Great Golf Heroes
At age four Phil Mickelson cried on the final green of his first
round of golf because he knew that the 18th hole meant that the round
was over. This same spirit led him on to a phenomenal career as one of
the great golf heroes. With his smooth swing and creative play
Mickelson is one in only a handful of players to capture more than
twenty Tour victories.
Jack Nicklaus boasts 73 Official Tour victories and 113 victories
around the world, including one hundred professional victories. He was
named PGA Player of the Year five times and has shot a total of
nineteen holes-in-one.
Our local golf hero Gary Player won 10 Major victories in total.
Player was a legend in his time and won the Open three times, the US
Open once, the US PGA twice and the Masters three times. He represented
South Africa in a total of 16 World Cups.
South Africa seems to consistently produce great golfers. Ernie
Els is one of four South Africans to have won a Major championship.
Els has won the US Open twice and defeated Phil Mickelson in the
World under 14 title. He won his first professional in 1992 and that
seemed to open the floodgates that season on the Sunshine Tour where
the Big Easy won six times, including the South African Open, the
South African PGA Championship and the South African Masters.
Seattle-born Fred Couples turned pro in 1980 and went on to win
fifteen PGA Tours which included among others the Byron Nelson
Classic, the Masters and most recently the Shell Houston Open. His
career year came in 1992 when he won three major events including the
Masters Tournament and more than 1.3 million dollars. He was named PGA
Tour Player of the Year for 91 and 92. Couples teamed with Davis
Love III to win record four consecutive World Cup of Golf titles. He
recorded back-to-back victories on the PGA European Tour in the same
year, which made him the first American to do so since Charles Coody
in 1973.
Spanish-born Sergio Garcia started playing golf when he was 3 years
old and was Club Champion by 12. Two years later he went down in
history as the youngest player ever to have made a cut in a European
Tour event. As an amateur he won nineteen events and in 1999 his
handicap was +5.6 which was the lowest in Europe. In the same year he
chased Tiger Woods at the PGA and finished only one stroke behind him.
Garcia went on to win the Linde German Masters and captained the
Spanish team who won the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St. Andrews. He was
named Rookie of the Year in Europe.
Nick Faldo is a great example of how hard work and dedication can
pay off in ones pursuit of excellence. Faldo won 39 worldwide
individual tournaments and six major championships including the US
Masters and the British Open. He is also the most successful Ryder
Cup player of all time.
Tiger Woods began his golfing career at six months old, putted on
television at age 2, shot a 48 over nine holes at age 3, appeared in
the Golf Digest at 5 and won the Optimist Junior Championship at age
8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15. At sixteen Woods successfully defended his
title at the US Junior National Championships becoming the first
golfer to win the title more than once. At 21 he wins his first
major championship, The Masters, by an impressive 12 strokes. At
24 he becomes the fifth player in history (and youngest) to complete
the career Grand Slam by winning the British Open by eight strokes.
With a 5-stroke victory Woods took the British Open for the
second time. It is his tenth major title and he joins Jack
Nicklaus in being the only golf heroes to win all four major
tournaments at least twice.
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