Doug Sanders

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

Early life He was born into a poor family in Cedartown, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta, where his father farmed and drove trucks. 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.

Amateur career Sanders accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Florida in Gainesville, 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. 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 putt to win, then lost the resulting 18-hole playoff by a single stroke the next day to Jack Nicklaus. His final victory on tour came in June 1972 at the Kemper Open, one stroke ahead of runner-up Lee Trevino.

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

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

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.

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. He was 86.

Awards and honors

In 1972, Sanders was a inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame In 1975, Georgia Sports Hall of Fame

Amateur wins 1955 Mexican Amateur

Professional wins (24) PGA Tour wins (20)

PGA Tour playoff record (5–5)

Far East Circuit wins (1)

Far East Circuit playoff record (0–1)

Other wins (2) 1957 Colombian Open 1959 Sahara Pro-Am

Senior PGA Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships Amateur

Professional

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, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur, Open Championship, PGA Championship, 1956 British Amateur

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