THIS DAY IN GOLF HISTORY / OCTOBER 25
Remembering Payne Stewart—and two Sunday surges
October 25 carries both celebration and loss: the birthday of a three-time major champion, the day golf lost Payne Stewart, and a run of final-round performances that changed careers.
1904
Denny Shute is born in Cleveland
Herman Densmore “Denny” Shute became one of the leading players of the 1930s. He won the 1933 Open Championship and consecutive PGA Championships in 1936 and 1937, adding 12 other PGA titles and three Ryder Cup appearances. [Hall of Fame]
Shute remained the most recent back-to-back PGA champion until Tiger Woods repeated in 2000. The World Golf Hall of Fame inducted Shute in 2008.
1999
Golf loses Payne Stewart
Four months after sinking a 15-foot par putt to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, Stewart and five others died in a plane crash near Aberdeen, South Dakota. He was 42. [Hall of Fame]
Stewart’s career included 11 PGA Tour victories and three major championships: the 1989 PGA Championship and the 1991 and 1999 U.S. Opens. His legacy continues through the PGA Tour’s Payne Stewart Award, which recognizes character, charity and sportsmanship.
2015
Smylie Kaufman posts 61—and waits
Kaufman began the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open seven shots behind. He closed with a bogey-free, 10-under 61 at TPC Summerlin, reached 16-under 268 and waited more than two hours while the final groups tried to catch him. None did. [PGA Tour]
Six players finished one stroke back. In only his fifth PGA Tour start, the 23-year-old rookie had his first victory.
2015
Lydia Ko becomes the youngest player to reach 10 LPGA wins
Ko shot a final-round 65 at the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship and finished at 20-under 268, nine strokes clear of Eun-Hee Ji and So Yeon Ryu. At 18 years, 6 months and 1 day, she became the youngest golfer—male or female—to earn 10 victories on a major tour. [LPGA]
The runaway win also returned Ko to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
2020
Patrick Cantlay chases down the leaders at Sherwood
Cantlay started four strokes back at the ZOZO Championship and made a career-high nine birdies in a closing 65. His 23-under total was enough for a one-shot victory over Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas and the third PGA Tour win of Cantlay’s career. [PGA Tour]
The Japan-based tournament had moved to Sherwood Country Club in California for 2020, giving the Southern California native a home-state victory.
2020
Ally McDonald wins for the first time—on her birthday
McDonald held off Danielle Kang by one stroke at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee. Her 16-under finish delivered her first LPGA Tour title on her 28th birthday. [LPGA]
She opened the week with a 66, took the 36-hole lead and answered Kang’s final-round pressure with a closing 69.
FROM THE ARCHIVE TO YOUR NEXT ROUND / FOX BANDIT VIEW
Make the last five balls count.
Kaufman, Ko and Cantlay produced very different wins, but each finished with a number the field could not answer. The useful lesson is not to chase a 61. It is to give the end of a practice session enough structure that finishing well means something.
After the technical work is done, choose five shots: a wedge to a small target, a mid-iron, a long club, a fairway-finding tee shot and one “must-hit” shot of your choice. Use a full routine and score one point when the ball starts in the intended window and finishes in a playable area. Do not repeat misses.
Record the score out of five. The goal is not perfection; it is learning whether your routine and tempo hold up when each ball has a consequence. That is a much more useful finish than emptying the bucket without a target.
Use the practice checklist ↗