This Day in Golf History: July 6

Summer's extra daylight was needed 87 years ago for the longest playoff in U.S. Open history when Billy Burke and George Von Elm tied after regulation on July 4, 1931, at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. This was the year after Bobby Jones had won the Grand Slam, and then retired from competition. When Burke and Von Elm played the 36-hole playoff on July 5, they ended in a 149-all tie. They played 36 more on July 6, and incredibly Von Elm shot 149 again, but this time Burke went just one shot better to win. So after 144 holes, the two were only separated by one stroke! Also on this date, in 1956, Australia’s Peter Thomson won his third straight Open Championship, at Royal Liverpool, by three shots over Flory Van Donck of Belgium. Thomson would win two more Opens.