Happy New Year. May your golf game be a source of pleasure in 2018. On this date in 1938, the 14-club limit imposed by the Rules of Golf became effective. Up until then, players carried as many as they wanted. Caddies heaved a sigh of relief with their lighter loads.
The stymie rule officially died on this date in 1951. The rule called for balls to be played as they came to rest on the green; you couldn't mark the ball and pick it up. That meant that if a golfer's ball stopped between the hole and another player's ball, that player had "laid a stymie" and the "stymied" golfer had to putt around the ball or in some instances tried to chip over the ball to hole out. To see an example, there is old newsreel video of Paul Runyan chipping over a stymie successfully on the green in his 1938 PGA Championship victory over Sam Snead.
Today is Tiger Woods' birthday. He was born on this date in 1975, putting him at 42 as he enters 2018 with huge hopes for a healthy golf season, one that might reignite his chase for PGA Tour victory records and Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors.
Celebrated golf course architect Pete Dye observes a birthday on this date. He was born in 1925 in Urbana, Ohio, making him 92. Dye, whose designs were notable for their railroad tie bulkheads, has done dozens of well-known courses, including the TPC Stadium Course in Florida. He has received nearly every award conceivable for his design work and is in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
A pair of golfers with similar records are celebrating birthdays on this date. Hubert Green, the 1977 U.S. Open and 1985 PGA champion, was born in 1946 in Birmingham, Ala., and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007. He played in three Ryder Cups. German Martin Kaymer, born in 1984, will likely be in the Hall, too, since he won a PGA (2010), U.S. Open (2014), and has played on four Ryder Cup teams, including making the winning putt in 2012 for Europe. He also won the 2014 Players Championship.
In my opinion, Dave Marr, the 1965 PGA champion, was part of the finest TV golf broadcast team with Jim McKay on ABC. Marr was born on this date in Houston in 1933. I only met him once, at Shinnecock Hills during the U.S. Open, and I was clumsy company I'm sure. He passed away far too early a couple months shy of turning 64. Also on the birthday list today is Charley Hoffman, born in San Diego in 1976.
One of the most successful "silly season" events, the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge, ended on this day in 1993, with the team of Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus and Chi Chi Rodriguez, representing the Champions Tour, coming out on top.
The event on this date is one of the most infamous in golf history. Young Tom Morris, the great Open Championship winner and son of Old Tom, died on Christmas Day in 1875 at just age 24. The four-time Open winner died three months after the death of his wife and newborn child.
Today's anecdotes touch upon a pair of "vintage" figures in golf's history. On this date in 1965, Margaret Curtis died. Born on October 8, 1883, Curtis, along with sister Harriot, were pivotal female players in the early stages of golf in the U.S. They donated the cup that became the top prize for the women's international match called the Curtis Cup. That was after they each were U.S. Women's Amateur champions. Also on this date, in 1861, British amateur great John Ball Jr. was born. Ball won eight Amateur Championships, including in 1890 when he also won the Open Championship. He was 51 when he won his eighth Amateur Championship in 1912.
Herman Barron, born on this date in 1909 in Port Chester, N.Y., was a modestly successful tour pro who ended his career as a club pro at Fenway Golf Club, in Scarsdale, N.Y., after 43 years there. Barron won four times on the PGA Tour, and his 1942 victory at the Western Open is considered the first official PGA Tour victory by a Jewish golfer. He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
The U.S. Golf Association was begun, in part, to administer the game's rules and to establish the championships that would determine national winners. On this date in 1894, delegates from five clubs came together in New York City and formed the USGA and elected a president. The following year, the inaugural playings of the U.S. Open and men's and women's Amateur were held.
The great Walter Hagen was born on this date in 1892 in Rochester, N.Y. The Haig was known for his showmanship but he could back it up; he won 11 majors, including five PGA Championships, four of them in a row from 1924-1927. He won two U.S. Opens and four Open Championships. He played in the Masters but never really had a shot at winning one; by the time it started in 1934, Hagen was past 41 and beyond his best playing days.
Today's anecdote doesn't have much to do with golf per se, but it's importance can't be discounted. On this day in 1954, Arnold Palmer married Winifred (Winnie) Walzer, who he had only met in September of that year, one month after winning the U.S. Amateur. They were engaged in September, but weren't going to get married for several months. But when Arnie seemed distracted about the whole waiting game, his father said to just get hitched and get on with his golf, which is what he did. He played his first full tour season in 1955 and had his first tour win that year at the Canadian Open.
Today is a chance to cite a winning Senior PGA Tour team in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge, which ended on this date in 1999. The event, which ran from 1992 to 2013, had three-person teams from the PGA, LPGA and senior tours playing against each other over 36 holes. The seniors of Hale Irwin, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson won in '99 at Reflection Bay Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, Nev.
On this date in 1994, the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge ended with the PGA Tour team of Greg Norman, Fred Couples and Paul Azinger winning the two-round event at PGA West's Jack Nicklaus Resort Course in LaQuinta, Calif. at 10 under par.
On this date in 1989, the Mazda Champions, a three-round, mixed-team event at the Hyatt Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico, was won by Patti Rizzo and Mike Hill at 25 under par.
The PNC Father/Son Challenge begins today in Orlando. Now in its 20th playing, it began strictly as what the title says, a father and his son. But exceptions have been made over the years, including allowing daughters to play, and one big exception was made in order to get Arnold Palmer in the field starting in 2003: grandsons. Arnie played six times with grandson Sam Saunders, but on this date in 2012, he and another grandson, Will Wears, finished the event in 18th. It was the only event Palmer played in 2012, and it was essentially the last time he played a tour-related event in his career.
The contemporary golf fan likely does not realize there is an entire universe of tour golf they know nothing about. The PGA Tour that slowly came together roughly 80 years ago was a far cry from what we see today, mainly in terms of money, course condition/yardage, and tournament location. There were some very obscure places compared to today. In Arnold Palmer’s first full tour season, 1955, he demonstrated an attitude of even going to offbeat locales to play golf. One such event was the Mayfair Inn Open, in Sanford, Fla., designed to showcase the inn’s 155-room resort hotel on Lake Monroe. The event was played at Mayfair Country Club from 1955 to 1958 and Arnie played all four years. On Dec. 15, 1955, he shot a 72 in Round 1 and withdrew. On Dec. 15, 1957, he shot a third-straight 69, in Round 4, to tie for 22nd. He also tied for 7th in 1956 and for 17th in 1958. The event didn’t help too much; the hotel closed in the 1960s.
On this date in 1975, Jane Blalock won the 36-hole Colgate Triple Crown at Mission Hills CC in Palm Springs and top prize of $15,000, beating a field of nine players. Blalock, of Highland Beach, Fla., sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with JoAnne Carner and Judy Rankin. All three had finished with scores of 142.
Rickie Fowler turns 29 years old today. The California native has four PGA Tour victories, including two in 2015, after which observers thought his first major victory was just a matter of time. But he has eight top-10s in majors, including two in 2017, so it's still a waiting game. His win at the Hero World Challenge earlier this month indicates he's on the right track.