Ben Crenshaw | |||||||||||
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Personal information | |||||||||||
Full name | Ben Daniel Crenshaw | ||||||||||
Nickname | Gentle Ben | ||||||||||
Born | Austin, Texas, U.S. | January 11, 1952||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||||||||||
Weight | 157 lb (71 kg; 11.2 st) | ||||||||||
Sporting nationality | United States | ||||||||||
Residence | Austin, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||
Spouse | Julie (m. 1985−present) Polly (m. 1976−1985) | ||||||||||
Children | Claire Susan, Anna Riley, Katherine Vail | ||||||||||
Career | |||||||||||
College | University of Texas | ||||||||||
Turned professional | 1973 | ||||||||||
Current tour(s) | Champions Tour | ||||||||||
Former tour(s) | PGA Tour | ||||||||||
Professional wins | 30 | ||||||||||
Highest ranking | 5 (May 22, 1988) [1] | ||||||||||
Number of wins by tour | |||||||||||
PGA Tour | 19 | ||||||||||
European Tour | 3 | ||||||||||
Other | 9 (regular) 1 (senior) | ||||||||||
Best results in major championships (wins: 2) | |||||||||||
Masters Tournament | Won: 1984, 1995 | ||||||||||
PGA Championship | 2nd: 1979 | ||||||||||
U.S. Open | T3: 1975 | ||||||||||
The Open Championship | T2: 1978, 1979 | ||||||||||
Achievements and awards | |||||||||||
|
Ben Daniel Crenshaw (born January 11, 1952) is a retired American professional golfer who has won 19 events on the PGA Tour, including two major championships: the Masters Tournament in 1984 and 1995. He is nicknamed Gentle Ben . [2]
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(April 2015) |
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Crenshaw played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas, where he won three NCAA Championships from 1971 to 1973. Crenshaw was also a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity; he turned professional in 1973 at age 21 and played his first PGA Tour event as a pro in mid-August at the USI Classic in Sutton, Massachusetts, [3] [4] [5] [6] finishing ten strokes back in a tie for 35th place ($903). [7]
Less than three months later in early November, Crenshaw became the second player to win the first event after earning his tour card, achieved earlier by Marty Fleckman (1967). [6] It was repeated by Jim Benepe (1988), Robert Gamez (1990), Garrett Willis (2001), Russell Henley (2013), and Emiliano Grillo (2015–16). Together with his teammate George Burns, he won the Walt Disney World National Team Championship in Orlando in October 1979. [8] [9]
Following five runner-up finishes in major championships without a victory, including a sudden-death playoff at the 1979 PGA Championship, Crenshaw won the Masters Tournament in 1984. In the mid-1980s, he suffered from Graves' disease, a condition of the thyroid, but continued to accumulate victories; he finished with nineteen PGA Tour wins, including an emotional second Masters victory in 1995, which came a week after the death of his mentor Harvey Penick. In 1999, Crenshaw was the captain of the United States Ryder Cup team for the matches at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. He was criticized from some quarters for his captaincy over the first two days as his team slipped to a 10–6 deficit; however, he was ultimately credited for providing the inspiration behind his side's remarkable turnaround in the Sunday singles, as the U.S. won 81⁄2 of the final day's twelve points to regain the Cup.
Crenshaw won several professional events outside the PGA Tour, including individual and team titles in the World Cup of Golf in 1988. He was among the top ten on McCormack's World Golf Rankings from 1976 to 1981 inclusive, and returned to spend 80 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking from 1987 to 1989. [10] In 1987, he became one of the few players in history to finish in the top ten of all four major championships in the same season without winning any of them.
Despite playing mainly in the United States, Crenshaw had a number of top performances in international events in his career. He won the 1976 Irish Open and then finished runner-up to compatriot Hubert Green the next year. He also finished runner-up at two events on the Australasian Tour, at the 1978 Australian Open and the 1982 Australian PGA Championship. And he famously had two runner-ups at The Open Championship, behind Jack Nicklaus in 1978 and Seve Ballesteros the following year.
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, "Gentle Ben" did not record a single three-putt during the tournament. Since 1986, Crenshaw has been a legal partner with Bill Coore in Coore & Crenshaw, a golf course design firm. The Masters in 2015 was the 44th and final for Crenshaw. [11] Crenshaw has the worst playoff record in PGA Tour history at 0–8. [12]
Crenshaw married his second wife Julie in 1985. [13] All three of his daughters – Claire Susan, Anna Riley, and Katherine Vail – were presented to high society as debutantes at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. [14] Crenshaw is a Republican and has donated money to multiple Republican candidates. [15]
Legend |
Major championships (2) |
Other PGA Tour (17) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nov 4, 1973 | San Antonio Texas Open | −14 (65-72-66-67=270) | 2 strokes | Orville Moody |
2 | Jan 25, 1976 | Bing Crosby National Pro-Am | −7 (75-67-70-69=281) | 2 strokes | Mike Morley |
3 | Feb 1, 1976 | Hawaiian Open | −18 (70-69-65-66=270) | 4 strokes | Hale Irwin, Larry Nelson |
4 | Sep 19, 1976 | Ohio Kings Island Open | −9 (69-69-67-66=271) | 1 stroke | Andy North |
5 | May 15, 1977 | Colonial National Invitation | −8 (65-70-68-69=272) | 1 stroke | John Schroeder |
6 | Jan 22, 1979 | Phoenix Open | −14 (67-61-71=199)* | 1 stroke | Jay Haas |
7 | Oct 28, 1979 | Walt Disney World National Team Championship (with George Burns) | −33 (62-66-62-65=255) | 3 strokes | Scott Bess and Dan Halldorson, Jeff Hewes and Sammy Rachels, Peter Jacobsen and D. A. Weibring |
8 | Sep 28, 1980 | Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic | −16 (66-67-68-71=272) | 4 strokes | Jack Renner |
9 | May 1, 1983 | Byron Nelson Golf Classic | −7 (71-69-67-66=273) | 1 stroke | Brad Bryant, Hal Sutton |
10 | Apr 15, 1984 | Masters Tournament | −11 (67-72-70-68=277) | 2 strokes | Tom Watson |
11 | Jul 27, 1986 | Buick Open | −18 (69-67-66-68=270) | 1 stroke | J. C. Snead, Doug Tewell |
12 | Oct 26, 1986 | Vantage Championship | −14 (65-67-64=196)* | 1 stroke | Payne Stewart |
13 | Mar 22, 1987 | USF&G Classic | −20 (66-68-67-67=268) | 3 strokes | Curtis Strange |
14 | Mar 6, 1988 | Doral-Ryder Open | −14 (70-69-69-66=274) | 1 stroke | Chip Beck, Mark McCumber |
15 | May 20, 1990 | Southwestern Bell Colonial (2) | −8 (69-65-72-66=272) | 3 strokes | John Mahaffey, Corey Pavin, Nick Price |
16 | Jul 5, 1992 | Centel Western Open | −12 (70-72-65-69=276) | 1 stroke | Greg Norman |
17 | Mar 21, 1993 | Nestle Invitational | −8 (71-70-69-70=280) | 2 strokes | Davis Love III, Rocco Mediate, Vijay Singh |
18 | Apr 3, 1994 | Freeport-McMoRan Classic | −15 (69-68-68-68=273) | 3 strokes | José María Olazábal |
19 | Apr 9, 1995 | Masters Tournament (2) | −14 (70-67-69-68=274) | 1 stroke | Davis Love III |
*Note: Tournament shortened to 54 holes due to rain.
PGA Tour playoff record (0–8)
No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent(s) | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1978 | Bing Crosby National Pro-Am | Tom Watson | Lost to par on second extra hole |
2 | 1979 | Western Open | Larry Nelson | Lost to birdie on first extra hole |
3 | 1979 | PGA Championship | David Graham | Lost to birdie on third extra hole |
4 | 1981 | Bing Crosby National Pro-Am | Bobby Clampett, John Cook, Hale Irwin, Barney Thompson | Cook won with par on third extra hole Clampett, Crenshaw and Thompson eliminated by birdie on first hole |
5 | 1981 | Texas Open | Bill Rogers | Lost to birdie on first extra hole |
6 | 1987 | Los Angeles Open | Chen Tze-chung | Lost to par on first extra hole |
7 | 1989 | NEC World Series of Golf | David Frost | Lost to par on second extra hole |
8 | 1992 | GTE Byron Nelson Classic | Billy Ray Brown, Raymond Floyd, Bruce Lietzke | Brown won with birdie on first extra hole |
Legend |
Major championships (2) |
Other European Tour (1) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Aug 29, 1976 | Carroll's Irish Open | −4 (73-69-69-73=284) | 2 strokes | Brian Barnes, Billy Casper, Martin Foster |
2 | Apr 15, 1984 | Masters Tournament | −11 (67-72-70-68=277) | 2 strokes | Tom Watson |
3 | Apr 9, 1995 | Masters Tournament (2) | −14 (70-67-69-68=274) | 1 stroke | Davis Love III |
European Tour playoff record (0–1)
No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1979 | PGA Championship | David Graham | Lost to birdie on third extra hole |
Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | Masters Tournament | 2 shot deficit | −11 (67-72-70-68=277) | 2 strokes | Tom Watson |
1995 | Masters Tournament (2) | Tied for lead | −14 (70-67-69-68=274) | 1 stroke | Davis Love III |
Tournament | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | T19 LA | T24 LA | T22 | T30 | 2 | T8 | T37 | CUT | ||
U.S. Open | T36 LA | T27 | CUT | CUT | T3 | T8 | T49 | CUT | T11 | |
The Open Championship | T28 | T5 | T2 | T2 | ||||||
PGA Championship | T63 | T10 | T8 | T16 | 2 |
Tournament | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | T14 | T3 | 46 | CUT | T18 | 1 | CUT | 45 | CUT | CUT |
U.S. Open | CUT | T33 | T71 | CUT | T65 | CUT | CUT | |||
The Open Championship | T31 | T80 | CUT | T77 | T15 | T27 | CUT | |||
PGA Championship | T31 | WD | T73 | T61 | T9 | T44 | T69 | CUT | CUT | CUT |
Tournament | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | 47 | T55 | CUT | CUT |
U.S. Open | ||||||||||
The Open Championship | ||||||||||
PGA Championship | WD |
Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT |
U.S. Open | ||||||
The Open Championship | ||||||
PGA Championship |
LA = Low amateur
CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 18 | 44 | 25 |
U.S. Open | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 26 | 15 |
The Open Championship | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 18 |
PGA Championship | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 26 | 18 |
Totals | 2 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 27 | 47 | 117 | 76 |
Tournament | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Players Championship | T39 | T55 | T70 | CUT | T4 | CUT |
Tournament | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Players Championship | 2 | T63 | CUT | T10 | T26 | T33 | T54 | T9 | T11 | T11 |
Tournament | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Players Championship | CUT | CUT | T29 | CUT | T19 | CUT | T73 | CUT | CUT | CUT |
Tournament | 2000 | 2001 |
---|---|---|
The Players Championship | CUT | CUT |
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Amateur
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