The 1982 U.S. Women's Open was completed on this date at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California. Janet Alex shot a final-round 68 for 283 (−5) to finish six shots ahead of four runners-up, including Beth Daniel, Donna White, JoAnne Carner and Sandra Haynie. Carner led after 36 holes but shot 75-75 afterward to lose her advantage.
Don January won the 1967 PGA Championship on this date in the 49th PGA, played at Columbine Country Club in Columbine Valley, Colorado, a suburb south of Denver. January won his lone major in an 18-hole playoff with Don Massengale, 69-71, on the par-72 course. They had shot 281, seven under par, to finish regulation one shot ahead of Dan Sikes and Jack Nicklaus.
Mark Calcavecchia won a playoff with Australians Greg Norman and Wayne Grady on this date in the 1989 Open Championship at Troon. It was the first time the championship used a four-hole aggregate playoff to determine the winner. The three had tied at 13-under 275. Calcavecchia handily won the playoff at two under; Grady was one over and Norman's score was an X.
Seve Ballesteros memorably ended Tom Watson's bid to win a third straight Open Championship on this date in 1984 when he birdied the 18th at the Old Course while Watson was making bogey on No. 17. It would have been Watson's sixth Open, to tie him with Harry Vardon for the most all-time. With a normal Watson putting round, he would have won that championship, but he struggled on the greens early on and couldn't get going with the putter, shooting a 73. Ballesteros shot 12-under 276, two ahead of Watson and Bernhard Langer.
Jack Nicklaus won his first PGA Championship on this date in 1963 on the Blue Course at the Dallas Athletic Club. The course played tough. Nicklaus won at five under par by two shots over Dave Ragan. With the metal trophy sitting in heat more than 100 degrees, Jack had to pick up the trophy with a towel. Nicklaus won the long-drive contest on the eve of the first round with a drive more than 341 yards long.
Tom Watson put on a masterful performance in the 1980 Open Championship by shooting 271 at Muirfield, including a round of 69 on this date, and winning by four over second-place Lee Trevino.
The PGA Championship moved to the month of May in 2019, but it has actually been all around the calendar for much of its history. On this date in 1964, Bobby Nichols won the 46th playing at Columbus Country Club in Ohio. His nine-under 271 total beat a pair of heavyweights by three, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Bill Wright, at age 23, became the first African-American to win a USGA event when he won the 1959 U.S. Public Links in Dennver.
On this date in 1958, the PGA Championship went a different direction than it had been going since 1916. The PGA began as a match-play event but switched to medal (stroke) beginning with the '58 playing. The transition had a quaint story line. The 1957 runner-up, Dow Finsterwald, was the first-round leader with a 67 at Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, Pa., by one shot over Jay Hebert, who was the brother of Lionel Hebert, who beat Finsterwald in the 1957 final. It gets better: "Finsty" hung in for the next two rounds then shot another 67 in Round 4 to win by two over Billy Casper.
When the U.S. Women's Open Championship finished on July 16 in the past, one result was a runaway and the other a close battle. Betsy King won in 1989 at Indian Wood in Lake Orion, Mich., by four shots over Nancy Lopez, while in 1995, Annika Sorenstam won by one stroke over Meg Mallon at The Broadmoor.
The U.S. Women's Open is not immune to the occasional out-of-the-blue winner that sometimes occurs in the men's Open. On this date in 1979, Jerilyn Britz was the women's winner at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. The Minnesota native was 36 and had turned pro just five years earlier. The victory, by two over Debbie Massey and Sandra Palmer, was Britz' first and she would win just one more tour event, the Mary Kay Classic the next year of 1980 when she beat defending champion Nancy Lopez in a playoff.
A couple of U.S. Women's Opens ended on this date. In 1985, unheralded Kathy Baker won at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey by three shots over Judy Clark, and in 1991, Meg Mallon won by two shots at hot Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth. She finished two strokes ahead of Pat Bradley.
The first U.S. Senior Women's Open began on July 12, with Amy Alcott shooting a four-over-par 77 to tie for 29th place after round 1. On this date in 1980, the regular Women's Open was concluding with far less drama. Alcott won at Richland Country Club in Nashville, Tenn., with a score of four under par. She went into the final round with an eight-shot lead, shot a one-over-par 72 and ended up winning by nine over Hollis Stacy. It was the second of back-to-back wins for Alcott, who had won the Mayflower Classic the previous week.
Salem (Mass.) Country Club, the Donald Ross-designed course, has had six national championships, the first being the 1932 U.S. Women's Amateur. It was followed by the 1954 Women's Open, 1977 Men's Senior Amateur, 1984 Women's Open, and the 2001 and 2017 Men's Senior Open. The '84 Women's Open began on July 12 and I recall attending the championship on the weekend with my wife. We had moved to the East Coast earlier in the year to work for Golf Digest, and in June had watched the men play the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. It was quite the introduction to National Open golf.
It took the sport of golf several decades to fully creep across the United States, from East Coast to West, which is why it wasn't until the dawn of golf's reign on TV that the first U.S. Golf Association event was held on a course off the U.S. mainland. The playing of the 1960 U.S. Amateur Public Links began on this date at Ala Wai Golf Course in Honolulu. Verne Callison of Sacramento, Calif., was the champion, handily defeating Tyler Caplin of East Lansing, Mich., 7 and 6.
Crowd control is a major part of a tour event's success. During U.S. Open week in 1922, which began on July 10, it was the first time an admission fee was charged. The venue was Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., and the fee was 1 dollar for a single-day admission and $5 for an all-week pass. If spectators were unhappy having to pay a fee, they could go away feeling they got their money's worth, though. Gene Sarazen, a bright star at age 20, was four behind going into the final round, shot 68 and beat John Black and Bobby Jones, another 20-year-old phenom, by a stroke.
Four men were one victory shy of Harry Vardon's record six Open Championship victories: J.H. Taylor, James Braid, Tom Watson and Peter Thomson, who is recognized today for winning his fifth and final major at the Open. On this date in 1965, Thomson won by two over Brian Huggett and Christy O'Connor Sr. at Royal Birkdale. Thomson died in 2018 after suffering from Parkinson's Disease in the last few years.
On this day in 1938, at Royal St. George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England, Reg Whitcombe survived in rough weather to win the Open Championship by two strokes over Jimmy Adams and three over defender Henry Cotton. The weather was even more diabolical than normal in 1938. The championship was supposed to be played in Deal at Royal Cinque Ports, but unusual high tides in February had damaged the course with flooding, forcing a switch to St. George's. The 36-hole final day was played in gale-force winds, which tore apart the exhibition tent. Whitcombe managed the mayhem the best, shooting 75-78.
In Arnold Palmer's first full PGA Tour season of 1955, he was getting hot with the weather. On July 7 of '55, he shot a 65 in the first round of the St. Paul Open, one of his best rounds as a rookie. He would add rounds of 67-70-71 to tie for third and win $1,300. Six weeks later, on his fifth tour event after St. Paul, Palmer would win for the first time on tour at the Canadian Open.
Summer's extra daylight was needed 87 years ago for the longest playoff in U.S. Open history when Billy Burke and George Von Elm tied after regulation on July 4, 1931, at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. This was the year after Bobby Jones had won the Grand Slam, and then retired from competition. When Burke and Von Elm played the 36-hole playoff on July 5, they ended in a 149-all tie. They played 36 more on July 6, and incredibly Von Elm shot 149 again, but this time Burke went just one shot better to win. So after 144 holes, the two were only separated by one stroke!