Golf Central

On this day in 1976, a 24-year-old Roger Maltbie quite clearly had the golfing Gods shining down on him. Finding himself at the third play-off hole (17th) of the inaugural Memorial Tournament at Ohio's Muirfield Village Golf Club against Hale Irwin, Maltbie's ball bounced off the tip of a gallery stake that allowed him to save par. If that wasn't a clear cut sign that it was going to be Maltbie's day, he then went on to birdie the fourth play-off hole to clinch what would be the second of five PGA Tour victories (we thought you may like to know that). He now plies his trade as an on-course analyst for NBC (we thought you may like to know that also).

Thirty-nine years earlier (that's 1937) on this day in golfing history, Denny Shute became the last player to win back-to-back PGA Championships, taking 37 holes in his last match to see off Harold "Jug" (they don't make nicknames like they used to, I tells ya)  McSpaden at Pittsburgh Field Club. And on this day in 1993, not for the first time it must be said, Greg Norman lost a tournament by the narrowest of margins, this time to Fulton Allem, who, after posting four round in the 60s, won the MasterCard Colonial by one stroke.

Out in the real world on this day in 1989, student protestors unveiled a 33-foot high Goddess of Democracy statue in Tiananmen Square, China, as a totem pole of hope in the midst of the wider demonstrations about the Government. Within four days, Army tanks rolled in and ‘cleared’ the area. Chinese officials released an official casualty count of 241, yet the real tally was said to be closer to 800. One of the most visible human rights atrocities of the television age, the white-shirted lone protestor who stood in front of an encroaching tank was named as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century by Time Magazine.

And it’s Nonita Lall Qureshi as they say in India to Canadian Golf Hall of Famester Jocelyne Bourassa (61) , ridiculously-named rapper Cee-Lo (38), and professional gurners Leigh ‘Bo Selecta’ Francis (35), and Harry ‘give it up pal’ Enfield (47). While on a musical front, reformed falsetto (and lead singer of The Charlatans) Tim Burgess (41), and the drummer who made The Clash tick, Nicky ‘Topper’ Headon, (53) both celebrate another year on the wagon.