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- Lee Trevino becomes the first player to win the U.S., British,
and Canadian Open with his three victories in a four-week stretch.
Tiger Woods would match that feat in 2000.
- Astronaut Alan Shepard takes the game to new frontiers by
hitting a 6-iron shot during a walk on the moon.
- With his PGA Championship victory, Jack Nicklaus becomes the
first player to win all the majors twice.
- The number of golfers in the U.S. has doubled in the last
10 years - there are now 10 million.
- Jack Nicklaus wins The Masters and U.S. Open, then is thwarted
in his bid for the Grand Slam by Lee Trevino in the British
Open.
- The Colgate-Dinah Shore Winners Circle debuts on the LPGA
Tour, offering the first six-figure purse in women's golf --
$110,000.
- Spalding introduces the two-piece Top-Flite ball, constructed
with a solid core inside a durable synthetic cover.
- Title IX legislation is passed by Congress, forcing colleges
to provide more opportunities for female athletes. The expansion
of women's college golf increases the talent pool of the LPGA
Tour.
- Carolyn Cudone wins her fifth consecutive USGA Senior Women's
Amateur, a record for any USGA event.
- Johnny Miller becomes the U.S. Open Champion, firing a record
63 in the final round at Oakmont.
- Tom Weiskopf takes five tournaments, including the British
Open, in a two-month stretch.
- Gene Sarazen, age 71, scores an ace on the "Postage Stamp"
hole during the British Open at Royal Troon.
- Ben Crenshaw bursts onto the PGA Tour by winning his first
event as a member, the San Antonio Texas Open.
- The U.S. Amateur returns to match play; the winner is Craig
Stadler.
- Kathy Whitworth is the LPGA Player of the Year for the seventh
time in eight years.
- The graphite shaft is introduced.
- Johnny Miller wins eight PGA Tour events.
- Deane Beman becomes Commissioner of the PGA Tour.
- The Tournament Players Championship makes its debut.
- The Muirfield Village Golf Club, designed by Jack Nicklaus
and Desmond Muirhead, opens near Nicklaus' hometown of Columbus,
Ohio.
- Sandra Haynie sweeps the U.S. Women's Open and LPGA Championship.
- Jack Nicklaus wins his fifth Masters in a classic battle with
Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller. Nicklaus also takes his fourth
PGA Championship.
- Lee Elder becomes the first African-American to play in The
Masters.
- Nineteen-year-old Amy Alcott wins in just her third LPGA Tour
event.
- Ray Floyd wins The Masters with a record tying 271 total.
- Judy Rankin, with $150,734 in earnings, becomes the first
LPGA Tour player to earn more than $100,000 in a season.
- The USGA adopts the Overall Distance Standard for golf balls,
limiting them to 280 yards under standard test conditions.
- Jack Nicklaus leads the PGA Tour in earnings for the eighth
and final time.
- Al Geiberger is the first PGA Tour player to break 60, shooting
a 59 in the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.
- Tom Watson hits the big time, besting Jack Nicklaus in both
The Masters and the British Open. Watson's 268 sets a British
Open record.
- The U.S. Open is the first American golf event to provide
television coverage of all 18 holes.
- A major championship is decided by sudden death for the first
time when Lanny Wadkins beats Gene Littler in the PGA Championship
at Pebble Beach.
- Nancy Lopez gives the LPGA Tour a boost by winning five tournaments
in a row, and nine in all, during her first full season.
- Gary Player takes his third Masters by shooting a 64 in the
final round, then wins the next two events as well.
- Jack Nicklaus's third British Open title gives him at least
three wins in all four majors.
- The Legends of Golf debuts, an event that will lead to the
birth of the Senior Tour (now called the Champions Tour).
- TaylorMade introduces its first metal wood. In the next decade,
metal woods will become predominant.
- The USGA plants a tree overnight at the Inverness Club in
Toledo, Ohio to block a shortcut taken by several players in
the first round of the U.S. Open.
- Sixty-seven-year-old Sam Snead shoots a 66 during the Quad
Cities Open.
- Twenty-two-year-old Seve Ballesteros wins the British Open
at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
- Jack Nicklaus captures the U.S. Open (his fourth) and PGA
Championship (his fifth) at age 40. He shoots a U.S. Open record
272 in the Open at Baltusrol and ties the 18-hole record with
a 63.
- The USGA adds the U.S. Senior Open to its list of Championships.
Roberto De Vicenzo is the inaugural Champion.
- Tom Watson leads the PGA Tour money list for an unprecedented
fourth consecutive year. He wins six U.S. events and the British
Open.
- The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, designed by Pete
Dye, opens near Jacksonville, Fla. It is the first "stadium
course," and the first course of the PGA Tour's TPC network.
- The USGA introduces the golf ball Symmetry Standard to the
Rules of Golf.
- Kathy Whitworth is the first woman golfer to top $1million
in career earnings.
- The USGA adds the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship for players
25 and older, an event in which career amateurs won't have to
face college golfers, who often dominate the U.S. Amateur.
- Tom Kite finishes in the top 10 in 21 of 26 tournaments and
leads the PGA Tour money list.
- Tom Watson takes his only U.S. Open, chipping in on the 71st
hole to beat Jack Nicklaus at Pebble Beach.
- Juli Inkster takes her third consecutive U.S. Women's Amateur,
the first to accomplish this feat in 48 years.
- Kathy Whitworth breaks Mickey Wright's record for career LPGA
victories by winning her 83rd event. She will later take five
more.
- Jan Stephenson wins the LPGA Championship, and the next year,
the U.S. Women's Open.
- For the fifth time, Tom Watson is the British Open champion.
- Golf instruction videotapes begin to hit the market.
- Hollis Stacy takes her third U.S. Women's Open to go with
her three U. S. Girls' Junior titles.
- Forty-year-old Lee Trevino is the PGA titleholder, giving
him two U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA titles.
- The USGA introduces the Slope System to adjust handicaps according
to the difficulty of the course being played.
- Europe beats the U.S. in the Ryder Cup for the first time
since 1957 (the Great Britain and Ireland team was expanded
to include all of Europe in 1979). Two years later, the European
team wins for the first time on U.S. soil.
- T.C. Chen drops a four-stroke lead in the U.S. Open at Oakland
Hills by double-hitting a chip shot and making a quadruple bogey
on the fifth hole. Andy North wins the championship.
- Forty-six-year-old Jack Nicklaus wins his sixth Masters and
18th professional major.
- Forty-three-year-old Ray Floyd wins the U.S. Open at Shinnecock
Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., the first Open played
at the club in 90 years.
- Bob Tway holes out from a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole
to break a tie and beat Greg Norman in the PGA Championship.
- Pat Bradley wins three LPGA majors - the Nabisco Dinah Shore,
LPGA Championship, and du Maurier Classic.
- Greg Norman wins nine events worldwide (two in the U.S., three
in Europe, and four in Australia).
- There are now 20 million golfers and 12,384 courses in the
U.S.
- Larry Mize beats Greg Norman in a sudden-death playoff at
The Masters by holing a 100-foot pitch on the second extra hole.
- Judy Bell becomes the first woman elected to the USGA Executive
Committee.
- The PGA Tour tops $30 million in prize money; the new season-ending
Nabisco Championship is the first $2 million event.
- Nick Faldo pars all 18 holes of the final round in the British
Open to win his first major.
- Craig Stadler is disqualified from the Shearson Lehman Brothers
Andy Williams San Diego Open for kneeling on a towel to play
a shot, then signing an incorrect scorecard.
- Mary Bea Porter interrupts her qualifying round for the LPGA's
Standard Register Classic to resuscitate a boy who had fallen
into a nearby swimming pool.
- Seve Ballesteros wins his third British Open - one of seven
victories during the year in seven different countries.
- Curtis Strange becomes the first player to collect $1 million
in season earnings on the PGA Tour.
- The groove wars begin. The USGA rules that Ping Eye2 irons
don't conform to the Rules because the grooves are too close
together. Karsten Manufacturing, maker of Ping, files suit.
A settlement will be reached in 1990 under which new Pings are
modified to conform and existing Pings are deemed acceptable.
- The PGA Tour announces it will ban square-groove irons next
year, but Karsten Manufacturing wins a court injunction against
the move. Four years later, in an out-of-court settlement, the
Tour reverses itself and permits square grooves.
- Curtis Strange wins his second consecutive U.S. Open, the
first to do so since Ben Hogan (1950 and 1951).
- After a controversy at the PGA Championship site Shoal Creek
Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., the PGA of America and PGA
Tour announce they will not play tournaments at clubs that have
no African-American or women members.
- Robert Gamez beats Greg Norman in the Nestle Invitational
by holing a seven-iron from 176 yards on the 72nd hole.
- Hale Irwin, at age 45, becomes the oldest U.S. Open winner.
- Nick Faldo becomes the first player since Jack Nicklaus (1965
and 1966) to capture consecutive Masters titles. He also wins
the British Open.
- Phil Mickelson sweeps the U.S. Amateur and NCAA Championship,
a feat not accomplished since Jack Nicklaus.
- The R&A adopts the American-sized ball (1.68 inches) as standard
all over the world.
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