Continuing the recent Open Championship theme, a pair of Open Championships from the 1800s ended on this date. In 1866, at Prestwick, Willie Park, Sr., won for the third time, beating brother Davie Park by two shots. In 1872, also at Prestwick, Tom Morris, Jr., won for the fourth straight time, winning by three strokes over David Strath.
Donna Andrews won the 1993 Ping-Cellular One LPGA Golf Championship on this date at 8 under par, taking home $67,500. And troubled Argentinian star Angel Cabrera was born on this date in 1969. The winner of the 2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters, Cabrera had been off his game when he got in trouble for domestic violence and had to serve two years in prison. He was released on parole in December 2023 and has been allowed to resume to tour golf.
A pair of Open Championships from the 1800s ended on this date, playing the entire event in one day each time. In 1862, the third championship was won by Tom Morris, Sr. , in defense of his title, at Prestwick by 13 shots over Willie Park, Sr., with a score of 163. Only eight players competed on the 12-hole course. Morris would be known as Old Tom after his son Young Tom became a legendary player himself. And in 1890, also at Prestwick, amateur John Ball won by three shots over Willie Fernie and Archie Simpson.
At least three famous people were born on this date. Arnold Palmer in 1929 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania; Larry Nelson in 1947 in Fort Payne, Alabama, and William Dale Hynd of Moline, Illinois. Golfers will know who the first two are, but Mr. Hynd? That would be my late father-in-law, who was born on this day in 1933. Rest in Peace, Rodeo Bill! Also on this date, the 1875 Open Championship was held at Prestwick Golf Club, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Yes, the entire tournament was on one day. Eighteen players began at 11:30 a.m. Willie Park, Sr. won by two strokes over runner-up Bob Martin with a score of 166. Park had won the first championship in 1860 and his 1875 victory gave him four wins.
Five years ago on this date, one of the greatest characters in golf history, Englishman Brian Barnes, died of cancer. Barnes won nine times on the European Tour, and never won a major, but his greatest claim to fame was beating Jack Nicklaus twice on the same day in singles at the 1975 Ryder Cup. And the great, feisty Louise Suggs began her march toward winning the St. Louis Golf Open on this date in 1955. Three days later she had shot a four-under 289 to beat Mary Lena Faulk by six shots and win first prize of $900.
On this date in 1968, in Eugene, Oregon, Sandra Haynie, 25, bogeyed two of her last three holes but still won the $12,500 Pacific Ladies' Classic by three strokes. The Fort Worth, Texas, golfer won $1,875. She finished 54 holes at 213, three under par on the 6,361-yard, par-72 Eugene Country Club. She hadn't won since the September 1967 Mickey Wright Invitational in Bonsall, Calif. And on this date in 1963, Jack Nicklaus shot a second-straight 70 to win the World Series of Golf, an unoffical 36-hole event involving the winners of the year’s major championships, held at Firestone Country Club, par-70, 7,165-yard South Course, Akron, Ohio. The final standings: September 7-8, 1963—Jack Nicklaus 70-70—140, $50,000; Julius Boros 72-69—141, $15,000; Arnold Palmer 71-72—143, $5,000; Bob Charles 70-77—147, $5,000.
Steve Jones, who had a brief but successful time on the PGA Tour, that included winning the 1996 U.S. Open, won the Canadian Open on this date in 1997 with a score of 275. And Louise Suggs, an LPGA Tour cofounder and ultra-tough competitor, was born on this date in 1923 in Lithia Springs, Georgia. Winner of 11 majors, Suggs is in the World Golf Hall of Fame and won the 2007 Bob Jones Award, named in honor of a fellow Georgian.
The 19th playing of the U.S. Amateur finished on this day in 1913 and was won by Jerry Travers. He won for the second year in a row and defeated John Anderson, 5&4. Also, on this date in 1929, Dow Finsterwald was born in Athens, Ohio. He won the 1958 PGA Championship, the first year it was held at stroke play after conducted at match play since 1916. “Finsty” was a notable close friend of Arnold Palmer, who was born four days later.
The 1982 U.S. Men's Amateur Championship was won by Jay Sigel on this date at The Country Club when he handily won, 8 & 7, over David Tolley. This ties in with the Day in Golf note for yesterday September 4. On this date in 1925, the great amateur Bobby Jones, President in Perpetuity of Augusta National Golf Club, won the 29th playing of the U.S. Amateur, beating Watts Gunn, 8 and 7, at Oakmont for his second title.
Jay Sigel won the 1983 U.S. Amateur Championship on this date at North Shore Country Club, by an 8&7 score over Chris Perry, to give him two consecutive Amateur titles. He had also won 8&7 the previous year over David Tolley at The Country Club. Also, two American golf stars, both in the World Golf Hall of Fame, were born on this date. In 1942, Raymond Floyd, a four-time major winner, was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And in 1949, eight-time major champion Tom Watson was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
Billy Casper, the odd-man out of the Big Three of Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, won his 50th PGA Tour victory on this date in 1973 at age 42. He finished at 20-under-par 264 to beat Australian Bruce Devlin by one stroke to win the Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open in Wethersfield, Connecticut. When he finished on the 18th green, a group of people 30,000 strong surrounded it as he celebrated his fourth victory in the tournament. Casper’s final round was a 64. He made a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to pull ahead and hold off Devlin.
The 1940 PGA Championship ended on this date. It was the 23rd PGA, held at Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was a meeting of titans: Byron Nelson won his first PGA, defeating Sam Snead, 1-up, in the 36-hole final, taking the Wanamaker Cup.
The 1893 Open Championship, the 33rd playing, ended on this date. The tournament was played over two days, 36 holes each day. The winner at Prestwick, in Scotland, was Scotsman Willie Auchterlonie, who shot 322, two shots ahead of amateur Johnny Laidlay.
Three major championship winners share life events on this date. Pádraig Harrington was born in 1971 and the Irishman won the Open Ch. of 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Ch. of 2008. The 2011 Masters winner, Charl Schwartzel, was born in 1984 in South Africa. And the 1967 Masters champion, Gay Brewer, died on this date at age 75 in 2007. Fifty-six years ago on this date, Bruce Fleisher won the U.S. Amateur at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, with Vinny Giles the runner-up for a second straight year. The Associated Press story read: Young Bruce Fleisher withstood the furious late charge of Marvin (Vinny) Giles III Saturday and rode an even-par 70 to a one-stroke victory in the 68th U.S. Amateur. The 19-year-old from Hialeah, Fla., nailed down the big prize in his first national tournament, finishing with a 72-hole total of 284, four over par for the distance. Giles, the 25-year-old University of Virginia law student from Charlottesville, made a gallant bid to overtake the leader with a sizzling five-under-par 65, a course record on the tough 6,760-yard Scioto layout.
Three U.S. Amateur champions were crowned on this date, August 30: in 1969 Steve Melnyk won at Oakmont, shooting a 70 in the final round during a year the event was stroke play; 1987 Billy Mayfair won by defeating Eric Rebmann, 4&3, at Jupiter Hills, and in 1992 Justin Leonard was the champion.
In 1908, the U.S. Open Championship ended on this day at the Myopia Hunt Golf club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, when Fred McLeod defeated fellow Scot Willie Smith by six strokes in an 18-hole playoff. It was McLeod’s only major victory. In his dotage, he became an honorary starter at the Masters with Jock Hutchison. Also on this date in 1993, Brandie Burton won the du Maurier Classic when she defeated Betsy King in a playoff. The two were tied at 11-under 277 at the London Hunt & Country Club in London, Ontario, after regulation. First prize was $120,000.
Having won three straight U.S. Junior titles, Tiger Woods, on this date in 1994, won his first of three straight U.S. Amateur titles. He won the 94th playing by coming back against Trip Kuehne and winning 2 up at the TPC Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. In 1995 Woods defeated. George “Buddy” Marucci Jr., 2 up, at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, and in 1996 Woods defeated Steve Scott in 38 holes at Pumpkin Ridge G.C. (Witch Hollow Course), North Plains, Oregon. Woods was also the medalist that year. Against Kuehne, Woods won the final three holes after once trailing 6 down during the 36-hole match. At the time, the victory made Woods the youngest, at 18, to win the Amateur. He became the first golfer to win both the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur in a career.
Bernhard Langer, who won two Masters in his prime despite being plagued by the yips, was born on this date in 1957 in Anhausen, Germany. Langer had a second life with the long putter and has continued to excel at age 67 on the senior tour. On this date in 1995, the Canadian du Maurier Classic was won by Jenny Lidback at Beaconsfield Golf Club in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, with an eight-under-par total of 280. She won by one over Liselotte Neumann of Sweden.
On Sunday, Lydia Ko won her first major in eight years at the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews. On this date in 2012, when 15 year-old Ko of New Zealand won the Canadian Open by three shots, she became the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history and was the first amateur winner since JoAnne Carner won the 1969 Burdine’s Invitational. Ko was the fifth amateur winner in tour history. She broke the age record of 16 set by Lexi Thompson at the Navistar Classic in September 2011. Another moment on this day: Marlene Hagge shot 284 at Lakewood Country Club to win the Denver Open in 1956. She took home $800 for first; Fay Crocker was second , six behind.
On this date in 1946, Ben Hogan, at age 34, won his first major championship, winning the PGA at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club in a 6-and-4 decision over Ed Oliver. This is the latest the PGA Championship finished in the month of August. It was the first of two PGAs Hogan won. This PGA was also notable for it being the last time Byron Nelson played in the PGA. He lost to Oliver in the quarterfinals and overall had a 37-8 record.