Tournament information | |
---|---|
Location | Coventry, England |
Established | 1962 |
Course(s) | Coventry Golf Club |
Par | 73 |
Tour(s) | European Tour |
Format | Stroke play |
Prize fund | £40,000 |
Month played | May |
Final year | 1976 |
Tournament record score | |
Aggregate | 262 Bernard Hunt (1966) |
To par | −15 Sam Torrance (1976) |
Final champion | |
Sam Torrance | |
Location Map | |
Location in England Location in the West Midlands |
The Piccadilly Medal was a men's professional golf tournament on the British PGA tournament circuit that was played in 1962 and from 1964 to 1976. Since the circuit later evolved into the European Tour, the tournament is recognised as an official European Tour event from 1972. It was played in a variety of formats. From 1962 to 1967 it was a 72-hole stroke-play event, in 1968 it was a four-ball better-ball match play event, from 1969 to 1975 it was a knockout stroke-play event while in 1976 it reverted to the 72-hole stroke-play format. From 1964 to 1968 the event was played on the East course at Wentworth, just before the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship which was played on the West Course there. Carreras withdrew their golf sponsorship after the 1976 season.
The event started in 1962 as the Piccadilly Number One tournament. Total prize money was £8,000 with a first prize of £2,000. The £2,000 first prize was the largest ever for a British event, although the total prize was exceeded by the Open Championship's £8,500. [1] The first two rounds were split between Hillside Golf Club and Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club, with one round played on each course. It was the first important professional tournament in Britain with a planned Sunday finish. The event marked the first British professional appearance of Jack Nicklaus. [2] Nicklaus had a 79 in the first round and, although he made the cut, finished 15 strokes behind the winner.
The event planned for May 1963 was cancelled [3] and replaced by the new Gevacolor Tournament with total prize money of £3,500. [4]
In 1964 the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship was started on the West Course at Wentworth. From 1964 to 1968 another tournament was played on the East Course immediately before the World Match Play Championship. From 1964 to 1967 this was a 72-hole stroke-play event while in 1968 it was a four-ball better-ball match play tournament. The first tournament was played from 5 to 7 October 1964. The winner was Jimmy Martin who took home £750 of the total prize fund of £4,000. [5] The 1965 event was played on 11 and 12 October and was won by Peter Butler. [6] The 1966 event was played on 4 and 5 October and was won by Bernard Hunt. [7] The 1967 event was played on 10 and 11 October. The winner was Peter Butler who won for the second time. [8] Because there were no British golfers in the main event, there had been talk of a boycott of this event by some of the British golfers. In the end the PGA issued a statement and the boycott came to nothing. [9] [10]
The 72-hole stroke play competition which had been played on the East Course prior to the World Match Play Championship was replaced by a four-ball better-ball match play tournament. 32 pairs competed in the knock-out competition, each round over 18 holes of the East Course. The plan was to play the first round on Monday 7 October, followed by two rounds on each of the following two days. However, heavy rain on the second day meant that the third round could not be played that day and the final was delayed until Thursday 10 October, the same day as the opening round of the 1968 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship. [11] The winners were Richard Emery and Hugh Jackson who beat Neil Coles and Bryon Hutchinson 2&1 in the final. The winners won £500 each out of the total prize money was £4,000. [12]
In 1969 the event moved from Wentworth and became the Piccadilly Medal. This was a knockout stroke-play event with 64 players. The first round was on 16 July with two rounds on 17 and 18 July and a 36-hole final on 19 July. The same format was used in 1970 and 1971. In 1972 there was an 18-hole qualifying round at Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club prior to the knockout stage although three players (Jacklin, Coles and Oosterhuis) were given an exemption from qualifying. [13] In 1973 qualifying was dropped and field increased to 128 with both the semi-finals and final played on the Saturday. The final event, in 1976, was a 72-hole stroke-play event. Total prize money was increased from £15,000 to £40,000.
Peter Arthur Oosterhuis is an English professional golfer and golf broadcaster. Oosterhuis played on the European circuit from 1969 to 1974, winning 10 tournaments and taking the Harry Vardon Trophy for heading the Order of Merit for four consecutive seasons from 1971 to 1974. From 1975 he played on the PGA Tour, winning the Canadian Open in 1981. He was twice runner-up in the Open Championship, in 1974 and 1982. Later he became a golf analyst on TV, initially in Europe and then in the United States. In 2015, Oosterhuis announced that he had Alzheimer's disease.
Maurice Bembridge is an English golfer. He won the 1969 News of the World Match Play, the 1971 Dunlop Masters and won six times on the European Tour from its formation in 1972. He also won tournaments around the world, including the Kenya Open three times. He played in the Ryder Cup four successive times from 1969 to 1975 and represented England twice in the World Cup. At the 1974 Masters Tournament, Bembridge tied the course record with a 64 in the final round, lifting him into a tie for 9th place.
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Peter Joseph Butler is an English professional golfer. He was one of the leading British golfers of the 1960s and early 1970s. He won a number of important tournaments, played in four Ryder Cup matches between 1965 and 1973 and featured in the top 60 on the British and later European Tour Order of Merit every year from 1959 to 1978.
The British PGA Matchplay Championship was a match play golf tournament that began in 1903 and ran until 1979. Between 1903 and 1969, the event was sponsored by the now defunct British newspaper the News of the World, and was commonly known by the paper's name. Initially organised as the championship of British professionals, the event came to include invited players from other countries – in particular from around the Commonwealth. On occasion, American professionals also took part, notably in 1949 when eight members of the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup side accepted invites to the event, Lloyd Mangrum reaching the semi-finals.
The Penfold Tournament was a golf tournament on the British PGA tournament circuit. Since the circuit later evolved into the European Tour, the tournament is recognised as an official European Tour event from 1972. It was played between 1932 and 1935, and from 1946 to 1974 at a variety of courses in the United Kingdom. The tournament was sponsored by Penfold Golf and was often played at coastal resorts, whose councils shared the costs. In 1974, Penfold were taken over by Colgate-Palmolive and continued their sponsorship through the Penfold PGA Championship from 1975 to 1977.
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The 1964 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship was the first World Match Play Championship. It was played from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 October on the West Course at Wentworth. Eight players competed in a straight knock-out competition, with each match contested over 36 holes. The champion received £5,000 out of a total prize fund of £16,000. Arnold Palmer defeated Neil Coles 2&1 in the final to win the tournament.
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