Australian star Jan Stephenson won 16 times on the LPGA Tour, the first coming on this date in 1976. She finished at two-over-par 218 in the Sarah Coventry Naples Classic on Lely Country Club to edge Judy Meister and Sandra Haynie by one shot.
This date carries a somber tone in golf history. Scottish golfer Freddie Tait, who won the Amateur Championship in 1896 and 1898, died in 1900 at age 30, a victim of the 2nd Boer War. LPGA cofounder and 1947 U.S. Open winner Betty Jameson died in 2009, age 89. And three-time major winner Billy Casper died in 2015 at age 83.
On this date 50 years ago astronaut Alan Shepard hit the most far-out golf shots in the history of the universe. He used a makeshift golf club that had a Wilson Staff 6-iron head on it and hit two balls on the moon surface during the Apollo 14 mission.
Two-time Masters winner José María Olazábal was born on this date in 1966 in Hondarribia, Spain. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, he won at Augusta in 1994 and 1999.
Byron Nelson, a member of one of America’s Big Three with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, was born on this date in 1912 in Waxahachie, Texas, a part of Dallas-Fort Worth. Lord Byron won five majors and in 1945 won a record 19 tournaments.
The 18th Senior PGA Championship ended on this date in Dunedin, Florida, with Al Watrous winning an 18-hole playoff 72-75 with Bob Stupple.
Today was a day of golf infamy. On February 2, 1949, Ben Hogan and wife Valerie were returning home from the Phoenix Open to Fort Worth when a bus hit their car head-on near Van Horn, Texas. Initial reports indicated Ben had died, but he survived only to require months of recovery from severe injuries. He came back to play professional golf again and ultimately win nine majors.
The 20th Senior PGA Championship finished on this date in 1959 at PGA National GC in Dunedin, Florida. The winner was Willie Goggin, using a borrowed set of woods, by one shot over three players, including major champions Paul Runyan and Denny Shute.
On this date in 2015, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko became the youngest male or female golfer to be ranked No. 1 in the world at age 17.
Two Hall of Fame golfers were born on this date two years apart: Curtis Strange, a two-time U.S. Open winner, in 1955 and Payne Stewart in 1957. Stewart also won two U.S. Opens and a PGA and notably passed away tragically in 1999 in a jet crash.
The oldest living major golf champion turns 98 today. Jack Burke Jr. was born on this date in 1923 in Fort Worth, Texas. Burke, cofounder of Champions Golf Club in Houston with Jimmy Demaret, won the Masters and PGA in 1956.
On this date in 1957, three-time major champion Nick Price was born in Durban, South Africa. A two-time PGA Championship winner, Price’s crowning moment was winning the 1994 Open Championship.
On this date in 1967, Arnold Palmer shot a 64 at Rancho Municipal, one of his best scores ever, in the second round of the Los Angles Open. He shot 67 and 68 the next two rounds to win and collect the $20,000 first-place prize money.
On this date in 1957, Arnold Palmer shot an 80 in the third round of the Thunderbird Invitational. It was a bad round surrounded by good ones. For the week he scored 71-69-80-68—288 and tied for 32nd and received a “whopping” $112.50.
This is the date that tradition says the St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland in 1764 reduced the number of golf holes for a round from 22 to 18, which is the number today.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Masashi (Jumbo) Ozaki was born on this date in 1947 in the Kaifu District, Tokushima, Japan. He won a record 94 Japan Tour tournaments.
Yani Tseng was born on this date in 1989 in Taiwan. No one’s light burned as bright as hers early on. She was the youngest to win five majors, in July 2011, at age 22 and a half. In March 2012 she won her 15th LPGA Tour event but she hasn’t won one since.
On this date in 1984, Arnold Palmer won the 45th PGA Senior Ch. at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. It was his second Senior PGA, done with one of the most unusual set of four rounds for a regular or senior event. His middle rounds had a 16-stroke variance: 63 to 79. The good news was that the 63 had put him in the lead by eight (the largest 36-hole lead in 1984 on the senior tour) and the 79 was shot on a blustery day with temperatures in the 40s and the majority of the players scoring high. The weather was gusty for the final round, too, but Palmer steadied himself to win by two over Don January. The 63 would be Palmer’s career low round in senior tour play. Palmer’s scores: 69-63-79-71—282, 1st, $35,000. PGA National/Champion Course (72, 6,520).
Jack Nicklaus, the man recognized as the greatest golfer in history, was born on this date in 1940 in Columbus, Ohio. Nicklaus won 18 major pro titles and two U.S. Amateurs.
One part of a brother tandem that won majors was born on this date in 1928. Lionel Hebert was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, the younger brother of Jay. Lionel won the 1957 PGA, the final time it was played at match play and three years before Jay won the same major. Lionel also played in the 1957 Ryder Cup.