One of the more obscure LPGA major champions won her only major and only tour event on this date in 1995 when Nanci Bowen won the Nabisco Dinah Shore at Mission Hills CC by one shot over Susie Redman.
On this date in 1934, the first Masters concluded, with the then title Augusta National Invitation Tournament. Horton Smith was the winner when he birdied the 17th hole to win by one shot over Craig Wood. The hole is actually the present eighth; the nines were switched the following year so the back nine became the front and front became the back.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley was born on this date in 1951 in Westford, Massachusetts. She counts the 1981 U.S. Open among her greatest triumphs.
On this date in 1981, Raymond Floyd won the Players Championship (The TPC) at Sawgrass Country Club, beating Curtis Strange and Barry Jaeckel on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. The tournament finished on a Monday due to rain.
On this date in 1964 Carol Mann won the LPGA Western Open at Scenic Hills Country Club in Pensacola, Florida, a two-shot victory over Ruth Jessen and Judy Kimball.
On this date in 1982, Jerry Pate won the first Players Championship played at the Stadium Course and celebrated by jumping into the 18th hole water hazard, pulling commissioner Deane Beman and architect Pete Dye in with him.
Harry Vardon, the golfer from Jersey, an island in the Channel Islands, died on this date in 1937 at age 66. For more than a century, Vardon has been the leading winner of the Open Championship with six victories. He also won the 1900 U.S. Open.
On this date in 1978, Jack Nicklaus won his third Players Championship, at Sawgrass Country Club, by one shot over Lou Graham.
On this date in 1951, the LPGA Titleholders Championship concluded at Augusta Country Club with Beverly Hanson finishing runnerup by two shots to Pat O'Sullivan.
The great amateur Grand Slam champion of 1930 Bobby Jones was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1902, also the same year Gene Sarazen was born. Jones, of course, was also the Georgia native who originated Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament.
On this date in 1954, Hollis Stacy was born in Savannah, Georgia, and went onto a World Golf Hall of Fame career, the main feature being three victories in the U.S. Open. In her youth she won three U.S. Girls’ Juniors.
On this date in 1953, the great and personable Patty Berg won the LPGA Titleholders Championship at the Augusta Country Club, winning for the fifth time, by nine shots over Betsy Rawls.
A pair of single major winners were born on this date: 1963 Open champion Bob Charles, in New Zealand, in 1936, and 1968 Masters champion Bob Goalby in Belleville, Illinois, in 1929.
The PGA Tour is in its Florida swing, this weekend at The Players Ch. at Ponte Vedra Beach. A University of Florida golfer, Andy Bean, was born on this date in 1953 in Lafayette, Georgia. Four of Bean’s 11 PGA Tour victories were won in Florida, including Doral three times.
On this date in 1961, Mickey Wright won the Miami Open by six shots over Louise Suggs. It was part of a unique start to the LPGA season where Suggs and Wright traded off winning the first seven events of the year. Suggs won five times and Wright twice.
The 1956 LPGA Titleholders Championship was won on this date at Augusta Country Club by Louise Suggs by one shot over Patty Berg. It was her third Titleholders victory.
Sandra Palmer, who played during Arnold Palmer’s productive years, was born on this date in 1943 in Fort Worth, Texas. She was often confused with being kin to Arnold but was not. She was slight in height at just 5-2 but was accurate with her fairways clubs and was good enough to win the 1975 U.S. Open, the same year she was LPGA Tour Player of the Year and leading money winner.
A two-time U.S. Open winner who doesn’t get much respect was born on this date in 1950 in Thorp, Wisconsin. Andy North won the National Open in 1978 and 1985, but only won one other tour event. He now does commentary for ESPN.
Raymond Floyd won the Doral Open in Miami on this date in 1992, setting up a first on the PGA Tour. After he turned 50 in early September later that year, he won the senior tour's GTE North Classic, becoming the first player to win on both tours in the same year.
On this date in 1959, Tom Lehman was born in Austin, Minnesota. After attending the University of Minnesota, Lehman turned pro in 1982. He struggled on the mini tours before becoming a solid performer on the PGA Tour. He won the Open Championship in 1996 for his biggest victory.