Description
The featured Senior PGA License plate has been signed by Tony Jacklin (HOF), Deane Beman (HOF), Tom Weiskopf, Al Geiberger (Mr. 59), Dave Stockton, Jim Colbert, Lee Elder, Bruce Devlin, Walter Morgan, Harry Toscano, John Paul Cain and (5) others.
Tony Jacklin is an English golfer. He was the most successful British player of his generation, winning two major championships, the 1969 Open Championship and the 1970 U.S. Open. He was also Ryder Cup captain from 1983 to 1989; Europe winning two and tying another of these four events. Jacklin was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.
Deane R. Beman is an American professional golfer, golf administrator. He was the second commissioner of the PGA Tour, serving from 1974 to 1994. In 1967, Beman turned professional at age 29 and won four times on the PGA Tour between 1969 and 1973. He led for two rounds at the 1969 U.S. Open and finished one shot out of a playoff. Beman was considered short off the tee but complemented it with his short game. Injuries curtailed his playing career. He retired as a player and closed his business practice to become PGA Tour Commissioner. During his tenure, the PGA Tour’s assets grew from $400,000 in 1974 to a reported $260 million in 1994. He was succeeded as commissioner by Tim Finchem, who served for over 22 years.
Tom Weiskopf was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. His most successful decade was the 1970s. He won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982, including the 1973 Open Championship. He was the runner-up at The Masters four times. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2023 and will be inducted in 2024.
Al Geiberger turned pro in 1959 and joined the PGA Tour in 1960. Geiberger won 11 tournaments on the PGA Tour, the first being the 1962 Ontario Open and the biggest being the 1966 PGA Championship, a major title. He won the Tournament Players Championship in 1975, and played on the Ryder Cup teams in 1967 and 1975. Geiberger also won 10 times on the Senior PGA Tour, now called the Champions Tour.
During the second round of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic in 1977, Geiberger became the first player in history to post a score of 59 (−13) in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. Starting on the tenth tee of the Colonial Country Club in Cordova, Tennessee, he shot a bogey-free round of six pars, 11 birdies, and an eagle on the 7,193-yard (6,577 m) layout. He sank a forty-foot (12 m) putt for birdie on his opening hole, and ended the round with a birdie from eight feet (2.4 m); the lone eagle was a holed-out wedge shot.
Geiberger won the tournament, though not handily. He shot even-par 72 in the first and third rounds, and was two strokes down to Gary Player on Sunday after a 38 (+2) on the front nine put him at 241 (−11) for 63 holes. He regained the lead with a 32 (−4) on the back nine to finish at 273 (−15), two strokes ahead of Player and Jerry McGee.
Bruce Devlin is an Australian professional golfer, sportscaster and golf course designer. In 1961, Devlin turned pro and joined the PGA Tour the following year. During his PGA Tour career, he had eight victories all of which occurred between 1964 and 1972. In 1972, he earned $119,768 and finished eighth on the money list. Devlin is one of only four golfers to have scored a double eagle (three-under-par) at the Masters Tournament. He achieved this in the first round of the 1967 Masters, holing a 4-wood from 248 yards on the par-5 8th hole.
The main focus of Devlin’s career in the past 30 years has been his work as a Golf Course Architect and Designer. Devlin has designed and built more than 150 golf courses throughout the world including Australia, Japan, Scotland, the Bahamas, and the United States. About two-thirds of the golf courses he designed have been in Florida and Texas. Many of these courses have hosted all of the professional golf tours, including: The Houston Open, HealthSouth LPGA Classic, Key Biscayne Golf Classic, and The Nike Cleveland Open. His golf design business is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
David Stockton is an American retired professional golfer who has won tournaments on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Stockton was born in San Bernardino, California. He attended the University of Southern California and turned professional in 1964. Stockton turned professional in 1964. His first PGA Tour win came at the 1967 Colonial National Invitation. He was selected by former Colonial champions as one of two Champion’s Choice invitations; he is the only Champion’s Choice invitee to win the Colonial in the year of the invitation. His best year was 1974, when he won three times, but his two majors, both of which were PGA Championships, came in 1970 and 1976.
In 1970 he played the final round with Arnold Palmer, shooting a seventy-three which included an eagle and a double-bogey on the seventh and the eighth holes, and making a bogey on the thirteenth despite putting a ball in the water. In the end, this effort was good enough for a two stroke victory over Palmer and Bob Murphy. Due to rain at the 1976 PGA Championship, which was held at the Congressional Country Club, the final round had to be delayed until Monday. Stockton sank a fifteen-foot par putt at the seventy-second hole to avoid a three-man playoff with Raymond Floyd and Don January.
Stockton joined the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) in 1991 and enjoyed continued success, topping the Senior Tour money list in 1993 and 1994. His fourteen senior titles include three senior majors, the 1992 and 1994 Senior Players Championships and the 1996 U.S. Senior Open. He remained competitive in his sixties, finishing in the top 50 on the Champions Tour money list for a thirteenth consecutive season in 2004. Stockton played for the U.S. team in the Ryder Cup in 1971 and 1977. He was the Americans’ victorious non-playing captain in the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island.
Jim Colbert is an American professional golfer. Colbert was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He attended Kansas State University, where he finished second in the NCAA golf championships in 1964, before graduating and turning professional in 1965. Colbert won eight times on the PGA Tour, including twice in 1983 when he finished a career best fifteenth on the money list. As a senior Colbert has won 20 tournaments on the Champions Tour, including a senior major championship, the 1993 Senior Players Championship.
Lee Elder was an American professional golfer. In 1975, he became the first African-American to play in the Masters Tournament, where he missed the cut. Elder was invited to the tournament after he won the 1974 Monsanto Open.
In 1971 Elder accepted a personal invitation from Gary Player to participate in the South African PGA Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa. The event marked the first integrated tournament in the country’s history. The country had apartheid policies in effect at the time, but he agreed to participate after the South African government agreed not to subject him or spectators to the usual segregation requirements. He also played in a number of other tournaments in Southern Africa plus he won the Nigerian Open in 1971.
In 1974, Elder earned his first win on the PGA Tour at the Monsanto Open, which gained him entry to the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia the following April. This marked the first time Augusta National invited a specifically-black golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament since it began in 1934, which coincidentally was Elder’s year of birth. The Masters was, in the 1960s and 1970s, frequently ‘tweaking’ its qualifications for entry. Winners of PGA Tour events were not automatically invited to play at Augusta when Pete Brown and Charlie Sifford won on tour. Brown won twice: once in 1964 and again in 1970. Sifford won in 1967 and again in 1969, but it was not until the early 1970s when Augusta revised its qualifications policy and Elder won Monsanto that a Black golfer was finally invited to play in the Masters.
Elder shot a 74 on day one and a 78 on day two of the 1975 Masters, missing the cut, but the impact of his presence in the field was clear. Elder went on to play in the Masters five more times from 1977 to 1981 and compiled two ‘Top-20’ finishes among his made cuts at Augusta. In 1979, Elder made the cut in all 4 majors between the ages of 44 and 45 — which is not easy to do. The 1979 tournament was the only time Elder competed in the British Open. In 1979, he became the first black American golfer to qualify for play in the Ryder Cup. In 1984, at the age of 50, Elder joined the Senior PGA Tour. He won a total of eight tournaments on the senior tour between 1984 and 1988.
The Plate measures 6″ x 12″H and shows some wear. (Please see Images) The Plate includes an official James Spence Authentication (JSA) hologram and matching LOA for authenticity purposes. The LOA is slightly damaged. Awesome Looking Piece for a Golf Fan!
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