Ben Crenshaw
| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Birth | January 11, 1952 Austin, Texas |
| Nationality |  United States
|
| Residence | Austin, Texas |
| College | University of Texas |
| Career | |
| Turned Pro | 1973 |
| Tours | PGA Tour Champions Tour |
| Professional wins | 27 (PGA Tour: 19, Other: 8) |
| Best Results in Major Championships Wins: 2 | |
| Masters | Won 1984, 1995 |
| U.S. Open | T3: 1975 |
| British Open | T2: 1978, 1979 |
| PGA Championship | 2nd: 1979 |
| Awards | |
| Bob Jones Award | 1991 |
| Old Tom Morris Award | 1997 |
| World Golf Hall of Fame | 2002 |
Ben Daniel Crenshaw (born January 11, 1952) is an American professional golfer.
Crenshaw was born in Austin, Texas. He attended and played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas before turning professional in 1973.
In 1973, Crenshaw became the second player in Tour history to win the first event of his career; this accomplishment was achieved earlier by Marty Fleckman (1967) and later repeated by Robert Gamez (1990) and Garrett Willis (2001). In 1984 he won The Masters, one of golf's four major championships. In the mid-1980s he suffered from Graves' disease, a disease of the thyroid, but he continued to accumulate victories, finishing with 19 on the PGA Tour, including a second Masters in 1995.
Crenshaw won several further professional events outside the PGA Tour, including individual and team titles in the World Cup of Golf in 1988. He spent 80 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings from 1987 to 1989.[1]
Crenshaw is widely regarded as one of the best putters in golf history. His instructor growing up, Harvey Penick, taught him a smooth, effortless stroke on the greens, which allowed him to master even the speediest of greens — including those at Augusta National Golf Club. In winning the Masters in 1995 (a victory that came a week after Penick's death), "Gentle Ben" did not record a single three-putt during the tournament.
Since 1986, Crenshaw has been a partner with Bill Coore in Coore & Crenshaw, a golf course design firm.
Amateur wins (12)
- 1971 NCAA Championship, Eastern Amateur, Southern Amateur
- 1972 NCAA Championship (tie with Tom Kite), Eastern Amateur, Porter Cup, Trans-Mississippi Amateur
- 1973 NCAA Championship, Western Amateur, Sunnehanna Amateur, Southern Amateur, Northeast Amateur
Professional wins (27)
PGA Tour wins (19)
- 1973 (1) San Antonio Texas Open
- 1976 (3) Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, Hawaiian Open, Ohio Kings Island Open
- 1977 (1) Colonial National Invitation
- 1979 (2) Phoenix Open, Walt Disney World National Team Championship (with George Burns)
- 1980 (1) Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic
- 1983 (1) Byron Nelson Golf Classic
- 1984 (1) The Masters
- 1986 (2) Buick Open, Vantage Championship
- 1987 (1) USF&G Classic
- 1988 (1) Doral-Ryder Open
- 1990 (1) Southwestern Bell Colonial
- 1992 (1) Centel Western Open
- 1993 (1) Nestle Invitational
- 1994 (1) Freeport-McMoRan Classic
- 1995 (1) The Masters
Major championships are shown in bold.
Other wins (8)
- 1975 Texas State Open
- 1976 Irish Open (European Tour)
- 1979 Texas State Open
- 1980 Texas State Open
- 1981 Mexican Open
- 1985 Shootout at Jeremy Ranch (with Miller Barber)
- 1988 World Cup (individual title and team title with Mark McCumber)
- 1995 PGA Grand Slam of Golf
Major Championships
Wins (2)
| Year | Championship | Winning Score | Margin | Runner Up |
| 1984 | The Masters | -11 (67-72-70-68=277) | 2 strokes |  Tom Watson
|
| 1995 | The Masters | -14 (70-67-69-68=274) | 1 stroke | Davis Love III
|
Results timeline
| Tournament | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | DNP | DNP | T19 LA | T24 LA | T22 | T30 | 2 | T8 | T37 | CUT |
| U.S. Open | T36 LA | T27 | CUT | CUT | DNP | T3 | T8 | T49 | CUT | T11 |
| The Open Championship | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | T28 | DNP | DNP | T5 | T2 | T2 |
| PGA Championship | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | T63 | T10 | T8 | DNP | T16 | 2 |
| Tournament | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | T6 | T8 | T24 | T2 | 1 | T57 | T16 | T4 | 4 | T3 |
| U.S. Open | T32 | T11 | T19 | CUT | CUT | CUT | T6 | T4 | T12 | CUT |
| The Open Championship | 3 | T8 | T15 | CUT | T22 | T35 | T21 | T4 | T16 | T52 |
| PGA Championship | T41 | CUT | CUT | T9 | CUT | T59 | T11 | T7 | T17 | T17 |
| Tournament | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | T14 | T3 | 46 | CUT | T18 | 1 | CUT | 45 | CUT | CUT |
| U.S. Open | CUT | DNP | DNP | DNP | T33 | T71 | CUT | T65 | CUT | CUT |
| The Open Championship | T31 | T80 | DNP | CUT | T77 | T15 | T27 | DNP | CUT | DNP |
| PGA Championship | T31 | WD | T73 | T61 | T9 | T44 | T69 | CUT | CUT | CUT |
| Tournament | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | 47 | T55 | CUT |
| U.S. Open | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP |
| The Open Championship | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP |
| PGA Championship | WD | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP |
LA = Low Amateur
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10
Notable
- He played on four Ryder Cup teams (1981, 1983, 1987, 1995) and captained the 1999 team.
- In 1991, Ben Crenshaw was given the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.
- He is now a noted golf course designer, working in partnership with Bill Coore.
- His stepmother, Roberta Crenshaw, was an Austin-area philanthropist.
- He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.
- He is the 2006 Kappa Alpha Order Sportsman of the Year.
- In 2007, Ben Crenshaw made the cut at The Masters beating the likes of notables Ernie Els, Sergio García, Chris DiMarco, Michael Campbell, and Colin Montgomerie.
- "If we are to preserve the integrity of golf as left to use by our forefathers, it is up to all of us to carry on the true spirit of the game." --Ben Crenshaw[2]
See also
References
- ^ 69 Players Who Have Reached The Top-10 In World Ranking
- ^ The Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations, ed. Jim Apfelbaum. 2007.