The Presidents Cup concludes today in the New York City area with the one-on-one spectacle of Sunday Singles. The Internationals need to go an unfathomable 12-0 to win. On this date in 1921, a match-play legend, Walter Hagen, won the PGA Championship, 3&2, in the 36-hole final versus two-time champion Jim Barnes. They played in the NYC area at Inwood Country Club near Kennedy International Airport. It was the first of Hagen's record five PGA victories.
This weekend the United States has the biggest lead either side has ever had after two sessions of the Presidents Cup, leading 8-2 at Liberty National in New Jersey. The International team will have to work hard just to make things respectable. But on this date in 2007, the Americans finished off a 19.5 to 14.5 victory at Royal Montreal Golf Club, a match in which they led by 7 points heading into the final-day singles, a session the Internationals won 7-5.
While a premier golf event, the Presidents Cup, plays out on the edge of New York harbor this week, on this date it is noted a premier golf event ended on Sept. 29, 1923, in the New York City area. In a 36-hole final between legends Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen in the PGA Championship at Pelham Golf Club, Sarazen won in 38 holes, for the second consecutive year at just age 21. He ended it with a birdie after hitting an incredible shot out of heavy rough. The Squire won a third PGA 10 years later in 1933.
The only time the Presidents Cup was played in Canada was in 2007 at Royal Montreal Golf Club. On September 28, it was Day 2 with the format that day Four-ball. The International team won the session 4.5 to 1.5, but the U.S. had won Day 1, 5.5 to .5, so the score was 7-5 U.S. after two days. The Americans went on to win 19.5 to 14.5.
The winningest women's professional in golf history was born on this date in 1939. Kathy Whitworth was born in Monohans, Texas, and during a 23-year span on the LPGA Tour won 88 times, six ahead of Mickey Wright for most all-time. Whitworth won on a variety of courses, but she couldn't on U.S. Women's Open courses. In a strange oddity she shares with Sam Snead, the winningest male pro, even though Whitworth won the most times, she never won the National Open, just as Snead didn't. Post-playing career she devoted her time to teaching.
There are some golfers from yesteryear who just didn't come along at the right time to be as well known outside their area as they should have been. Neil Coles is one of them. Born on this date in 1934, the Englishman played in his prime before golf went fully global. Combine that with an aversion to air travel, and Coles was barely known in the U.S. unless you were a fully informed golf nut. But he was a star in Europe, winning seven European Tour titles, 14 senior tournaments, 26 "others" and played on eight Ryder Cup teams. He never won one of the four majors, but his contribution to the game, particularly as a promoter of European Tour golf, earned him a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
This day, of course, will be remembered as the one-year anniversary of Arnold Palmer's death when he died at age 87. On a playing note, and regarding an event dear to Arnold Palmer's life, on this date we look at the U.S. Amateur. It's always neat when records hang on decades later to remain the record. Such a record from 1930 still ranks as the "longest 18-hole match in the U.S. Amateur." On this date in 1930, Maurice J. McCarthy defeated George Von Elm, in the second round at Merion Cricket Club (East Course) in Ardmore, Pa., on the 28th hole. Not surprisingly, McCarthy lost in the next round, 5 and 4, to Jess Sweetser, fatigue undoubtedly playing a role. The 1930 U.S. Am, of course, is noted for the winner, Bobby Jones, completing the Grand Slam.
Tommy Armour is one of those golfers from the early days of professional competitive golf, like Walter Hagen, who had just run out of his best playing days by the time Bobby Jones got the Masters started in 1934. If he'd been in his prime, Armour undoubtedly would have been another career Grand Slam golfer, just as Hagen would have and Gene Sarazen barely did. Armour, the Silver Scot who was born on this date in 1895 in Edinburgh, won the U.S. Open in 1927, the PGA in 1930 and Open Championship in 1931. He played the Masters seven times, but his best finish was 8th. When he was done as a player, Armour became an iconic teacher, working year-round at Winged Foot and Boca Raton.
Judy Bell was born on this date in 1936. She perhaps may not be all that well known except to the most interested of golf fans but she was good enough to play on two Curtis Cup teams in the early 1960s as part of an excellent amateur career. But she was most noted as the first woman president of the U.S. Golf Association in 1996-1997. The Kansas native also served in other capacities with the USGA, and has been doing volunteer work for more than 30 years.
The most U.S. Opens any golfer has won is four, and four is the number of golfers who have done it. The first was Willie Anderson, and he won his fourth on this date in 1905, winning by two over Alex Smith at the Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, Mass. The other players to win four U.S. Opens, and the year they won their fourth, are Bobby Jones (1930), Ben Hogan (1953) and Jack Nicklaus (1980).
Several years of golf tournaments have been canceled due to World Wars I and II, but on this date in 1901, a golf championship was finished after a week's delay due to a death. U.S. president William McKinley was assassinated on Sept. 14 in Buffalo, N.Y., and the funeral service was held on September 19 in Ohio. The U.S. Amateur, being played at the Country Club of Atlantic City, was supposed to conclude on the 14th but was delayed until the 21st in honor of McKinley. Defending champion Walter Travis, who had been medalist, successfully won, 5 and 4, over Walter Egan.
On this date in golf 104 years ago, one of the milestone moments in golf history occurred when Francis Ouimet, an unheralded American, defeated British greats Harry Vardon and Edward (Ted) Ray in a playoff to win the U.S. Open. It was a monumental achievement for an American to beat the leading golfers in the world, which to that point had come from the home of golf in Great Britain. Ouimet shot 72 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., beating Vardon by five and Ray by six.
The month of September is a common life month with the notable men who have played the PGA Tour with the name "Palmer." Seven-time tour winner Johnny Palmer was born in July 1918 and died in September 2006. Golf legend Arnold Palmer was born on September 10, 1929, and died last September 25th. And on this date in 1976 in Amarillo, Tex., Ryan Palmer was born. From the women's side, Sandra Palmer was born on March 10, 1943.
The U.S. Amateur was a regular September event until 1986 when it became a regular August championship. The last time the U.S. Am finished on September 18 was in 1965 when Bob Murphy shot 291 to edge Bob Dickson by a shot at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa. (Two years later, Dickson would win by a shot over Vinny Giles.)
On this date in 1956, at Meridian Hills Country Club in Indianapolis, history was made when Ann Gregory became the first African-American woman to play in a USGA event. She lost in the first round of the U.S. Women's Amateur to Carolyn Cudone, 2 and 1.
This is an off-year for the Ryder Cup, but it's always fun to look at some past history. On this date in 1979 at The Greenbrier, the Ryder Cup ended after the Americans faced a team of Europeans for the first time. Up through 1977, the U.S. had an 18-3-1 record, and to make the event more competitive, continental Europe was added to what had been just a Great Britain & Ireland team. The U.S. still won in 1979, 1981 and 1983, but the European side broke through for its first victory in 1985 and the Ryder Cup has been a dogfight ever since.
It's been long established that the U.S. Open ends in June on Father's Day. But the National Open wandered about the calendar from 1895 until it went permanently into June in 1932. The first few playings were in October (1895), July (1896), September (1897), June (1898) and back to September (1899) again. It was on this date in 1899 that Willie Smith, playing out of the Midlothian Club, won the U.S. Open by 11 shots at Baltimore C.C. with a score of 315, which included an 82 in Round 2.
An often overlooked golf feat--likely because it involved amateur golf--was the consecutive victories Lawson Little, Jr. had in both the Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur. He won each in 1934 and 1935. The U.S. Amateur topped the achievement on this date in 1935 when Little, out of Presidio, Calif., defeated Walter Emery, of Twin Hills, Okla., 4 and 2, at The Country Club in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Only 13 players have won both prestigious amateurs in their career, and just four have won them in the same year. Little is the only player to win them in the same year twice, and he did it in style by doing it in consecutive years.
On this date in 1949, the LPGA Tour was officially formed at a meeting in New York. Playing legend Patty Berg was named president. On page 45 of the 64-page Sept. 14, 1949, New York Times, a headline read: Pro Group Formed for Women's Golf, Organization to Conduct Open Tourney Sept. 22-25--Miss Berg Elected President. Now 68 years later, the tour is stable and has a deep core of young stars.
One of the neat exhibitions in golf history was the World Series of Golf, which started off nicely in 1962, then got blown into a larger 72-hole event, then went back to the original concept as the Grand Slam of Golf, then disappeared from the schedule. On this date in 1965, Gary Player was the winner of the 36-hole format with the champions of the year's four majors playing at Firestone Country Club. Player, the U.S. Open winner, shot 70-69-139 to win $50,000 and beat Jack Nicklaus (Masters, 71-71-142, $15,000), Peter Thomson (Open Ch., 73-71-144, $7,500) and Dave Marr (PGA, 74-77-151, $5,000).