For someone noted for being the first millionaire in PGA Tour history, Arnold Palmer didn't play in the big money era and thus won money in what today would be thought of as dribs and drabs. Just a couple years before his final tour victory in 1973, however, he won a substantial amount for his day. On this date in 1971, Palmer shot a 68 and won the Westchester Classic and what then was being touted as a mammoth amount of money: $50,000. Arnie shot rounds of 64-70–68–68—270.
Jordan Spieth added more than a page of Open Championship lore in winning the tournament yesterday at Birkdale. It was more like a chapter with his epic comeback. Doug Sanders is part of Open lore, but not for a Spieth-like ending. Sanders was born on this date in 1933. He had strong success on the PGA Tour with 20 victories, but he never won a major despite finishing fourth or better in all four majors. He is forever linked to the 1970 Open Championship at St. Andrews, where he missed a short putt to win on the final hole, then lost an 18-hole playoff to Jack Nicklaus the following day.
The 1989 Open ended on this date, with Mark Calcavecchia winning a four-hole playoff over a pair of Australians, Greg Norman and Wayne Grady, at Troon. "Calc" played the four holes in 2 under par, Grady 1 over and Norman was given an "X". Other Sunday Open finishes on July 23 include 1995, 2000 and 2006.
The Open Championship of 1984 ended on this date and I recall it with mixed emotions. I was on the eve of celebrating my first wedding anniversary, and my bride and I were in Mystic, Conn., to have a getaway. The weather was lousy, so we stayed in our hotel room to watch the final round, and I recall the disappointment I had in seeing five-time champion Tom Watson miss early opportunities to take control and then come to ruin on the Road Hole to finish runner-up to Seve Ballesteros, who made a birdie on 18 and struck his iconic celebratory pose. Hard to believe 33 years have passed. Other July 22 Open Sundays include 1990, 2001, 2007 and 2012.
The lore of Seve Ballesteros and the Open Championship began with his runner-up finish to Johnny Miller in 1976 at Royal Birkdale, but his first victory came on this date in 1979. Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus had just won in 1977 and 1978, respectively, but Ballesteros was in command at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. He was the only player to finish under par for 72 holes, at one under, and he finished three ahead of runners-up Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw. Seve would win twice more, in 1984 and 1988. Other July 21 Open Sundays include 1985, 1991, 1996, 2002 and 2013.
On this date in 1980, Tom Watson won his third of five Open victories, this one at Muirfield. The performance was one of Watson's finest in his career. He had rounds of 68-70-64-69--271. The only players closer than nine strokes to him at the end were Lee Trevino (four back) and Ben Crenshaw (six). This was the first Open Championship to play single rounds Thursday through Sunday; previously The Open never finished on a Sunday.
On this date in 1981, The Open was won by a golfer who took advantage of his career window of best play to win a major. Bill Rogers won six tour events from 1978 to 1983, the nucleus of his career. At Royal St. George's, he finished at four under par, and won by four over Bernhard Langer. A month later, Rogers won the World Series of Golf. Other July 19 Open Sundays were in 1987, 1992, 1998, 2009.
It's time for The Open! Let's celebrate the next several days with Open history. Today is three-time champion Nick Faldo's 60th birthday. His first Open victory was 30 years ago at Muirfield. The third round was played on his birthday in 1987 and he shot par 71 to enter the final round one shot back of Paul Azinger. In Round 4, Faldo made 18 pars for another 71 and edged 'Zinger by a shot after he faltered down the stretch and scored 73. Faldo also won in 1990 and 1992.
On this date in 1958, the PGA Championship went a different direction than it had been going since 1916. The PGA began as a match-play event but switched to medal (stroke) beginning with the '58 playing. The transition had a quaint story line. The 1957 runner-up, Dow Finsterwald, was the first-round leader with a 67 at Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, Pa., by one shot over Jay Hebert, who was the brother of Lionel Hebert, who beat Finsterwald in the 1957 final. It gets better: "Finsty" hung in for the next two rounds then shot another 67 in Round 4 to win by two over Billy Casper.
The U.S. Women's Open ends today, with Shanshan Feng holding a one-shot lead after three rounds. When the championship finished on July 16 in the past, one result was a runaway and the other a close battle. Betsy King won in 1989 at Indian Wood in Lake Orion, Mich., by four shots over Nancy Lopez, while in 1995, Annika Sorenstam won by one stroke over Meg Mallon at The Broadmoor.
The U.S. Women's Open is not immune to the occasional out-of-the-blue winner that sometimes occurs in the men's Open. On this date in 1979, Jerilyn Britz was the women's winner at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. The Minnesota native was 36 and had turned pro just five years earlier. The victory, by two over Debbie Massey and Sandra Palmer, was Britz' first and she would win just one more tour event, the Mary Kay Classic the next year of 1980 when she beat defending champion Nancy Lopez in a playoff.
A couple of U.S. Women's Opens ended on this date. In 1985, unheralded Kathy Baker won at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey by three shots over Judy Clark, and in 1991, Meg Mallon won by two shots at hot Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth. She finished two strokes ahead of Pat Bradley.
The U.S. Women's Open begins today at the controversial Trump site of his course in Bedminster, N.J. On this date in 1980, a Women's Open was concluding with far less drama. Amy Alcott won at Richland Country Club in Nashville, Tenn., with a score of four under par. She went into the final round with an eight-shot lead, shot a one-over-par 72 and ended up winning by nine over Hollis Stacy. It was the second of back-to-back wins for Alcott, who had won the Mayflower Classic the previous week.
The U.S. Senior Open was held recently at Salem (Mass.) Country Club. It was the sixth national championship on the Donald Ross-designed course, the first being the 1932 U.S. Women's Amateur. It was followed by the 1954 Women's Open, 1977 Men's Senior Amateur, 1984 Women's Open, and the 2001 Men's Senior Open. The '84 Women's Open began on July 12 and I recall attending the championship on the weekend with my wife. We had moved to the East Coast earlier in the year to work for Golf Digest, and in June had watched the men play the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. It was quite the introduction to National Open golf.
It took the sport of golf several decades to fully creep across the United States, from East Coast to West, which is why it wasn't until the dawn of golf's reign on TV that the first U.S. Golf Association event was held on a course off the U.S. mainland. The playing of the 1960 U.S. Amateur Public Links began on this date at Ala Wai Golf Course in Honolulu. Verne Callison of Sacramento, Calif., was the champion, handily defeating Tyler Caplin of East Lansing, Mich., 7 and 6.
If you've ever seen old newsreel footage of a major golf tournament, you've seen how lax crowd control was. Fans were allowed to roam around at will without being restricted by gallery ropes. They also weren't too taxed financially as can seem to be the case nowadays. U.S. Open week began on July 10 in 1922 and it was the first time an admission fee was charged. The venue was Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., and the fee was 1 dollar for a single-day admission and $5 for an all-week pass. If spectators were unhappy having to pay a fee, they could go away feeling they got their money's worth, though. Gene Sarazen, a bright star at age 20, was four behind going into the final round, shot 68 and beat John Black and Bobby Jones, another 20-year-old phenom, by a stroke.
Four men are one victory shy of Harry Vardon's record six Open Championship victories: J.H. Taylor, James Braid, Tom Watson and Peter Thomson, who is recognized today for winning his fifth and final major at the Open. On this date in 1965, Thomson won by two over Brian Huggett and Christy O'Connor Sr. at Royal Birkdale. The Australian had also won at Birkdale in 1954 to make it the site of his first Open victory. Birkdale was the setting for Watson's fifth Open win in 1983, and it will be the Open site this month on July 20-23.
It's July! Let's talk the Open Championship, and its notorious weather. On this day in 1938, at Royal St. George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England, Reg Whitcombe survived in rough weather to win by two strokes over Jimmy Adams and three over defender Henry Cotton. The weather was even more diabolical than normal in 1938. The championship was supposed to be played in Deal at Royal Cinque Ports, but unusual high tides in February had damaged the course with flooding, forcing a switch to St. George's. Rough weather in the championship caused a high 36-hole cut at 8 over par. The 36-hole final day was played in gale-force winds, which tore apart the exhibition tent. Whitcombe managed the mayhem the best, shooting 75-78. His 78 was only 1 of seven scores below 80 in the final round. Classic Open Championship stuff!
As the summer heats up and hot golf weather is featured around the country, the pro tours travel around the Midwest. In Arnold Palmer's first full PGA Tour season of 1955, he was getting hot with the weather, too. On July 7 of '55, he shot a 65 in the first round of the St. Paul Open, one of his best rounds as a rookie. He would add rounds of 67-70-71 to tie for third and win $1,300. Six weeks later, on his fifth tour event after St. Paul, Palmer would win for the first time on tour at the Canadian Open.
The longest day of the year is June 21. Nearly coinciding with that extra sun time 86 years ago was the longest playoff in U.S. Open history. There was a huge need for daylight when Billy Burke and George Von Elm tied after regulation on July 4, 1931, at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. This was the year after Bobby Jones had won the Grand Slam, and then retired from competition. So the 1,141 entries must have had high hopes for success with Jones out of the picture. When Burke and Von Elm played the 36-hole playoff on July 5, they ended in a 149-all tie. They played 36 more on July 6, and incredibly Von Elm shot 149 again, but this time Burke went just one shot better to win. So after 144 holes, the two were only separated by one stroke!