Hal Sutton overcame some breathtaking second nine moments at the Riviera Country Club which included three straight bogeys on this date in 1983 and beat Jack Nicklaus by one stroke to win the PGA championship for his first major title.
Sutton saw a five-stroke lead diminish to just one, but saved the last three holes to keep Nicklaus at bay, who finished second for the 19th time in a major tournament. Sutton’s total for the four rounds was 10-under-par 274, a score that was two strokes better than what Ben Hogan shot at Riviera by winning the 1948 US Open.
Nicklaus was the first to congratulate Sutton. “This will be the first of many for you.”
Most memorable games and outstanding sports performance on August 7 over the years:
1907 – Right-wing rookie Walter Johnson, 19, recorded the first of his 417 big league wins when he launched the Senators to a 7-2 win over the Cleveland Indians in Washington. Johnson, known as “The Big Train,” has played his entire 21-year career for the Senators and his 417 wins are second on the all-time list behind Cy Young’s 511. He was one of the inaugural members of the baseball Hall of Fame when he was elected in 1936.
1982 – Tommy Haughton, 25, was the youngest rider to win the Hamburgletonian Stakes when he led the Speed Bowl to victory in the 10-horsepower final of the classic harness race at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, NY With Jazz Cosmos ahead after three quarters of a mile, Speed Bowl got close to the leader and Haughton urged him to push his neck forward in the last few steps to win in 1 minute 57 seconds.
1983 – Distance runner Grete Waitz of Norway won the women’s marathon in the first athletics world championships at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland. Waitz covered the 42.2 miles in 2 hours 28 minutes 9 seconds, ahead of Marianne Dickerson of the United States and Raisa Smekhnova of the Soviet Union. The Norwegian took the lead at the 19-mile finish and won by over three minutes.
1994 – Carolyn Hill won her only LPGA tournament when she shot a final-round 69 that gave her a three-stroke win over Nancy Ramsbottom at McCall’s Classic in Stratton Mountain, Vt. Hill, who broke the tournament record of 13 under par 275, had toured a record 359 starts in 14 years without finishing in first place.
1999 – Wade Boggs, 41, who ended his stellar career in Tampa Bay, was the first Major League player to rack up his 3,000th shot with a home run when he connected on a two-run-off shot by Chris Haney of the Cleveland Indians at Tropicana Campo. Despite Boggs’ goal, the Devil Rays lost 15-10.
2007 – Barry Bonds, who was suspected of using steroids, broke Henry Aaron’s home run record when he hit number 756 over the center court fence to the right of Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals in the fifth inning at AT&T Park. San Francisco. Although Aaron did not attend the match, he recorded a congratulatory message in a video that was played on the scoreboard.
2012 – Aly Raisman, 18, was the first US female gymnast to win a gold medal in exercise and also won a bronze medal on the balance beam on the final day of competition at the London Summer Olympics. Railman, the captain of the US team, just missed a medal in the all-around, when she finished with the same score as Russia’s Aliya Mustafina but dropped to fourth in the tie-break.
2016 – Three years after Jim Furyk became the sixth player to shoot a 59, he took him even further down the Travelers Championship when he fired a 58, the first of the PGA Tour, in the final round. Furyk had an eagle and seven birdies in a row when he made the turn and his last birdie came at No. 16. He finished in fifth place at 11 under par, three shots behind winner Russell Knox.
2016 – Ichiro Suzuki of the Miami Marlins hit a three-pointer from the wall in the seventh inning from a court by reliever Chris Rusin for his 3,000th major league success. He became the 30th player and the first from Japan to reach the finish line in a 10-7 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Suzuki’s success gave him a total of 4,278 for 25 seasons at the time, nine of which were played in Japan.
Sources: The Times, Associated Press
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2024/04/27/3956527-80344248-2560-1440.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
