The 1982 U.S. Men's Amateur Championship was won by Jay Sigel on this date at The Country Club when he handily won, 8 & 7, over David Tolley. This ties in with the Day in Golf note for yesterday September 4. On this date in 1925, the great amateur Bobby Jones, President in Perpetuity of Augusta National Golf Club, won the 29th playing of the U.S. Amateur, beating Watts Gunn, 8 and 7, at Oakmont for his second title.
Jay Sigel won the 1983 U.S. Amateur Championship on this date at North Shore Country Club, by an 8&7 score over Chris Perry, to give him two consecutive Amateur titles. He had also won 8&7 the previous year over David Tolley at The Country Club. Also, two American golf stars, both in the World Golf Hall of Fame, were born on this date. In 1942, Raymond Floyd, a four-time major winner, was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And in 1949, eight-time major champion Tom Watson was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
Billy Casper, the odd-man out of the Big Three of Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, won his 50th PGA Tour victory on this date in 1973 at age 42. He finished at 20-under-par 264 to beat Australian Bruce Devlin by one stroke to win the Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open in Wethersfield, Connecticut. When he finished on the 18th green, a group of people 30,000 strong surrounded it as he celebrated his fourth victory in the tournament. Casper’s final round was a 64. He made a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to pull ahead and hold off Devlin.
The 1940 PGA Championship ended on this date. It was the 23rd PGA, held at Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was a meeting of titans: Byron Nelson won his first PGA, defeating Sam Snead, 1-up, in the 36-hole final, taking the Wanamaker Cup.
The 1893 Open Championship, the 33rd playing, ended on this date. The tournament was played over two days, 36 holes each day. The winner at Prestwick, in Scotland, was Scotsman Willie Auchterlonie, who shot 322, two shots ahead of amateur Johnny Laidlay.
Three major championship winners share life events on this date. Pádraig Harrington was born in 1971 and the Irishman won the Open Ch. of 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Ch. of 2008. The 2011 Masters winner, Charl Schwartzel, was born in 1984 in South Africa. And the 1967 Masters champion, Gay Brewer, died on this date at age 75 in 2007. Fifty-six years ago on this date, Bruce Fleisher won the U.S. Amateur at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, with Vinny Giles the runner-up for a second straight year. The Associated Press story read: Young Bruce Fleisher withstood the furious late charge of Marvin (Vinny) Giles III Saturday and rode an even-par 70 to a one-stroke victory in the 68th U.S. Amateur. The 19-year-old from Hialeah, Fla., nailed down the big prize in his first national tournament, finishing with a 72-hole total of 284, four over par for the distance. Giles, the 25-year-old University of Virginia law student from Charlottesville, made a gallant bid to overtake the leader with a sizzling five-under-par 65, a course record on the tough 6,760-yard Scioto layout.
Three U.S. Amateur champions were crowned on this date, August 30: in 1969 Steve Melnyk won at Oakmont, shooting a 70 in the final round during a year the event was stroke play; 1987 Billy Mayfair won by defeating Eric Rebmann, 4&3, at Jupiter Hills, and in 1992 Justin Leonard was the champion.
In 1908, the U.S. Open Championship ended on this day at the Myopia Hunt Golf club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, when Fred McLeod defeated fellow Scot Willie Smith by six strokes in an 18-hole playoff. It was McLeod’s only major victory. In his dotage, he became an honorary starter at the Masters with Jock Hutchison. Also on this date in 1993, Brandie Burton won the du Maurier Classic when she defeated Betsy King in a playoff. The two were tied at 11-under 277 at the London Hunt & Country Club in London, Ontario, after regulation. First prize was $120,000.
Having won three straight U.S. Junior titles, Tiger Woods, on this date in 1994, won his first of three straight U.S. Amateur titles. He won the 94th playing by coming back against Trip Kuehne and winning 2 up at the TPC Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. In 1995 Woods defeated. George “Buddy” Marucci Jr., 2 up, at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, and in 1996 Woods defeated Steve Scott in 38 holes at Pumpkin Ridge G.C. (Witch Hollow Course), North Plains, Oregon. Woods was also the medalist that year. Against Kuehne, Woods won the final three holes after once trailing 6 down during the 36-hole match. At the time, the victory made Woods the youngest, at 18, to win the Amateur. He became the first golfer to win both the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur in a career.
Bernhard Langer, who won two Masters in his prime despite being plagued by the yips, was born on this date in 1957 in Anhausen, Germany. Langer had a second life with the long putter and has continued to excel at age 67 on the senior tour. On this date in 1995, the Canadian du Maurier Classic was won by Jenny Lidback at Beaconsfield Golf Club in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, with an eight-under-par total of 280. She won by one over Liselotte Neumann of Sweden.
On Sunday, Lydia Ko won her first major in eight years at the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews. On this date in 2012, when 15 year-old Ko of New Zealand won the Canadian Open by three shots, she became the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history and was the first amateur winner since JoAnne Carner won the 1969 Burdine’s Invitational. Ko was the fifth amateur winner in tour history. She broke the age record of 16 set by Lexi Thompson at the Navistar Classic in September 2011. Another moment on this day: Marlene Hagge shot 284 at Lakewood Country Club to win the Denver Open in 1956. She took home $800 for first; Fay Crocker was second , six behind.
On this date in 1946, Ben Hogan, at age 34, won his first major championship, winning the PGA at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club in a 6-and-4 decision over Ed Oliver. This is the latest the PGA Championship finished in the month of August. It was the first of two PGAs Hogan won. This PGA was also notable for it being the last time Byron Nelson played in the PGA. He lost to Oliver in the quarterfinals and overall had a 37-8 record.
On this date in 1975, Al Geiberger won the second Tournament Players Championship, finishing three shots ahead of Dave Stockton at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Jose Luis Ballester of Spain recently won the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine in Minnesota. On this date in 1997, Matt Kuchar won the U.S. Amateur, defeating Joel Kribel, 2 & 1, in the 36-hole final at Cog Hill's Dubsdread course in Lemont, III. Kuchar, 19 at the time, was from Lake Mary, Fla., and a golf team member at Georgia Tech. He was playing in the U.S. Amateur for the first time.
Beth Daniel won the World Championship of Women's Golf on this date in 1981, at Shaker Heights (Ohio) Country Club. She went home with the $50,000 first-place prize money. On this date in 2009, the Solheim Cup wrapped up at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The U.S. won a third straight match, 16-12, and won eight of the 12 singles matches held on the final day.
Two influential names in women’s golf history shared the stage on this date in 1976. Kathy Whitworth won the Patty Berg Classic at Keller Golf Course in St. Paul, Minnesota. Whitworth shot a seven-under-par score of 212 to win by two shots over Sandra Post. First prize was $8,000. And on this date in 2010, The Senior Tradition, held at the Crosswater Club, was won by Fred Funk by one shot over Michael Allen and Taiwan's Lu Chien-soon.
The third PGA Championship ended on this date in 1920. Jock Hutchison--who copy editors forever incorrectly changed to Hutchinson--defeated Douglas Edgar 1-up at Flossmoor Country Club in Chicago in the 36-hole final. And on this date in 1914, two of the prominent golfers of the time battled in Round 4 at the Midlothian Country Club in Illinois in the 20th U.S. Open. Walter Hagen, the third-round leader by two shots, shot 73 but held on when those closest to him fell back. Amateur star Chick Evans, who trailed by four, shot 70 to finish a shot back. Hagen shot two-over 290, Evans 291 and third place was back to 297.
The 1944 PGA ended on this date, with Bob Hamilton an upset 1-up winner over Byron Nelson in the final at Manito Golf & Country Club in Spokane, Washington. The much more heralded Nelson could not get the edge on Hamilton; the two finished the first 18 holes tied. Nelson would win the following year, 4&3, versus Sam Byrd.
At age 44, Lee Trevino showed he could still win a major when he held off Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins on this date in 1984 at Shoal Creek to win the PGA Championship. Trevino shot 69 in the final round and finished 15 under par. The victory was his sixth and final major and came 10 years after he'd won his first PGA.
The PGA Championship ended on this date in 2002 as a moment for the Everyman in all of us. Unheralded Rich Beem shot 278 to edge Tiger Woods by one shot at Hazeltine National. Beem could have faltered many times in the final round as Woods came charging at him with a 67, but he had a 68 of his own and won his first and only major. Also on this date in 1946, the Golf Writers Association of America was begun.
One of the memorable conclusions to a PGA Championship was on this date in 1997. Davis Love III won his lone major, holing out on the final hole for a five-shot victory at Winged Foot West over Justin Leonard. The son of a PGA professional and renowned teacher, Davis Love, Jr., Love III finished just as a rainbow appeared in the sky, a heavenly confirmation of a popular victory. Another PGA Championship that ended on this date was in 1969 at NCR Country Club. Raymond Floyd won his first major, one ahead of South Africa’s Gary Player, who was targeted by apartheid protesters.