Portal:Golf/Selected biography archive
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[edit] April 22, 2007 to April 30, 2007; June 1, 2007 to June 30, 2007; August 1, 2007 to August 31, 2007; September 3, 2007 to September 30, 2007
Image:JackNicklaus.jpg
Jack Nicklaus (born 21 January 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is an American professional golfer who was active between 1961 and 2005 on the PGA and then the Champions Tours and is widely regarded as one of the best ever to played the sport. Nicklaus enjoyed early success at the amateur and collegiate levels, winning the United States Amateur Championship in 1959 and 1961, capturing the 1961 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's national championship whilst an Ohio State University Buckeye, and helping the United States to one Eisenhower Trophy and two Walker Cup Match titles.
Nicklaus formally joined the PGA Tour in 1962 and, at the United States Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, defeated countrymate Arnold Palmer in an eighteen-hole playoff to win his first major championship and to become the youngest-ever U.S. Open winner; a rivalry between Palmer and him would develop in subsequent years and be credited with popularizing professional golf as a televised spectator sport. Nicklaus claimed two more tournaments over his rookie season to finish third on the PGA Tour money list and to win the PGA Rookie of the Year Award.
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[edit] July 27, 2006 to April 22, 2007
Gene Sarazen (né Eugenio Saraceni; February 27, 1902–May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, best known for being one of just five players to have, by winning each of the four men's major championships, completed a career Grand Slam; for having won eight PGA Tour tournaments during the 1930 season, the seventh-most of any player in a single year; for having won seven major championships over his career, more than all but eight players in golf history; for having won 39 PGA Tour events over his career, more, at the time of his retirement, than all players in PGA Tour history save four; for having won the 1992 Bob Jones Award from the United States Golf Association in recognition of his sportsmanship; for having struck an honorary tee shot at The Masters Tournament each year between 1981 and 1999, inclusive; for having invented the sand wedge, a lofted club for use in bunkers; and for having, in part in view of such, been an inaugural 1974 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Born in Harrison, New York, Sarazen forfeited his amateur status in 1922 when, aged just 20 years, he contested several events organized by the Professional Golfers' Association of America, winning the Southern Open before travelling to Glencoe, Illinois, where he claimed the United States Open Championship, and then to the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, where he overcame Emmet French, 4 & 3 in his final match to claim the PGA Championship, his third tournament title of the year; having won the latter aged just 20 years, five months, and 22 days, he became the youngest-ever winner, setting a record that remains. Sarazen won the tournament once more in 1923, defeating countrymate Walter Hagen, the 1921 champion who would ultimately become the tournament's winningest player, 1-up, in Pelham Manor, New York.
Sarazen was winless during the 1924 season but in 1925 began an 11-year period during which he would win at least one tournament each year, claiming the 1925 Metropolitan Open, then the Eastern equivalent to the Southern and Western Opens and the 1926 Miami Open, a tournament he would win in five consecutive seasons, before beginning, in 1927, a six-year period during which he would win multiple tournaments yearly, claiming, in addition to the Miami title, those of the Long Island Open and the Metropolitan PGA, each held in New York City. Representing the United States, he also played in the first Ryder Cup Matches, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, contributing to the Americans' 9½-2½ victory over the team representing Great Britain, and making the first of what would be six career appearances, over which he would score eight-and-one-half points over his twelve matches. Sarazen won the Miami and Metropolitan Opens again in 1928, adding the Miami Beach and Nassau Bahamas Opens, continuing to succeed in Florida, to which he would eventually retire.
After winning just two titles—the Miami and Miami Beach Open championships—Sarazen won eight tournaments in 1930, then, alongside the eight won by American Horton Smith in 1929, the most of any player in a single year, claiming, most notably, the Western Open, conducted in Lake Orion, Michigan, again overcoming Hagen in a tournament the latter would win five times. Sarazen won three more tournaments in 1931, bringing his career total to 26, more to that time than any other player save Hagen, and enjoyed a career season in 1932, winning the True Temper Open and Coral Gables Open Invitational before again winning the United States Open, this held in Great Neck, New York, and then The Open Championship contested at the links-style Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich in Kent, England, becoming the first player ever to win the United States and Great Britain national championships in the same year.
[edit] July 2 to July 27, 2006
Se Ri Pak (born September 28, 1977) is a professional golfer who is ranked nineteenth in the world and best known for having accumulated tweleve top-ten finishes in major championships, amongst which were five victories, and for securing admission to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Pak, born in Daejon, South Korea, flag pictured, began professional play in 1996, participating in tournaments on the LPGA, LPGA of Korea, and LPGA of Japan Tours, and began full-time play on the LPGA Tour in 1998, earning the tour's Rookie of the Year award after capturing the McDonald's LPGA Championship and United States Women's Open Championship. Pak won the 2001 Women's British Open to complete three-quarters of a career Grand Slam; victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship has eluded Pak, though, and she has finished no better than eleventh. Image:Flag of South Korea.svg Pak has won 23 LPGA Tour tournaments and is one of just four non-American players to have claimed at least 20 Tour wins. In 2003, Pak, having won three tournaments, including the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill, at which she became the second consecutive South Korean victor, following countrymate Grace Park, entered a men's tournament on the PGA of Korea Tour, a developmental tour affiliated with the Asian Tour; Pak qualified for weekend play and eventually finished eleventh.
Having met the automatic qualification requirements, Pak is eligible for induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame but has made at least ten starts for only nine consecutive years; should Pak complete the 2007 LPGA season, she wil be inducted into the Hall in October 2007 and will become the youngest living member.
[edit] June 3 to July 2, 2006
Harry Vardon (May 9, 1870 – March 20, 1937) was an English golfer, author, links course architect, and golf instructor who finished his playing career having won more than 120 golf matches and 62 golf tournaments and was one of six initial inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Born in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands, Vardon, at the urging of his older brother, Tom, began to play golf while in his teens and became a professional just after he attained the age of 20. Vardon immediately became known not only for his play but also for his formal fashion of dress; Vardon played in knickers and, consistent with the image of a proper English gentleman, a buttoned coat and necktie.
Vardon quickly excelled at the game, and won the first of his record six Open Championships in 1896. Vardon became popular in his native England, having won the Open Championship in 1898 and 1899, and garnered worldwide celebrity when he toured the United States in 1900; Vardon played in more than 80 individual matches, winning nearly 90 percent, sometimes against the best ball of two opponents, and capped his American tour by winning the United States Open at the Chicago Golf Club. He became the first player who was able to play golf exclusively as a vocation, earning purses for appearing at exhibitions and garnering appearance fees; prior to Vardon's American tour, most top players worked as club professionals to supplement playing earnings.
Vardon again won the Open Championship in 1903, 1911, and 1914 and continued to play in the United States, finishing second after losing a playoff to American amateur Francis Ouimet in the 1913 United States Open and capping his professional career with another runner-up finish at the United States Open, this in 1920 to England's Ted Ray, with whom Vardon had played in the 1913 playoff.
Upon his retirement, Vardon, who would experience sundry health problems, some related to tuberculosis, for the remainder of his life, undertook to design several golf courses in Great Britain and took up writing, completing instructional and inspirational tomes. As an instructor, Vardon refined his golf swing and grip, popularizing each in his homeland and in North America; the Vardon grip, a modification of others popular during his time involving the interlocking of fingers and the overlapping of the hands, remains the most popular grip today.
