On this date in 1959, Arnold Palmer shot a fourth-round 69 to cap a 273 four-round score at the Oklahoma City Open that earned first place. It was his second victory of the year and worth $3,500. On May 11, 2014, Martin Kaymer of Germany won the Players Championship on the TPC Stadium Course, winning wire to wire by one shot over Jim Furyk.
Ninety-six years ago on this date, Walter Hagen won the Open Championship at Muirfield, Scotland. His final 72-hole score was 292, 12 over par, but he won by six shots over runner-up Johnny Farrell. Leo Diegel was another shot back in an American sweep of the top three positions. Hagen won for the fourth time.
On this date in 1870, Harry Vardon, the only six-time winner of The Open Championship and a member of golf history’s Great Triumvirate with James Braid and J.H. Taylor, was born on Jersey of the Channel Islands. He has a type of grip named after him—the overlap is known as the Vardon grip—and the Vardon Trophy on tour is named after him for the lowest stroke average for a year. He also won the 1900 U.S. Open.
The transformative figure of Arnold Palmer won the Southern Conference individual championship on this date in 1948. On the negative side, on May 8, 1955, Arnie shot the worst four-round score of his prime years with a total of 312 at the Colonial. Another transformative figure, Francis Ouimet, was born on this date in 1893 in Brookline, Massachusetts. It was there that the lifetime amateur won the 1913 U.S. Open in a playoff over two British greats, Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, at The Country Club and established America as a place where champion golfers could come from.
A fast-play program called Operation Go-Golf is revealed to be a success at nine muny courses in Los Angeles in 1968, with 4,240 persons being tested for average playing time, which is tabulated at 3 hours 8 minutes. 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. On this date in 1936, the United States and Great Britain teams tied at 4.5 points each in the third Curtis Cup Match, held on the King’s Course at Gleneagles, Scotland. The American team featured Berg and Glenna Collett Vare.
On this date in 1962, Arnold Palmer shot a 69 in the third round of the Tournament of Champions at Desert Inn C.C. in Las Vegas to go with 69 and 70 in the first two rounds. He would follow it up with a 68 on May 6 and take first place and the $11,000 first prize. About a month earlier Palmer had won a playoff to win his third Masters. And 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.
Rory McIlroy, Bob Tway and Betsy Rawls were all born on this date. McIlroy, the recent Masters Tournament winner and career Grand Slam achiever, was born in 1989. Tway, who won the 1986 PGA, was born 30 years earlier in 1959. And Rawls was born in 1928 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The World Golf Hall of Fame member, who won four U.S. Women’s Opens, died October 21, 2023.
On this date in 1964, Pete Brown won the Waco Turner Open in Burneyville, Oklahoma, one of the first African-American victories of a PGA Tour event. Also on this date 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 who made the celebrity pro-am famous, on the Monterey Peninsula , and his ambassadorship as a golf promoter earned him a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
On this date in 1960, Arnold Palmer appeared as Time Magazine’s five-page cover story subject. On May 2, 1965, Palmer won the Tournament of Champions. On this date in 1982, Beth Daniel won the Birmingham Classic on the LPGA Tour at 13 under par, four ahead of Patty Sheehan. And 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.
Arnold Palmer shot some low scores on May 1. In 1958 it was a first-round 65 in the Colonial Nat’l Inv., and he would finish T-12. In 1970 it was a first-round 66 at the Byron Nelson Cl. In 1972, it was a final-round 68 at the Nelson to finish 6th. And in 1977, Palmer shot a final-round 67 at the Houston Open, finishing T-17. On this date in 1955, golf (and sport) legend Babe Didrikson-Zaharias won the Peach Blossom LPGA Tournament in Spartanburg, S.C., by two shots over Marilynn Smith. It was the Babe’s final LPGA victory before her death in 1956.
During the height of Arnold Palmer at his greatest playing power, he shot a 68 on this date in 1961 to win the Texas Open. Arnie had begun play in the tournament on April 27 and shot 67. He scored 63 in Round 2 before a letdown in Round 3 with 72. His prize for winning was $4,300. Also, one of the great championships of the LPGA from yesteryear ended its playing also on this date in 1961 when Mickey Wright won the Titleholders Championship at Augusta Country Club by one shot over fellow legends Patty Berg and Louise Suggs.
World Golf Hall of Fame member and 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.
On this date in 1929, the U.S. was beat 5.5 to 2.5 in eight singles matches on Day 2 of the 2nd Ryder Cup. It was played at Moortown Golf Club in Leeds, England. Walter Hagen captained the American team and played in it, but the match-play legend was trounced, 10 and 8, by George Duncan. Great Britain won by a final score of 7-5. And 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 over Betty Jameson. On this date in 1968, Arnold Palmer shot a second-round 68 at the Byron Nelson Classic and would go on to a T-6 finish.
Jerry Barber, the 1961 PGA champion, was born on this date in 1916 in Woodson, Illinois, west of the state capitol, Springfield. Barber was just 5-foot-5, but what he lacked in power he made up with accuracy and he also putted very well. Fred McLeod, a Scottish golfer whose record has been obscured in these modern times, was born on this date in 1882 in North Berwick. He notably won the 1908 U.S. Open, but golf fans might recognize the name because it comes up every so often for his role as one of the first Honorary Starters in Masters Tournament history, along with his cohort Jock Hutchison.
On this date in 1981, Arnold Palmer and Dow Finsterwald shot a second-round 63 in the Legends of Golf and eventually tied for third. On this date in 1960, Louise Suggs outdueled her great rival Mickey Wright to win the Dallas Civitan Open at Glen Lakes Country Club at four under par, winning $1,662. Wright finished in second at one over par. And today is the birthdate of a pair of accomplished golfers who both are trying to achieve their own measure of success but at greatly different ages. Lydia Ko, who set records at a young age, was born in 1997 in Seoul, South Korea, but grew up in New Zealand. One of her major wins was the ANA Inspiration in 2016. Englishman Lee Westwood was born in 1973. He has not won a major but won on five continents and was a big European presence in the Ryder Cup. He presently plays the LIV Golf tour.
Happy 81st birthday to a PGA Tour record maker. Marty Fleckman was born on this date in 1944 in Port Arthur, Texas. On December 3, 1967, at age 24, Fleckman made a 30-foot birdie putt to beat Jack Montgomery on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Cajun Classic. He became the first player in tour history to win a tournament in his first official start. The playoff birdie was Fleckman’s third straight bird. He had made two to finish regulation play, a 23-footer on 18 tied Montgomery for the lead. Three others have since also won their first tour start. On this date in 1989, the Chrysler Cup, a Ryder Cup-style event for senior tour players on United States and International teams, concluded at the TPC at Prestancia course in Sarasota, Florida. Arnold Palmer was the U.S. captain for the five years it was played, 1986-1990, and had a 4-1 record. This year the U.S. won 71-29 and on the final day, Captain Palmer defeated Bruce Devlin, 70-74.
On this date in 1973, Arnold Palmer shot a 75 in the final round of the Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour. He had gained entry into the elite field by winning the Bob Hope tournament in February, which was his last regular tour victory. In Palmer’s final T of C, he tied for 19th. And born on this date in 1938 in Washington, D.C., was World Golf Hall of Fame member Deane Beman, who was a lauded amateur before becoming modestly successful as a tour pro. His main claim to fame was as the PGA Tour Commissioner from 1974 to 1994.