Ken Venturi, the miracle man who survived brutal heat in 1964 to win the U.S. Open, and who then went on to have a long career as a TV golf analyst, was born on this date in 1931 in San Francisco.
A pair of major champions died on this date nine years apart. In 2009, 1959 PGA champion Bob Rosburg, also well known for his TV work, died at age 82. In 2018, Doug Ford died at age 95, at the time the oldest former major champion in the world. He won the 1955 PGA and 1957 Masters. As the latter, he had the honor of putting the green jacket on Arnold Palmer for his first of four Masters titles.
Gene Sarazen, who had seen all the great golfers from Harry Vardon to Tiger Woods, died on this date in 1999 at age 97 in Naples, Florida. Sarazen was the first golfer to win the career Grand Slam.
A pair of one-time major champions was born on this date in the same year, 1970, and they won their major in the same year, 2003. Jim Furyk, a U.S. Open winner, was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and has 17 PGA Tour victories. He was also the first tour golfer to shoot a 58, at the 2016 Travelers Championship. Lefthanded Masters Tournament winner Mike Weir has eight tour victories and was born in Sarnia, Ontario.
In 2014, Martin Kaymer of Germany won the Players Championship on the TPC Stadium Course, winning wire to wire by one shot over Jim Furyk.
The 1929 Open Championship ended on this date at Muirfield Golf Links, with Walter Hagen winning for the fourth time. It was his 11th and final major victory. He won by six shots over Johnny Farrell.
On this date in 1870, Harry Vardon, a member of golf history’s Great Triumvirate with James Braid and J.H. Taylor, was born on Jersey of the Channel Islands. His pre-eminent feat was winning the Open Championship six times.
On this date in 1893, American golf legend Francis Ouimet was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, close to The Country Club, where he won a historic playoff with Harry Vardon and Ted Ray for the 1913 U.S. Open Championship.
Seve Ballesteros, the five-time major champion of Spanish golf, died on this date in 2011, losing his battle with brain cancer at age 54.
One year into LPGA Tour history in 1951, Patty Berg won the Pebble Beach Weathervane tournament at Pebble Beach Country Club on this date. She shot 152 in the two-day event to take home the $750 first-place prize, four shots ahead of Babe Zaharias.
It’s rare that a golfer’s claim to fame is his putting stroke, but that is the case with Leo Diegel, who died on this date in 1951. His putting style was known as “Diegeling” in which his elbows pointed outward from each other and the arms swung back and forth like a pendulum. He was effective enough that he won consecutive PGAs in 1928-1929 and was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Betsy Rawls, the World Golf Hall of Fame member who won four U.S. Women’s Opens, was born on this date in 1928 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
On this day in 1903, the great entertainer and golf promoter Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington. Mainly noted for his singing and acting, in golf circles Crosby was a fine player whose Crosby Pro-Am Clambake on the Monterey Peninsula popularized the format on the PGA Tour.
On this date in 1965, Marilynn Smith made a 22-foot eagle putt on No. 17 to finish off winning the 13th Annual Betsy Rawls Peach Blossom Open at Spartanburg (S.C.) Country Club for a one-stroke victory over Rawls. Smith had three straight one-under-par 71s in winning the $1,275 top prize. In third place at 216 was Mickey Wright. The eagle had put Smith up by two; Rawls watched at the 18th green as Smith made bogey to hang on.
On this date in 1955, Babe Didrikson-Zaharias won the Peach Blossom LPGA tournament in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for the final victory of her career before she died in 1956.
One of the great championships of the LPGA from yesteryear ended its 1961 playing on this date when Mickey Wright won the Titleholders Championship at Augusta Country Club by one shot over fellow legends Patty Berg and Louise Suggs.
Two-time major champion and former NBC TV-golf analyst Johnny Miller was born in San Francisco on this date in 1947. Known for his hot streaks in winning tournaments in the West, Miller won the 1973 U.S. Open with his legendary final-round 63 at Oakmont, and the 1976 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Jim Thorpe, an African-American star who made his mark before the arrival of Tiger Woods, won the Senior Tradition on this date in 2002 at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club. It was Thorpe’s only major victory and he got it in a playoff with John Jacobs, making a birdie on the first extra hole.
Following a 9.5 to 2.5 American victory in the 1st Ryder Cup in 1927, the second finished on this date in 1929 with Great Britain winning 7-5 at Moortown Golf Club in Leeds, England. It was played in harsh cold and snowy conditions and even hail at one time. Just 2,000 fans saw the action, in which the U.S. led by a slim total after Day 1 of 2.5 to 1.5, but on Day 2 GB won the session 5.5 to 2.5 for victory.
On this date in 1952, Patty Berg shot a 10-birdie 30-34—64 in the first round of the Richmond Women’s Open at 6,330-yard Richmond Golf Club in California. The eight-under score was the lowest ever shot by a woman golfer to that point by two shots. It gave her a seven-shot lead and she would go on to win by four.