Doug Sanders

George Douglas Sanders (July 24, 1933 – April 12, 2020)^[1] was an American professional golfer who won 20 events on the PGA Tour and had four runner-up finishes at major championships.

Doug Sanders
Sanders, circa 1960s
Personal information
Full name	George Douglas Sanders
Nickname	Peacock of the Fairways
Born	(1933-07-24)July 24, 1933 Cedartown, Georgia, U.S.
Died	April 12, 2020(2020-04-12) (aged 86) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Sporting nationality	United States
Career
College	University of Florida
Turned professional	1956
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour Champions Tour
Professional wins	24
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	20
PGA Tour Champions	1
Other	3
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament	T4: 1966
PGA Championship	T2: 1959
U.S. Open	T2: 1961
The Open Championship	T2/2nd: 1966, 1970
U.S. Amateur	R64: 1956
British Amateur	R256: 1956

Early years

He was born into a poor family in Cedartown, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta, where his father farmed and drove trucks.^[2][3] Sanders was the fourth of five children and picked cotton as a teenager. The family home was near a nine-hole course and he was a self-taught golfer.^[4]

Amateur career

Sanders accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Florida in Gainesville,^[4] where he played for the Gators golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition in 1955.^[5] In his single year as a Gator golfer, Sanders and the team won a Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship and earned a sixth-place finish at the NCAA championship tournament—the Gators' best national championship finish at that time.^[5] Sanders won the 1956 Canadian Open as an amateur—the only amateur ever to do so—and turned professional shortly thereafter.^[6] Sanders was the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour until Scott Verplank in 1985.

Professional career

Sanders had thirteen top-ten finishes in major championships, including four second-place finishes: 1959 PGA Championship, 1961 U.S. Open, 1966 and 1970 Opens. In 1966, he became one of the few players in history to finish in the top ten of all four major championships in a single season, despite winning none of them. He took four shots from just 74 yards as the leader playing the final hole of the 1970 Open Championship at St Andrews, missing a sidehill 3-foot (0.9 m) putt to win, then lost the resulting 18-hole playoff by a single stroke the next day to Jack Nicklaus.^[7] His final victory on tour came in June 1972 at the Kemper Open, one stroke ahead of runner-up Lee Trevino.^[8]

Sanders is remembered for an exceptionally short, flat golf swing — a consequence, it appears, of a painful neck condition that radically restricted his movements.^[7]

He was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1967, which won in Houston.

Personal life

Sanders was a stylish, flamboyant dresser on the golf course, which earned him the nickname "Peacock of the Fairways."^[7] Esquire magazine named Sanders one of America's Ten Best Dressed Jocks in August 1972.^[9]

Sanders identified himself as the lead character, a playboy PGA Tour golfer, in the golf novel Dead Solid Perfect, by Dan Jenkins.^[10]

Sanders wrote a golf instruction book, "Compact Golf", published in 1964, the title of which linked to Sanders' short golf swing. His autobiography "Come swing with me" was published in 1974.^[11]

In his autobiography, Sanders said he was invited and intended to accompany fellow pro golfer and 1964 Open winner Tony Lema on the flight in a private plane in 1966 that crashed with no survivors. Sanders changed his schedule at the last minute and did not join Lema on the flight.^[11]

After retiring from competitive golf, Sanders was active in his own corporate golf entertainment company for nearly 20 years, and sponsored the Doug Sanders International Junior Golf Championship in Houston, Texas. From 1988 to 1994, he also sponsored the Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic.

Sanders died in his adopted hometown of Houston, Texas, on April 12, 2020, from natural causes.^[12][13] He was 86.

Honors

Sanders was a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame,^[14] Georgia Sports Hall of Fame,^[6] and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.^[3] He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."^[15]

Amateur wins

• 1955 Mexican Amateur

Professional wins (24)

PGA Tour wins (20)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jul 8, 1956	Canadian Open (as an amateur)	69-67-69-68=273	−15	Playoff	Dow Finsterwald
2	Jun 1, 1958	Western Open	69-68-70-68=275	−13	1 stroke	Dow Finsterwald
3	Dec 6, 1959	Coral Gables Open Invitational	68-71-69-65=273	−11	3 strokes	Dow Finsterwald
4	Mar 5, 1961	Greater New Orleans Open Invitational	68-65-69-70=272	−16	5 strokes	Gay Brewer, Mac Main
5	May 14, 1961	Colonial National Invitation	69-75-67-70=281	+1	1 stroke	Kel Nagle
6	May 21, 1961	Hot Springs Open Invitational	68-68-69-68=273	−15	1 stroke	Dave Ragan, Jerry Steelsmith
7	Aug 6, 1961	Eastern Open Invitational	72-66-68-69=275	−13	1 stroke	Ken Venturi
8	Nov 19, 1961	Cajun Classic Open Invitational	67-67-67-69=270	−14	6 strokes	Ken Still
9	Mar 11, 1962	Pensacola Open Invitational	67-67-67-69=270	−18	1 stroke	Don Fairfield
10	Aug 19, 1962	St. Paul Open Invitational	66-69-69-65=269	−19	3 strokes	Dave Hill
11	Aug 26, 1962	Oklahoma City Open Invitational	70-69-74-67=280	−8	2 strokes	Johnny Pott
12	Apr 14, 1963	Greater Greensboro Open	68-65-68-69=270	−14	4 strokes	Jimmy Clark
13	Mar 7, 1965	Pensacola Open Invitational (2)	68-71-65-73=277	−11	Playoff	Jack Nicklaus
14	Mar 14, 1965	Doral Open Invitational	65-71-71-67=274	−14	1 stroke	Bruce Devlin
15	Feb 6, 1966	Bob Hope Desert Classic	70-72-68-73-66=349	−11	Playoff	Arnold Palmer
16	Mar 27, 1966	Jacksonville Open Invitational	71-65-66-71=273	−15	1 stroke	Gay Brewer
17	Apr 3, 1966	Greater Greensboro Open (2)	65-70-71-70=276	−8	Playoff	Tom Weiskopf
18	Mar 5, 1967	Doral Open Invitational (2)	68-71-66-70=275	−9	1 stroke	Harold Henning, Art Wall Jr.
19	Dec 13, 1970	Bahama Islands Open	66-70-68-68=272	−16	Playoff	Chris Blocker
20	Jun 4, 1972	Kemper Open	71-68-68-68=275	−13	1 stroke	Lee Trevino

PGA Tour playoff record (5–5)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1956	Canadian Open (as an amateur)	Dow Finsterwald	Won with par on first extra hole
2	1961	Phoenix Open Invitational	Arnold Palmer	Lost 18-hole playoff; Palmer: −3 (67), Sanders: E (70)
3	1962	West Palm Beach Open Invitational	Dave Ragan	Lost to birdie on second extra hole
4	1964	Greater Greensboro Open	Julius Boros	Lost to par on first extra hole
5	1965	Pensacola Open Invitational	Jack Nicklaus	Won with birdie on third extra hole
6	1965	Greater Seattle Open Invitational	Gay Brewer	Lost to par on first extra hole
7	1966	Bob Hope Desert Classic	Arnold Palmer	Won with birdie on first extra hole
8	1966	Greater Greensboro Open	Tom Weiskopf	Won with par on second extra hole
9	1970	The Open Championship	Jack Nicklaus	Lost 18-hole playoff; Nicklaus: E (72), Sanders: +1 (73)
10	1970	Bahama Islands Open	Chris Blocker	Won with par on second extra hole

Far East Circuit wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Mar 25, 1963	Yomiuri International	68-77-71-73=289	+1	5 strokes	Hideyo Sugimoto

Far East Circuit playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1964	Philippine Open	Peter Thomson	Lost to bogey on first extra hole

Other wins (2)

• 1957 Colombian Open
• 1959 Sahara Pro-Am

Senior PGA Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Sep 25, 1983	World Seniors Invitational	70-70-73-70=283	−5	1 stroke	Miller Barber

Results in major championships

Amateur

Tournament	1955	1956
U.S. Amateur	R128	R64
The Amateur Championship		R256

Professional

Tournament	1957	1958	1959
Masters Tournament	T31
U.S. Open		CUT
The Open Championship
PGA Championship			T2

Tournament	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
Masters Tournament	T29	T11	T33	T28		T11	T4	T16	T12	T36
U.S. Open	T46	T2	T11	T21	T32	T11	T8	T34	T37
The Open Championship				CUT	11	CUT	T2	T18	34
PGA Championship	T3	3	T15	T17	T28	T20	T6	T28	T8	CUT

Tournament	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976
Masters Tournament				CUT
U.S. Open		T37	CUT			T45
The Open Championship	2	T9	4	T28			T28
PGA Championship	T41	CUT	T7

  Top 10

  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
R256, R128, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Sources: Masters Tournament,^[16] U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur,^[17] Open Championship,^[18] PGA Championship,^[19] 1956 British Amateur^[20]

Summary

Tournament	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
Masters Tournament	0	0	0	1	1	5	11	10
U.S. Open	0	1	0	1	2	5	13	11
The Open Championship	0	2	0	3	4	6	11	9
PGA Championship	0	1	2	3	6	9	14	12
Totals	0	4	2	8	13	25	49	42

• Most consecutive cuts made – 14 (1965 PGA – 1969 Masters)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 4 (1966 Masters – 1966 PGA)

See also

• Biography portal

• List of American Ryder Cup golfers
• List of Florida Gators men's golfers on the PGA Tour
• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins
• List of University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame members

References

1. Mason, Peter (April 14, 2020). "Doug Sanders obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
2. Goldstein, Richard (April 12, 2020). "Doug Sanders, 'Peacock of the Fairways,' Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
3. "Georgia Golf Hall of Fame Member – Doug Sanders". Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
4. Wright, Alfred (January 22, 1962). "The bad-form champion of golf". Sports Illustrated. p. 36.
5. "Florida Men's Golf 2013 Media Supplement" (PDF). Gainesville, Florida: University Athletic Association. pp. 36–37. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
6. "Inductees – Doug Sanders" (PDF). Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 19, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
7. Kelley, Brent. "Doug Sanders". About.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
8. "Sanders nips Trevino in Kemper golf". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. June 5, 1972. p. 22.
9. "Esquire names Frazier". The New Courier. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. September 2, 1972. p. 12 – via newspapers.com. ... Doug Sanders, a golf pro selected over the more publicized fashion plates of the game, complete the Esquire "10 Best-Dressed Jocks"
10. Sampson, Curt (2000). The Eternal Summer: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Hogan in 1960, Golf's Golden Year. New York: Villard Publishing. ISBN 978-0375753688.
11. Sanders, Doug; Sheehan, Larry (1974). Come Swing with Me by Doug Sanders. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385056311.
12. McEwan, Michael (April 13, 2020). "Doug Sanders: Tributes paid to flamoyant golf great". bunkered. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
13. Schupak, Adam (April 12, 2020). "Doug Sanders, winner of 20 PGA Tour events, has died". Golfweek. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
14. "Inductees – Doug Sanders (1972)". Florida Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
15. "Gator Greats". F Club, Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
16. Past Winners & Results Archived October 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
17. USGA Championship Database Archived December 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
18. 1976 Open Championship leaderboard
19. PGA Championship Media Guide - Doug Sanders
20. "Defeat of Leading American". The Glasgow Herald. May 29, 1956. p. 4.

External links

• Official website
• Doug Sanders at the PGA Tour official site
• Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Profile Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine