October: This Month in Golf History

October 1, 1993: Anne Quast Sander won her fourth U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship and seventh USGA title. Only Bob Jones (9), Tiger Woods (9), Jack Nicklaus (8) and JoAnne Gunderson Carner (8) have won more USGA championships than Sander.

October 3, 1895: Before he became a well-known golf course architect, Charles Blair Macdonald won the inaugural U.S. Amateur. His 12-and-11 victory over Charles E. Sands at Newport (R.I.) Golf Club is tied for the largest winning margin in a USGA championship 36-hole final.

October 4, 1895: One day after Charles Blair Macdonald’s victory in the U.S. Amateur, Horace Rawlins beat nine other professionals and one amateur to win the inaugural U.S. Open at Newport (R.I.) Golf Club. The 21-year old was an English professional who was the assistant at the host course. With a score of 91-82—173, Rawlins claimed the $150 first prize, a gold medal and custody of the Open Championship Trophy for one year.

October 6, 1983: Thirty-two days after winning the U.S. Amateur, Jay Sigel won the U.S. Mid-Amateur, becoming the first golfer in 53 years to win two USGA championships in the same year. He remains the only golfer with both of the aforementioned titles to his résumé.

October 10, 2002: Carol Semple Thompson won her fourth consecutive U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title. Her 3-and-1 victory over Barbara Berkmeyer was her seventh USGA championship victory, tying her with Anne Quast Sander. 

October 11, 1989: Michelle Wie was born. Wie is a two-time USGA champion, having won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in 2003 and the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.

October 14, 1890: U.S. president and golf enthusiast Dwight D. Eisenhower was born. Arguably the best golfer to reside in the White House, he is rumored to have played 800 rounds of golf during his eight-year presidency from 1953-1961.

October 17, 1907: Margaret Curtis defeated her sister, Harriot, to win her first of three U.S. Women’s Amateur titles. Officially named “The Women’s International Cup,” the cup for the Curtis Cup Match was officially presented to the sisters in 1932.

October 25, 1999: Four months after winning his second U.S. Open title at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2, Payne Stewart died in a plane crash. Stewart’s legacy lives on with a statue at Pinehurst that captures his famous pose after making the winning putt to defeat Phil Mickelson.

Colin Brown is social media coordinator for the USGA. Email him at cbrown@usga.org.