making golf history
Centennial Anniversary Timeline As part of the TGA’s Centennial Anniversary, the association will periodically posting information on important people, places and events that have shaped amateur golf in Tennessee over the last hundred years
November 16 (1993) The Harold Eller family (wife Ruth, daughters Beverly Pearce & Judy Street and sons Richard & Mike) were honored for their lifetime devotion to the game of golf as the recipient of the National Golf Foundation's Jack Nicklaus Golf Family of the Year award. The presentation was made at the Spanish Bay Resort Hotel in Pebble Beach in conjunction with the Women in Golf Summit Honors Banquet.
November 5 (1965) Curtis Person, Sr. (Memphis) posts a score of 71-71-69 - 211 to win the first TGA Senior Amateur at Colonial CC.
October 28 (1916) Mrs. David C. 'Marguerite' Gaut (Memphis) defeats Mrs. Frank N. 'Della' Guthrie (Memphis) 5&4 in the finals of the first Tennessee Women's Amateur at Memphis CC. The idea originiated several years earlier when Frank O. Watts, president of First National Bank in Nashville who took a position with a St. Louis bank, told Mrs. Kenneth G. 'Edyth' Duffield (Memphis) he would donate a trophy for the winner of the first women's Tennessee championship. This trophy is among the golfing memorabilia given by the Gaut estate to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, that in turn was given to the Tennessee State Museum. Mrs. Gaut was the first woman ever inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. On this same day the Women's Tennessee Golf Association is organized. Mrs. Duffield was elected president, Anne Watkins (Chattanooga) vice president and Mrs. J.D. Varnell (Knoxville) secretary-treasurer. The officers, together with Mrs. W.O. Came (Bristol) and Daisy Stegall (Jackson), formed the executive board.
first TGA Mid-Amateur, a tournament for players 25 and older, at Colonial CC (South). Long would win three of the first four tournaments played before the format was changed to stroke play in 1992. Four player, Tim Jackson (6), Danny Green (4), Rob Long (3) and Richard Keene (3), have won the tournament three times or more.
October 18 (2001) Tim Jackson (Germantown) defeats George Zahringer 1-up to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur, his second, at San Joaquin CC in Fresno, CA. It was an impressive showing for Tennessee golfers as three of the quarter-finalists hailed from the state. Zahringer defeated Trey Lewis (Hendersonville) on the 19th hole of their semi-final match and Danny Green (Jackson) lost in the quarterfinals. Jackson (1994, 2001) and Green (1999) are the only Tennesseans to win the championship.
October 16 (1980) Betty Probasco (Chattanooga) posts a score of 74-76 - 152 to win the second annual TGA Women's Senior Amateur at Cleveland CC. By winning she bacame the only player in history to win both the Women's Amateur and Women's Senior Amateur in the same year. It was her only appearance in the senior event. She went on to win her seventh and eighth Women's Amateur titles in 1981 and 1986.
October 11 (1918) As was the custom until the 1980's, at the 1916 State Amateur at Memphis CC, the TGA elected a president for the following year from the club that is to host the State Amateur. McGee Tyson of Cherokee CC in Knoxville was elected, however the tournament was not held in 1917 and 1918 due to the U.S. involvement in World War I. Lt. Charles McGhee Tyson, age 28, died on this date while flying over the North Sea.
October 27 (1968) The Amateurs defeat the Professionals 45.5 - 44.5 in the first annual Tennessee Challenge Cup Matches at Old Hickory CC.
October 23 (1937) Mrs. David C. 'Marguerite' Gaut (Memphis) defeats Mrs. Scott 'Peggy' Probasco, Sr. 4&3 to win her fifth Tennessee Women's Amateur tournament at Chattanooga Golf & CC. It was Mrs. Probasco who reorganized the Women's Tennessee Golf Association in order to revive the championship which had not been played since 931. Only eight tournaments were played from 1916 thru 1931 and Mrs. Gaut had won half of them. Seven players, Betty Probasco (8), Judy Eller Street (7), Marguerite Gaut (6), Margaret Gunther lee (6), Ann Baker Furrow (5), Margarite Solomon (4) and Connie Day (4), have won four or more Women's Amateurs.
October 23 (1988)
The Princeton University graduate was stationed at Killingholme, England and killed while hunting for submarines over the North Sea. After the arrival of his remains in Knoxville, the most remarkable funeral ever held in that city took place. The whole populace turned out to honor him, including the governor and his full staff. His father was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy who fought Indians in the West and commanded volunteer troops from Tennessee and Kentucky he had personally raised during the SpanishAmerican War. General Lawrence D. Tyson's brigade, who won more Medals of Honor than any other brigade during World War I, was engaged in the fighting on the Hindenburg line in France at the time his son was killed. Upon his tomb are these lines: "Better death by the sword for some high, unselfish purpose, than to live out a life of ease, safe encloistered (sic.) all thy days. To live for thine own ends is human: To die for some great cause, for Liberty or for another good - that is God-like."
Rob Long (Clarksville) defeats Buzz Fly (Memphis) 3&2 to win the
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Florida Golf Central • Volume 15, Issue 6