Years and years before Byeong-Hun An set the record in 2009 as the youngest champion of the U.S. Amateur at 17 years 11 months 13 days, Robert Gardner won on this date in 1909 to become the youngest champ at 19 years 5 months. Gardner, of Hinsdale, Ill., won at nearby Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton when he beat H. Chandler Egan, 4 and 3. Gardner's record stood until Tiger Woods won in 1994 at 18 years 7 months 29 days.

After highlighting several lesser-known Arnold Palmer Dates in Golf this past week, there's nothing obscure about today's date, when he would have been 88. Arnold Daniel Palmer was born on Sept. 10, 1929, and grew up in Latrobe, Pa. In 15 days, it will have been one year since his death. There is one obscure note to add about Arnie on this day the Walker Cup concludes in Los Angeles: He never played on a Walker Cup team. By the time he would have likely been picked, after winning the U.S. Amateur in 1954, he decided to turn pro by the end of the year and the next match wasn't until May 1955.

Now through what would have been Arnold Palmer's 88th birthday on Sept. 10, This Day in Golf will look at lesser-known Arnie dates: The Rubber City Open was a PGA Tour event played from 1954 to 1959 at Firestone Country Club. Arnie played all but the first one. He was T-36 in 1955, then was 2nd, 1st, T-12 and T-4. The 1956 Rubber City Open finished on this date, with Palmer shooting 69 for 2nd place. Here were his five results: 1955, July 28-31: 71-69-72-73—285, T-36, No Money; 1956, Sept. 6-9: 67-68-68-69—272, 2nd, $2,000; 1957, June 6-9: 71-66-67-68—272, 1st, $2,800, defeated Doug Ford in six-hole, sudden-death playoff; 1958, July 3-6: 72-68-68-68—276, T-12, $630; and 1959, Aug. 20-23: 66-69-68-69—272, T-4, $1,100.

Now through what would have been Arnold Palmer's 88th birthday on Sept. 10, This Day in Golf will look at lesser-known Arnie dates: It likely didn't take long for Arnie to realize the impact he was having on golf crowds and how his success was bringing popularity to the game. You can see in his scheduling that he tried to get to a variety of locales to bring attention to the tour. It said a lot that four years after his final tour victory and 22 years after he joined the tour, he made his one and only stop at the small-market B.C. Open in 1977. The first round was on Sept. 8, and Palmer fired a 65, likely feeling he should have come to Endicott, N.Y., earlier. But things slipped from there and his full line was 65-69-75-74—283, which tied him for 22nd and earned $1,780. But he had delivered some high-powered publicity to the area. 

Now through what would have been Arnold Palmer's 88th birthday on Sept. 10, This Day in Golf will look at lesser-known Arnie dates: Sept. 7, 1986, was the final day of the Chrysler Cup, a senior tour version of the Ryder Cup but with the Americans versus the Internationals. In that first year, the U.S. won quite easily, with Arnie as captain (he captained all five years it was played with a 4-1 record), and it was during the inaugural event at the TPC at Avenel course in Potomac, Md., that he aced the 187-yard No. 3 hole two days in a row using the same 5-iron.

Now through what would have been Arnold Palmer's 88th birthday on Sept. 10, This Day in Golf will look at lesser-known Arnie dates: Sept. 6, 1958, was the second round of the Utah Open at Salt Lake Country Club. Arnie followed a 65 with a 69, then shot 68 and 66 to shoot 268 and tie Fred Hawkins for second, one shot behind winner Dow Finsterwald. The T-2 was worth $1,350. A side note: While in Salt Lake City for the tournament, Palmer, who had won his first Masters earlier that year, looked over and approved the story he was doing with Golf Digest that became the November 1958 cover story, "How I Improved My Putting."

Georgian Watts Gunn had a strong amateur career, and was elected to the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, but in the 1925 U.S. Amateur that ended on this date, he was no match for another Peach State amateur three years his senior--Bobby Jones. In the final at Oakmont Country Club, Jones cruised past Gunn, 8 and 7, to win his second National Amateur of an eventual total of five victories.

Two major champions who developed their legendary status in the hardscrabble days of small purses and ever-present hall-of-fame-caliber golfers celebrate birthdays on this date. Raymond Floyd turns 75 while Tom Watson is 68. The World Golf Hall of Fame members played high quality golf into their twilight years but also share the disappointment that they were one major shy of a lifetime Grand Slam. Watson never won the PGA while Floyd never captured The Open Championship.

It is rare for any side in the Walker Cup Match to be shutout, so rare, in fact, that it's only been done one time. It occurred on this date in 1936, when the U.S. defeated Great Britain & Ireland, 9-0, at Pine Valley. What helped was that halved matches did not earn a half point at the time; three matches were halved in 1936 but neither side earned points. It wasn't until 1971 that halved matches were awarded a half-point to each team; the only way a team could be blanked now is if it didn't tie or win a single match both days. In '36, American legend Francis Ouimet was U.S. captain; it was one of five captaincies for him, in which he had a 4-1 record.

Byron Nelson won two PGA Championships, the first coming on this date in 1940 when he played a memorable 36-hole final against Sam Snead, winning 1 up. The tournament was played at Hershey Country Club and at the time Nelson was playing out of the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

There has been a lot of match-play focus going on lately with the Solheim Cup and major amateur events; the Walker Cup and Presidents Cup are on the horizon. Which makes today's history anecdote appropriate. In 1932, John Golden defeated five-time champion Walter Hagen in 43 holes in the first round of the PGA Championship at Keller Golf Club in St. Cloud, Minn. The event was held Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. Each round was scheduled for 36-hole matches. The Golden-Hagen match went 7 extra holes, longest for a 36-hole match in PGA Ch. history.

It's "happy birthday" on today's date to a pair of major golf champions. Irishman Padraig Harrington, winner of The Open twice and the PGA once, was born in 1971, and Charl Schwartzel, born in South Africa in 1984, won the Masters in 2011.

Two days ago, the crowning achievement in Arnold Palmer's amateur career was noted with his victory in the 1954 U.S. Amateur. On today's date, we make note of his entry into the U.S. Amateur as a competitor. Arnie, a couple weeks shy of 19, played in his first U.S. Amateur match on Aug. 30, 1948, at Memphis Country Club. In Round 1, Palmer played William K. Barrett Jr., of Colonial, Tenn., and lost 6 and 5. But the loss had a feel-good element in that Barrett went fairly deep into the tournament, losing to eventual runner-up Raymond Billows in Round 5.

The Walker Cup Match is older than the Ryder Cup, pro golf's intense battle between the United States and Europe. The Walker Cup began in 1922, and that first event ended on today's date. The Walker Cup is an amateur event between the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland. The U.S. defeated G.B & I., 8-4, in 1922. Among the stars back then were Bobby Jones, Chick Evans, Francis Ouimet, Cyril Tolley and Roger Wethered. The match was played in 1923, 1924 and then every two years after that. The U.S. leads the series, 35-9-1, and will be the host country next month for the Sept. 9-10 match at Los Angeles Country Club North Course.

On this date 63 years ago, Arnold Palmer won the U.S. Amateur Championship, one of his final amateur feats, and later in 1954 he began a pro career that made him a worldwide superstar and ultimately mythical figure. In the Amateur final, which took place on a Saturday, Palmer, 24, defeated Bob Sweeny, 1 up (36 holes), at the Country Club of Detroit, a Robert Trent Jones redesign of a Harry S. Colt layout that had been extended to 6,875 yards. In early September, Arnie met his future wife, Winifred Walzer, at Fred Waring's annual tournament in Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, Pa. Armed with his Amateur title, Palmer was set by the end of the year to play professionally and his transformation of the sport began.

Also today, teaching great Butch Harmon is 74 years old.

The greatest amateur in golf history has a 90th anniversary today. On this date in 1927 Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis. He defeated another elite player of the day, Charles (Chick) Evans, quite handily, 8 and 7, in the final. It was Jones' third U.S. Am title; his fifth and final came in 1930 during his legendary Grand Slam year.

As far removed as Phil Mickelson is from his amateur golfing career, its easy to forget how many big tournaments he won, beginning with the 1980 Junior World Golf Championships (boys division age 9–10). He won the Pac-10 title in 1990, the NCAA title three times, and on this date in 1990, the U.S. Amateur for the only time. Mickelson was medalist at Cherry Hills, and won in the final against Manny Zerman, 5 and 4.

Ben Hogan is known for a multitude of golf exploits and traits, one of them being that he started winning majors somewhat late in his career. His first came on this date in 1946 when he beat Ed (Porky) Oliver, 6 and 4, in the PGA Championship final at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club. Hogan was 34 at the time and would win his ninth and final major in 1953 just shy of age 41.

Vicki Goetze (-Ackerman) was notable in golf as a junior legend, never winning the U.S. Girls' Junior (she was medalist/runner-up in 1990), but three times winning the PGA Junior Championship, including on this date in 1990. She won her first two in 1987 and 1989. She won the 1989 and 1992 U.S. Women's Amateur and played on two Curtis Cup teams for the U.S. As a pro, she never won on the LPGA Tour, but presently is the LPGA Player President and in December 2016 joined the American Junior Golf Association’s Board of Directors. Goetze-Ackerman was named AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year three times from 1988 to 1990. Only she and Phil Mickelson have won the top AJGA award three times.

The great global golf champion Peter Thomson celebrates his 88th birthday on this date. Born in Melbourne, Australia, just a few weeks before Arnold Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pa., the World Golf Hall of Famer's main feat was winning five Open Championships, in 1954-1956, 1958 and 1965. He won just a single PGA Tour event, the 1956 Texas Open, but he had one of the greatest Champion Tour seasons in 1985 with nine victories. He won the Senior PGA in 1984 and the Senior Open Championship in 1988. Thomson's game was noted for his calm and clear-thinking style and he preferred to bounce or run balls up to the green with his low ball flight.