On this date, back-to-back PGA Championships concluded. In 1966 Al Geiberger won by four shots at Firestone Country Club, and in 1967, Don January won 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 (the course where Xander Schauffele just won the Open with a final-round 65). 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. Also, on this date in 1995, John Daly won the Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews, also beating Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff. It was his second major victory. Two days earlier, two-time winner Arnold Palmer missed the cut in a final Open appearance.
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 posted 12-under 276, two ahead of Watson and Bernhard Langer.
On this date in 1963 Jack Nicklaus won his first of five PGA Championships, 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 huge Wanamaker winner’s trophy having sat in the sun and heat of more than 100 degrees, Jack had to pick up the trophy with a towel like a pair of oven mitts to hold it. Nicklaus also 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 shooting a 69 on this date, and winning by four over second-place Lee Trevino. Watson won the Open Championship for the third time.
The PGA Championship moved its date to May in 2019, but it has actually been all around the calendar for much of its history. On this July 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. Nichols led from wire to wire.
Bill Wright, at age 23, became the first African-American golfer to win a national championship when he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship on this date in 1959. He defeated Frank Campbell, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole final in Denver.
On this date in 1983, Tom Watson won his fifth Open Championship, at Royal Birkdale, one shot ahead of Hale Irwin and Andy Bean. Watson blistered a 2-iron to the final green and two-putted for par. At age 33, and with five victories in eight years, it seemed a foregone conclusion Watson would catch and perhaps pass Harry Vardon’s record of six. But in every following chance for victory, something went wrong, historically in 2009, and a sixth title was never clinched. And 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. One of the greatest and most confounding results in major championship history occurred on this date in 1938 when diminutive Paul Runyan defeated Sam Snead, 8 and 7, in the final of the PGA Championship at Shawnee Country Club. Runyan’s precise short game and fairway woods overcame Snead’s 30- to 40-yard driving advantage.
On this date in 1961, after nearly winning the Open Championship in his first try in 1960, Arnold Palmer won the first of two straight Opens, at Royal Birkdale, by one shot over Dai Rees. Also, 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 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. And on this date in 1973, Tom Weiskopf won his only major, winning The Open Championship at Royal Troon by three shots over Johnny Miller and Neil Coles with a 12-under-par 276 score. Weiskopf was the first player since 1934 to lead the championship from wire to wire.
Three Open championships ended on this date in the 1960s. In 1962, Arnold Palmer won his second consecutive title, at Royal Troon, beating Kel Nagle of Australia by six shots with a record score of 276. A year later, Bob Charles defeated Phil Rodgers in a playoff to win at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, winning the 36-hole battle by eight shots. And in 1968, at Carnoustie, South African Gary Player won his second of three championships, two shots ahead of Charles and Jack Nicklaus. The first U.S. Senior Women's Open began on July 12, 2018, 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 several national championships, the first being the 1932 U.S. Women's Amateur. Others include the 1954 and 1984 U.S. Women's Opens, 1977 Men's Senior Amateur, 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. Of historic events on today’s date…Mickey Wright won her fourth U.S. Women’s Open in 1964…in 1930, Bobby Jones won a record-tying fourth U.S. Open, at Interlachen, two strokes ahead of Macdonald Smith. This was part of Jones’ epic Grand Slam season. Also on this date, Tony Jacklin won the 1969 Open and Jack Nicklaus the 1970 Open.
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. Also on this date, in 1993, Jack Nicklaus two-putted from 35 feet on the final green to win the U.S. Senior Open by one shot over Tom Weiskopf at Cherry Hills Country Club. It was Jack’s second U.S. Senior Open. Weiskopf had no doubt Jack would get down in two. “Who can tell me when Jack Nicklaus has ever three-putted to lose a major championship or missed a putt under pressure?” Weiskopf said. “The guy is the greatest putter under pressure of all time, bar none.”
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. Also, one of the Open Championships more memorable playings ended on this date in 1953 with Ben Hogan winning by four strokes over a quartet of players at Carnoustie. It culminated a year in which Hogan won the first three majors of the year but couldn’t play the PGA because it conflicted with The Open.
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 June 2018 after suffering from Parkinson's Disease for a few years. Of the many major championships that ended on this date, a few more stand out. In 1904, Willie Anderson won his third of four U.S. Open championships, at Glen View Golf Club in Golf, Illinois. In 1960, Kel Nagle beat Arnold Palmer by one shot for the Open Championship at the Old Course in Scotland, as Palmer tried to win the centenary year tournament and take the first three majors of the year. And in 1977, Tom Watson held off Jack Nicklaus to win the Open at Turnberry by one stroke in the famous “Duel in the Sun” when they separated themselves from the rest of the field.
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. It was a better day on this date in 1955 when the Open Championship concluded once again at the Old Course, St. Andrews. The Champion Golfer of the Year was Australia’s Peter Thomson, who won his second of three straight titles.
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. Also, in one of the finals that helped convince the PGA of America that the organization should change from match play to stroke play, the 1953 PGA Championship ended on this date at Birmingham Country Club in Michigan with two nondescript players in the final. Local man Walter Burkemo defeated Felize Torza, 2 & 1, to win the major. Top players such as Sam Snead and Cary Middlecoff did not get to the quarterfinals, and Ben Hogan did not play at all because the Open Championship at Carnoustie, which he won, was scheduled too close to the PGA to allow him to get back and play.
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! Also on this date, in 1956, Australia’s Peter Thomson won his third straight Open Championship, at Royal Liverpool, by three shots over Flory Van Donck of Belgium. Thomson would win two more Opens.
LIke his fellow American Ben Hogan born in 1912, Sam Snead won the Open Championship one time. Snead did it on this date in 1946 at St. Andrews, winning at two under par, four shots ahead of Bobby Locke and Johnny Bulla. Snead famously groused about how the trip over to Scotland was so expensive that he lost money on the trek even though he was awarded the winner’s share of $600. Also, seven women have won back-to-back U.S. Open titles in its history under the USGA. One of them, Donna Caponi, did the second part of the feat on this date in 1970 at Muskogee (Okla.) Country Club. She finished the championship at one under par, a shot ahead of Sandra Haynie and Sandra Spuzich. The other six back-to-back winners were Mickey Wright (1958, 1959), Susie Berning (1972, 1973), Hollis Stacy (1977, 1978), Betsy King (1989, 1990), Annika Sorenstam (1995, 1996), and Karrie Webb (2000, 2001).