Ben Crenshaw

Ben Crenshaw
Crenshaw in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Ben Daniel Crenshaw
Nickname	Gentle Ben
Born	(1952-01-11) January 11, 1952 Austin, Texas, U.S.
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight	157 lb (71 kg; 11.2 st)
Nationality	United States
Residence	Austin, Texas, U.S.
Spouse	Julie (m. 1985−present) Polly (m. 1976−1985)
Children	Claire Susan, Anna Riley, Katherine Vail
Career
College	University of Texas
Turned professional	1973
Retired	2015
Current tour(s)	Champions Tour
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour
Professional wins	30
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	19
European Tour	1
Other	9 (regular) 1 (senior)
Best results in major championships (wins: 2)
Masters Tournament	Won: 1984, 1995
U.S. Open	T3: 1975
The Open Championship	T2: 1978, 1979
PGA Championship	2nd: 1979
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame	2002 (member page)
Haskins Award	1971, 1972, 1973
Bob Jones Award	1991
Old Tom Morris Award	1997
Payne Stewart Award	2001

Ben Daniel Crenshaw (born January 11, 1952) is a retired American professional golfer who has won 19 events on the PGA Tour, including two major championships: the Masters Tournament in 1984 and 1995. He is nicknamed Gentle Ben.^[1]

Professional career

Ben Crenshaw with wife Polly after winning the 1976 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Born in Austin, Texas, Crenshaw attended and played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas, where he won three NCAA Championships from 1971 to 1973. He was also a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He turned professional in 1973.

In 1973, Crenshaw became the second player in Tour history to win the first event of his career; this accomplishment was achieved earlier by Marty Fleckman (1967) and later repeated by Jim Benepe (1988), Robert Gamez (1990), Garrett Willis (2001), and Russell Henley (2013). Following five runner-up finishes in major championships without a victory, including losing a sudden-death playoff for the 1979 PGA Championship, in 1984 he won The Masters. In the mid-1980s, he suffered from Graves' disease, a disease of the thyroid, but he continued to accumulate victories, finishing with 19 on the PGA Tour, including an emotional second Masters victory in 1995, which came a week after the death of his mentor Harvey Penick.

In 1999, he was selected as captain of the United States Ryder Cup team for the matches at The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts. He was criticized from some quarters for his captaincy over the first two days as his team slipped to a 10-6 deficit; however, he was ultimately credited for providing the inspiration behind his side's remarkable turnaround in the Sunday singles, as the U.S. won 8 ½ of the final day's 12 points to regain the Cup.

Crenshaw won several professional events outside the PGA Tour, including individual and team titles in the World Cup of Golf in 1988. He was among the top ten on McCormack's World Golf Rankings from 1976 to 1981 inclusive, and returned to spend 80 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking from 1987 to 1989.^[2] In 1987, he became one of the few players in history to finish in the top ten of all four major championships in the same season without winning any of them.

Crenshaw is widely regarded as one of the best putters in golf history. His instructor growing up, Harvey Penick, taught him a smooth, effortless stroke on the greens, which allowed him to master even the speediest of greens–including those at Augusta National Golf Club. In winning the Masters in 1995, "Gentle Ben" did not record a single three-putt during the tournament.

Since 1986, Crenshaw has been a partner with Bill Coore in Coore & Crenshaw, a golf course design firm.

The 2015 Masters was the 44th and final for Crenshaw.^[3]

Personal life

Crenshaw married his second wife Julie in 1985.^[4] All three of his daughters were presented to high society as debutantes at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.^[5]

Politically, Crenshaw is a Republican, and has donated money to multiple Republican candidates.^[6]

Amateur wins (13)

• 1968 International Jaycee Junior Golf Tournament
• 1971 NCAA Championship, Eastern Amateur, Southern Amateur
• 1972 NCAA Championship (tie with Tom Kite), Eastern Amateur, Porter Cup, Trans-Mississippi Amateur
• 1973 NCAA Championship, Western Amateur, Sunnehanna Amateur, Southern Amateur, Northeast Amateur

Professional wins (30)

Crenshaw at the 2009 Senior Players Championship

PGA Tour wins (19)

Legend

Major championships (2)

Other PGA Tour (17)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Nov 4, 1973	San Antonio Texas Open	−14 (65-72-66-67=270)	2 strokes	Orville Moody
2	Jan 25, 1976	Bing Crosby National Pro-Am	−7 (75-67-70-69=281)	2 strokes	Mike Morley
3	Feb 1, 1976	Hawaiian Open	−18 (70-69-65-66=270)	4 strokes	Hale Irwin, Larry Nelson
4	Sep 19, 1976	Ohio Kings Island Open	−9 (69-69-67-66=271)	1 stroke	Andy North
5	May 15, 1977	Colonial National Invitation	−8 (65-70-68-69=272)	1 stroke	John Schroeder
6	Jan 22, 1979	Phoenix Open	−14 (67-61-71=199)	1 stroke	Jay Haas
7	Oct 28, 1979	Walt Disney World National Team Championship (with George Burns)	−33 (62-66-62-65=255)	3 strokes	Peter Jacobsen & D. A. Weibring Jeff Hewes & Sammy Rachels Scott Bess & Dan Halldorson
8	Sep 28, 1980	Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic	−16 (66-67-68-71=272)	4 strokes	Jack Renner
9	May 1, 1983	Byron Nelson Golf Classic	−7 (71-69-67-66=273)	1 stroke	Brad Bryant, Hal Sutton
10	Apr 15, 1984	Masters Tournament	−11 (67-72-70-68=277)	2 strokes	Tom Watson
11	Jul 27, 1986	Buick Open	−18 (69-67-66-68=270)	1 stroke	J. C. Snead, Doug Tewell
12	Oct 26, 1986	Vantage Championship	−14 (65-67-64=196)	1 stroke	Payne Stewart
13	Mar 22, 1987	USF&G Classic	−20 (66-68-67-67=268)	3 strokes	Curtis Strange
14	Mar 6, 1988	Doral-Ryder Open	−14 (70-69-69-66=274)	1 stroke	Chip Beck, Mark McCumber
15	May 20, 1990	Southwestern Bell Colonial	−8 (69-65-72-66=272)	3 strokes	John Mahaffey, Corey Pavin, Nick Price
16	Jul 5, 1992	Centel Western Open	−12 (70-72-65-69=276)	1 stroke	Greg Norman
17	Mar 21, 1993	Nestle Invitational	−8 (71-70-69-70=280)	2 strokes	Davis Love III, Rocco Mediate, Vijay Singh
18	Apr 3, 1994	Freeport-McMoRan Classic	−15 (69-68-68-68=273)	3 strokes	José María Olazábal
19	Apr 9, 1995	Masters Tournament	−14 (70-67-69-68=274)	1 stroke	Davis Love III

PGA Tour playoff record (0–8)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1978	Bing Crosby National Pro-Am	Tom Watson	Lost to par on second extra hole
2	1979	Western Open	Larry Nelson	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
3	1979	PGA Championship	David Graham	Lost to birdie on third extra hole
4	1981	Bing Crosby National Pro-Am	Bobby Clampett, John Cook Hale Irwin, Barney Thompson	Cook won with par on third extra hole Clampett, Crenshaw, and Thompson eliminated with birdie on first hole
5	1981	Texas Open	Bill Rogers	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
6	1987	Los Angeles Open	Chen Tze-chung	Lost to par on first extra hole
7	1989	NEC World Series of Golf	David Frost	Lost to par on second extra hole
8	1992	GTE Byron Nelson Classic	Billy Ray Brown, Raymond Floyd, Bruce Lietzke	Brown won with birdie on first extra hole

European Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	Aug 29, 1976	Carroll's Irish Open	−4 (73-69-69-73=284)	2 strokes	Brian Barnes, Billy Casper, Martin Foster

Major championships

Wins (2)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
1984	Masters Tournament	2 shot deficit	−11 (67-72-70-68=277)	2 strokes	Tom Watson
1995	Masters Tournament	Tied for lead	−14 (70-67-69-68=274)	1 stroke	Davis Love III

Notable

• He played on four Ryder Cup teams (1981, 1983, 1987, 1995) and captained the 1999 team.
• In 1987, he became one of the few players in history to record top-10 finishes in all four major championships in the same season. Ed Dudley, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Doug Sanders, Miller Barber, Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Sergio García, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, and Vijay Singh have also achieved the feat.
• In 1991, Crenshaw was given the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.
• His stepmother, Roberta Crenshaw, was an Austin-area philanthropist.
• He is now a noted golf course designer, working in partnership with Bill Coore.
• He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.
• He is the 2006 Kappa Alpha Order Sportsman of the Year.
• "If we are to preserve the integrity of golf as left to us by our forefathers, it is up to all of us to carry on the true spirit of the game."^[8]

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur

• Eisenhower Trophy: 1972 (winners)

Professional

• Ryder Cup: 1981 (winners), 1983 (winners), 1987, 1995, 1999 (winners, non-playing captain)
• World Cup: 1987, 1988 (winners, individual winner)
• Kirin Cup: 1988 (winners)
• Dunhill Cup: 1995
• Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (representing Senior PGA Tour): 2002

See also

• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ben Crenshaw.

• Official website
• Ben Crenshaw at the PGA Tour official site
• Ben Crenshaw at the European Tour official site