Golf Central

Seve Ballesteros: Final round 75, that'll do nicely thank you...

Things weren’t looking too rosy for the PGA Tour on this day in 1967, when, for the second year on the trot, tour professionals threatened to boycott the PGA Championships unless they were given more control of the Tour. Threaten being the key word here, because, perhaps unsurprisingly, the tournament went ahead. The class of ’67; not a particularly powerful bunch of golfers it seems.

Tom Watson returned to winning ways on this day in 1996, ending a nine-year drought without silverware at the Memorial Tournament. He pipped a certain David Duval- whose drought stands at 7 years and shows no signs of ending- to the title by two strokes. Being the great that he is, Seve Ballesteros somehow managed to get away with a final day 75 to win the Victor Chandler British Masters by three strokes on this day in 1991.

Now The Vandals might sound like an average garage-band who bang out third-rate punk to an audience of 15-year-old girls, but on this day in the year 455, the East Germanic tribe entered Rome and plundered it for two weeks. Led by King Geiseric, they usurped The Visigoths as a major Mediterranean power, and their ‘sacking’ of Rome is seen as one of the more important to hit the Eternal City as it led to the death of Caesar Maximus, who was torn to pieces by a Roman mob for refusing to fight The Vandals. Showing a rare humility after a plea from Pope Leo l, Geiseric kept the bloodshed to a minimum and instead looted for treasure and also captured the Empress Licinia Eudoxia, who he palmed off to his son.

And if that isn’t enough for your hungry minds, then, on this day in 1780, the Epsom Derby was held for the first time, with Diomed romping home.

And we say David Berganio Jr! as they say in the USA to trailblazer Charlie Sifford (86) Mick Jagger’s drummer Charlie Watts (67), Sheriff of Nottingham Keith Allen (55), Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley (48), and stuck in the past impressionist Jon Culshaw (40). And had he not pogoed off to the great most pit in the sky, Stiv Bators, frontman with the Dead Boys, would have celebrated his 59th birthday.