Five times a PGA Tour event has been decided after an eight-hole, sudden-death playoff. (Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum played 11 holes for the 1949 Motor City Open but were stopped by darkness and declared co-champions.) The first of the eight occasions was on March 28, 1965, when Dick Hart beat Phil Rodgers at the Azalea Open.
Anecdotes for March 27: Two months shy of turning 48, Sam Snead won the 1960 De Soto Open Invitational. It was his 80th of 82 PGA Tour victories, still the most anyone has won in tour history...In 1968, the PGA announced that the PGA and U.S. Open winners would represent the U.S. in the World Cup...And in 1965, Gene Sarazen was announced as the recipient of the 1964 William D. Richardson Award for outstanding contributions for golf from the Golf Writers Association of America.
The all-time coleader in PGA Tour victories, Sam Snead, had one of his 82 when he won the Greater Greensboro Open at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., on March 26, 1950. He won the $2,000 first-place prize with rounds of 66-70-66-67—269. A record crowd for the winter tour that year of 17,000 was on hand.
One of the greatest “this day in golf” entries for any date is for March 25 in 1934. Horton Smith won the first Masters, shooting an even-par 72 in the final round, beating Craig Wood by a shot thanks to a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 17 (the eighth hole now). This is the only time the Masters finished in the month of March.
A pair of birthdays highlight today's date in golf: World Golf Hall of Famer Pat Bradley turns 71. One of the greatest winners and mentally tough competitors in golf, Bradley won 31 LPGA Tour events from 1976 to 1995. Her six majors include the 1981 U.S. Women’s Open. Also, the 2013 PGA champion Jason Dufner is 45.
On this date in 1911, amateur champion golfer Dick Chapman was born in Greenwich, Conn. Not well remembered today, Chapman was an international star, not only winning the U.S. Amateur in 1940 but the British Amateur in 1951 plus the amateur titles of France, Canada and Italy. He played on three U.S. Walker Cup teams, in 1947, 1951 and 1953.
Winter-weary golfers rejoice: Spring temps have to be showing up soon. Today's anecdote celebrates that annual golf rite of spring, the Masters. On March 22, 1934, eventual winner Horton Smith was a coleader with 70 after the first round of the inaugural Masters, then called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament. Tournament and course creator and huge fan favorite Bobby Jones shot 76.
The first Players Championship held at the TPC Stadium Course concluded on March 21, 1982. Jerry Pate won by two shots with a final-round, five-under-par 67 and then christened the event during the award ceremony by tossing both Commissioner Deane Beman and course architect Pete Dye into the lake alongside the 18th hole and jumping in himself. The finish of holes 16, 17 and 18 with water all around has become a mesmerizing classic to watch each year.
Harry Vardon, the legendary English great who won the Open Championship six times and has a method of holding the club named after him, among other things, died on this date in 1937, age 66. Also on this date, Cary Middlecoff won the Jacksonville (Fla.) Open at Hyde Park Golf Club in 1950. He shot a 69 the final day to win the $2,000 first-place money. The World Golf Hall of Fame member won at least one tour event for 10 straight years from 1947 to 1956, and won 36 events overall.
Today's date holds great meaning for Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill/Arnold Palmer Invitational history. On March 19, 2004, he played his final round as a competitor in the tournament so dear to him, shooting 79 to miss the 36-hole cut. He had shot 88 in Round 1. In 1993, on another March 19, he shot 76 but still made the cut for the final time in the event. Also on this date, the great J.H. Taylor, five-time Open champion, was born on this day in 1871.
Today's date has great significance for Arnold Palmer's career. He began his final round as a player in the Bay Hill Invitational on March 18, 2004. He shot an 88 in Round 1. In another March 18 round, in 1993, Arnie fared better when he scored 73 in Round 1, made the cut and tied for 71st. That was the last year he made the cut at Bay Hill.
The big event on this day—in perpetuity—is that the incomparable Bobby Jones was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1902. The Grand Slam champion is also well known for being founder of Augusta National and the Masters.
On this date in 2001, Annika Sorenstam shot the only 59 in LPGA history in the second round of the Standard Register Ping, held at Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix. And three-time U.S. Women’s Open winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member Hollis Stacy turns 68 today.
A couple of non-March 15 dates but still March in the life of Arnold Palmer: On March 20, 1948, playing in his first tour event at age 18, he missed the cut after rounds of 78-76--154 in the Greater Greensboro Open, which Lloyd Mangrum won. In March 1968, one of Arnie’s numerous books was published: The Arnold Palmer Method, a 235-page instructional paperback from the Dell Publishing Company.
The pre-Bay Hill version of the Arnold Palmer Invitational was the Florida Citrus Invitational. Arnold Palmer won it on March 14, 1971, at Rio Pinar Country Club, by one shot over Julius Boros. It was the 59th of 62 tour victories for A.P. While in Florida, Palmer had played at Bay Hill with Vice President Spiro Agnew. Non-Arnie notes: Former major champion Bob Charles (82) has a birthday today; the late Bob Goalby and legendary teacher John Jacobs, who passed away on January 13, 2017, were born on this day, Jacobs in 1925.
On this date in 1960, Arnold Palmer won his third straight event, the Pensacola Open, after shooting rounds of 68-65-73-67 for 273. It was his fourth win of the year; he had won the inaugural Palm Springs Desert Classic (aka The Hope, aka CareerBuilder Challenge) on February 7, the Texas Open on February 28, and the Baton Rouge Open on March 6 prior to Pensacola. His prize money for those three straight events totaled a “whopping” $6,800. Arnold finished fifth each of the next two weeks, took a week off, then won his second Masters on April 10.
Mickey Wright won 10 events in 1961, including on this date in the Miami Open at Miami Springs Country Club. She finished at three under par, six shots ahead of three second-place finishers, including Louise Suggs.
On this date in 1945, Byron Nelson's record streak of 11 victories in a row on the PGA Tour began with a win at the Miami 4-Ball Invitational team event with his frequent partner Harold (Jug) McSpaden.
Chandler Harper's full name was John Chandler Harper but the professional golfer born on this date in 1914 in Portsmouth, Virginia, had one of the greatest monikers for a pro golfer just as Chandler Harper. It befit the distinguished golf career he led in the 1940s and 1950s, topped by winning the PGA Championship in 1950. He won seven times on the PGA Tour and played in the Ryder Cup in 1955. Nicknamed "Old Bones," he died in Portsmouth on November 8, 2004, age 90.
On this date in golf in 1963, Arnold Palmer shot a third-round 69 in the Pensacola Open. He shot 67 in the final round to win the $3,500 first-place money. It was his third victory of 1963, having already won in Los Angeles and Phoenix.