On this date in 1979, Sam Snead set the record for the oldest player to make a cut in a major championship when he did so at age 67 years, 2 months and 7 days at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club. And Omar Uresti was born on this date in 1968, making him 58, if you can count your decades easily. Uresti typifies the journeyman aspect of PGA Tour life and now the Champions Tour, never a regular tour winner but somehow able to make a living by getting into as many tour events as possible. I got to see him first hand in July 2018 when I marshaled at the John Deere Classic on the 17th tee. He has a somewhat exaggerated backswing motion prior to hitting the ball, but it is obviously effective for him.
The second PGA Championship to be played at stroke play ended on this date in 1959. Bob Rosburg scorched Minneapolis Golf Club with a final-round 66, allowing him a one-shot victory over Doug Sanders and Jerry Barber, who would win the title two years later.
On this date in 2004, Peter Jacobson won the U.S. Senior Open at Bellerive Golf Club, west of St. Louis, by one shot over Hale Irwin, a Missouri native. And on this date in 1914, Lloyd Mangrum was born in Trenton, Texas. A decorated World War II Army veteran, Mangrum won 36 tour events including 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.
The 1961 PGA Championship was due to conclude on July 30 at Olympia Fields C.C. in Illinois, but Don January and Jerry Barber tied at 277, just three under par. January was four shots ahead with three to play in regulation but Barber was a putting fiend, making 120 feet of putts on those holes, for a par and two birdies, to force the playoff. Twice Barber trailed by two shots in the playoff, but he came on to shoot 67 and win by one stroke on this date.
On this date in 1995 the Senior Open Championship was won by Scottish free spirit Brian Barnes in a playoff over Bob Murphy of the U.S., at Royal Portrush G.C. And today's date marks the 2006 Senior Open victory by American Loren Roberts in a playoff over Eduardo Romero of Argentina.
On this date in 2007, Tom Watson made a double bogey on the final hole but still won the Senior Open for the third time in five years, by one shot over Stewart Ginn and Mark O’Meara at Muirfield. And diminutive Paul Runyan won his first of two PGA Championships on this date in 1934 when he defeated Craig Wood in 38 holes in the final at the Park Club of Buffalo, Williamsville, N.Y. At just 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds, Runyan gave up great length off the tee, but his prowess with fairway woods and his short game combined to be a great equalizer. And in another Senior Open result, this one at St. Andrews, Miguel Angel Jimenez won in 2018.
On this date in 1991, Jack Nicklaus shot a 65 to win an 18-hole playoff with Chi Chi Rodriguez in the 12th U.S. Senior Open at Oakland Hills Country Club’s South Course, winning by four shots. Nicklaus tied with Rodriguez at two-over-par 282 in regulation.
Jordan Spieth, the not-so-splendid wunderkind of golf, was born on this date in 1993 in Dallas, Texas. He won the U.S. Open and Masters in 2015, was second in the PGA that year, and won the 2017 Open Championship but hasn’t won a major since then. He has 13 PGA Tour victories in all but nothing since April 2022. Also, the 1954 PGA Championship, the 36th playing, ended on this date when Chick Harbert beat Walter Burkemo, 4 and 3, at Keller Golf Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The 1981 U.S. Women's Open was held at LaGrange Country Club, in a suburb of Chicago. It is noted for the great final-day battle between Pat Bradley and Beth Daniel, and for the ultimately failed effort by legendary Kathy Whitworth to win the major she never was able to win. Bradley birdied the final hole on this date after Daniel nearly eagled it, and that secured a nine-under-par total of 279 to win by one shot. Whitworth was third with 284 after taking a three-shot lead after 54 holes. But she shot 74 in the final round to Bradley's 66. Also, on this date in 1955, Doug Ford won the PGA Championship at Meadowbrook Country Club when he defeated Cary Middlecoff, 4 & 3, in the final. Ford won the other major of his career at the 1957 Masters.
The 1982 U.S. Women's Open was completed on this date at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California. Janet Alex (Anderson) shot a final-round 68 for 283 (−5) to finish six shots ahead of four runners-up, including Beth Daniel, Donna White, JoAnne Carner and Sandra Haynie. Carner led after 36 holes but shot 75-75 afterward to lose her advantage.
On this date, back-to-back PGA Championships concluded. In 1966 Al Geiberger won by four shots at Firestone Country Club, and in 1967, Don January won an 18 hole playoff with Don Massengale at Columbine Country Club, 69 to 71. January won the 49th PGA, played at Columbine in a suburb south of Denver. January won his lone major in an 18-hole playoff with Massengale, on the par-72 course; they had shot 281, seven under par, to finish regulation one shot ahead of Dan Sikes and Jack Nicklaus.
On this date in 1995, John Daly won the Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews, beating Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff. It was his second major victory. Two days earlier, two-time winner Arnold Palmer missed the cut in a final Open appearance. Also, Mark Calcavecchia won a playoff with Australians Greg Norman and Wayne Grady on this date in the 1989 Open Championship at Troon. It was the first time the championship used a four-hole aggregate playoff to determine the winner. The three had tied at 13-under 275. Calcavecchia handily won the playoff at two under; Grady was one over and Norman's score was an X.
Seve Ballesteros memorably ended Tom Watson's bid to win a third straight Open Championship on this date in 1984 when he birdied the 18th at the Old Course while Watson was making bogey on No. 17. It would have been Watson's sixth Open, to tie him with Harry Vardon for the most all-time. With a normal Watson putting round, he would have won that championship, but he struggled on the greens early on and couldn't get going with the putter, shooting a 73. Ballesteros shot 12-under 276, two ahead of Watson and Bernhard Langer.
Jack Nicklaus won his first of five PGA Championships on this date in 1963 on the Blue Course at the Dallas Athletic Club. The course played tough. Nicklaus won at five under par by two shots over Dave Ragan. With the huge Wanamaker trophy sitting in heat more than 100 degrees, Jack had to pick up the hot metal using a towel like a pair of oven mitts. Nicklaus won the long-drive contest on the eve of the first round with a drive more than 341 yards long.
Tom Watson put on a masterful performance in the 1980 Open Championship by shooting 13-under 271 at Muirfield, including a round of 69 on this date, and winning by four over second-place Lee Trevino. It was Watson’s third Open victory.
The PGA Championship moved to the month of May in 2019, but it has actually been all around the calendar for much of its history. On this date in 1964, Bobby Nichols won the 46th playing at Columbus Country Club in Ohio, leading wire-to-wire. His nine-under 271 total beat a pair of the biggest stars of all-time, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, the runners-up.
Bill Wright became the first African-American golfer to win a national championship when he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship on this date in 1959. He defeated Frank Campbell, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole final in Denver.
As the Open Ch. plays Round 2 at Royal Birkdale today, on this date in 1983, Tom Watson won his fifth Open Championship, at Birkdale, one shot ahead of Hale Irwin and Andy Bean. Watson blistered a 2-iron to the final green and two-putted for par. At age 33, and with five victories in eight years, it seemed a foregone conclusion Watson would catch and perhaps pass Harry Vardon’s record of six. But in every following chance for victory, something went wrong and a sixth title was never clinched. Also, on this date in 1958, the PGA Championship went a different direction than it had been going since 1916. The PGA began as a match-play event but switched to medal (stroke) beginning with the '58 playing. The transition had a quaint story line. The 1957 runner-up, Dow Finsterwald, was the first-round leader with a 67 at Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, Pa., by one shot over Jay Hebert, who was the brother of Lionel Hebert, who beat Finsterwald in the 1957 final. It gets better: "Finsty" hung in for the next two rounds then shot another 67 in Round 4 to win by two over Billy Casper.
One of the greatest and most confounding results in major championship history occurred on this date in 1938 when diminutive Paul Runyan defeated Sam Snead, 8 and 7, in the final of the PGA Championship at Shawnee Country Club. Runyan’s precise short game and fairway woods overcame Snead’s 30- to 40-yard driving advantage.Also, when the U.S. Women's Open Championship finished on July 16 in the past, one result was a runaway and the other a close battle. Betsy King won in 1989 at Indian Wood in Lake Orion, Mich., by four shots over Nancy Lopez, while in 1995, Annika Sorenstam won by one stroke over Meg Mallon at The Broadmoor.
On this date in 1961, after nearly winning the Open Championship in his first try in 1960, Arnold Palmer won the first of two straight Opens, at Royal Birkdale, by one shot over Dai Rees. Also, the U.S. Women's Open is not immune to the occasional out-of-the-blue winner that sometimes occurs in the men's Open. On this date in 1979, Jerilyn Britz was the women's winner at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. The Minnesota native was 36 and had turned pro just five years earlier. The victory, by two over Debbie Massey and Sandra Palmer, was Britz' first and she would win just one more tour event, the Mary Kay Classic the next year of 1980 when she beat defending champion Nancy Lopez in a playoff.