On this date in 1973, Arnold Palmer won his final PGA Tour event, the Bob Hope Classic, with a two-shot victory over Jack Nicklaus. Arnold had scores of 71-66-69-68-69—343, and won $32,000. The courses were Bermuda Dunes/Host course (72, 6,778), Indian Wells (72, 6,500), La Quinta (72, 6,530), Tamarisk (72, 6,863), Palm Springs, California. Arnie’s first victory had been the 1944 Canadian Open. Also, Helen Hicks, one of the founding members of the LPGA Tour, was born on this date in 1911 in Cedarhurst, New York. Hicks’ main victories were the 1937 Western Open and 1940 Titleholders Championship. She died in 1974 at age 63.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Greg Norman was born on this date in 1955 in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. He won the Open Championship twice but perhaps is just as well known for the majors he didn’t nail down after being in a strong position, the most notable being the 1996 Masters.
Sandy Lyle, one of the Fab Five along with Ballesteros, Faldo, Langer and Woosnam out of the UK, was born on this date in 1958 in Shrewsbury in western England. He won two majors, the 1985 Open and 1988 Masters, and was the playing partner in 1986 to Jack Nicklaus during Jack’s final-round romp to victory in the Masters.
Australian star Jan Stephenson won 16 times on the LPGA Tour, the first coming on this date in 1976. She finished at two-over-par 218 in the Sarah Coventry Naples Classic on Lely Country Club to edge Judy Meister and Sandra Haynie by one shot.
This date carries a somber tone in golf history. Scottish golfer Freddie Tait, who won the Amateur Championship in 1896 and 1898, died in 1900 at age 30, a victim of the 2nd Boer War. LPGA cofounder and 1947 U.S. Open winner Betty Jameson died in 2009, age 89. And three-time major winner Billy Casper died in 2015 at age 83.
On this date 50 years ago astronaut Alan Shepard hit the most far-out golf shots in the history of the universe. He used a makeshift golf club that had a Wilson Staff 6-iron head on it and hit two balls on the moon surface during the Apollo 14 mission.
Two-time Masters winner José María Olazábal was born on this date in 1966 in Hondarribia, Spain. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, he won at Augusta in 1994 and 1999.
Byron Nelson, a member of one of America’s Big Three with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, was born on this date in 1912 in Waxahachie, Texas, a part of Dallas-Fort Worth. Lord Byron won five majors and in 1945 won a record 19 tournaments.
The 18th Senior PGA Championship ended on this date in Dunedin, Florida, with Al Watrous winning an 18-hole playoff 72-75 with Bob Stupple.
Today was a day of golf infamy. On February 2, 1949, Ben Hogan and wife Valerie were returning home from the Phoenix Open to Fort Worth when a bus hit their car head-on near Van Horn, Texas. Initial reports indicated Ben had died, but he survived only to require months of recovery from severe injuries. He came back to play professional golf again and ultimately win nine majors.
The 20th Senior PGA Championship finished on this date in 1959 at PGA National GC in Dunedin, Florida. The winner was Willie Goggin, using a borrowed set of woods, by one shot over three players, including major champions Paul Runyan and Denny Shute.
On this date in 2015, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko became the youngest male or female golfer to be ranked No. 1 in the world at age 17.
Two Hall of Fame golfers were born on this date two years apart: Curtis Strange, a two-time U.S. Open winner, in 1955 and Payne Stewart in 1957. Stewart also won two U.S. Opens and a PGA and notably passed away tragically in 1999 in a jet crash.
The oldest living major golf champion turns 98 today. Jack Burke Jr. was born on this date in 1923 in Fort Worth, Texas. Burke, cofounder of Champions Golf Club in Houston with Jimmy Demaret, won the Masters and PGA in 1956.
On this date in 1957, three-time major champion Nick Price was born in Durban, South Africa. A two-time PGA Championship winner, Price’s crowning moment was winning the 1994 Open Championship.
On this date in 1967, Arnold Palmer shot a 64 at Rancho Municipal, one of his best scores ever, in the second round of the Los Angles Open. He shot 67 and 68 the next two rounds to win and collect the $20,000 first-place prize money.
On this date in 1957, Arnold Palmer shot an 80 in the third round of the Thunderbird Invitational. It was a bad round surrounded by good ones. For the week he scored 71-69-80-68—288 and tied for 32nd and received a “whopping” $112.50.
This is the date that tradition says the St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland in 1764 reduced the number of golf holes for a round from 22 to 18, which is the number today.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Masashi (Jumbo) Ozaki was born on this date in 1947 in the Kaifu District, Tokushima, Japan. He won a record 94 Japan Tour tournaments.
Yani Tseng was born on this date in 1989 in Taiwan. No one’s light burned as bright as hers early on. She was the youngest to win five majors, in July 2011, at age 22 and a half. In March 2012 she won her 15th LPGA Tour event but she hasn’t won one since.