The Olympic Club in San Francisco, a club noted for its track and field prowess before golf, was founded in 1860. Also, in 1936, the Curtis Cup was completed on the King’s Course at Gleneagles, ending in a 4-and-one-half to 4-and-one-half tie. Baseball bonus: Babe Ruth hit his first Major League home run, playing for the Boston Red Sox, in 1915. It was against the Yankees at the Polo Grounds. Ruth, who started his career as a pitcher before moving to the outfield, was 3 for 5 at the plate and pitched 12 and a third innings but took the loss in a 4-3 defeat.

One of the greatest gentlemen in golf history--and most prominent height-wise (6-foot-4)--was born on this date in 1923. William (Bill) C. Campbell, was born in Huntington, W.Va. He excelled on the course as a lifelong amateur, winning the 1964 U.S. Amateur, two U.S. Senior Amateurs and 15 West Virginia Amateurs, and off the course as a past president of the U.S. Golf Association and captain of the Royal & Ancient. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990, and died on August 30, 2013.

Among the birthday milestones today: 1986 PGA champion Bob Tway was born in 1959, the second African-American on the LPGA Tour Renee Powell was born in 1946. She was also recently named one of the first seven women to be members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club. And World Golf Hall of Fame member Betsy Rawls was born in 1928. She won 55 LPGA Tour events, including four U.S. Women’s Opens (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960), two LPGA Championships in 1959 and 1969, and two Women’s Western Opens in 1952 and 1959.

Betsy Rawls

The late Pete Brown won the Waco Turner Open on this date in 1964 at Turner Lodge in Burneyville, Oklahoma, becoming the first African-American to win an official PGA Tour event. Birthday: London-born tour pro/TV commentator Peter Oosterhuis was born OTD in 1948.

Legendary singer and first major entertainer/personality to promote the celebrity pro-am format with his Crosby Clambake at Pebble Beach, Bing Crosby was born on May 2, 1904, in Tacoma, Wash. Baseball bonus: Lou Gehrig’s famous 2,130 consecutive-games played streak ended on May 2, 1939, when The Iron Horse took himself out of the lineup for his poor performance. In fact, though, he was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now known as “Lou Gehrig's Disease.” Also, on May 2, 1954, Stan Musial hit 5 home runs in a doubleheader at the New York Giants. Those were the most HRs hit in one day by a Major Leaguer; Nate Colbert would hit 5 in a twinbill for San Diego in 1972.

Glenna Collett led an American squad against a British team at Sunningdale, England, in 1930 in a precursor to the first Curtis Cup Match played two years later. The British won the 1930 match. Opinionated and insightful Frank Beard, an 11-time PGA Tour winner, was born on May 1, 1939.

In the early 1950s, the newly begun LPGA Tour held four 36-hole events over the duration of several weeks, recognizing an overall winner at the conclusion of the 144-hole event, which was held every year from 1950 to 1953. In 1950, the events were held at Pebble Beach, Chicago, Cleveland and New York. Babe Zaharias won the Pebble Beach portion on April 30, and would win later in Cleveland. Louise Suggs won the other two stages, but Zaharias was the overall winner.

This date in 1857 is credited as the publishing date for the first golf instruction book, The Golfer's Manual, “A Keen Hand” by H.B. Farnie. Birthday specials today include two-time major winner, TV analyst and World Golf Hall of Famer Johnny Miller in 1947, and present tour player Justin Thomas in 1993.

Prodigious hitter, loose swinger and well-known socializer John Daly was born OTD in 1966. He has won two majors, the 1991 PGA and 1995 Open Championship, but only five PGA Tour events overall, an underachieving amount for someone with Daly’s immense talent. He now plays a mix of regular and champions tour events.

Midwest Moments: Legendary 36-year Chicago Tribune golf editor Charlie Bartlett was born on this date in 1905. He died on November 6, 1967, and at the next Masters, the Charles Bartlett Lounge was dedicated on April 10, 1968, in the Masters press building to honor him. Also, on April 27, 1899, these clubs—Onwentsia, Chicago Golf, Glenview, Midlothian, Washington Park, Riverside, Westward Ho, Evanston, Edgewater, Belmont and Skokie were at an organizational meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel to form the Western Golf Association. And in Detroit on April 27, 1899, World Golf Hall of Famer Leo Diegel was born.

Patty Berg shot a 64 in the first round of the Richmond (Calif.) Open at Richmond Golf Club to set a women’s record. She would go on to win the tournament by four shots. The 18-hole record now, of course, is the 59 shot by Annika Sorenstam in 2001. Birthdays of note: J.B. Holmes born in 1982 and Mac O’Grady in 1951.

Patty Berg is elated after shooting a 64 in 1952.

Among birthday milestones today: five-time PGA Tour winner Nick Watney, born in 1981, and diminutive Jerry Barber, born in 1916. Barber made a pair of consecutive, monster-length putts en route to winning the 1961 PGA; he also holds the record for the oldest to play a tour event; he was 77 years 10 months 9 days when he played in the 1994 Buick Invitational, where he missed the cut.  

Birthdays today: Jonas Blixt born in 1984, Jason Bohn and Lee Westwood both in 1973, and Bob Lunn, the 1963 U.S. Public Links champion, was born in 1945. Lunn had a successful tour career, highlighted by back-to-back wins at Memphis and Atlanta in 1968. Bonus Celtics note: Bob Cousy retired from the Celtics on April 24, 1963, after they beat the Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA final for the team’s fifth consecutive NBA Championship.

Only a handful of players have won the first PGA Tour event they played, and one of them is Marty Fleckman, who was born on April 23, 1944, in Port Arthur, Texas. Fleckman passed qualifying school in October 1967, and just about a month later he won the first tour event he entered, the Cajun Classic, beating Jack Montgomery in a one-hole playoff with a birdie.

Just three days after the third PGA Tour commissioner in history, Tim Finchem, celebrated a birthday, the second commissioner, Deane Beman, observes a birthday, born on April 22, 1938. Before becoming the tour's leader from 1974 to 1994, Beman was an accomplished player, winning the U.S. Amateur twice, British Amateur in 1959, and four PGA Tour events.

April was a popular time of the year to hold the Senior PGA Championship, which is the oldest of the senior majors, starting in 1937. On this date in 1991, Jack Nicklaus won his lone Senior PGA, at PGA National in Florida, with a 17-under 271 score.

Kathy Whitworth is the all-time LPGA Tour leader in victories with 88 and is the leader in most career seasons with a victory with 22. She and three others are tied for the most consecutive wins in scheduled events with four. Whitworth’s fourth came on April 20, 1969, in the Lady Carling Open.

In 1968, production of a one-piece, no-cut golf ball was announced, a major change in ball design. Recently retired PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem was born on this date in 1947.

After finishes of 1st, 2nd, T-3, 2nd, T-34, T-4, T-36 and T-6 to start 1966, Arnold Palmer went into the Masters as a huge favorite. It was expected he’d continue his every-other-year victory streak. But he was off by one week and tied for fourth on April 11. Instead, on April 18, he won an 18-hole playoff with Gay Brewer, 69-73, to capture the Tournament of Champions.

Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open (Wyndham Ch.) eight times. No. 7 came on April 17, 1960, when Snead shot his fourth-straight round in the 60s and finished two strokes ahead of Dow Finsterwald at Starmount Forest Country Club.