The inaugural World Amateur Team Championship came to a rousing finish on this date in 1958 with the Australian team of Doug Bachli, Peter Toogood, Bruce Devlin and Robert Stevens edging the Bobby Jones-captained American team of Charles Coe, Bill Hyndman III, Billy Joe Patton and Dr. Frank Taylor Jr., 222-224, in a playoff. The two teams had tied after four rounds at 918, playing the Old Course at St. Andrews. Great Britain & Ireland was third at 919. The prize for the Aussies was the fabled Eisenhower Trophy.
Arnold Palmer won the Pensacola Open twice, in 1960 and 1963, and lost a playoff in 1964 to Gary Player. It's a sign of how devoted Arnie was to the game that he would play a small-market tournament on the Florida Panhandle 12 times, but it was that type of event that built the tour to what it is today and players then enjoyed the small-town atmosphere perhaps more than today's player. On Oct. 12, 1980, Palmer should have played the final round of Pensacola that year, but he had missed the cut with 70-77 two days earlier and it became his final time to play there. The event itself ended in 1988.
The U.S. Open of 1902 ended on this date at Garden City Golf Club on Long Island. The eighth playing was won by Laurie Auchterlonie of the Chicago Golf Club. The unveiling of the new rubber-core Haskell ball was credited with Auchterlonie becoming the first U.S. Open champion to shoot in the 70s all four rounds with 78-78-74-77--307. He won by six shots over Stewart Gardner and Walter Travis, two Garden City regulars.
The U.S. Open of 1902 began on this date at Garden City Golf Club on Long Island. Laurie Auchterlonie of the Chicago Golf Club was the leader by two shots after two rounds with 78-78-156. The special feat he achieved will be the highlight of Oct. 11's Day in Golf.
The Ryder Cup has been played up and down the calendar, although we mainly think of it as a fall event. On this date in 1965, it finished at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, with the U.S. winning the singles sessions 10.5 to 5.5 and winning overall 19.5 to 12.5 for Captain Byron Nelson.
Twice in its history the Presidents Cup began on an October 8: in 2009 and 2015. The U.S. defeated the International team by five in 2009 at Harding Park. In 2015 the Americans won by a point at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon City, South Korea.
An iconic moment in the world of golf feats took place on this date in 1965. Bob Mitera holed out his tee shot on the 447-yard 10th hole at Miracle Hill Golf Course in Omaha, Neb. The hole was originally listed at 444 yards but in 1976 the hole was re-measured and listed as 447. There has been plenty of intrigue about Mitera's ace over the years, but it has stood up as the longest straight hole-in-one ever.
In a Presidents Cup with more intrigue than the recently completed rout by the Americans at Liberty National in New Jersey, on this date in 2013, the U.S. won 18.5 to 15.5 at Muirfield Village in Ohio. Fred Couples was the U.S. captain, and just as happened last Sunday, the International team won the singles session in 2013, 7.5 to 4.5.
Harry Vardon, the English great, did not have the mammoth success in the U.S. Open as he had in the Open Championship, but for as little as he played it, he did quite well. He was a runner-up in 1913 in the famous Ouimet playoff and in 1920 by one shot. On this date in 1900, he beat fellow Brit J.H. Taylor by two shots at Chicago Golf Club for his lone victory. Taylor whiffed a putt on the final hole to ensure Vardon's win.
The first U.S. Open ended on this date in 1895, but that inaugural playing took a backseat to the U.S. Amateur, which was played first and had a bigger field, 32 players to 11. The National Open was also played at nine-hole Newport Country Club in Rhode Island as the Amateur was, and the 10 pros and 1 amateur went around four times to play 36 holes all in one day. The winner, using a gutta-percha ball, was Horace Rawlins, 19, an English professional who had come over to Newport to work as an assistant pro. Rawlins' score of 173 was two better than Willie Dunn and was an average of 43.25 for the nine-hole layout. The top prize was $150, and Rawlins also received a $50 gold medal.
The first U.S. Amateur was held at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island and finished after three days on this date in 1895. Charles (C.B.) Macdonald, from the Chicago Golf Club, finished off a romp through the 32-player field by beating Charles E. Sands, 12 & 11, in the final. Macdonald's winning scores in his first four matches were 7&6, 8&6, 5&3 and 8&7. Macdonald got to the semifinals three more times but never got into the final again.
On today's PGA Tour, where every tournament has a $6 million to $10 million prize purse, there's nothing obscure or quaint about the event, its title or location. It wasn't always so, of course. The tour was built on small-market, hometown-style tournaments, and a tour player always sought out any regional event he could get into. On this date in 1955, the first full year Arnold Palmer played as a pro, he finished play in the Long Island Rotary Open played in Huntington, L.I. Max Evans was the winner, while Arnie had rounds of 71-70-68-72—279 to tie for sixth. His prize money was$800, and it was the 10th time he cashed in as a pro. Palmer had won the Canadian Open in August 1955 for his first tour victory.
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.