The stymie rule officially died on this date in 1951. The rule called for balls to be played as they came to rest on the green; you couldn't mark the ball and pick it up. That meant that if a golfer's ball stopped between the hole and another player's ball, that player had "laid a stymie" and the "stymied" golfer had to putt around the ball or in some instances tried to chip over the ball to hole out. To see an example, search for “Paul Runyan 1938 PGA Championship at Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort” to see old newsreel video of Runyan chipping over a stymie successfully in his victory over Sam Snead. Also, Champions Tour golfer Bob Gilder was born on this date in 1950 in Corvallis, Oregon. Gilder attended Arizona State and won six PGA Tour events.
All-time great Tiger Woods, who survived a potentially fatal car crash in February 2021, will have extra reason to celebrate today since it will be his 50th birthday, Still undergoing occasional surgeries to deal with chronic pain, Woods was born in Cypress, California, and is still presumably attempting to become the all-time winner in tour victories and major championships. He’s tied with Sam Snead for tour victories and is three behind Jack Nicklaus in majors.
Renowned golf course architect Pete Dye was born on this date in 1925 in Urbana, Ohio. Among his most notable designs is the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, venue for the annual Players Championship. The course’s main feature is the island green at the par-3 17th. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Dye’s designs also include Crooked Stick, Kiawah Island, and Harbour Town. He died January 9, 2020.
Affable Jimmy Demaret, a three-time Masters winner and good-will golf ambassador, died on this date in 1983 at age 73. He and Jack Burke, Jr., ran Champions Golf Club in Houston. Also, German golf star Martin Kaymer was born on this date in 1984. The one-time No. 1 golfer in the world and current LIV member has won two majors: the 2010 PGA Championship and 2014 U.S. Open.
Dave Marr was born on this date in 1933 in Houston. He won the 1965 PGA Championship but more indelibly he was a longtime ABC-TV golf analyst (later NBC) who set the standard for analytics that successors are still trying to achieve. He died in 1997. Also, steady middle-of-the-road American golf professional Charley Hoffman was born on this date in 1976. The San Diego native has four PGA Tour victories and two top-10s in majors. His highest world ranking was 20th.
On this date in 1993, the Senior PGA Tour, repped by Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus and Chi Chi Rodriguez, won the Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge at Colleton RIver Plantation at Hilton Head Island, S.C., shooting 11 under par. Also, born one year after the death of Young Tom Morris in 1875, fellow Scot Willie Smith was born and would develop into one of the game’s best players, along with brothers Alex and MacDonald, and win the 1899 U.S. Open. But like Morris, he would die young, age 40, from pneumonia on this date in 1916 in Mexico City where he had relocated.
May all Golf History readers have a blessed Christmas! This date in golf history will always be observed primarily as the Christmas Day Young Tom Morris died in 1875 at just age 24 in St. Andrews, Scotland. A four-time winner of the Open Championship by then, four months before he died his wife, Margaret, and newborn son had died while she was giving birth. Young Tom was distraught and is commonly believed to have died of a broken heart but in medical verbiage it was listed as a pulmonary hemorrhage. But Young Tom’s breathing may have been affected by a match he played in poor weather a few weeks earlier, which may have also compounded his deteriorating health.
At this festive season of the year, today and tomorrow’s day in history will feature a couple of deaths. Today on Christmas Eve, in 2003, Herman Keiser, the surprise 1946 Masters champion and Springfield, Missouri, native, died at age 89 in Akron, Ohio. Also, Margaret Curtis passed away on this date in 1965. She and sister Harriot were not only excellent players but were very charity minded. They were the ones to donate the cup that is played for in the Curtis Cup biennial competition between women amateurs from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland. In 2026 it will be held on June 12-14 at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, California.
Herman Barron was born on this date in 1909, in Port Chester, New York. He was a club pro at the Fenway Club in Westchester County, New York, and taught for many years but he was successful as a pro player as well. He won the 1963 PGA Seniors Championship and his victory in the 1942 Western Open is viewed as the first time a Jewish golfer won a PGA tour event. Barron also played in the 1947 Ryder Cup and finished fourth in the 1946 U.S. Open.
In a meeting in New York City on this date in 1894, the United States Golf Association was born with five charter member clubs. They were Chicago Golf Club; Newport Golf Club in Rhode Island; St. Andrew's Golf Club near New York City, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club near Southampton, Long Island, and The Country Club near Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts.
On this date in 1996, the Lexus Challenge ended at La Quinta Resort, with Hale Irwin and actor Sean Connery winning at 21 under par. Arnold Palmer and actor Chris O’Donnell shot 68-64—132, to tie for 8th in the team event. Also, the great showman Walter Hagen, winner of 11 majors including five PGAs, was born on this date in Rochester, New York in 1892.
On this date in 1954, Arnold Palmer married Winifred Walzer in Virginia. She was the woman he’d met on a Monday and proposed to on a Friday in September 1954, within a couple weeks of winning the U.S. Amateur, and would be the mother of his two daughters. Also, an LPGA Tour member, Hannah Green, the 2019 PGA champion, was born on this date in 1996 in Perth, located in Western Australia.
On this date in 1976, Arnold Palmer wrapped up a tournament partnership in the Pepsi-Cola Mixed Team Championship with scores of 73-73-67-71—284 at Doral in Miami, Florida, for a tie for seventh and $2,016.67. His partner? Sandra Palmer. The two weren’t related but had to field questions about being kin and siblings and had fun pairing up in the event. The winners were JoAnn Washam & Chi Chi Rodriguez with 275. The format had the team members tee off from corresponding tees for their normal course length, pick the drive they wanted for best strategy, then play alternate shot from there.
Bobby Jones, the great amateur champion, Grand Slam winner and president in perpetuity of Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament, died on this date in 1971 at age 69 of the crippling disease syringomyelia. And on this date in 1983, Arnold Palmer and Laura Baugh Cole shot a final-round 71 at Monte Carlo Country Club in Fort Pierce, Florida, for a four-round total of 281 and tie for sixth place behind the winners Bobby Clampett and Betsy King at the World Mixed Championship, Dec. 15-18. Arnie and Laura had 145-65-71—281.
The third James Bond movie, “Goldfinger,” premiered on this date in 1964 in London. Starring Sean Connery as the secret agent Bond, the movie has a memorable golf scene between Bond and the villain Auric Goldfinger, in which Bond memorably foils Goldfinger and his caddie, Oddjob, from trying to cheat with some duplicity of his own. Also a lasting impression: Bond caddie Hawker uttering about Goldfinger’s “found” ball in the rough, “If that’s his original ball I’m Arnold Palmer.” Also, Gus Andreone, at 103, became the oldest golfer to make a hole-in-one on this date in 2014 on the 113-yard No. 14 hole at Palm Aire C.C., Lakes Course, Palm Aire, Sarasota, Florida, using a driver. Gus was a member of the PGA and made eight holes-in-one, the first coming in 1939. He died in October 2018 at age 107.
On this date in 2012, Arnold Palmer played for the final time in a PGA Tour-associated event when he and grandson Will Wears shot a second-round 76 for 156 to finish 18th in the PNC Father-Son Challenge at Grande Lakes Resort/Ritz-Carlton Golf Club (72, 7,023), in Orlando, Florida. It was his only tour-related event in 2012 and brought to an end a pro career that began in December 1954 with the Miami Open. The PNC winners were Davis Love III-Dru Love, 60-61—121. Also, 2008 Masters winner Trevor Immelman, now doing most notably TV commentary, was born on this date in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1979.
On this date in 1949, Julius Boros turned professional and went on to compile a hall-of-fame career winning two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship. Also, the United States won half of the 12 final-, third-day singles matches in the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, helping the U.S. edge the International team, 16-14.
On this date in 1975, Jane Blalock won the LPGA Colgate Triple Crown at Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, California, taking home $15,000. Also, the 1931 U.S. Open champion, Billy Burke, was born on this date in Naugatuck, Connecticut, one of the “valley towns” northwest of New Haven, in 1902, which made him a contemporary of Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen, also born that year.
On this date in 1956, Arnold Palmer shot a first-round 66 in the Mayfair Inn Open. He would shoot additional rounds of 68-67-71 for 272 and tie for seventh behind winner Mike Fetchick, who shot a record score of 263. And on this date in 1998, the International team broke through in the Presidents Cup with a victory at Royal Melbourne Golf Club over the U.S., 20.5 to 11.5.
This is the date in 1899 that is traditionally observed as the day George Bryant of Boston patented the wooden golf tee. And one of the LPGA Tour’s stars of yesteryear, Shirley Englehorn, was born on this date in 1940 in Caldwell, Idaho. On tour from 1959 to 1979, Englehorn won the 1970 Women's PGA and 11 events in total. She died on October 2, 2022.