The 1928 PGA Championship ended on this date. It was the 11th playing. Leo Diegel defeated Al Espinosa, 6 and 5, at the Five Farms Course of the Baltimore Country Club in Lutherville, Maryland. It was the first of two consecutive PGA titles for Diegel.
The 12th Ryder Cup Match ended on this date in 1957 at Lindrick Golf Club in England. The Great Britain team, led by captain Dai Rees, defeated the American squad, 7½ to 4½, winning for the first time since 1933.
A couple of Open Championships finished on this date. In 1873 on the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotsman Tom Kidd defeated fellow Scot Jamie Anderson by one stroke. In 1878 at Prestwick, Anderson won his second of three straight by beating Bob Kirk by two strokes.
The 1884 and 1885 Open Championships ended on this date. In 1884, at Prestwick GC, Jack Simpson won in windy conditions by four strokes from fellow Scots Douglas Rolland and Willie Fernie. In 1885, Bob Martin won by one shot over Archie Simpson at the Old Course.
The 1876 Open Golf Championship, held at St Andrews, was played on this date, with Bob Martin ruled the champion golfer when fellow Scotsman Davie Strath refused to take part in a playoff after the two of them finished with a 176 total. The entire affair is worth reading in more detail from a golf history book.
The 1950 U.S. Women’s Open concluded on September 30 at Rolling Hills C.C., in Wichita, Kansas, so I’m taking the liberty of using it on October 1 to mention it. The USGA didn’t start conducting the Women’s Open until 1953, so the 1950 edition was run by the LPGA. Babe Zaharias tied the tournament scoring record, 291, to beat amateur Betsy Rawls by 9 shots.
The 1882 Open Championship, the 22nd Open, was held on this date at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. Bob Ferguson won for the third straight time, with a 171 total, by three strokes over Willie Fernie, who would win in 1883.
The 1879 Open Championship was the 19th Open, and was held on September 27 and 29 at the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. Jamie Anderson won by three strokes over Jamie Allan and Andrew Kirkaldy. The championship was held on the 27th, but the final day was the 29th when Allan and Kirkaldy had an 18-hole playoff to decide second- and third-place position, with Kirkaldy winning 91-92.
The 1921 PGA Championship was played from September 26 to October 1 at Inwood Country Club at Far Rockaway, New York, and won by Walter Hagen for the third time. He beat two-time champion Jim Barnes, 3 and 2, in the final.
On this day in 1930, golfer Bobby Jones completed his revered Grand Slam of winning four major championships in the same year. The four were the U.S. Open, The Open, and U.S. Amateur and The Amateur Championship. Jones was the first and only golfer in history to win the four big events of his time in the same calendar year. On this date he beat Gene Homans, 8 and 7, at the U.S. Amateur at Merion.
The 1861 Open Championship ended on this date at Prestwick Golf Club, Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the second Open Championship and had a field of 10 professionals and eight amateurs. The winner was Tom Morris, Sr., aka Old Tom, by four shots over Willie Park, Sr. with a score of 163.
The 1926 PGA Championship ended on this date, at Salisbury Golf Club on Long Island in East Meadow, New York, with Walter Hagen beating Leo Diegel, 5 and 3, in the final. The victory was Hagen’s third straight, fourth overall and he would eventually win five.
The 31st Ryder Cup Match ended on this date in 1995, with the European team beating the U.S. in a thriller, 14½-13½, at Oak Hill County Club in Rochester, N.Y. It was a stinging defeat for the Americans to lose on home turf.
The ninth Open Championship, played on this date in 1868, was won by Tom Morris, Jr., who shot a 154 at Prestwick Golf Club and was three shots ahead of his father, Tom Morris, Sr.
Willie Anderson won the 1905 and 11th U.S. Open on this date at the Myopia Hunt Club with a 314 score, two ahead of Alex Smith.
The 21st Ryder Cup Match ended on this date in 1975 at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The United States team won over Great Britain and Ireland, 21 to 11 points.
The 1981 Ryder Cup ended on this day at Walton Heath Golf Club in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, England, southwest of London, with the United States winning 18½ to 9½ points. It is the largest margin of victory by the U.S. over a European team (since 1979).
Clifford Ann Creed won the 1965 LPGA Visalia Golf Open on this date in California. She shot four under par and won by a stroke over Susie Maxwell.
The 1863 Open Championship was played on this date, with Willie Park Sr. winning by two shots over Tom Morris Sr., also known as Old Tom. Park shot 168 in three 12-hole rounds played in one day, beating out the field of 14 players at Prestwick Golf Club.
The third U.S. Open was held on this date in 1897. The 35 players played two rounds at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois. Joe Lloyd was the winner by a mere one shot over Willie Anderson, who would become a four-time winner.