This Day in Golf History: November 22

On this date in 1936, the 19th PGA Championship concluded at Pinehurst Country Club No. 2 with Denny Shute winning his first of two straight PGAs. He defeated Jimmy Thomson in the final, 3 and 2. And 62 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, we remember how Arnold Palmer had been trying to arrange a golf game with the president. The two would have spoken the same language about vitality, new frontiers to explore, and of course, golf. There had been a mutual hope that the two could schedule a golf outing, but the president’s nagging back ailment prevented one such meeting. Palmer said he had been on his way to Palm Springs one time with the intention of playing with Kennedy, explaining, “We were going to play some golf and the White House called me and said, ‘Arnie, forget it.’ I said why, I want to do it. They said he hurt his back and was going to take some time off and not play for a while, and just couldn’t do it, and that was it.” Kennedy had, in fact, made news in July 1963 when he played golf for the first time in two years due to his back. He played five holes at the Hyannis Port Club in Massachusetts and bogeyed all five.