The state of Illinois has been the home of several highly accomplished professional golfers, including Bob Goalby and Bill Mehlhorn. One of the earliest greats of Illinois golf, Bill Mehlhorn was an Elgin native born in 1898. He was a pioneer of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) tour and enjoyed his strongest results during the 1920s.
Nicknamed Wild Bill after the recognizable cowboy hats he wore on the course, Mehlhorn won 19 tournaments during his career, though he did not win one of the sports major championships. That said, he was a runner up to Walter Hagen at the 1925 PGA Championship and finished third at the United States Open in both 1924 and 1926. Overall, he had 14 top 10 finishes at majors.
Other significant achievements for Mehlhorn included participating in the first ever Ryder Cup tie in 1927 and the inaugural Masters Tournaments in 1934. He won five PGA events in 1926, six in 1928, and four in 1929. He also designed a number of golf courses and, following his retirement as a competitor, coached golf at Florida International University.
Mehlhorn may have been an Illinois golf inspiration, but Belleville native Bob Goalby did one better when he won the 1968 Masters Tournament in memorable fashion. Goalby turned pro in 1958 and won 11 titles, including the 1969 Robinson Open Golf Classic in Robinson, Illinois.
Goalby began the 1968 Masters Tournament with seven tournament wins to his name, but with no tour victories in over a year. On the final day of play he faced Robert De Vicenzo, winner of that year’s British Open, for the championship. At the conclusion of play, Goalby had a total score of 11 strokes under par, which seemed to tie De Vicenzo’s score and setup an 18 hole playoff for the championship.
Unfortunately, De Vicenzo’s playing partner incorrectly recorded his birdie on the 17th hole and De Vicenzo signed off on the error and handed it in before a correction could be made. Official rules dictate that the highest written score on a card must be taken, so De Vicenzo lost a stroke, giving Goalby the win. Interestingly, Goalby had to correct a scoring error he made for his playing partner, a correction he submitted in time.
Woodson native Jerry Barber turned pro nearly two decades before Goalby. He only managed seven wins on the PGA tour, two coming on the senior tour, but he managed a memorable win at the 1961 PGA Championship, which was played in Chicago. Rain plagued the weekend and Barber found himself trailing Don January by four shots with only three holes to play, having led the field earlier in the competition.
Barber overcome the rain and humid conditions to make a series of challenging putts, including a sixty foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to force a playoff the following morning. Barber won the 18 hole playoff by a single stroke after January made an error on the last hole. At the time, he was the oldest winner of a major PGA tournament.
While she was not a professional golfer, a special acknowledgment must be made for women’s baseball legend Joanne Winter. Born in Maywood in 1924, Winter was among the original players of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She retired with more than 100 wins and a 2.06 earned run average. Following her retirement, she became a golf instructor in Illinois for three decades.
from WordPress https://robertpalley.wordpress.com/2023/05/02/a-look-at-three-of-illinois-top-golfers/
