Hale Irwin - PGA Tour

PGA Tour

Irwin had 20 victories on the PGA Tour beginning with the 1971 Sea Pines Heritage Classic and finishing with the 1994 MCI Heritage Golf Classic, and won prize money of just under six million dollars. His 1994 Heritage win at the age of nearly 49 made him one of the oldest winners in Tour history. During his career, Irwin won professional tournaments on all six continents on which golf is played: Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. His successes kept him ranked high among his peers - he was ranked among the top five in McCormack's World Golf Rankings in every year from 1975 to 1979, inclusive. He ranked in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for a few weeks in 1991.

Irwin's first U.S. Open triumph came at Winged Foot in 1974 at the age of 29. In what became known as "The Massacre at Winged Foot", Irwin won with a score of 7-over par, the second-highest winning score in relation to par of any U.S. Open since 1945. The course conditions at Winged Foot in 1974 were described as "brutal". Johnny Miller and several other players suggested that the USGA had intentionally made the Winged Foot course setup particularly treacherous in response to Miller's record-breaking round of 63 at Oakmont the year before. Irwin, however, said in 1974: "I've always enjoyed playing tough courses. It's much more of a challenge to me." Irwin earned $35,000 for his victory at Winged Foot and said that he had a vivid dream three weeks earlier that he won the U.S. Open, which he only told his wife about.

Irwin won two Piccadilly World Match Play Championship's at Wentworth Club in 1974 and 1975. He missed out on a record-breaking third straight victory when he was beaten in the 1976 final by Australian David Graham on the second sudden-death playoff hole.

Irwin added a second U.S. Open title at Inverness Club in 1979. Irwin's final round of 75 tied the post-World War II tournament record for the highest final round score by a U.S. Open champion. The next month in The Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Irwin came to the final round with a two-shot lead. He was bidding to become only the third golfer since 1945 to win the U.S. Open and The Open Championship in the same year after Ben Hogan (1953) and Lee Trevino (1971) - a feat later matched by Tom Watson (1982) and Tiger Woods (2000). Irwin said in 1979: "I would dearly love to win the British Open. It is special". However, he was thwarted in his attempt at an historic double by the incredible recovery play of Seve Ballesteros.

In 1983, Irwin had another close tilt at The Open Championship, but lost by a shot to Tom Watson at Royal Birkdale, after whiffing on a tiny putt of about an inch, during his third round of play. Irwin said that his mistake, which cost him the chance of a playoff with Watson, was "a mental lapse" and that he learned a lesson from it, later being very careful on short putts.

Irwin said in an interview in 2000 that the greatest disappointment of his career was not at the British Open, but at the 1984 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Irwin had led the tournament after the first three rounds, but shot a final round of 79 to finish 6th. Reflecting on his final round collapse, Irwin said: "A number of factors were in play and it was very emotional. I thought it would be great to win 10 years later at the same venue and, more than anything else, my father was dying of cancer then and I thought it would be wonderful to give him a victory. I destroyed myself with the pressures I'd built up."

For the rest of the 1980s Irwin was occasionally on leaderboards, but enjoyed an incredible swansong in 1990, capped by his third U.S. Open victory, which came in a playoff against Mike Donald which Irwin had only joined after holing an improbable 45 feet (14 m) birdie putt on the 72nd hole. In the 18-hole Monday playoff, Donald was two shots ahead of Irwin with three holes to play. Donald missed a 15-foot par putt on the 18th which would have given him victory. Both men shot rounds of 74 in the playoff and Irwin won the title with a birdie on the first sudden-death playoff hole to become the oldest ever U.S. Open champion. It was his first PGA Tour win for five years. Irwin was gracious in victory, saying: "God bless Mike Donald. I almost wish he had won."

Somewhat remarkably, the following week after his 1990 U.S Open triumph Irwin won the Buick Classic, becoming the first man since Billy Casper in 1966 to win a PGA Tour event the week after gaining the U.S. Open title.

Irwin played on five Ryder Cup teams: 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1991.

Irwin was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.