Golf Central

On this day in 1952, one of the deadliest putters and nicest gentlemen in golf's last century was born in Austin, Texas: Ben Crenshaw.

Quiet, unassuming, and not physically imposing, Crenshaw rose from his humble Texas beginnings to become of the most dominant US PGA Tour players from 1973 to 1995, when the 43-year-old Crenshaw won the second of his two Masters titles. He tallied 19 wins on the PGA Tour and more than $7 million in winnings, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.

Crenshaw came out rolling - literally - in his professional debut, winning in his first PGA Tour start at the 1973 San Antonio Texas Open (becoming only the second player in Tour history to do that). His main weapon was never length: Instead, it was his trusty Wilson 8802 putter, nicknamed "Little Ben", that did most of the damage. And when Crenshaw was on fire with his flatstick, few players were his equal ...

Because of the smooth stroke Crenshaw honed under the tutelage of his mentor, Harvey Penick, Ben could handle all types of greens and grains, and he loved the fast and treacherous greens of Augusta. No wonder then that Crenshaw captured his first Masters in 1984, but it was his shock Masters victory in 1995, only days after Penick's death, that made an emotional impact with the world's golf viewers.

The famous photo of Crenshaw in tears, comforted by his caddie of 30 years, Carl "Skillet" Jackson, is still etched in our memories. "That was my buddy there, I had to check on him," said Jackson. Etched too, is Crenshaw's gesture of compassion in 2000, paying for Skillet's expensive treatment for cancer: in essence, saving his buddy's life.

All reasons why Crenshaw is widely held in such esteem. Even on the European side of the pond, Crenshaw is a man of respect: He played on four US Ryder Cup teams and captained the 1999 team that so controversially won the Cup at Brookline. But such is Crenshaw's legacy in the game that even European golf fans seem to have absolved "Gentle Ben" of blame in that contentious Ryder Cup.

There's no doubt that Crenshaw, despite his small stature, is a giant in the modern game. And he's a keen golf historian ... there's no doubt that if Crenshaw would be a keen reader of our very own On This Day In History, and could probably help us out a time or two. So send us an email, Ben ...

It was also on this day, in 1924, that Don Cherry - probably the best golfing singer in history or the best singing golfer, whichever way you want to view it, was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. Cherry was good enough at golf that he won several amateur titles in the '50s while his big-band singing career was in full swing; and he finished fifth in the 1960 US Open behind Arnold Palmer. As a singer, Cherry had a million-seller in 1955 with Band of Gold ...

And also on this day, in 1946, Frank Conner, one of only two men to have played in the U.S. Open in both golf and tennis (Ellsworth Vines was the other), was born in Vienna, Austria.

January 11th has traditionally been a day of firsts, and here's a sampling of a few of them:

• On this day in 1569, the first known lottery was held in England, when punters queued at the west doors of St Paul's Cathedral in London to buy their tickets. It was written that "the object of any profit that might arise from the scheme was the reparation of harbours and other useful public works." Rumours that all the Irish pubs were emptied on that day, or that a fight broke out at a local Londis when a poor fellow "who just wanted to buy a pack of fags" was stuck in the queue behind a dozen idiots buying Lucky Dips are unproven, however ...
• On this day in 1935, the aviatrix Amelia Earhart took off from Honolulu for Oakland, California, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. Amelia obviously wanted to get from the Sony Open to the Bob Hope Classic in a hurry ...
• On this day in 1949, the first case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California was recorded. And while snow has always been common in the mountains around the Los Angeles basin, this was the first time snow settled on the streets of LA at near sea level. It was a real blizzard by SoCal standards: slightly more than 0.3 inches of the white stuff. (The last time even a trace of snow fell in Los Angeles was in 1962) ...
• And on this day in 1973, owners of American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule of a trial basis (it has been a permanent change). And you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you. ... Put it like this, it's like if you were allowed to have a specialist batsman replace a poor-batting bowler at the tail-end of a cricket order. Got it? Good.

So, it's bonne fete!, as they say in Quebec, to golf-mad former Canadian prime minister and 13-handicapper Jean Chretien (74); to former UK socialist and miner's leader Arthur Scargill (70); and to actor Rockmond Dunbar (35), who plays bad-ass Benjamin "C-Note" Franklin on the hit TV series Prison Break ...

And it's musical birthdays to the Big Man Clarence Clemons (66), best known as the sax man in Springsteen's E Street Band; to Tom Rowlands (37), one half of the Manchester electronic duo The Chemical Brothers; to the lamentable whiny English R&B singer Jamelia (27); and to Tom Meighan (27), frontman of the Leicestershire power quartet Kasabian ...

And on the sport front, it's a happy 51st to Bryan Robson, the Sheffield United gaffer who made 345 appearances in midfield for Man United and captained England 65 times, and who has never been quite as smooth as a manager than as a player; a happy 35th to Rahul "The Wall" Dravid, the nearly invincible Indian cricketer whose nickname explains his batting style; and a happy 30th to Emile Heskey, that lead-footed England and Wigan striker, who somehow still manages to get nearly in the right place at the right time.

It also would have been a birthday for the Italian Renaissance painter Parmigianino (b. 1503), had he not exclaimed "I am a painter, not a smelly cheese dammit!" and chucked it all in in 1540. It also would have been a birthday for the American Revolutionary War hero and founding father Alexander Hamilton (b. 1757) had he not been blown away in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804 ... and if duelling were still allowed in 2000, lord knows what ideas Al Gore might have had.

'Til tomorrow ...