Golf Central

    The Portland title was only one 51 Casper would amass on his way to becoming probably one of the most criminally under-rated golf figures of his day. When people think of golf in the ‘60s they inevitably say Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, but from 1965-70, when that trio combined for 35, Casper was winning 23 tournaments all by himself.

    More recently, though, Casper DQ-ed himself from the 2005 Masters instead of signing a scorecard that would have had 106 big numbers on it.

    Also on this day, in 1895, the very first US Open Championship was held, on a nine-hole layout in Newport, RI. It was won by the Isle of Wight’s very own Horace Rawlins, aged 21, over 36 holes on the same day. Rawlins scooped $150 (that’s $3370.74 in today’s bucks!) from a purse of $335, and a shiny gold medal. In addition to being a bit of a golf trend-setter, Rawlins sported a mightily handsome moustache, which was de rigeur in his day.

    And in 1998, Aussie ace Steve Elkington shrugged off both his allergies to grass and Fred 'I Got Da' Funk to win the Buick Challenge in a playoff.

    In history, Continental Army General George Washington set the tone for future American Ryder Cup captains by launching an all-out attack on British forces in Germantown, Pa., suffering massive casualties in the process.

    And to prove that gunshots and golf balls are not the only things in the air on October 4, this was also the day 1957 when the USSR launched the sputnik, the first man-made object into space. A year later to the day, with humbler goals in mind, British Overseas Airways began the first trans-Atlantic passenger jet service, flying between the Big Smoke and the Big Apple. Rock heroine Janis Joplin was also out of her head on this day in 1970 when she fatally OD’d on smack at the age of 27.

    And it’s Vill Gleck fir daei Geburtsdaag!, as they say in Luxembourgeois, to 1988 LPGA Championship winner Sherri Turner (51); Oscar-winning yummy mummy Susan Sarandon (61); gun-loving actor Charlton Heston (83); Pet Shop Boys synthpop guy Chris Lowe (48); and Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone (31). It also would have been a birthday for 19^th US president Rutherford B. Hayes, who pre-dated George W. Bush in the corruption and ineptitude stakes by 123 years.