When something historic happens in golf, details are etched on a plaque to preserve the story.
Golfers love their history.
So occasionally when something historic happens in a tournament, at some point down the road the details of the event are etched on a plaque, which is then placed in the ground or set into a giant boulder, preserving the story and re-telling it for years to come.
Jack Nicklaus has a few of these commemorative plaques. So does Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and, of course, Tiger Woods, who has one at Torrey Pines among other places. Rory McIlroy has a new one as well in Scotland.
Some plaques pay homage to once-in-a-lifetime shots by golfers who will always be remembered for that one shining moment. Here’s a closer look at a collection of plaques at golf courses around the world.
Hayden Springer remembers coming to his hometown PGA Tour event from as early as age 5 for practice round days.
McKINNEY, Texas – Hayden Springer remembers coming to his hometown PGA Tour event from as early as age 5 for practice round days on Tuesday and Wednesday with an empty hat and having his dad shove him towards the pros to ask for autographs, telling him, “Don’t be afraid.”
“And I would leave and my hat would be covered in autographs from everybody,” said Springer.
That tournament, now known as the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and held at TPC Craig Ranch, was an annual rite of passage for Springer. He figures he attended the event for seven or eight years in a row and later served as a volunteer with his high school golf teammates from none other than Byron Nelson High School, where Nelson’s widow, Peggy, kept tabs on the team and showed Springer the Masters medal of one of the all-time greats. (Springer also noted that his mother and Peggy still keep in touch via email.) This week Springer, a 27-year-old rookie on the Tour, is set to play the tournament that meant so much to him during his youth for the first time.
“It’s special for me now to get to be playing in this event,” he said. “This was a dream that was in my head to play professional golf, to do it at the highest level. Definitely being able to get up close and just kind of be able to interact, even if it’s just getting an autograph, you know, it definitely helped to fuel that dream.”
Springer recalled following Tim Herron, a favorite of his father’s, having Corey Pavin jog over to sign for him the year Springer had fractured his ankle and hobbled his way, and watching past major winners Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh groove their swing on the range.
Springer’s journey to being a card-carrying member of the Tour like Nelson, who won five majors during his Hall of Fame career, has had its share of twists and turns. In November, Springer and his wife endured the death of their three-year-old daughter, Sage, to a rare genetic disorder. Earlier that summer, Springer, who played his college golf at TCU, was having another pedestrian season on PGA Tour Canada. He ranked No. 51 in the season-long standings with three events left before running off with two closing wins.
Hayden Springer watches his second shot on the 18th fairway of the PGA West Pete Dye Stadium Course during the first round of The American Express in La Quinta, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024.
“If I don’t make that putt to make the cut in Wichita, I wasn’t even in any Canada events, right? Thinking about it, maybe I wouldn’t even have been able to play any events in Canada and maybe I’m starting at first stage of Q-School this past year. That’s a pretty tough spot to be in,” he said.
Instead, he won the Order of Merit, which earned him a spot in the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School. It also happened to be the return of five cards being up for grabs to jump straight to the big leagues. Springer hung on to finish fifth and make his dream come true.
As a rookie, Springer has made five cuts in nine starts and ranks No. 127 in the FedEx Cup point standings. His iron play was dialed in during the Puerto Rico Open and he posted four rounds in the 60s and finished T-3, his best result to date.
“There is such a fine line in terms of playing well and then not playing well,” he said.
This week, the pride of Byron Nelson High School will have a large contingent of supporters in his gallery. He grew up playing at Victory Golf Club, about 40 minutes away, and he expects members from the club and friends from high school to come out to watch him. He’s played at TPC Craig Ranch a handful of times dating to junior golf days and made a few trips this year knowing that this date with destiny would soon come to fruition at the tournament that fueled his dream.
“It’s kind of a cool story to have played at Byron Nelson High School and now to be playing in this event,” he said.
Some of the bronze plaques for the 176 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame are better than others.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It’s golf’s highest honor.
To be elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame is to be enshrined among the greatest. There have been only 176 men and women to be inducted in the Hall.
When the facility opened at World Golf Village in 1998, the members were commemorated with crystals but they were mounted in the floor and took up too much space for special events. So, the crystals were removed and bronze plaques replaced them. Some are better than others. According to the Florida Times Union, the plaques will not be relocated to Pinehurst, N.C., where the Hall will take up residency again in 2024.
Some of the plaques, it really helps to have the name written below it because the resemblance is minimal at best. See if you can name the Hall member.
Check out StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps of TPC Craig Ranch for the AT&T Byron Nelson.
TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas – site of this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson on the PGA Tour – opened in 2004 with a design by former Tour player and noted architect Tom Weiskopf. This will be the third time the long-running event is played at the course just north of Dallas.
The private TPC Craig Ranch will play to 7,414 yards with a par of 72 for this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at TPC Craig Ranch.
“I said, ‘As long as Scottie’s OK with it, that’s great with me,’” Coody said. “I’m a team player.”
Texas Forever. At least that’s the feel in Augusta National’s Champions Locker Room.
According to 1971 winner Charles Coody, he and the late Byron Nelson are sharing a locker with defending champion Scottie Scheffler. Coody confirmed on Monday that he was contacted by Augusta National following the 2022 Masters to see if he would switch from sharing space with 1959 winner Art Wall to being alongside Scheffler and Nelson.
“I said, ‘As long as Scottie’s OK with it, that’s great with me,’” Coody said. “I’m a team player.”
Nelson, from Fort Worth, was the first Texan to conquer Augusta in 1937. Then, the floodgates opened. A Texan finished first or second in 16 of 17 tournaments from Nelson’s triumph to Jackie Burke’s miracle in 1956.
The torrid pace eventually cooled, as the state went winless from 1956 until Coody fended off Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller in 1971. In the decades since, Ben Crenshaw held the baton with victories in 1984 and 1995 before passing to Jordan Spieth (2015), Patrick Reed (2018), and Scheffler.
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A finite list of humans throughout history have put on the green jacket in celebration.
Hello friends.
It’s that time of year again. The weather is slowly thawing the northeast, flowers are blooming down south, and the sun is beginning to stay in the sky a bit longer. For golf fans, all of this means one thing.
It’s time for the Masters.
The annual migration to Augusta, Georgia, is the highlight of the year for not only fans but most of the players driving down Magnolia Lane this week. Augusta National Golf Club, over time, has become the game’s holy land, a place that many dream of going to but a mere few actually reach.
A finite list of humans throughout history have put on the green jacket in celebration, and several have done it on more than one occasion.
Here’s a list of every player who’s conquered ANGC, ranked by number of titles.
Two golf icons, 37 holes. The final round of the 1970 Byron Nelson Open pitted two of the game’s greats at Dallas’ Preston Trail Golf Club. Rains came early in the week, forcing the postponement of the opening round. That meant the superstars would …
Two golf icons, 37 holes. The final round of the 1970 Byron Nelson Open pitted two of the game’s greats at Dallas’ Preston Trail Golf Club.
Rains came early in the week, forcing the postponement of the opening round. That meant the superstars would be forced to play 36 holes on Sunday as adoring fans followed.
Both players opened Sunday with a round of 68, meaning Nicklaus held a slight edge heading into the final 18.
The Golden Bear found trouble on the final hole of regulation, however, as he hit the ball well off-line, but it was determined it had come to rest behind a TV tower. Officials indicated Nicklaus should be awarded a free drop.
He needed an up-and-down for victory, but couldn’t manage, and the two went to a playoff hole.
After giving away his edge, Nicklaus made up for it during the first extra hole, sticking his approach to inside two feet.
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Palmer, then 40, couldn’t manage birdie and Nicklaus took the title, a feat he a repeated the following year,
According to the Dallas Morning News, a call from the White House came just after the tournament ended. When Nicklaus picked up the phone, expecting to hear then-President Richard Nixon, an operator was on the line.
“What do you want with Mr. Palmer?” Nicklaus asked the operator, who was unaware who had won the playoff.
Nicklaus joked afterward, “I found out it was for Palmer, so I went out and got the trophy.”
Nicklaus won $20,000 by virtue of the victory while Palmer took home $11,400 for his second-place finish. Lee Trevino and John Schroeder tied for third, and each received $5,900.
Palmer never won the event, although he finished as the runner-up twice. The first time came in 1961, when he finished a stroke behind Earl Stewart.
After being thrown off a horse, the journeyman golfer swung a 5-iron with one hand, keeping the other hand tucked inside his belt.
(Editor’s note: This is part of our Remember This series, looking back at memorable moments in golf history.)
Mike Reasor’s path to professional golf fame was certainly a peculiar one.
He played collegiately at BYU, where he called Johnny Miller a teammate.
In 1966, he was drawn from a pool to carry Arnold Palmer’s clubs in the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Palmer blew a seven-stroke lead over the final nine holes on Sunday and lost to Billy Casper in an 18-hole playoff the next day.
But the stat that really boggles the mind concerning Reasor’s career was his showing at the Tallahassee Open, where he finished an unthinkable 93-over par — what many think was the highest tournament total ever posted at a professional event.
As you might expect, the tale has a backstory.
At a time when exemptions were few and most pro tournaments filled their tee sheets through qualifiers, Reason was a journeyman, and if he could succeed in making the cut and finishing at the Tallahassee Open — an event that was played from 1969 to 1989 — he’d qualify for the following week’s Byron Nelson Classic.
Mike Reasor swings during the 1975 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo by Augusta National/Getty Images)
The Seattle native made the cut, shooting an even-par 144 through the first two rounds at Killearn Country Club. But making the cut was only half of the task — he had to finish the event to earn the qualification.
Between rounds, however, Reasor was thrown from a friend’s horse into a tree, which separated his left shoulder, tore rib cartilage and damaged knee ligaments.
Despite the injuries, Reasor insisted on playing the closing rounds to remain eligible for the Nelson Classic.
Swinging a 5-iron with one hand and keeping the other hand tucked inside his belt, he shot a round of 123 on Saturday. Then, on Sunday — April 28, 1974 — Reasor followed with a 114 to finish at 93-over par, which is among the highest tournament scores recorded on tour, though no official accounting is kept.
“On the last three holes on Saturday, word had gotten around the course what this crazy fool was doing,” Reasor recalled last year in an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “We had more people watching us than the leaders.”
Reasor finished in the top five three times, but never won a PGA Tour event. He competed on the Tour from 1969 to ’79.
He died in 2002, just hours after shooting a 3-over 75 Thursday at Bend Golf and Country Club, in Bend, Oregon.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Check out the FINAL Super 25 Volleyball Rankings for 2019! See where all the teams landed.
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It held the top spot for just two weeks, but sometimes, that’s all it takes.
Byron Nelson (Trophy Club, Texas) has been named the top team in the final 2019 Super 25 Volleyball Rankings.
The team still has some season left, with a Class 6A State Semifinal match against Clemens (Schertz, Texas) Friday, but its 48-2 record vs. tough competition in the state of Texas and elsewhere made the Lady Bobcats No. 1.
The team’s last loss came on October 1. It seized the top spot of the rankings just last week when Padua Franciscan (Parma, Ohio) lost its final match of the year.
“We have such great kids and they’ve [worked] so hard, I’m glad I’ve been able to help them attain this goal of ours,” Byron Nelson coach Brianne Barker-Groth told The Dallas Morning News about going to state.
If Byron Nelson defeats Clemens, it goes up against the winner of the Ridge Point and Plano West match. Byron Nelson playing Plano West would be a matchup between two top five teams in the Super 25.
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, California) made its way back into the top five of the rankings this week. Taking down Redondo Union (Redondo Beach, California) en route to a CIF State Regional Open Division Championship appearance will do that.
Mater Dei dispatched Redondo Union in a five-set thriller and will have to play upset to No. 2 Torrey Pines (San Diego) if it wants to end the season with a championship.
