One of the author’s golf heroes is the man who shook the golf world: Francis Ouimet, born on this day in 1893 in Brookline, Mass. He won the U.S. Open in his hometown in 1913 at The Country Club, beating British stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff to elevate American golfers on a global scale. He was also a U.S. Amateur champion and as the "father of amateur golf," he is credited with influencing golf participation in the United States. When the U.S. Open was played in Brookline again in 1963, Ouimet was honored on the 50th anniversary.
The Greenbrier is a major component of golf resort heritage. On this date in 1950, Ben Hogan won the Greenbrier Pro-Am, at the golf club in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., winning $1,250 after shooting 64-64-65-66—259. Also, two World Golf Hall of Fame members died on this date, well before their time. Craig Wood succumbed to a heart ailment at age 66 in 1968, and in 2011, Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros died after fighting brain cancer.
On this date in 1962, the year he won two majors, Arnold Palmer won the Tournament of Champions. He had scores of 69-70-69-68 for 276 and first prize of $11,000. Also, the Olympic Club in San Francisco, a club noted for its track-and-field prowess before golf, was founded in 1860. And, in 1936, the Curtis Cup was completed on the King’s Course at Gleneagles, ending in a 4.5 to 4.5 tie. Baseball bonus: Babe Ruth hit his first Major League home run, playing for the Boston Red Sox, in 1915. It was against the Yankees at the Polo Grounds. Ruth, who started as a pitcher, was 3 for 5 at the plate and pitched 12 and a third innings but took the loss in a 4-3 defeat.
One of the greatest gentlemen in golf history, and most prominent height-wise (6-foot-4), was born on this date in 1923. William (Bill) C. Campbell, was born in Huntington, W.Va. He excelled on the course as a lifelong amateur, winning the 1964 U.S. Amateur, two U.S. Senior Amateurs and 15 West Virginia Amateurs, and off the course as a past president of the U.S. Golf Association and captain of the Royal & Ancient. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990, and died on August 30, 2013. One of the most unique—and successful—putters in history, Leo Diegel, died on this date in 1951 at age 52 from cancer. Diegel, a two-time PGA champion, pointed his elbows straight outward and swung them like a pendulum. His style was called Diegeling.
A pair of major figures in golf history were born on this date. World Golf Hall of Famer Betsy Rawls was born in 1928 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She won 55 LPGA Tour events, including four U.S. Women’s Opens (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960), and two LPGA Championships in 1959 and 1969. Future hall of famer Rory McIlroy was born in 1989 in Holywood, Northern Ireland. At 35, McIlroy is at a critical time to keep building up his resume and has been needing a Masters victory since 2015 to complete a career Grand Slam. He won his last of four majors in 2014. Also on the birthday list today are 1986 PGA champion Bob Tway (1959) and the second African-American on the LPGA Tour Renee Powell (1946); she is also one of the first seven women to be members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club.
On this date in 1990, Brooks Koepka, five-time major championship winner, was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. And on this date in 1964, the late Pete Brown won the Waco Turner Open at Turner Lodge in Burneyville, Oklahoma, becoming the first African-American to win an official PGA Tour event.
On this date in 1960, Arnold Palmer lost a playoff to Bill Collins at the Houston Classic, 69 to 71, to take second place after the two had tied at 280. And Bing Crosby, the legendary singer and the first major entertainer/personality to promote the celebrity pro-am format with his Crosby Clambake at Pebble Beach, was born on May 2, 1904, in Tacoma, Wash.
On this date in 1930, Glenna Collett led an American squad against a British team at Sunningdale, England, in a precursor to the first Curtis Cup Match played two years later. The British won the 1930 match. Also, opinionated and insightful Frank Beard, an 11-time PGA Tour winner, was born on May 1, 1939. And Pete Brown, a pioneering African-American golfer who won the Waco Open in 1964 on the PGA Tour, died on this date in 2015 at age 80.
On this date in 1961 and 1962, the great Mickey Wright won the LPGA Titleholders Championship at Augusta Country Club. In 1961 it was by one shot over Patty Berg and Louise Suggs, and in 1962 it was in a playoff with Ruth Jessen. Also in the early 1950s, the newly begun LPGA Tour held four 36-hole events over the duration of several weeks, recognizing an overall winner at the conclusion of the 144-hole event. In 1950, the events were held at Pebble Beach, Chicago, Cleveland and New York. Babe Zaharias won the Pebble Beach portion on April 30, and would win later in Cleveland. Louise Suggs won the other two stages, but Zaharias was the overall winner.
This date in 1857 is credited as the publishing date for the first golf instruction book, The Golfer's Manual, “A Keen Hand” by H. B. Farnie. Birthdays today include two-time major winner, TV analyst and World Golf Hall of Famer Johnny Miller in 1947, and present tour player Justin Thomas born in 1993. Miller was born in San Francisco and won the 1973 U.S. Open and 1976 Open Championship. In retirement he was a golf analyst for NBC Sports.
Prodigious hitter and self-proclaimed Wild Thing John Daly was born on this date in 1966. He has won two majors, the 1991 PGA and 1995 Open Championship, but only five PGA Tour events overall, a widely regarded underachieving amount for someone with Daly’s immense talent.
On this date in 1929, the Ryder Cup Match was played in cold and snow as the Great Britain team beat the United States, 7-5, at Moortown Golf Club in West Yorkshire, England. Also on this date, legendary 36-year Chicago Tribune golf editor Charlie Bartlett was born in 1905. He died on November 6, 1967, and at the next Masters, the Charles Bartlett Lounge was dedicated on April 10, 1968, in the press building to honor him.
Today two LPGA events are featured. On this date in 1964, Marilynn Smith had a huge victory at the LPGA Titleholders Championship played at Augusta Country Club, adjacent to Augusta National, when she defended her title with a one-stroke victory over Mickey Wright, the all-time greatest women’s player. And in 1952, using a new putter, Patty Berg shot a 64 in the first round of the Richmond (Calif.) Open at Richmond Golf Club, to set a women’s record. She would go on to win the tournament by four shots. The 18-hole women’s record now, of course, is the 59 shot by Annika Sorenstam in 2001.
Birthday milestones on April 25 belong to five-time PGA Tour winner Nick Watney, born in 1981, and diminutive Jerry Barber, born in 1916. Barber was born in Woodson, Illinois, west of Springfield in central Illinois. He was 5-5, 137 pounds. He made a pair of consecutive monster-length putts to win the 1961 PGA; he also holds the record for the oldest to play a tour event; he was 77 years 10 months 9 days when he played in the 1994 Buick Invitational, where he missed the cut. He died later in 1994 after turning 78.
Lee Westwood was born on this date in 1973 at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. Westwood has not won a major despite a few close calls, but his biggest international impact has been his inspired play in the Ryder Cup Match every two years. Other tour pro birthdays on April 24 include Jonas Blixt 1984 and Bob Lunn, the 1963 U.S. Public Links champion, was born in 1945. He won back to back on tour at Memphis and Atlanta in 1968.
Only a handful of players have won the first PGA Tour event they played, and one of them is Marty Fleckman, who was born on April 23, 1944, in Port Arthur, Texas. Fleckman passed qualifying school in October 1967, and just about a month later he won the first pro event he entered, the Cajun Classic, beating Jack Montgomery in a one-hole playoff with a birdie.
Just three days after the third PGA Tour commissioner in history, Tim Finchem, celebrated a birthday, the second commissioner, Deane Beman, observes a birthday, born on this day in 1938 in Washington, D.C.. Before becoming the head of the tour in 1974, Beman was an accomplished player, winning the U.S. Amateur twice, British Amateur in 1959, and four PGA Tour events. He served until 1994 and was later inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
April was a popular time of the year to hold the Senior PGA Championship, which is the oldest of the senior majors, starting in 1937. On this date in 1991, Jack Nicklaus won his lone Senior PGA, at PGA National in Florida, with a 17-under 271 score to win by six shots over Australia’s Bruce Crampton.
An incredible talent who never got to show the record he could have accumulated, Young Tom Morris was born on this date in 1851. He won four Open Championships, including three in a row to retire the champion’s belt, and then died at just 24 in St. Andrews, Scotland. Also on this date in 1969, Kathy Whitworth, the all-time LPGA Tour leader in victories with 88 and the leader in most career seasons with a victory with 22, is tied with three others for the most consecutive wins in scheduled events with four. Whitworth’s fourth came on April 20, 1969, in the Lady Carling Open.
On this date in 1922, amateur legend Billy Joe Patton was born in Morganton, North Carolina. He made a remarkable run at winning the Masters in 1954 that is still captivating to read about. Like his good friend Arnold Palmer, Patton attended Wake Forest College. Patton died in Morganton in 2011. Also on this day, in 1968, production of a one-piece, no-cut golf ball was announced, a major change in ball design.