Nov. 10 has significance twice over in golf. Taken chronologically, this is the day in 1957 that Charlie Sifford, age 34, became the first African-American to win a significant golf tournament when he won the Long Beach Open, using a putter he received from boxing great Joe Louis no less. The tournament was 54 holes and not an official PGA Tour event, but Sifford’s victory in a three-hole playoff with Eric Monti was significant nonetheless as it was a Jackie Robinson-type moment in golf. Among the stars in the field he beat were Billy Casper, Jay Hebert, Gene Littler, Jerry Barber, Gay Brewer, Tony Lema, Tommy Bolt, Harry Cooper and Mike Souchak. The PGA had a clause in its constitution that allowed Caucasians only for membership, and thus barred non-whites from playing in its tour events. Four years later at the 1961 annual meeting in Hollywood, Fla., on another Nov. 10, the PGA of America removed that discriminatory clause from its constitution and paved the way for African-Americans to become members and thus play on tour. Shortly after, Sifford became the first black golfer to compete on the PGA Tour as a member, making Nov. 10 quite a special day in his career and African-American golfers who followed.
Both Tom Weiskopf and David Duval celebrate birthdays on this date, turning 75 and 46, respectively. They have had similar careers, expected to win multiple majors but winning just one at the Open Championship. Weiskopf is the 1973 winner, born in 1942, and Duval, born in 1971, won it in 2001. They each went on to successful side jobs in golf, Weiskopf in course design and Duval as a Golf Channel analyst.
Jack Nicklaus was torn about turning pro or remaining an amateur, an arena where he would have been more dominant than Bobby Jones. But in a letter dated Nov. 7, 1961, Nicklaus wrote to the USGA's Joe Dey that he intended to turn pro, making this date in 1961 the first full day Nicklaus could feel he was a pro. The following year he won the U.S. Open in a playoff with Arnold Palmer, and he was off to greater heights as the best to ever play.
Charles (Chick) Evans was the first of two men to win the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open in the same year, which he did in 1916. Bobby Jones won them both in 1930. Evans, who died on this date in 1979 at age 89, won the Western Amateur six times, the Western Open once, and the U.S. Amateur again in 1920. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Evans has the enduring legacy of the Evans Scholarship Foundation, which helps caddies attend college.
The new press building at Augusta National was opened last year to incredible fanfare, and deservedly so. It is miles advanced from the Quonset Hut first used at the club for the Masters. Whether it was the old or new places, however, the Bartlett Lounge has always been there. It's named after Charlie Bartlett, the Chicago Tribune golf editor, who was a key writing figure in the formative years of the tournament. He passed away on this day in 1967.
The great match-play wizard Walter Hagen won his fourth straight PGA Championship on this date in 1927, and fifth overall, when he beat Joe Turnesa, 1 up, at Cedar Crest C.C. in Dallas. Celebrating a 39th birthday today is two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson.
Every professional golfer has to get started as a pro some day, and on this date in 1954, the great Mickey Wright is recorded as having turned pro. Viewed by most experts as the greatest women's golfer ever, and having the greatest swing male or female, the San Diego native is second in all-time LPGA victories with 82 and has four U.S. Women's Open titles among her major victories.
Arnold Palmer played his first PGA Tour season in 1955, winning the Canadian Open for his first tour victory, and he was off and running, winning at least once for 17 straight seasons. On this date in 1957, he was already on tour win No. 7, winning the San Diego Open, with scores of 65-68-68-70—271, with first-place money of $2,800. The following April he would win his first major, the Masters.
Dave Stockton, a two-time PGA champion, was born on this date in 1941. The putting maestro has been a proficient author in his later years, namely "Own Your Game," "Unconscious Putting," "Unconscious Scoring," and from 1996, "Dave Stockton's Putt to Win."
A couple major figures had birthdays on November 1. Grantland Rice, the sportswriter closely aligned with the Golden Age of Sports, was born in 1880. And Gary Player was born in 1935. The South African World Golf Hall of Fame member won nine major championships and is still traveling the world as a legendary golf ambassador and member of the Big Three with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
Bobby Jones is not just an all-time playing great, but he is also considered the greatest golfer who could write well. He had ghost-writers at times, but he was a learned and adept scribe in his own right. Today's date is traditionally thought of in some references as the day his 1960 book, Golf Is My Game, was published.
Arnold Palmer recognized the value of proving his prowess on the world stage, which made him such a global star and icon. In the early 1960s he started playing the Open Championship, and shortly later became a familiar face around the world. On this date in 1966, he won an international title at the Australian Open, shooting rounds of 67-70-66-73—276, and earning first-place prize of $1,792. On the second week of his two-part trip to Aussie land one week later, he lost a two-hole playoff to Bob Stanton in the Dunlop International in Kensington.
As noted a few days ago, Arnold Palmer entered his declining years on the PGA Tour in the early 1970s. He is tied with Jack Nicklaus for the longest streak of winning at least one tour event each year with 17, starting in 1955 for AP. But he didn't win in 1972, and had his closest finish on this date that year when he went 65-69-71-69—274, to win $15,400 and finish one shot behind young newcomer Lanny Wadkins in the Sahara Invitational. It was Arnie's best finish out of 22 events, and it was played in Las Vegas at the Sahara Nevada C.C.
In the 1960s, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were a dominant pair at the World Cup. On this date in 1963, at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Breteche, Paris, inclement weather shortened the final round to nine holes, but the King and the Bear still took first as a team. Palmer shot 69-70-72-34—245 to tie for fifth and Nicklaus' final nine-hole 32 was good enough to secure first place.
Celebrating a 61st birthday on this date is Patty Sheehan, the Vermont native who is in the World Golf Hall of Fame on the strength of 35 LPGA Tour wins, including six majors, among them two U.S. Women's Opens and three LPGA Championships. She played on five Solheim Cup teams and captained the Americans twice.
Arnold Palmer entered his fallow period on the PGA Tour in the early 1970s. His streak of winning at least one tour event each year starting in 1955 ended in 1972, when the closest he came to winning out of 22 events entered was one second-place finish. That tournament began on this date in '72 at the Sahara Invitational, played in Las Vegas at the Sahara Nevada C.C. Arnie shot his best round of 1972 in the first round with a 65. He went 69-71-69—274, to win $15,400 and finish one shot behind young newcomer Lanny Wadkins.
Herman Densmore Shute, better known as Denny, was born in Cleveland on this date in 1904, two years after Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen were born. Shute won 16 PGA Tour events, but held his own in the majors at a time when Snead, Hogan and Nelson were coming along. Shute won the 1933 Open Championship and went back to back in the PGA in 1936 and 1937. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008.
Tall Australian Marc Leishman has been on a good roll in the last year, alternating wins with being in the hunt. He was in the mix again last weekend, losing a two-hole playoff to Justin Thomas at the CJ Cup in South Korea. In 2017 he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and then dominated at the BMW Championship. The 2009 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year celebrates his 34th birthday on this date.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Chi Chi Rodriguez celebrates his 82nd birthday today. Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, Rodriguez' given name is Juan, but he got the nickname Chi Chi because he loved baseball and picked up on the name of local star Chi Chi Flores. One of the game's legendary showmen, Rodriguez won eight times on the PGA Tour, and 22 senior events from 1986 to 1993, plus two senior majors.
The 1967 Ryder Cup ended on this date with the usual final-day, Sunday Singles. But 50 years ago, there were eight morning matches and eight afternoon matchups as opposed to 12 singles matches total nowadays. The 1967 event was held at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The Americans had a 10-point lead heading into Singles, and won that session 10.5 to 5.5. Both Arnold Palmer and Al Geiberger won two matches each on the final day for the U.S., and Neil Coles was a two-time singles winner for Great Britain.