The 20th Senior PGA Ch. finished on this date in 1959 at PGA National GC in Dunedin, Fla. The winner was Willie Goggin, using a borrowed set of woods, by one shot over three players, including major champions Paul Runyan and Denny Shute. Goggin shot four-under 284 and won going against common practice. He wasn’t comfortable with the set of clubs he brought from California, mainly the woods, so he borrowed another set of woods and still won. Three players tied for second behind him by one shot: Leland Gibson, Paul Runyan and Denny Shute.
On this date in 1957, Arnold Palmer began play in the Phoenix Open at Arizona Country Club, just as the PGA Tour visits Scottsdale for the Phoenix stop next week. Palmer shot a 66 in the first round to share the lead with Billy Maxwell. Palmer didn’t break 70 the next three rounds, and tied Maxwell and two others for fifth at 277. Billy Casper won with 271. And on this date in 2015, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko became the youngest male or female golfer to be ranked No. 1 in the world at age 17.
Two World Golf Hall of Fame members were born on this date two years apart: Curtis Strange, a two-time U.S. Open winner, in 1955, and Payne Stewart in 1957. Stewart also won two U.S. Opens and a PGA and notably passed away tragically in 1999 in a jet crash. On this date in 1965, at its 71st annual meeting, in New York, the USGA approved changing the U.S. Open format to four daily 18-hole rounds instead of two days of 18 holes and a final day of 36.
On this date in 1978, “Big Momma” Joanne Carner won the Colgate Triple Crown Match-Play Championship to start the LPGA schedule that year. Carner took first over Sandra Palmer at Mission Hills C.C. in Palm Springs, Calif. And when he died on January 19, 2024, at age 100, Jack Burke, Jr., was the oldest living major golf champion. He was born on this date in 1923 in Fort Worth, Texas. Burke, cofounder of Champions Golf Club in Houston with Jimmy Demaret, and winner of the Masters and PGA in 1956.
On this date in 1957, three-time major champion Nick Price was born in Durban, South Africa. A two-time PGA Championship winner, Price’s crowning moment was winning the 1994 Open Championship. And on this date in 1968, Chandler Harper—who had one of the greatest monikers in golf—won the 29th Senior PGA Championship by four shots over Sam Snead at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Harper, of Portsmouth, Va., had won the 1950 PGA Championship. His Senior PGA victory was worth $4,000, which was $500 more than he won for the PGA!
On this date in 1967, Arnold Palmer shot a 64 at Rancho Municipal, one of his best scores ever, in the second round of the Los Angles Open. He shot 67 and 68 the next two rounds to win and collect the $20,000 first-place prize money. Also, on this date in 1969, Tommy Bolt won the 30th Senior PGA Championship by one shot over Pete Fleming on the East Course of PGA Naitonal. Bolt shot a 67 and won on his first try in the championship.
On this date in 1957, Arnold Palmer shot an 80 in the third round of the Thunderbird Invitational. It was a bad round surrounded by good ones. For the week he scored 71-69-80-68—288 and tied for 32nd and received a “whopping” $112.50. And on this date in 1986, Val Skinner won the LPGA Mazda Golf Classic at Stonebridge Golf Club in Boca Raton, Florida, at eight under par.
On this date in 1959, Arnold Palmer shot a 62 and won the Thunderbird Invitational, the precursor to the Bob Hope Desert Classic. He shot 266 for first prize of $1,500. And this date is also considered by tradition when the St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland in 1764 reduced the number of golf holes for a round from 22 to 18, which is the number today.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Masashi (Jumbo) Ozaki was born on this date in 1947 in the Kaifu District, Tokushima, Japan. He won a record 94 Japan Tour tournaments. Also, some golf history books cite this date in 1764 as the day St. Andrews Golf Club reduced the 22-hole course it originally had for the Old Course to an 18-hole round.
On this date in 1977, Tom Watson shot 71 at Pebble Beach to edge Tony Jacklin by a shot to win the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am and $40,000 first-place money. Watson overall was 15 under par on Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula C.C. And Yani Tseng was born on this date in 1989 in Taiwan. No one’s light burned as bright as hers early on. She was the youngest to win five majors, in July 2011, at age 22 and a half. In March 2012 she won her 15th LPGA Tour event but she hasn’t won one since.
On this date in 1984, Arnold Palmer won the 45th PGA Senior Ch. at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. It was his second Senior PGA, done with one of the most unusual set of four rounds for a regular or senior event. His middle rounds had a 16-stroke variance: 63 to 79. The good news was that the 63 had put him in the lead by eight (the largest 36-hole lead in 1984 on the senior tour) and the 79 was shot on a blustery day with temperatures in the 40s and the majority of the players scoring high. The weather was gusty for the final round, too, but Palmer steadied himself to win by two over Don January. The 63 would be Palmer’s career low round in senior tour play. Palmer’s scores: 69-63-79-71—282, 1st, $35,000. And on this day in 1978, Tom Watson and Ray Floyd tied for the third-round lead on a Sunday at the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, the first one held after Crosby’s death. The tournament was pushed back a day because of heavy rain on Thursday. On the 23rd Watson would win in a sudden-death playoff with Ben Crenshaw.
Jack Nicklaus, the man recognized as the greatest golfer in history, was born on this date in 1940 in Columbus, Ohio, putting him at the milestone of 85. Nicklaus won 18 major pro titles and two U.S. Amateurs. And on this date in 1956 at Cali, Colombia, Arnold Palmer charged from seven strokes behind the third-round leader Chick Harbert with a seven-under-par 65 to win the $5,600 Colombian Open. Palmer got top prize money of $1,800 for his 72-hole total of 280, eight under. Harbert skied to a final-round 78 and took eighth.
On this date in 1974, Johnny Miller won the Dean Martin Tucson Open, his third straight victory to open the season, including the Bing Crosby Pro-Am and Phoenix Open. Also, one part of a brother tandem that won majors was born on this date in 1928. Lionel Hebert was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, the younger brother of Jay. Lionel won the 1957 PGA, the final time it was played at match play and three years before brother Jay won the same major. Lionel also played in the 1957 Ryder Cup.
The first round of the first LPGA Tour event was played on this date in 1950. The Tampa Open was held at 6,093-yard Palma Ceia C.C. An amateur, Polly Riley, would win with a 295 score; Louise Suggs was second at 300. The first round was led by Babe Zaharias, who was “clicking off pars like clockwork, led by two strokes at the end of the first round of the Tampa women's open golf tournament today. The walloping pro hit par 70 right on the nose par 35 out, par 35 in. She was even par on 14 of the 18 holes. Twice she was one over, and twice she was one under. Amateur Polly Riley of Fort Worth came second with golf of the opposite brand.” That was the opening paragraph of a national wire-service report on the first round. Also, one of the world’s young golf stars was born on this date in 1991. Tommy Fleetwood was born in Southport, England, and at age 34 should be ready to make a major breakthrough at any time. He was runner-up in the 2018 U.S. Open and played on that year’s European Ryder Cup team. In the 2023 Ryder Cup, he scored the decisive point in his single match win on Sunday, which helped the European Team reclaim the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2018. Overall, he went 3–1–0 in that event.
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 Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. Hogan was attempting a comeback from his horrific near-fatal car-bus highway accident in Texas in February 1949. Hogan was the sentimental favorite of the 7,500 onlookers at fogbound Riviera. Snead won first prize of $2,600. The PGA Tour just announced that an alternate site for the L.A. Open, now Genesis Invitational, scheduled for February 10-16 will be announced soon now that Riviera has been in the destruction zone of the Los Angeles fire devastation.
On this date in 1916, department store owner Rodman Wanamaker organized a lunch at the Martinique Hotel in New York City with interested parties who organized the PGA of America organization for professional golfers and club pros.
On this date in 1938, at Augusta Country Club, adjacent to Augusta National, the LPGA Titleholders Championship was won by Patty Berg by 14 strokes. And on this date in 1979, golfer Jimmy Walker was born in Oklahoma City. He has won six times on tour, most notably in the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol in a battle with Jason Day. He is also a talented photographer of celestial skies and rents space on a telescope.
Some special things happened to Arnold Palmer on this date early in his career. In 1956, in a statement victory, he beat Sam Snead in a six-hole playoff to win the Panama Open after they had tied at 283. In another playoff victory, in 1961, he won the San Diego Open after shooting rounds of 69-68-69-65—271. He and Al Balding tied, and Arnie beat Balding in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff to win the $2,800 first-place money. Also on this date, Y.E. Yang (Yang Yong-eun), the giant slayer in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine when he beat Tiger Woods for the title, was born in South Korea on this date in 1972.
On this date in 1971, Arnold Palmer shot a 72 in the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, not a promising start to contend in a tournament he never won. However, he went 68-69 to get into contention for the final round. But a three-putt on Pebble Beach’s fifth hole hurt his cause and he finished two shots behind winner Tom Shaw’s 278 on January 17. And on this date in 1996, Liselotte Neumann won the Chrysler-Plymouth Tournament of Champions at Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, shooting 13 under to win $117,500.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Mark O’Meara was born on this date in 1957 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He won the 1979 U.S. Amateur and 1998 Masters and Open Championship. And on this date in 1978, Arnold Palmer shot a 68 in the second round of the Phoenix Open. He followed that with 71-67 in the next two rounds to finish fifth, a rare top-10 result for the legendary player who was five years past his last PGA Tour victory and was age 48.