On this date 74 years ago, the LPGA Tour played the first round of its inaugural tournament, the Tampa Open at Palma Ceia Country Club, a club founded in 1916. Polly Riley, an accomplished amateur from San Antonio, Texas, who played on six Curtis Cup teams, won with a score of 295, with Louise Suggs second, five shots back.
On this date in 1950, many newspaper editors were writing the headline "Sam Snead Spoils Storybook End for Ben Hogan" after Snead beat Hogan 72-76 in an 18-hole playoff to win the Los Angeles Open at par-71 Riviera. Hogan was attempting a comeback from his horrific car-bus highway accident in Texas in February 1949.
A couple of firsts occurred on this date. In 1937, Patty Berg won the inaugural LPGA Titleholders Championship at Augusta Country Club by three shots, and in 1916, Rodman Wanamaker organized a lunch meeting in New York City to discuss the formation of what became the PGA, showing that a lot of things can be accomplished over food. On April 10, 1916, the PGA was founded when 78 members ratified a constitution and bylaws, including 35 charter members from the January meeting. Six months later, it was tournament time. The association held its first PGA Championship on Oct. 10-14, 1916, at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y., won by Jim Barnes.
PGA Tour player Jimmy Walker observes his 45th birthday on this date. Born in Oklahoma City, Walker broke through with a major victory at the 2016 PGA Championship at soggy Baltusrol. He has five other tour victories, and is trying to get back to being a major contender after getting through the effects of lyme disease sickness during most of 2017. Walker is an incredible astrophotography enthusiast and posts his images for Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) as well as on his own website, www.darkskywalker.com.
One of golf history’s most surprising major winners, Y.E. Yang (Yang Yong-eun) of South Korea, was born on this date in 1972. He overcame the pressure of Tiger Woods breathing down his neck to win the 2009 PGA at Hazeltine. Also, prior to the PGA Senior Championship settling into its now familiar late spring date, it was held in January for several years. It finished on this date in consecutive years, 1948 and 1949, won by Charles McKenna and Marshall Crichton, respectively.
On this date in 1945, Byron Nelson won his first of a record 18 PGA Tour events in one season when he won the Phoenix Open and $1,333 first-place money. This was the year he also won a record 11 tournaments in a row and was given the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year Award.
World Golf Hall of Famer Mark O’Meara was born on this date in 1957 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. O’Meara had a special year in 1998 when he won both the Masters and Open Championship. He also won the 1979 U.S. Amateur. Also, by 1983, Arnold Palmer was closing in on 30 years on the PGA Tour and was 10 years past his final victory. On this date in '83, he shot what would be his best round of the year, a 66, in the first round of the Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open. He shot 69-68-72 the next three rounds for a 275 total and a tie for 10th.
On this date in 1997, new tour pro Tiger Woods won the Mercedes Championships, his third PGA Tour victory, in a playoff with Tom Lehman. On this date in 1969, pioneering African-American golfer Charlie Sifford won the Los Angeles Open to go with the 1967 Greater Hartford Open as his two PGA Tour victories. He also won the Long Beach Open, but it was not tour-sanctioned. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004 for his lifetime achievement as a player and fighter for civil rights and equal treatment.
One of the greatest putters of all-time, Ben Crenshaw, was born on this date in 1952 in Austin, Texas. Crenshaw won the Masters in 1984 and 1995 and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. And Arnold Palmer was golf's first millionaire, but on this date in 1970, Billy Casper became the second, just edging out Jack Nicklaus. The great Casper, then 38, defeated Hale Irwin in a one-hole playoff at Rancho Park, making a 5-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole. Irwin, 24, was trying to win for the first time and led by one with No. 18 to play. But his second shot hit a tree and he made bogey to fall into a tie. Casper started 1970 with $981,938 in 14 years on tour and won $20,000 for first place to go past a million.
He’s not well-known today among golf fans but Walter Travis was born on this date in 1862 in Australia. He was a jack of all trades, but his playing accomplishments included winning the 1904 British Amateur and the 1900, 1901 and 1903 U.S. Amateur. And reference sources note that on this date in both 1915 and 1942, the World Wars caused the ruling bodies of golf in Great Britain and Canada in 1915 and the U.S. Golf Association in 1942 to cancel their golf schedules as conflicts raged. Regular play wouldn't resume until the wars ended.
The Spanish boy wonder, Sergio Garcia, was born on this date in 1980, making him the ripe age of 44. At one time seen as a surefire multiple major winner, it took until 2017 for Garcia to break through and win a major at the Masters. He’s now part of the LIV golf tour. And I would be remiss if I, as a Packer fan, did not make note that today is also the birthday of the great Bart Starr, the Packers' iconic quarterback during the Vince Lombardi Era. Starr was born 90 years ago in Montgomery, Alabama; he died in 2019. Go Pack Go!
On this date in 1962, Jack Nicklaus won his first money as a professional on tour. The Los Angeles Open finished at Rancho Municipal, with Nicklaus in a tie for 50th, earning $33.33, on rounds totaling 289. The winner was Phil Rodgers with 268. Arnold Palmer had 283 for T-18. Whenever Nicklaus would comment on this first PGA event in the following years, he would joke he always wondered where the extra penny went. Because he was one of three players at 50th, with Billy Maxwell and Don Massengale, and they had to share $100 among them, one person got an extra penny. Nicklaus and Massengale each got $33.33; the $33.34 went to Maxwell.
On this date in 1938, the 1975 U.S. Open winner Lou Graham was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1983, Natalie Gulbis was born in Sacramento, California. Perceived as one of the LPGA’s glamour players, she famously broke through after six years as a pro by winning her lone victory, the 2007 Evian Masters. Graham was born on this date in 1938, putting him at the Big 8-5. The Nashville native was the improbable winner of the 1975 U.S. Open at Medinah, a topsy-turvy championship that had Tom Watson looking strong after 36, but had Graham tie John Mahaffey after 72 and winning an 18-hole playoff.
Three of America’s most accomplished golfers were born on this date. In 1921 it was three-time major winner Cary “Doc” Middlecoff in Halls, Tennessee; in 1957, Nancy Lopez was born in Torrance, California; she won 48 LPGA Tour titles and three majors; like Phil Mickelson, she was snakebit in the National Open. She finished runner-up four times. And in 1960, Paul Azinger, the 1993 PGA Champion and 12-time tour winner, was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
A major champion in professional golf was born on this date in 1969. Shaun Micheel, winner of the 2003 PGA Championship, was born in Orlando, Florida. He is that rare major winner whose only tour victory was the major. Also, Ken Venturi had yet to win a major when he won the Los Angeles Open on this date in 1959. He had won six times in two years when L.A. was played in 1959. He shot 63 in the final round to win by two shots over Art Wall.
A couple major birthdays are being held today. The 2001 PGA Championship winner David Toms, now mainly focused on the Champions Tour, was born on this date in 1967 in Monroe, Louisiana. He won the U.S. Senior Open in 2018. And one of America's finest amateur golfers was born on this date but you might not even be that familiar with him. Marvin (Vinny) Giles III was born Jan. 4, 1943. The 1966 University of Georgia graduate was a three-time All-American. Giles was second in the U.S. Amateur three times before finally winning in 1972. He also won the 1975 British Amateur. He was on four Walker Cup teams, was low amateur in the 1968 Masters and 1973 U.S. Open, and won the 2009 U.S. Senior Amateur. He went on to run a successful player-agent business.
U.S. golf pro Fred Haas, Jr., was born on this date in 1916 in Portland, Arkansas. Haas was a five-time PGA Tour winner but one of his lesser known claims to fame is that he was grouped with Arnold Palmer in Arnie’s second-ever PGA Tour event, the 1948 Dapper Dan Invitational at Alcoma Golf Club in Pittsburgh. We also know that PGA Tour events this time of year are played on the West Coast or Hawaii. On this date in 1988 and 1993, a couple journeymen won on the Monterey Peninsula. In 1988, Lennie Clements won the Spalding Invitational Pro-Am in a four-man playoff, and in 1993, Mark Brooks had an easier time of it, winning by five shots over Bob May in the Pebble Beach Invitational.
This week marks the return of the PGA Tour, with the usual first event of January, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, in Hawaii. But there was a time when the Los Angeles Open led things off. On this date in 1959, for instance, the first round of the L.A. Open was played. It was the fourth time Arnold Palmer had played L.A., and he would win there in 1963. In '59, he shot 72 and would tie for ninth. Two-time U.S. Amateur champion Marvin (Bud) Ward (in 1939 and 1941) died on this date in 1968 at age 54 after a cancer illness.
Happy New Year! May your golf game be a source of pleasure in 2024. On this date in 1938, the 14-club limit imposed by the Rules of Golf became effective. Up until then, players carried as many as they wanted. Caddies heaved a sigh of relief with their lighter loads. Also, Jerilyn Britz, the winner of the 1979 U.S. Women's Open, was born on this day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1943.
PGA and Champions Tour golfer Bob Gilder was born on this date in 1950 in Corvallis, Oregon. Gilder attended Arizona State and won six PGA Tour events. Also, the stymie rule officially died on this date in 1951. The rule called for balls to be played as they came to rest on the green; you couldn't mark the ball and pick it up. That meant that if a golfer's ball stopped between the hole and another player's ball, that player had "laid a stymie" and the "stymied" golfer had to putt around the ball or in some instances tried to chip over the ball to hole out. To see an example, there is old newsreel video on online search engines of Paul Runyan chipping over a stymie successfully on the green in his 1938 PGA Championship victory over Sam Snead.