David Graham (golfer)


Anthony David Graham, AM is a former professional golfer from Australia. He won eight times on the PGA Tour, including two major championships.

Professional career

Born in Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, Graham turned professional in 1962 at age 16 and spent much of his career in the United States, playing on the PGA Tour. Turning age 50 in 1996, he joined the Senior PGA Tour, later known as the Champions Tour. Although known for his success in the U.S., he won events on six continents in his career, an achievement he shares with only four other players Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and Justin Rose.
In 1976, won twice on the PGA Tour, and then came from behind to secure a victory over the reigning champion Hale Irwin in the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Club, Virginia Water, England.
Graham won two major championships, the 1979 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills near Detroit, and the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion, just west of Philadelphia. He also finished third at the 1985 Open Championship, after sharing the third-round lead. Both of his major victories came in remarkable fashion. In the 1979 PGA Championship, he stood on the last tee at 7 under par for his final round and leading by two, but double-bogeyed the last hole for a 65 to drop back into a playoff with Ben Crenshaw. At each of the first two sudden-death holes he holed long putts to keep the playoff alive and finally won at the third extra hole. At the 1981 U.S. Open, Graham shot a 67 in the final round to overturn a three-shot deficit to overnight leader George Burns to win by 3 strokes. He became the fourth Australian major champion and the first to win a U.S. Open.
Graham participated on the Australian teams that won the World Cup and the Alfred Dunhill Cup.
Ahead of the 1970 World Cup, the organizing International Golf Association, preferred the more well-known Bruce Crampton to team for Australia with Bruce Devlin. The Australian PGA threatened not to send a team if Graham was not included and Devlin and Graham finally represented Australia and won the team competition by a record eight strokes after holding a record advantage of 19 strokes going into the final round. Graham finished second individually. Devlin and Graham again represented Australia in the 1971 World Cup, but when Devlin was not selected for the event the year after, Graham refused to play and never again participated in any World Cup events.
Another controversy with Graham involved was reported during the inaugural 1985 Dunhill Cup at the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. Australia won the team event, with Graham, Greg Norman and Graham Marsh in the team. Prior to the tournament, Marsh had criticized Graham for accepting appearance money for playing in Australian golf tournaments. At the time, Marsh had recently been made an MBE for services to golf and was for six years chairman of the PGA Tour of Australasia. However, Norman took David Graham's side in the debate and Australia went on to win the tournament despite the conflict. In 1986, Australia successfully defended the title with Graham, Norman and Rodger Davis in their team.
At the end of 1981, Graham was ranked 7th on Mark McCormack's world golf rankings.
On 27 June 2004, during the final round of the Bank of America Championship on the Champions Tour, Graham collapsed over a putt on the eighth green. He was later diagnosed with congestive heart failure, ending his competitive golf career at age 58. He is now retired and resides at Iron Horse Golf Club in Whitefish, Montana.
Graham was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988 and inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1990.
It was announced on 16 October 2014 that Graham has been elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame. His nomination was supported by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. He was inducted with other nominees Mark O'Meara, course architect A. W. Tillinghast and Laura Davies on 13 July 2015 at the University of St Andrews, during the 2015 Open Championship.

Professional wins (38)

PGA Tour wins (8)

No.DateTournamentWinning scoreTo parMargin of
victory		Runner-up
13 Jul 1972Cleveland Open68-73-68-69=278−6Playoff Bruce Devlin
218 Jul 1976American Express Westchester Classic63-68-70-71=272−123 strokes Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson,
Fuzzy Zoeller
329 Aug 1976American Golf Classic69-67-69-69=274−144 strokes Lou Graham
45 Aug 1979PGA Championship69-68-70-65=272−8Playoff Ben Crenshaw
525 May 1980Memorial Tournament73-67-70-70=280−81 stroke Tom Watson
624 Jan 1981Phoenix Open65-68-69-66=268−161 stroke Lon Hinkle
721 Jun 1981U.S. Open68-68-70-67=273−73 strokes George Burns, Bill Rogers
88 May 1983Houston Coca-Cola Open66-72-73-64=275−95 strokes Lee Elder, Jim Thorpe,
Lee Trevino

PGA Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
11972Cleveland Open Bruce DevlinWon with birdie on second extra hole
21972Liggett & Myers Open Lou Graham, Hale Irwin,
Larry Ziegler		L. Graham won with birdie on third extra hole
D. Graham and Ziegler eliminated with par on first hole
31979PGA Championship Ben CrenshawWon with birdie on third extra hole

European Tour wins (3)

No.DateTournamentWinning scoreTo parMargin of
victory		Runner-up
15 Aug 1979PGA Championship69-68-70-65=272−8Playoff Ben Crenshaw
221 Jun 1981U.S. Open68-68-70-67=273−73 strokes George Burns, Bill Rogers
324 Oct 1982Trophée Lancôme66-70-70-70=276−122 strokes Seve Ballesteros

European Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
11979PGA Championship Ben CrenshawWon with birdie on third extra hole

Japan Golf Tour wins (1)

Japan Golf Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
11985Taiheiyo Club Masters Tommy NakajimaLost to birdie on first extra hole

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (6)

No.DateTournamentWinning scoreTo parMargin of
victory		Runner-up
126 Oct 1975Wills Masters71-70-69-72=282−82 strokes Rob McNaughton
220 Nov 1977Australian Open74-71-68-71=284−43 strokes Don January, Bruce Lietzke,
John Lister
328 Oct 1979CBA West Lakes Classic72-70-72-71=285−32 strokes Bob Shearer, Gary Vanier
42 Dec 1979Air New Zealand Shell Open70-67-69-73=279−58 strokes Rodger Davis
513 Oct 1985Queensland Open66-64-69-70=269−195 strokes Paul Foley
611 Oct 1987Queensland Open 69-71-69-66=275−137 strokes Vaughan Somers

PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
11983National Panasonic New South Wales Open Greg NormanLost to par on second extra hole

Other European wins (3)

Senior PGA Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
11996Emerald Coast Classic Bob Eastwood, Mike Hill,
Dave Stockton, Lee Trevino		Trevino won with birdie on first extra hole
21998Royal Caribbean Classic Dave StocktonWon with birdie on tenth extra hole

Major championships

Wins (2)

1Defeated Crenshaw with birdie on third extra hole.

Results timeline

CUT = missed the halfway cut

WD = withdrew

"T" indicates a tie for a place.

Summary