Golf eLife

1980

Tom Watson is the first golfer to earn $500,000 in prize money in a single season.

The PGA Senior TOUR is born, with four official events.

The U.S. Senior Open is instituted. Roberto De Vicenzo is the first winner.

Jack Nicklaus sets a record of 272 in the U.S. Open at Baltusrol. His mark is equalled in the 1993 U.S. Open by Lee Janzen, also at Baltusrol.

The USGA introduces the Symmetry Standard, banning balls such as the Polaris which correct themselves in flight.

Gary Wright completes 18 holes in a record 28 minutes 9 seconds at Twantin Noosa GC, Australia (6,039 yards).

1981

The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass opens, with its controversial island green 17th hole, and immediately becomes the permanent host of the Tournament Players Championship. The TPC at Sawgrass becomes the prototype for a dozen “stadium” TPC courses around the United States, built specifically to host PGA TOUR co-sponsored events and affording better viewing for spectators.

The USGA institutes the Mid-Amateur.

Kathy Whitworth becomes the first woman to earn $1 million in career prize money.

1982

Kevin Murray double-eagles the 647-yard second hole at the Guam Navy GC, the longest double-eagle ever recorded.

1983

The PGA TOUR introduces the all-exempt Tour, with the top 125 players exempt from qualifying tournaments.

1984

Desert Highlands opens in Phoenix from a design by Jack Nicklaus utilizing only 80 irrigated acres for 18 holes, instead of the typical 100-150 for a major course. The success of Nicklaus’ concept of “target golf” ushers in the era of environmentally-sensitive desert design.

1985

Nancy Lopez sets the LPGA 72-hole record with 268 in the Henredon Classic.

The United States loses the Ryder Cup matches for the first time since 1957, to the expanded European team.

The USGA introduces the Slope System to allow golfers to adjust their handicaps to allow for the relative difficulty of a golf course compared to players of their own ability.

1986

Bob Tway sinks a miracle bunker shot to beat a stunned Greg Norman in the PGA Championship. Norman had held the lead on Sunday morning in each of the four major championships of 1986, but was able to win only in the British Open. Only Bobby Jones had previously held the Sunday morning lead in each Grand Slam event. Tway’s stroke inaugurated a celebrated series of miracle shots holed by various golfers to defeat Norman.

The Pete Dye-designed PGA West opens amid great controversy concerning the difficulty of the course.

The Panasonic Las Vegas Invitational offers the first $1 million purse.

The PGA TOUR Team Charity Competition debuts. By 1987, TOUR-related contributions to charity exceed $100,000,000, and by 1992 they reach a total of $200,000,000.

1987

The Links at Spanish Bay opens, the first true links course in the Western United States. It is a co-design by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., Tom Watson, and former USGA President Frank “Sandy” Tatum.

Judy Bell becomes the first woman elected to the USGA Executive Committee.

The Nabisco Championships (later the TOUR Championship) debuts as a season-ending event for the top 30 money winners. The first winner is Tom Watson, breaking a three year victory drought.

Walter Dietz, a blind golfer, aces the 155-yard seventh hole at Manakiki G.C., California.

1988

Links Magazine is founded (originally Southern Links), with Mark Brown as editor-in-chief.

Lori Garbacz orders a pizza between holes at the U.S. Women’s Open to protest slow play.

Square-grooved clubs such as the PING Eye2 irons are banned by the USGA, which claims that tests show the clubs give an unfair competitive advantage to PING customers. The PGA TOUR also bans the clubs in 1989. Karsten Manufacturing, maker of the clubs, fights a costly two-year battle with both the USGA and the PGA TOUR to have the ban rescinded after winning a temporary injunction. Eventually both organizations drop the ban, while Karsten acknowledges the right of the organizations to regulate equipment and pledges to make modifications to future designs.

Curtis Strange wins the season-ending Nabisco Championships at Pebble Beach, and his $360,000 paycheck lifts his official 1988 TOUR earnings to $1,147,644, and thus he becomes the first player to win over $1,000,000 in a single season.

1989

Four golfers, Doug Weaver, Mark Wiebe, Jerry Pate and Nick Price, hit aces on the par-three sixth hole on the same day in the U.S. Open at Oak Hill.

Nick Faldo sinks a 100-foot birdie putt on the second hole at Augusta National in the Masters, the longest putt holed to date in a major tournament. Faldo goes on to win the Masters.

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1960

Arnold Palmer comes back from six shots down in the final round to win the US Open. With his victory, he completes the first two legs of the modern Grand Slam after winning the Masters in April, the first to do so since Ben Hogan in 1953. He finishes second to Kel Nagle in the British Open to end his bid. Palmer’s entry in the British Open is credited with reviving world-wide interest in the championship. Palmer went on to win the British Open in both 1961 and 1962.

Lifting, cleaning, and repairing ballmarks is allowed on the putting green for the first time.

1961

Gary Player becomes the first foreign player to win the Masters.

Caucasians-only clause stricken from the PGA constitution, and at the Greater Greensboro Open Charlie Sifford becomes the first black golfer to play in a PGA co-sponsored tournament in the South.

1962

Dr. Joseph Boydstone records 11 aces in one calendar year. Three were recorded in one round, at Bakersfield C.C., Calif.

Jack Nicklaus wins his first professional tournament, the U.S. Open, the last player to win the U.S. Open as his first pro victory.

Painted lines are first utilized to mark water hazards at the U.S. Open.

1963

Arnold Palmer becomes the first professional to earn over $100,000 in official prize money in one calendar year.

Mickey Wright wins a record 13 events on the LPGA Tour in one year.

The casting method for irons is first employed.

In November 1963, golf heavies and showbiz elite joined together at the Canyon Club to pay tribute to the icon in a five-day swingfest in the desert. It was the one-time-only, PGA-sanctioned, Frank Sinatra Invitational, followed by a black-tie gala in the ballroom of the Palm Springs Riviera Hotel.

1964

PGA National opens, in Palm Beach, Fla.

Mickey Wright sets the LPGA 18-hole record with a 62 at Hogan Park GC in the Tall City Open.

Norman Manley, an amateur from Long Beach, Calif., scores holes-in-one on two successive par-4s at Del Valley CC, Calif. It is the first and only time this feat has been accomplished.

1965

Sam Snead wins the Greater Greensboro Open, his 81st TOUR victory, a record. His victory is the eighth in the Greensboro event, also a record. Finally, he wins at the age of 52, also a PGA TOUR record.

Jack Nicklaus sets a tournament record of 271 in winning the Masters.

Mrs. William Jenkins Sr. of Baltimore, Md., double-eagles the par-five 12th hole at Longview GC, the longest ever recorded by a woman.

PGA TOUR Qualifying School is inaugurated at PGA National, with 17 golfers of the 49 applicants winning their playing cards.

1966

Arnold Palmer blows a six-shot lead in the final round of the US Open, losing to a surging Billy Casper at Olympic.

1967

Charlie Sifford, by winning the Greater Hartford Open, becomes the first African-American to win a PGA TOUR event.

Catherine Lacoste becomes the first amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open.

The Canada Cup changes its name to the World Cup.

1968

Arnold Palmer passes the $1 million mark in career PGA earnings.

The PGA of America and the PGA TOUR officially split, with the professionals forming a breakaway group known as the Association of Professional Golfers. The breach is eventually healed, and a Tournament Players Division of the PGA is formed. Joe Dey is elected the next year as the first PGA TOUR commissioner.

Tommy Moore, age 6 years 1 month, 1 week, becomes the youngest player to score a hole-in-one. Moore also becomes, in 1975, the youngest player ever to score a double-eagle.

Roberto DeVicenzo ties Bob Goalby after regulation play in the Masters, but signs an incorrect scorecard and loses the event.

1969

Ollie Bowers of Gaffney, S.C. completes a record 542 rounds (9,756 holes) in one calendar year.

Jack Nicklaus concedes Tony Jacklin’s final putt and England ties the U.S. in the Ryder Cup matches, after five consecutive defeats. The gesture is often hailed as “the greatest act of sportsmanship in history.”

The trendsetting Harbour Town Golf Links opens on Hilton Head Island, S.C., designed by Pete Dye with assistance from Jack Nicklaus.

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