Three winners of major championships have birthdays today. Vijay Singh was born in 1963. He won the 2000 Masters and two PGAs in 1998 and 2004. Tommy Aaron, the 1973 Masters champion, was born in 1937. Amy Alcott, the five-time major winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member, was born on this date in Kansas City in 1956.
On this date in 1971, Ruth Jessen won the then richest prize in women’s golf at the Sear’s Women’s World Classic at Port St. Lucie C.C./Sinner’s Course. She won by two shots over Sandra Palmer, earning $10,000 of the $60,000 total prize money. Also on this date in 1964, Sam Snead shot a four-under-par 68 at PGA National Golf Club to lead the 25th Senior PGA by three shots after two rounds. He would end up winning the 72-hole championship by three.
On this date, and on February 27, in 1927, golfers in South Carolina, according to lore, were arrested for playing golf and violating the Sabbath Day. And one of the more obscure major golf champions but boasting a cute nickname was born on this date in 1915. Melvin (Chick) Harbert was born in Dayton, Ohio. He won seven times on the PGA Tour but the PGA Championship was his specialty. He won it in 1954 and was also a two-time runner-up, in 1947 and 1952. The event was competed as match play those years. Harbert was 24-10 in the PGA match play from 1946 to 1957.
Paul Runyan had the rare distinction of winning the same senior major on the same date in consecutive years on the same course. In 1961 and 1962 Runyan won the Senior PGA at PGA National in Dunedin, Florida. In 1962, United Press began its wrap-up: “Little Paul Runyan clawed his way around the PGA National golf course two strokes under par today and won his second straight PGA seniors championship with a 72-hole score of 278 equal to the record he set last year and 10 under par. Runyan, never the leader until the last round, broke his way in front of the field with four birdies and a 33 on the front nine.” And on this date in 1994 Marta Figueras-Dotti won the Cup o' Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open at Ko Olina Golf Club, Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii. She shot seven under par to win by one over Jane Geddes.
Alexander (Sandy) Herd was born in April 1868 and died on this day in 1944, age 75. He was born in Scotland and is credited with winning the 1902 Open Championship. And hall-of-Fame golfer Judy Rankin was born on this date in 1945 in St. Louis. After her playing career, she became one of the finest TV golf analysts and media contributors, including with Golf Digest.
On this date in 1955, Mike Souchak shot a 60 at the Texas Open held at Breckenridge Park Golf Course and went on to win the tournament with a record score of 27 under par, 257. Also, just having celebrated the birthdate of the renowned Mickey Wright three days ago, born in 1935 in San Diego, today is the five-year remembrance of her passing on February 17 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The World Golf Hall of Fame member won four U.S. Women’s Opens among her 82 victories.
South African golf legend Gary Player won the 1986 Senior PGA Championship on this date, winning by two shots over Lee Elder at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. And Marlene Bauer Hagge, one of the original LPGA founders in 1950 and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, was born on this date in 1934.
On this date in 1987, Chi Chi Rodriguez won the PGA Seniors' Championship at PGA National, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, by one shot over Dale Douglass. Also, on this date in 1950, Bobby Jones was listed as one of the top competitors from the first half of the century in a poll of sportswriters and sportscasters, along with Jim Thorpe, Babe Ruth, George Mikan, Jack Dempsey, Man a ‘ War, Johnny Weismuller, Bill Tilden, Jesse Owens and Babe Zaharias for her track effort.
The greatest women’s golfer of all time, Mary Kathryn (Mickey) Wright, was born on this date in 1935 in San Diego. She would win 13 majors in her 82 LPGA Tour victories. She died in 2020. The World Golf Hall of Famer won four U.S. Women’s Opens and four LPGA championships.
Golfer Patty Berg was born on this date 107 years ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Berg was one of the original LPGA Tour founders. She grew up with future football coach Bud Wilkinson, just two years older, in her neighborhood. The LPGA pioneer was not only a great champion but known as a golf ambassador. She had an infectious personality that was always on display. When she did a teaching clinic, she emphasized you must “swing to the finish” and then did so with a flourish.
On this date in 1989, the 50th PGA Seniors' Championship was played at PGA National GC and was won by Larry Mowry in a one-stroke victory over Al Geiberger and Miller Barber. For all their golf battles, the Big Three of Palmer, Player and Nicklaus didn’t finish 1-2-3 very often in tournaments. But that’s what happened on this date in 1963 in the Phoenix Open when they finished 1-2-3 for Palmer, Player and Nicklaus, in that order, at Arizona Country Club with four-round totals of 273, 274 and 275.
On this date in 1973, Arnold Palmer won his final PGA Tour event, the Bob Hope Classic, with a two-shot victory over Jack Nicklaus. Arnold had scores of 71-66-69-68-69—343, and won $32,000. The courses were Bermuda Dunes/Host course (72, 6,778), Indian Wells (72, 6,500), La Quinta (72, 6,530), Tamarisk (72, 6,863), Palm Springs, California. Arnie’s first victory had been the 1955 Canadian Open. Also, on this date in 1961, Arnold Palmer shot a 66 in the third round of the Phoenix Open, then shot a 70 in Round 4 to tie Doug Sanders for first at 270. In an 18-hole playoff, Palmer defeated Sanders, 67-70, and won first prize of $4,300. Also, Helen Hicks, one of the founding members of the LPGA Tour, was born on this date in 1911 in Cedarhurst, New York. Hicks’ main victories were the 1937 Western Open and 1940 Titleholders Championship. She died in 1974 at age 63.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Greg Norman was born on this date in 1955 in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. He won the Open Championship twice but perhaps is just as well known for the majors he didn’t nail down after being in a strong position, the most notable being the 1996 Masters. On this day in 1951, Al Brosch, of Garden City, New York, was the first player to shoot a 60 on the PGA Tour at the Texas Open, third round, on the par-71, 6,400-yard Brackenridge Park Golf Course. He broke the record of 61 shot by amateur Dow Finsterwald in 1950 in the St. Louis Open.
Sandy Lyle, one of the Fab Five along with Ballesteros, Faldo, Langer and Woosnam out of the UK, was born on this date in 1958 in Shrewsbury in western England. He won two majors, the 1985 Open and 1988 Masters, and was the playing partner in 1986 to Jack Nicklaus during Jack’s final-round romp to victory in the Masters. And this is a date usually noted when the St. Andrews Club became the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, in 1834, with William IV as club patron.
Australian star Jan Stephenson won 16 times on the LPGA Tour, the first coming on this date in 1976. She finished at two-over-par 218 in the Sarah Coventry Naples Classic on Lely Country Club to edge Judy Meister and Sandra Haynie by one shot. Also on this date in 1981, Sally Little won the LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic at Turnberry Isle in Miami at five under par in a playoff with Joanne Carner and Judy Rankin.
This date carries a somber tone in golf history with three deaths. Scottish golfer Freddie Tait, who won the Amateur Championship in 1896 and 1898, died in 1900 at age 30, a victim of the 2nd Boer War. LPGA cofounder and 1947 U.S. Open winner Betty Jameson died in 2009, age 89. And three-time major winner Billy Casper died in 2015 at age 83. And also on this date in 1947, Jimmy Demaret shot one of the PGA Tour’s early great rounds with a nine-under-par 62 in the first round of the Texas Open in San Antonio at Willow Springs. Demaret was holing putts from all over, and got done with his round just before a blustery “Texas norther” came in and dropped the temp from 65 to nearly freezing in just a few hours. Among the golfers caught in the bad weather was Ben Hogan, who shot 75.
On this date in 1971, golf was played out of this world when astronaut Alan Shepard used a makeshift 6-iron he’d assembled from different pieces to hit a couple golf balls on the moon. Commander of Apollo 14, Shepard adjusted moon-rock collecting tools to make his golf club so he could keep his “mission” secret from as many people as possible. His best shot, he estimated, went 200 yards. The original moon club is housed at the USGA Museum.
Two-time Masters winner José María Olazábal was born on this date in 1966 in Hondarribia, Spain. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, he won at Augusta in 1994 and 1999.
Byron Nelson, a member of one of America’s Big Three with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, was born on this date in 1912 in Waxahachie, Texas, a part of Dallas-Fort Worth. Lord Byron won five majors and in 1945 won a record 19 tournaments. Also on this date, a pair of LPGA events include, in 1979, Joanne Carner winning the LPGA Colgate Triple Crown and in 1990, Pat Bradley winning the Oldsmobile LPGA Golf Classic
The 18th Senior PGA Championship ended on this date in Dunedin, Fla., with Al Watrous winning an 18-hole playoff 72-75 with Bob Stupple. And also on this date in 1876, Albert Spalding began a sporting goods company, with $800, manufacturing a golf ball among balls for several sports.