This Day in Golf History: August 31

A pair of U.S. Amateur championships concluded on this date. In 1968, Bruce Fleisher had a score of 284 to edge Marvin (Vinny) Giles III by one shot at Scioto C.C., Columbus, Ohio, and in 1980, Hal Sutton defeated Bob Lewis, 9 and 8, at the Country Club of North Carolina, in Pinehurst. Fred Couples had been the match-play qualifying medalist with a score of 139. Prior to Hideki Matsuyama winning this year’s Masters, Isao Aoki was the most lauded Japanese player in history, finishing second in the 1980 U.S. Open and winning the 1978 World Match Play Championship. He won once on the PGA Tour but 51 times on the Japanese tour, and was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Aoki was born on this date in 1942 in Abiko, Chiba. And on this date in 1965, Arnold Palmer shot a 68 and teenager Tom Watson 74 in an exhibition at Brookridge G.&C.C.