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  • Hale Irwin

Hale Irwin

Hometown
Baxter Springs
Kansas
Year Inducted
1992
Inducted Category
Competitor
Birthdate
Jun 03,1945
Major Championships: 3
  • U.S. Open: 1974, 1979, 1990
Senior Majors: 7
  • Senior PGA Championship: 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004
  • Ford Senior Players Championship: 1999
  • U.S. Senior Open: 1998, 2000
Additional PGA TOUR Wins: 17
  • 1971: Heritage Classic
  • 1973: Heritage Classic
  • 1975: Western Open, Atlanta Classic
  • 1976: Los Angeles Open, Florida Citrus Open
  • 1977: Atlanta Classic, Hall Of Fame Classic, San Antonio-Texas Open
  • 1981: Hawaiian Open, Buick Open
  • 1982: Honda-Inverrary Classic
  • 1983: Memorial Tournament
  • 1984: Bing Crosby Pro-Am
  • 1985: Memorial Tournament
  • 1990: Buick Classic
  • 1994: Heritage Classic
PGA TOUR Champions Wins: 38
  • 1995: Ameritech Senior Open, Vantage Championship
  • 1996: American Express Invitational
  • 1997: MasterCard Championship, LG Championship, Las Vegas Senior Classic, Burnet Senior Classic, BankBoston Classic, Boone Valley Classic, Vantage Championship, Hyatt Regency Maui Kaanapali Classic
  • 1998: Toshiba Senior Classic, Las Vegas Senior Classic, Ameritech Senior Open, BankBoston Classic, Energizer Senior Tour Championship
  • 1999: Nationwide Championship, Boone Valley Classic, Ameritech Senior Open, Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic
  • 2000: Nationwide Championship, BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland, EMC Kaanapali Classic
  • 2001: Siebel Classic in Silicon Valley, Bruno’s Memorial Classic, Turtle Bay Championship
  • 2002: ACE Group Classic, Toshiba Senior Classic, 3M Championship, Turtle Bay Championship
  • 2003: Kinko’s Classic of Austin, Turtle Bay Championship
  • 2004: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf
  • 2005: Turtle Bay Championship, Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, SAS Championship
  • 2007: MasterCard Championship
Additional Wins: 14
  • 1974: World Match Play Championship
  • 1975: World Match Play Championship
  • 1978: Australian PGA
  • 1979: South African PGA, World Cup
  • 1981: Bridgestone Classic
  • 1982: Brazilian Open
  • 1986: Bahamas Classic
  • 1987: Fila Classic
  • 1995: Wendy’s 3-Tour Challenge
  • 1996: Lexus Challenge
  • 1997: Senior Slam
  • 1998: Senior Match Play Championship, Wendy’s 3-Tour Challenge
  • 1999: Senior Skins Game, Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge
  • 2000: Lucaya Senior Slam
  • 2001: Senior Skins Game
  • 2002: Senior Skins Game
  • 2003: Office Depot Father/Son Challenge
  • 2005: Wendy’s 3-Tour Challenge
Ryder Cup Appearances: 5

Wins in bold

  • Player: 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1991
Presidents Cup Appearances: 1

Wins in bold

  • Player: 1994
Awards & Honors:
  • Colorado Sports Hall of Fame: 1986
  • Missouri Sports Hall of Fame: 1994
  • Champions Tour leading money winner: 1997, 1998, 2002
  • Champions Tour Player of the Year: 1997, 1998, 2002
  • Charles Schwab Cup: 2002, 2004
  • University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame: 2002
  • Will F. Nicholson Jr. Award: 2012
  • The Memorial Tournament Honoree: 2018
  • Payne Stewart Award: 2019

 

When it comes to the toughest competitors and most analytical course managers ever to play, Hale Irwin is near the top of the list.

Irwin’s distinction was excelling when the conditions were toughest, and his three victories in the U.S. Open attest to a sharp mind, a solid game and an iron will. It was never more apparent than at the 1974 U.S. Open, when Irwin persevered to win the so-called “Massacre at Winged Foot” with a score of seven-over-par 287. In perhaps the most difficult conditions a U.S. Open has ever been played under, Irwin shot rounds of 73-70-71-73 to win by two strokes.

Five years later at Inverness, on another punishing U.S. Open layout, Irwin shot even par to win by two. The scenario was quite different in 1990 at Medinah Country Club. Irwin was 45 and had not won on the PGA TOUR in five years. He received a special exemption to get into the championship. Lurking, but never in the thick of it until the final nine holes, Irwin made a 50-foot birdie putt on the final green that tied Mike Donald. The next day he fell behind but drew even when Donald bogeyed the 18th. Then, in the first sudden-death finish ever in the U.S. Open, Irwin birdied the 19th hole to win. Irwin became the oldest winner of the championship.

“When I got onto the tour, I relished the harder courses because I just felt I was going to try harder.”

From 1971 to 1994, Irwin won 20 events on the PGA TOUR, on such difficult courses as Harbour Town – where his first, second and, at age 48, final PGA TOUR victories came – Butler National, Muirfield Village, Riviera and Pebble Beach. He is tied with Greg Norman, Johnny Revolta, and Doug Sanders for 35th place in PGA TOUR history with 20 victories, but even when he wasn’t winning, Irwin was, above all, consistent. His string of 86 consecutive tournaments from 1975 to 1978 without missing a cut is the fourth best in the PGA TOUR history, behind Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Irwin came close in the other three Majors, but never did better than a tie for second in the 1979 Open Championship. He played on five Ryder Cup teams, compiling a 13-5-2 record. It was Irwin’s half with Bernhard Langer in the excruciatingly tense final singles match of the 1991 Ryder Cup that provided the margin of victory for the U.S.

Irwin was born June 3, 1945, in Joplin, Missouri. As a boy, he began playing golf in Baxter Springs, Kansas, on a nine-hole course with sand greens. He was, and remains, almost completely self-taught. Irwin played all sports. At the University of Colorado, he was a two-time All-Big Eight defensive back, as well as an academic All-American. As a golfer, he was the 1967 NCAA champion.

Fact

In addition to golf, Hale Irwin played both quarterback and defensive back for the University of Colorado.

“I had to out-try, I had to out-hustle,” said Irwin of his efforts in both sports. “When I got onto the tour, I relished the harder courses because I just felt I was going to try harder.” Irwin’s game is neat and clean, not long but straight. One of his great strengths is a classically orthodox method due, in part, to an athletically proportioned 6-feet 175-pounds physique, but also in larger measure to Irwin’s own studious development of good fundamentals. Says 1964 U.S. Open champion Ken Venturi, “Esthetically and technically, Hale stands at the ball as well as any player I’ve ever seen.”

Just as he excels on difficult golf courses, Irwin excels on difficult shots. Each of his U.S. Open victories is remembered for superb strokes with a 2-iron at vital moments. At Winged Foot, Irwin closed the door on the 72nd hole with a 2-iron to approximately 20 feet. At Inverness, he took control of the championship on the 13th hole of the third round with a 2-iron from 225 yards to three feet that led to an eagle. And at Medinah, he hooked a 2-iron around trees to six feet on the 16th hole of the playoff to set up a birdie.

Irwin served as playing captain of the U.S. team in the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, leading his team to a 20-12 victory. He has had spectacular results on the Champions Tour, winning a record 45 times. In 2002, he earned a record $3,028,304 to become the first man to win $3 million in a season.

Hale Irwin was originally inducted in Pinehurst.

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