The Olympic Club in San Francisco, a club noted for its track-and-field prowess before golf, was founded in 1860. Also on this date, in 1936, the Curtis Cup was completed on the King’s Course at Gleneagles, ending in a 4.5 to 4.5 tie. Baseball bonus: Babe Ruth hit his first Major League home run, playing for the Boston Red Sox, in 1915. It was against the Yankees at the Polo Grounds. Ruth, who started as a pitcher, was 3 for 5 at the plate and pitched 12 and a third innings but took the loss in a 4-3 defeat.

One of the greatest gentlemen in golf history, and most prominent height-wise (6-foot-4), was born on this date in 1923. William (Bill) C. Campbell, was born in Huntington, W.Va. He excelled on the course as a lifelong amateur, winning the 1964 U.S. Amateur, two U.S. Senior Amateurs and 15 West Virginia Amateurs, and off the course as a president of the U.S. Golf Association and captain of the Royal & Ancient. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990, and died on August 30, 2013.

Among the birthday milestones today: 1986 PGA champion Bob Tway was born in 1959; the second African-American on the LPGA Tour Renee Powell was born in 1946. She was also named one of the first seven women to be members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club. And World Golf Hall of Fame member Betsy Rawls was born in 1928. She won 55 LPGA Tour events, including four U.S. Women’s Opens (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960), and two LPGA Championships in 1959 and 1969.

The late Pete Brown won the Waco Turner Open on this date in 1964 at Turner Lodge in Burneyville, Oklahoma, becoming the first African-American to win an official PGA Tour event.

Legendary singer and the first major entertainer/personality to promote the celebrity pro-am format with his Crosby Clambake at Pebble Beach, Bing Crosby, was born on May 2, 1904, in Tacoma, Wash.

On this date in 1930, Glenna Collett led an American squad against a British team at Sunningdale, England, in a precursor to the first Curtis Cup Match played two years later. The British won the 1930 match. Also, opinionated and insightful Frank Beard, an 11-time PGA Tour winner, was born on May 1, 1939.

In the early 1950s, the newly begun LPGA Tour held four 36-hole events over the duration of several weeks, recognizing an overall winner at the conclusion of the 144-hole event. In 1950, the events were held at Pebble Beach, Chicago, Cleveland and New York. Babe Zaharias won the Pebble Beach portion on April 30, and would win later in Cleveland. Louise Suggs won the other two stages, but Zaharias was the overall winner.

This date in 1857 is credited as the publishing date for the first golf instruction book, The Golfer's Manual, “A Keen Hand” by H. B. Farnie. Birthday specials today include two-time major winner, TV analyst and World Golf Hall of Famer Johnny Miller in 1947, and present tour player Justin Thomas in 1993.

Prodigious hitter and self-proclaimed Wild Thing John Daly was born on this day in 1966. He has won two majors, the 1991 PGA and 1995 Open Championship, but only five PGA Tour events overall, a widely regarded underachieving amount for someone with Daly’s immense talent.

Legendary 36-year Chicago Tribune golf editor Charlie Bartlett was born on this date in 1905. He died on November 6, 1967, and at the next Masters, the Charles Bartlett Lounge was dedicated on April 10, 1968, in the now eliminated press building to honor him. The new media center has the Bartlett Lounge dining area.

Using a new putter, Patty Berg shot a 64 in the first round of the 1952 Richmond (Calif.) Open at Richmond Golf Club, to set a women’s record. She would go on to win the tournament by four shots. The 18-hole record now, of course, is the 59 shot by Annika Sorenstam in 2001.

Birthday milestones on April 25 belong to five-time PGA Tour winner Nick Watney, born in 1981, and diminutive Jerry Barber, born in 1916. Barber made a pair of consecutive monster-length putts to win the 1961 PGA; he also holds the record for the oldest to play a tour event; he was 77 years 10 months 9 days when he played in the 1994 Buick Invitational, where he missed the cut.

Some notable birthdays on April 24 include Jonas Blixt 1984, Lee Westwood 1973 and Bob Lunn, the 1963 U.S. Public Links champion, was born in 1945. He won back to back on tour at Memphis and Atlanta in 1968.

Only a handful of players have won the first PGA Tour event they played, and one of them is Marty Fleckman, who was born on April 23, 1944, in Port Arthur, Texas. Fleckman passed qualifying school in October 1967, and just about a month later he won the first pro event he entered, the Cajun Classic, beating Jack Montgomery in a one-hole playoff with a birdie.

Just three days after the third PGA Tour commissioner in history, Tim Finchem, celebrated a birthday, the second commissioner, Deane Beman, observes a birthday, born in 1938. Before becoming the head of the tour in 1974, Beman was an accomplished player, winning the U.S. Amateur twice, British Amateur in 1959, and four PGA Tour events.

April was a popular time of the year to hold the Senior PGA Championship, which is the oldest of the senior majors, starting in 1937. On this date in 1991, Jack Nicklaus won his lone Senior PGA, at PGA National in Florida, with a 17-under 271 score.

Kathy Whitworth is the all-time LPGA Tour leader in victories with 88 and is the leader in most career seasons with a victory with 22. She and three others are tied for the most consecutive wins in scheduled events with four. Whitworth’s fourth came on April 20, 1969, in the Lady Carling Open.

In 1968, production of a one-piece, no-cut golf ball was announced, a major change in ball design. Also on this date, in 1947, retired PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem was born.

After finishes of 1st, 2nd, T-3, 2nd, T-34, T-4, T-36 and T-6 to start 1966, Arnold Palmer went into the Masters as a huge favorite. It was expected he’d continue his every-other-year victory streak. But he was off by one week and tied for fourth on April 11 at the Masters. Instead, on April 18, he won an 18-hole playoff with Gay Brewer, 69-73, to capture the Tournament of Champions.

Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open (also known as the Wyndham Ch.) eight times. No. 7 came on April 17, 1960, when Snead shot his fourth-straight round in the 60s and finished two strokes ahead of Dow Finsterwald at Starmount Forest Country Club.