Bill Wright, at age 23, became the first African-American to win a USGA event when he won the 1959 U.S. Public Links in Dennver.
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.
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.
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.
A couple of U.S. Women's Opens ended on this date. In 1985, unheralded Kathy Baker won at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey by three shots over Judy Clark, and in 1991, Meg Mallon won by two shots at hot Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth. She finished two strokes ahead of Pat Bradley.
The first U.S. Senior Women's Open began on July 12, with Amy Alcott shooting a four-over-par 77 to tie for 29th place after round 1. On this date in 1980, the regular Women's Open was concluding with far less drama. Alcott won at Richland Country Club in Nashville, Tenn., with a score of four under par. She went into the final round with an eight-shot lead, shot a one-over-par 72 and ended up winning by nine over Hollis Stacy. It was the second of back-to-back wins for Alcott, who had won the Mayflower Classic the previous week.
Salem (Mass.) Country Club, the Donald Ross-designed course, has had six national championships, the first being the 1932 U.S. Women's Amateur. It was followed by the 1954 Women's Open, 1977 Men's Senior Amateur, 1984 Women's Open, and the 2001 and 2017 Men's Senior Open. The '84 Women's Open began on July 12 and I recall attending the championship on the weekend with my wife. We had moved to the East Coast earlier in the year to work for Golf Digest, and in June had watched the men play the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. It was quite the introduction to National Open golf.
It took the sport of golf several decades to fully creep across the United States, from East Coast to West, which is why it wasn't until the dawn of golf's reign on TV that the first U.S. Golf Association event was held on a course off the U.S. mainland. The playing of the 1960 U.S. Amateur Public Links began on this date at Ala Wai Golf Course in Honolulu. Verne Callison of Sacramento, Calif., was the champion, handily defeating Tyler Caplin of East Lansing, Mich., 7 and 6.
Crowd control is a major part of a tour event's success. During U.S. Open week in 1922, which began on July 10, it was the first time an admission fee was charged. The venue was Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., and the fee was 1 dollar for a single-day admission and $5 for an all-week pass. If spectators were unhappy having to pay a fee, they could go away feeling they got their money's worth, though. Gene Sarazen, a bright star at age 20, was four behind going into the final round, shot 68 and beat John Black and Bobby Jones, another 20-year-old phenom, by a stroke.
Four men were one victory shy of Harry Vardon's record six Open Championship victories: J.H. Taylor, James Braid, Tom Watson and Peter Thomson, who is recognized today for winning his fifth and final major at the Open. On this date in 1965, Thomson won by two over Brian Huggett and Christy O'Connor Sr. at Royal Birkdale. Thomson died in 2018 after suffering from Parkinson's Disease in the last few years.
On this day in 1938, at Royal St. George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England, Reg Whitcombe survived in rough weather to win the Open Championship by two strokes over Jimmy Adams and three over defender Henry Cotton. The weather was even more diabolical than normal in 1938. The championship was supposed to be played in Deal at Royal Cinque Ports, but unusual high tides in February had damaged the course with flooding, forcing a switch to St. George's. The 36-hole final day was played in gale-force winds, which tore apart the exhibition tent. Whitcombe managed the mayhem the best, shooting 75-78.
In Arnold Palmer's first full PGA Tour season of 1955, he was getting hot with the weather. On July 7 of '55, he shot a 65 in the first round of the St. Paul Open, one of his best rounds as a rookie. He would add rounds of 67-70-71 to tie for third and win $1,300. Six weeks later, on his fifth tour event after St. Paul, Palmer would win for the first time on tour at the Canadian Open.
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!
Seven women have won back-to-back U.S. Open titles in its history under the USGA. One of them, Donna Caponi, did the second part of the feat on this date in 1970 at Muskogee (Okla.) Country Club. She finished the championship at one under par, a shot ahead of Sandra Haynie and Sandra Spuzich. The other six back-to-back winners were Mickey Wright (1958, 1959), Susie Berning (1972, 1973), Hollis Stacy (1977, 1978), Betsy King (1989, 1990), Annika Sorenstam (1995, 1996), and Karrie Webb (2000, 2001).
A past golf moment on Independence Day occurred in 1965 when Carol Mann, at age 24, won the U.S. Women's Open at Atlantic City Country Club in Northfield, N.J. She did it in grand style. Needing a par to win on the final hole in Round 4, she made a birdie instead and won by two over Kathy Cornelius, who had been the 1956 winner.
The first women's national intercollegiate golf championship was completed on this date in 1941, at the Ohio State University Golf Course, which had opened the year before. Eleanor Dudley of the University of Alabama beat 25 other players, winning the championship final, 4 and 2, over Ed Dell Wortz. The tournament was not played again until 1946 after World War II.
Just a week or so since a major champion was crowned at the Women's PGA, we go back in history to this date in 1967. Catherine Lacoste of France won the U.S. Women's Open by two shots over Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone at Virginia Hot Springs Golf & Tennis Club. Lacoste, 22, became the second foreign-born player and the youngest winner of the Women's Open at the time. She still is the only amateur to win the championship.
Mickey Wright, the greatest women's golfer of all-time, won her third U.S. Women's Open on this date in 1961. The San Diego native won at Baltusrol Golf Club by six shots over Betsy Rawls, shooting 72-80-69-72-293. Wright won another National Open in 1964 and won 82 LPGA Tour titles in her career.
Bobby Jones made history on this date in 1929 at Winged Foot. Jones tied Al Espinosa after 72 holes in the U.S. Open, despite a final-round 79, and the two played a 36-hole playoff on Sunday, June 30, but 18 holes was enough to show the better player. Jones shot 72-69-141 to Espinosa's 84-80-164 to win his third National Open.
Hawaiian legend Jackie Pung, who died in March 2017 at age 95, had an incredible career as a golf champion and ambassador but will foremost be known for the scoring mistake that took place on this date in 1957 in the U.S. Women's Open at Winged Foot. At the end of play, everyone thought Pung had beaten Betsy Rawls by a shot. But the wrong score was recorded on Pung's scorecard in the final round on the fourth hole by her fellow competitor, Betty Jameson, who had put down a 5 instead of the 6 she really had. The rules called for Pung to be disqualified for turning in a lower score on the fourth hole than she actually shot, and Rawls was declared the winner.