On this date in 1975, Jack Nicklaus won the PGA Championship for the fourth time, this time at Firestone Country Club by two strokes over Bruce Crampton, the solemn Australian who had a few runner-up finishes to Nicklaus in the majors.
Larry Nelson really loves August 9: In 1981 he won the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club by four strokes over Fuzzy Zoeller, and in 1987 won the PGA at PGA National in Palm Beach Florida in a playoff with Lanny Wadkins.
Steely-eyed Raymond Floyd won the 1982 PGA Championship on this date at Southern Hills Country Club by three shots over Lanny Wadkins. It was Floyd’s second PGA title.
On this date in 1960, emerging golf superstar Arnold Palmer won the Insurance City Open via a playoff with Bill Collins and Jack Fleck.
Like Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson didn’t win the PGA, which would have given them a career Grand Slam. On this date in 1978 at Oakmont Country Club, John Mahaffey rallied from seven shots back with 14 holes to play to tie Watson and Jerry Pate, and then he won on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Watson had been in control during regulation, but his perfect drive on 10 finished in a sand-filled divot hole and he ended up making double bogey, and he lost control of the outcome.
On this date in 1979, stoic Australian David Graham held off sentimental favorite Ben Crenshaw in a three-hole playoff at Oakland Hills Country Club to win the PGA Championship.
On this date in 1945, Lord Byron Nelson won the Canadian Open for his 11th straight victory on the PGA circuit. He won 18 for the entire season.
Sam Snead, the ageless one who played the greatest golf the latest in life, was 67 years, 2 months and 7 days when he set the record on this date in the 1979 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club to be the oldest player to make the cut in a major. Snead had won the PGA in 1942, 1949 and 1951.
On this date in 1959, the PGA Championship went to Bob Rosburg at Minneapolis Golf Club by just one shot over Doug Sanders and Jerry Barber.
On this date in 2004, Peter Jacobsen, who didn’t win one of the “regular” majors, won a big one at Bellerive Golf Club, the U.S. Senior Open, by one shot over Hale Irwin.
Diminutive Jerry Barber defeated Don January, 67-68, in an 18-hole playoff in 1961 at Olympia Fields Country Club to win the PGA Championship.
One of the great characters in Golf, Scotland’s Brian Barnes, won the 1995 Senior Open Championship on this date at Royal Portrush Golf Club in a playoff over American Bob Murphy.
The 3rd U.S. Senior Women’s Open will be held this weekend at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Connecticut. On this date in 1956, Kathy Cornelius won the regular U.S. Women’s Open, the fourth run by the USGA, at Northland Country Club with Kathy Cornelius winning over Barbara McIntire, an amateur, by seven shots in an 18-hole playoff.
On this date in 1987, England’s Laura Davies defeated American sentimental favorite JoAnne Carner and Japanese star Ayako Okamoto in a playoff to win the U.S. Women’s Open at Plainfield Country Club.
On this date in 2003, one of the most successful links players in golf history, Tom Watson, won the Senior Open Championship, taking down England’s Carl Mason in a playoff at Turnberry.
Yesterday Stephen Dodd of Wales won the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale. On this date in 2009, the U.S.’s Loren Roberts won the same championship for the second time, also at Sunningdale, earning it in a playoff with Mark McNulty and Fred Funk.
On this date in 1997, nine-time major champion and swing icon Ben Hogan died at the age of 84.
The Senior Open Championship is being competed this weekend at Sunningdale. On this date in 2005, Tom Watson won his second of three titles, at Royal Aberdeen, winning in a playoff with Des Smyth of Ireland.
On this date in 1995, John Daly won the Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, easily handling Italian Costantino Rocca by four shots in a four-hole playoff. Daly had 15 strokes on par-4 holes 1, 2, 17, 18 to Rocca’s 19. Two days earlier Arnold Palmer had made his final Open appearance. And this was the lone Open ever attended by website writer Cliff Schrock.
On this date in 1984, the iconic moment in Seve Ballesteros’ career took place at the Open Championship at St. Andrews when he birdied the 18th hole and won the title by two shots over Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer. Watson was trying for a third straight victory but left it out on the greens with an off putting day, and a bogey on the 17th after a good drive dashed his chances.