Christy O'Connor Snr

Christy O'Connor Snr
— Golfer —
Personal information
Born (1924-12-21) 21 December 1924
Knocknacarra, Galway
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight 203 lb (92 kg; 14.5 st)
Nationality  Ireland
Residence Clontarf, Dublin
Career
Turned professional 1946
Former tour(s) European Tour
European Seniors Tour
Professional wins 44
Number of wins by tour
European Tour 1
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament DNP
U.S. Open DNP
The Open Championship T2: 1965
PGA Championship DNP
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 2009 (member page)
Harry Vardon Trophy 1961, 1962

Christy O'Connor (born 21 December 1924) is a former Irish professional golfer.

Early life

Born in Knocknacarra, Galway, O'Connor turned professional in 1946. Throughout the 1960s he won at least one professional event during each year on the British Tour, a level of consistent success matched by very few other players. During his early career he was known simply as Christy O'Connor, but his nephew of the same name also became a prominent golfer, and since that time they have been referred to as Christy O'Connor Senior and Christy O'Connor Junior, respectively. He was known as "Himself" among his golfing peers.[1]

Golf career

O'Connor won the first £1,000 prize to be offered in British golf at the Swallow-Penfold Tournament held in 1955. O'Connor's numerous tournament wins included the 1956 and 1959 British Masters. He also helped Ireland to win the Canada Cup in 1958 playing with Harry Bradshaw. O'Connor played in every Ryder Cup from 1955 to 1973, setting a record of ten appearances in the event which stood until it was surpassed by Nick Faldo in 1997. He was Irish professional champion on ten occasions, including in 1978 (when he was 53), and was twice (1961 and 1962) recipient of the Vardon Trophy for leading the British Tour's Order of Merit. O'Connor tied for second place with Brian Huggett at The Open Championship in 1965, behind five-time winner Peter Thomson.[2] In 1970, he won the John Player Classic, at that time its £25,000 first prize was the richest offered in golf (in those days, even the British Open champion received just a little over £5,000), it made him that season's leading money-winner, although not Order of Merit leader, which was decided by a points system not directly related to prize money.

Later life

Later in his career, O'Connor became the leading "senior" player of his day, just before the lucrative U.S.-based Senior PGA Tour, now known as the Champions Tour, took off. He won the PGA Seniors Championship six times and the World Senior Championship in 1976 and 1977. O'Connor was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2009 in the Veterans category.[3]

Regular career wins

(this list only includes victories in tournaments that made up the British Order of Merit; O'Connor won numerous other professional events in Ireland, including the Irish PGA Championship 10 times, as well as a number of invitational and "pro-am" events)

Senior wins

Note: This list is probably incomplete

Results in major championships

Of the four majors, O'Connor only played The Open Championship.

1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
T19 DNP T24 T20 T10 T10 T19 T3 T5
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
T36 T4 T16 6 T6 T2 T13 21 CUT 5
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
T17 T35 T23 T7 T56 DNP CUT CUT DNP T36

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Yellow background for top-10

Team appearances

See also

References

  1. ↑ O'Sullivan, John (24 July 2007). "Himself and the nephew say well done". Irish Times. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Birkdale – 1965, The Open web page. Retrieved 11 July 2011
  3. ↑ O'Connor joins Wadkins in 2009 class

External links

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