On this date in 1981, Larry Nelson won the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. Nelson won by four strokes over Fuzzy Zoeller with a seven-under 273 total. It was his first of three major victories. Nelson has reason to really love August 9 since in 1987 he also won the PGA Championship, this time at PGA National in Palm Beach, Florida, in a playoff with Lanny Wadkins. And in 1953, Arnold Palmer was the low amateur at the Rubber City Open.
On this date in 1982, steely-eyed Raymond Floyd won his second PGA Championship, surviving at sultry Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a 272 total to beat Lanny Wadkins by three. Floyd was 39 and took charge with a seven-under 63 in Round 1. And on this date in 1954, Arnold Palmer finished as low amateur at the George May All-American Open at Tam O’Shanter in the Chicago area. Also, in 1966, the first East Coast Arnold Palmer Indoor Golf School opened in Florham Park, N.J.
On this date in 1960, emerging golf superstar Arnold Palmer won the Insurance City Open via a playoff with Bill Collins and Jack Fleck. It was Palmer’s 20th PGA Tour title; 1960 was his watershed year when he emerged as the main superstar in golf. At the Insurance City Open, he finished four rounds of 70-68-66-66—270 to tie for first with Collins and Fleck and then win in a three-hole, sudden-death playoff. First place was worth $3,500.
Like Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson didn’t win the PGA Championship, which if they had would have given them each a career Grand Slam. On this date in 1978 at Oakmont C.C., site of this year’s U.S. Open won by J.J. Spaun, John Mahaffey rallied from seven shots back with 14 holes to play to tie Watson and Jerry Pate, and then won on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Watson had been in control during regulation, but his perfect drive on 10 finished in a sand-filled divot hole and he ended up making double bogey, and lost control of the outcome. Also, the 1972 PGA Championship concluded on this date with Gary Player winning at Oakland Hills near Detroit by two shots over Jim Jamieson and Tommy Aaron. The miracle clincher took place on the 16th hole in the final round when Player drove into the right rough behind a large weeping willow. But the South African lofted a 9-iron over the tree and made a four-foot birdie putt to maintain a cushion.
Miyu Yamashita won the Women’s Open Championship. over the weekend at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, but on this date in 2007 Lorena Ochoa won the event at the Old Course at St. Andrews, leading start to finish and finishing four strokes ahead of Maria Hjorth and Jee Young Lee with a 72-hole five-under score of 287. And on this date in 1979, stoic Australian David Graham held off sentimental favorite Ben Crenshaw in a three-hole playoff at Oakland Hills Country Club to win the PGA Championship. Also on this date in 1965, Arnold Palmer shot a first-round 69 in the Philadelphia Golf Classic but withdrew the next day due to fatigue.
On this day in 1945, the great gentleman champion golfer Byron Nelson won the Canadian Open at Thornhill Golf Club. It was his 11th of a record 18 straight victories that year on the PGA circuit. On this date in 1963, Arnold Palmer shot a course-record 61 at a Twin Oaks C.C. exhibition, Springfield, Mo., and in 1997, Palmer shot a first-round 63 with partner Peter Jacobsen at the 12th Fred Meyer Challenge (finishing 4th). On an Arnie personal note, Happy Birthday to his second daughter, Amy, born on this date in 1958.
Sam Snead, the ageless one who played the greatest golf of anyone in history the latest in life, was 67 years, 2 months and 7 days when he set the record on this date in the 1979 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan, to be the oldest player to make the cut in a major. Snead had won the PGA in 1942, 1949 and 1951. iSam Snead made the cut at the PGA Championship. He had rounds of 73-71 to make the cut by two strokes, and shot 71-73 on the weekend to tie for 42nd.
On this date in 1912, the year the Titanic sank and one year before Francis Ouimet shocked the world with his U.S. Open victory, John McDermott won the U.S. Open for the second straight year. He won by two shots over Tom McNamara at the Country Club of Buffalo. McDermott shot two under par for 72 holes. On this date in 1959, the PGA Championship went to Bob Rosburg at Minneapolis Golf Club by just one shot over Doug Sanders and Jerry Barber. Six strokes back at the start of Round 4, Rosburg had a 66 to finish at three-under 277.
On this date in 2004, Peter Jacobsen, who didn’t win one of the “regular” majors, won a big one at Bellerive Golf Club, the U.S. Senior Open, by one shot over Hale Irwin. Also, Lloyd Mangrum, the Hall of Fame golfer with the look of an old-style riverboat gambler, was born on this date in 1914 in Trenton, Texas. The World War II veteran had one major victory at the 1946 U.S. Open and also played in four Ryder Cups and won the Vardon Trophy twice.
Diminutive Jerry Barber defeated Don January, 67-68, on today’s date in an 18-hole playoff in 1961 at Olympia Fields Country Club to win the PGA Championship. Also on this day in 1983, the U.S. Women’s Open concluded at Cedar Ridge C.C. in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with Australian Jan Stephenson winning her third major title, winning by one shot over fan favorite JoAnne Carner and Patty Sheehan. The winning score was six over par.
With Padraig Harrington the recent winner of the Senior Open Championship, today we note a couple related milestones. On this date in 2006, the Senior Open Ch. was won by American Loren Roberts in a playoff at Turnberry over Eduardo Romero of Argentina. Roberts’ nickname is The Boss of the Moss for his putting expertise. And one of the great characters in golf, Scotland’s Brian Barnes, won the 1995 Senior Open Championship on this date at Royal Portrush Golf Club in a playoff over American Bob Murphy.
On this date in 1956, Kathy Cornelius won the U.S. Women’s Open, the fourth run by the USGA, at Northland Country Club with Cornelius winning over Barbara McIntire, an amateur, by seven shots in an 18-hole playoff. Also, on this day in 1934, Little Poison, aka Paul Runyan, defeated Craig Wood, 1 up, in the final of the PGA Championship at the Park Club of Buffalo, New York. Runyan was diminutive in size but made up for a lack of length with a dynamite short game and pinpoint fairway woods. He would take down Sam Snead four years later.
On this date in 1987, England’s Laura Davies broke the hearts of JoAnne Carner fans when she won an 18-hole playoff for the U.S. Women’s Open that included Ayako Okamoto at Plainfield CC. Davies shot 71, Okamoto 73 and Carner 74. American Carner was 48 and by far the sentimental favorite. On this date in 1957 Arnold Palmer shot a fourth-round 69 at the Eastern Open to finish in a tie for 8th; in 1984, he shot 68-66 in the Golf Digest Commemorative Pro-Am for third place.
Padraig Harrington takes a two-stroke lead into today’s final round of the ISPS Handa Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale. On this date in 2003, one of the most successful links players in golf history, Tom Watson, won the Senior Open, taking down England’s Carl Mason in a playoff at Turnberry. Watson parred the second playoff hole to defeat Mason for his 10th career major victory. Watson shot a six-under-par 64 but bogeyed the last hole of regulation.
Yesterday Padraig Harrington took the second-round lead at the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale. On this date in 2009, the U.S.’s Loren Roberts won the same championship for the second time, also at Sunningdale, earning it in a playoff with Mark McNulty and Fred Funk. On this date in 1981, Pat Bradley won the U.S. Women’s Open at LaGrange Country Club in Illinois, winning by one over Beth Daniel. Bradley scored nine under par for 72 holes.
On this date in 1997, nine-time major champion and swing icon Ben Hogan died at the age of 84. Also, Arnold Palmer won the 1948 Sunnehanna C.C. Inv. on this date, and in 1966, Donald (Doc) Giffin began as Arnold’s personal assistant on this date. Arnie also won the 1971 Westchester Cl. on July 25. Also, on this date in 1982, Janet Anderson won the U.S. Women's Open with a six-shot margin over four players: Beth Daniel, Donna White, JoAnne Carner and Sandra Haynie. Anderson was five under par for four rounds at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California.
Don January won a playoff on this date in 1967 to take the PGA Championship at Columbine Country Club in Columbine Valley, Colorado, a suburb south of Denver. January defeated Don Massengale in an 18-hole playoff, 69-71. Also, the ISPS Handa Senior Open Championship is being competed this weekend at Sunningdale’s Old Course. On this date in 2005, Tom Watson won his second of three Senior Open titles, at Royal Aberdeen, winning in a playoff with Des Smyth of Ireland. Arnold Palmer shot a one-over 73 in 1964 on this date at a Green Valley exhibition in Sioux City, Iowa. And in 1998, Palmer shot a second-round 76 to make the U.S. Senior Open cut for the final time (finished 51st).
On this date in 1995, John Daly won the Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, easily handling Italian Costantino Rocca by four shots in a four-hole playoff. Daly had 15 strokes on par-4 holes 1, 2, 17, 18 to Rocca’s 19. Two days earlier Arnold Palmer had made his final Open appearance. And this was the lone Open ever attended by website writer Cliff Schrock. Also, the Open Championship ended on this date in 1989 in the first four-hole aggregate playoff ever contested for golf’s oldest major, held for the 118th time, at Royal Troon in Scotland. Mark Calcavecchia won over Wayne Grady and Greg Norman.
On this date in 1984, the iconic moment in Seve Ballesteros’ career took place at the Open Championship at St. Andrews when he birdied the 18th hole and won the title by two shots over Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer. Watson was trying for a third straight victory but left it out on the greens with an off putting day, and a bogey on the Road Hole 17th after a good drive dashed his chances. It was a remarkable battle of titans, and some speculate the outcome contributed to Watson’s inability to win another major in his prime years. On another moment, on this date in 1971, Arnold Palmer opened with a 64 at the Westchester Cl., and would go on to win the $50,000 top prize.
On this date in 1995, Arnold Palmer played his final Open Ch., missing the 36-hole cut at The Old Course. In 1985, Sandy Lyle won the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. He shot two over par overall and won by one shot over Payne Stewart, and three years later Lyle would win the Masters. This date in golf history also marks two key events in PGA Championship history. In 1957, Lionel Hebert defeated Dow Finsterwald, 2 and 1, in the final PGA played at match play, at Miami Valley Golf Club. In 1968, 48-year-old Julius Boros won at Pecan Valley, the oldest winner of a major until Phil Mickelson broke it in 2021. If Tom Watson had won the 2009 Open Championship, he would have smashed the age record at 59. And in 1970, 700 people, including Stan Musial, Joseph C. Dey, Dave Marr, Deacon Palmer, and Pa. Governor Raymond Shafer, attended a Pittsburgh dinner to honor Arnold Palmer as the AP Athlete of the Decade.