1969 PGA Tour

The 1969 PGA Tour season was played from January 9 to December 7. The season consisted of 49 official money events. Billy Casper, Raymond Floyd, Dave Hill, and Jack Nicklaus won the most tournaments, three each, and there were 14 first-time winners. Frank Beard was the leading money winner with earnings of $164,707. Orville Moody was voted the PGA Player of the Year[1] and Dave Hill won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average.

This is generally regarded as the first season of an independent PGA Tour.[2] The tour began to break off from the PGA of America in August 1968. The players formed a Tournament Players Division within the PGA of America, "a freestanding corporation run by a 10-member tournament policy board of four players, three PGA executives and three consulting businessmen."[3]

Tournament results

The following table shows all the official money events for the 1969 season. "Date" is the ending date of the tournament. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names are the number of wins they had on the tour up to and including that event. Majors are shown in bold.

DateTournamentLocationWinnerScore1st prize ($) Notes
Jan 12Los Angeles OpenCalifornia Charlie Sifford (2)276 (−8)20,000
Jan 12Alameda County OpenCalifornia Dick Lotz (1)290 (+2)10,000Alternate event
Jan 20Kaiser International Open InvitationalCalifornia Miller Barber (4)135 (−9)13,500
Jan 27Bing Crosby National Pro-AmCalifornia George Archer (6)283 (−5)25,000
Feb 2Andy Williams-San Diego Open InvitationalCalifornia Jack Nicklaus (28)284 (−4)30,000
Feb 9Bob Hope Desert ClassicCalifornia Billy Casper (41)345 (−15)20,000
Feb 16Phoenix Open InvitationalArizona Gene Littler (21)263 (−21)20,000
Feb 23Tucson Open InvitationalArizona Lee Trevino (3)271 (−17)20,000
Mar 2Doral Open InvitationalFlorida Tom Shaw (1)276 (−12)30,000
Mar 9Florida Citrus Open InvitationalFlorida Ken Still (1)278 (−10)23,000
Mar 18Monsanto Open InvitationalFlorida Jim Colbert (1)267 (−17)20,000
Mar 23Greater Jacksonville OpenFlorida Raymond Floyd (3)278 (−10)20,000
Mar 30National Airlines Open InvitationalFlorida Bunky Henry (1)278 (−10)40,000
Apr 6Greater Greensboro OpenNorth Carolina Gene Littler (22)274 (−10)32,000
Apr 13Masters TournamentGeorgia George Archer (7)281 (−7)20,000
Apr 14Magnolia State ClassicMississippi Larry Mowry272 (-8)5,000Satellite event
Apr 20Tournament of ChampionsCalifornia Gary Player (12)284 (−4)30,000
Apr 20Azalea Open InvitationalNorth Carolina Dale Douglass (1)275 (−9)5,000Alternate event
Apr 20Tallahassee Open InvitationalFlorida Chuck Courtney (2)282 (−6)5,000Alternate event
Apr 27Byron Nelson Golf ClassicTexas Bruce Devlin (4)277 (−3)20,000
May 4Greater New Orleans Open InvitationalLouisiana Larry Hinson (1)275 (−13)20,000
May 11Texas Open InvitationalTexas Deane Beman (1)274 (−10)20,000
May 18Colonial National InvitationTexas Gardner Dickinson (6)278 (−2)25,000
May 25Atlanta ClassicGeorgia Bert Yancey (5)277 (−11)23,000
Jun 1Memphis Open InvitationalTennessee Dave Hill (5)265 (−15)30,000
Jun 8Western OpenIllinois Billy Casper (42)276 (−8)26,000
Jun 15U.S. OpenTexas Orville Moody (1)281 (+1)30,000
Jun 22Kemper OpenNorth Carolina Dale Douglass (2)274 (−14)30,000
Jun 29Cleveland Open InvitationalOhio Charles Coody (2)271 (−9)22,000
Jul 6Buick Open InvitationalMichigan Dave Hill (6)277 (−11)25,000
Jul 12British OpenEngland Tony Jacklin (2)280 (−4)10,200
Jul 13Minnesota Golf ClassicMinnesota Frank Beard (7)269 (−15)20,000
Jul 20IVB-Philadelphia Golf ClassicPennsylvania Dave Hill (7)279 (−9)30,000
Jul 27American Golf ClassicOhio Raymond Floyd (4)268 (−12)25,000
Aug 3Westchester ClassicNew York Frank Beard (8)275 (−13)50,000
Aug 10Greater Milwaukee OpenWisconsin Ken Still (2)277 (−11)20,000
Aug 17PGA ChampionshipOhio Raymond Floyd (5)276 (−8)35,000
Aug 17Indian Ridge Hospital Open InvitationalMassachusetts Monty Kaser (1)274 (−10)7,400Alternate event
Aug 24AVCO Golf ClassicMassachusetts Tom Shaw (2)280 (−4)30,000
Sep 2Greater Hartford Open InvitationalConnecticut Bob Lunn (3)268 (−16)20,000
Sep 7Michigan Golf ClassicMichigan Larry Ziegler (1)272 (−12)20,000
Sep 28Alcan OpenOregon Billy Casper (43)274 (−14)55,000
Sep 28Robinson Open Golf ClassicIllinois Bob Goalby (9)273 (−15)15,000Alternate event
Oct 19Sahara InvitationalNevada Jack Nicklaus (29)272 (−12)20,000
Oct 26San Francisco Open InvitationalCalifornia Steve Spray (1)269 (−15)20,000
Nov 3Kaiser International Open Invitational [4]California Jack Nicklaus (30)273 (−15)28,000
Nov 9Hawaiian OpenHawaii Bruce Crampton (7)274 (−14)25,000
Nov 30Heritage Golf ClassicSouth Carolina Arnold Palmer (55)283 (−1)20,000
Dec 7Danny Thomas-Diplomat ClassicFlorida Arnold Palmer (56)270 (−18)25,000
Dec 7West End ClassicBahamas Jim Wiechers (1)274 (−14)5,000Satellite event

Source:[5][6]

Money leaders
RankPlayerCountryEarnings ($)
1Frank Beard United States175,223
2Dave Hill United States156,432
3Jack Nicklaus United States140,167
4Gary Player South Africa123,897
5Bruce Crampton Australia118,955
6Gene Littler United States112,737
7Lee Trevino United States112,417
8Raymond Floyd United States109,956
9Arnold Palmer United States105,128
10Billy Casper United States104,689

Source:[7]

Awards
AwardWinnerCountry
Money winnerFrank Beard United States
PGA Player of the YearOrville Moody United States
Scoring leader (Vardon Trophy)Dave Hill United States

References
  1. "Golfer of the year". The Southeast Missourian. Cape Girardeau, Missouri. AP. November 19, 1969. p. 13. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  2. "Pro golf struggle is settled; PGA forms tourney group". Milwaukee Journal. December 14, 1968. p. 18.
  3. Gorant, Jim (August 8, 2018). "War for the Tour: The day the PGA Championship nearly died". Golf.com.
  4. Tourney was added to schedule after Kaiser tourney in January was rain-shortened to 36 holes causing only half the prize money to be paid out.
  5. "1969 winners sorted by age". PGA Tour. July 9, 2008. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  6. Johnson, Sal; Seanor, Dave, eds. (2009). The USA Today Golfers Encyclopedia. New York, New York: Skyhorse Publishing. pp. 675–82. ISBN 978-1-60239-302-8.
  7. Rew, Karen (December 26, 1969). "Frank Beard Boosting Business of Pro Golf". Mansfield News Journal. Mansfield, Ohio. AP. p. 23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.