie rode in the parade with his wife, Winnie, and daughters Peg and Amy. Also, one of golf history’s many one-hit wonders, Paul Lawrie, was born on this date in 1969 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Lawrie won the 1999 Open Championship and played in the 2012 Ryder Cup. Lastly, From CliffSchrock.com to its readers: Happy New Year! May 2025 bring all things good to you, especially health.
Six-time PGA Tour winner and 10-time winner on the Champions Tour, Bob Gilder, was born on this date in 1950 in Corvallis, Oregon. He was the 2001 Senior PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. And apologies, dear readers, but as a Packers fan, I pause from golf history to note that on today’s date in 1967, the famous Ice Bowl was played at Green Bay. The Packers defeated Dallas, 21-17, in temperature of 13 below zero in the NFL Championship game, which allowed Green Bay to play in Super Bowl II.
Time marches on for everyone, but it seems shocking that Tiger Woods turns 49 on this date, born in 1975 in Cypress, California. The winner of 15 majors is stil trying to pass Sam Snead in career PGA Tour victories (they each have 82) and Jack Nicklaus in major championships (15 to 18).
The great American golf course architect Pete Dye was born on this date in 1925 in Urbana, Ohio. The creator of bulkhead bunkers and greens, Dye’s TPC Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is likely his most well known design. He was one of the notable golf deaths in 2020 when he died on January 9.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Hubert Green was born on this date in 1946 in Birmingham, Alabama. He won 19 PGA Tour events, including two majors. He died on June 19 of 2018 after a long struggle with throat cancer. Johnny Goodman, the last amateur to win one of the men’s four majors, was born on this date in 1909 in Omaha, Nebraska. Goodman won the 1933 U.S. Open and also won the 1937 U.S. Amateur.
One of the finest golfer/gentleman in the game was born on this date in 1933. Dave Marr was born in Houston and had a proficient golf career that included winning the 1965 PGA, captaining the U.S. Ryder Cup team to victory in 1981 and becoming one of the finest — if not the finest — TV golf analysts, mainly working for ABC alongside Jim McKay. He passed away in 1997 at age 63. Also, four-time PGA Tour winner Charley Hoffman was born on this date in 1976.
On this date in 1993, Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus and Chi Chi Rodriguez, representing the Senior PGA Tour, won the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge in the televised final day on ABC. The event actually played out on October 2 and 3 at Colleton River Plantation in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but was replayed on December 25 and 26. The seniors defeated the LPGA Tour team of Nancy Lopez, Lauri Merten and Patty Sheehen and the PGA Tour team of Lee Janzen, Greg Norman and Paul Azinger. And for a second straight day, a history note is a golfer’s passing. On this date in 1916 , Scotsman Willie Smith, the winner of the 1899 U.S. Open, died at age 40 of pneumonia in Mexico City.
Until something more monumental occurs, this date in golf history will forever by remembered for the death of Young Tom Morris, died on Christmas Day 1875 at just age 24. A Scottish professional, he won the Open Championship four times and is seen as one of the first identified prodigies in golf history. After he won three titles in a row from 1868-1870, the championship belt was retired.
On this date in 1861, John Ball, Jr., was born in Hoylake of the UK. Ball was one of the most prolific amateur champions ever, winning the Amateur Championship eight times and the Open Championship once. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977. And one of the least likely major champions in golf died on this date in 2003 at age 89. Herman Keiser won the 1946 Masters by one shot over Ben Hogan. Keiser won five times on tour, but was not seen as capable of winning a major, but he held off the immortal Hogan in one of golf’s major upsets of all-time.
Herman Barron, who won the PGA Senior Championship in its quiet pre-Senior Tour days in 1963, was born on this date in 1909 in Port Chester, New York. His other “claim to fame” was winning the 1942 Western Open and thereby becoming the first Jewish golfer to win a PGA Tour event. He won four tour events in all and had top-10 finishes in the U.S. Open and PGA. Barron was a member of the 1947 Ryder Cup team for the U.S. Also born on this date, in 1946, former Golf Digest Schools instructor and former CBS golf announcer Peter Kostis.
On this date in 1894, the United States Golf Association was formed in New York. The USGA would begin its championships the following year, the first U.S. Open being held at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. Happy 130th birthday to the United States Golf Association.
Walter Hagen, the winner of 11 major championships and the all-time grandest bon vivant of golf, was born on this date in 1892 in Rochester, New York. And on this date in 1985, Alice Miller and the laconic one, Don January, won the Mazda Champions at 17 under par, beating Pat Bradley and Lee Elder in a playoff at Tryall Golf Club in Jamaica.
On this date in 1987, Nancy Lopez and Miller Barber finished at 12 under par to win the Mazda Golf Champions event in Jamaica at the Tryall Golf and Beach Club. They finished three shots ahead of Colleen Walker and Arnold Palmer. And Hannah Green, the Women’s PGA Championship winner of 2019, was born on this date in 1996 in Perth, Western Australia. She won two LPGA events in 2019, the other being the Cambia Portland Classic.
On this date in 1993, Larry Mize won the Johnnie Walker World Championship of Golf in demonstrative fashion, winning by 10 shots over Fred Couples. Marino Parascenzo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette began his final-day game story from Montego Bay, Jamaica, with this: “Larry Mize just flat killed the Johnnie Walker World Championship of Golf yesterday. He shot a closing 65 for a staggering 18-under-par 266. That gave him a 10-stroke victory over Fred Couples and his futile dynamite finish, a nine-birdie 64. Mize, with this third win of the year, won $550,000 out of the $2.7 million purse, the biggest payday of his life, and it put him over $1.3 million for the year.”
On this date in 1971, the iconic golfer Bobby Jones died from the effects of syringomyelia at 69 years old. The Georgia native passed away into immortality as the greatest amateur golfer ever and the winner of 13 major championships, including the 1930 Grand Slam, and the originator of the Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament. Also on this date in 1994, Greg Norman, Fred Couples and Paul Azinger from the PGA Tour won the Wendy's 3-Tour Golf Challenge at the Jack Nicklaus Resort Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California. They had a final total of 10 under par.