Doug Sanders

He was born into a poor family in Cedartown, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta, where his father farmed and drove trucks.^[2][3] Sanders was the fourth of five children and picked cotton as a teenager. The family home was near a nine-hole course and he was a self-taught golfer.^[4]

Sanders accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Florida in Gainesville,^[4] where he played for the Gators golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition in 1955.^[5] In his single year as a Gator golfer, Sanders and the team won a Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship and earned a sixth-place finish at the NCAA championship tournament—the Gators' best national championship finish at that time.^[5] Sanders won the 1956 Canadian Open as an amateur—the only amateur ever to do so—and turned professional shortly thereafter.^[6] Sanders was the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour until Scott Verplank in 1985.

Sanders had thirteen top-ten finishes in major championships, including four second-place finishes: 1959 PGA Championship, 1961 U.S. Open, 1966 and 1970 Opens. In 1966, he became one of the few players in history to finish in the top ten of all four major championships in a single season, despite winning none of them. He took four shots from just 74 yards as the leader playing the final hole of the 1970 Open Championship at St Andrews, missing a sidehill 3-foot (0.9 m) putt to win, then lost the resulting 18-hole playoff by a single stroke the next day to Jack Nicklaus.^[7] His final victory on tour came in June 1972 at the Kemper Open, one stroke ahead of runner-up Lee Trevino.^[8]

Sanders is remembered for an exceptionally short, flat golf swing — a consequence, it appears, of a painful neck condition that radically restricted his movements.^[7]

He was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1967, which won in Houston.

Sanders was a stylish, flamboyant dresser on the golf course, which earned him the nickname "Peacock of the Fairways."^[7] Esquire magazine named Sanders one of America's Ten Best Dressed Jocks in August 1972.^[9]

Sanders identified himself as the lead character, a playboy PGA Tour golfer, in the golf novel Dead Solid Perfect, by Dan Jenkins.^[10]

Sanders wrote a golf instruction book, "Compact Golf", published in 1964, the title of which linked to Sanders' short golf swing. His autobiography "Come swing with me" was published in 1974.^[11]

In his autobiography, Sanders said he was invited and intended to accompany fellow pro golfer and 1964 Open winner Tony Lema on the flight in a private plane in 1966 that crashed with no survivors. Sanders changed his schedule at the last minute and did not join Lema on the flight.^[11]

After retiring from competitive golf, Sanders was active in his own corporate golf entertainment company for nearly 20 years, and sponsored the Doug Sanders International Junior Golf Championship in Houston, Texas. From 1988 to 1994, he also sponsored the Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic.

Sanders died in his adopted hometown of Houston, Texas, on April 12, 2020, from natural causes.^[12][13] He was 86.

Sanders was a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame,^[14] Georgia Sports Hall of Fame,^[6] and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.^[3] He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."^[15]

• 1955 Mexican Amateur

PGA Tour wins (20)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jul 8, 1956	Canadian Open (as an amateur)	69-67-69-68=273	−15	Playoff	Dow Finsterwald
2	Jun 1, 1958	Western Open	69-68-70-68=275	−13	1 stroke	Dow Finsterwald
3	Dec 6, 1959	Coral Gables Open Invitational	68-71-69-65=273	−11	3 strokes	Dow Finsterwald
4	Mar 5, 1961	Greater New Orleans Open Invitational	68-65-69-70=272	−16	5 strokes	Gay Brewer, Mac Main
5	May 14, 1961	Colonial National Invitation	69-75-67-70=281	+1	1 stroke	Kel Nagle
6	May 21, 1961	Hot Springs Open Invitational	68-68-69-68=273	−15	1 stroke	Dave Ragan, Jerry Steelsmith
7	Aug 6, 1961	Eastern Open Invitational	72-66-68-69=275	−13	1 stroke	Ken Venturi
8	Nov 19, 1961	Cajun Classic Open Invitational	67-67-67-69=270	−14	6 strokes	Ken Still
9	Mar 11, 1962	Pensacola Open Invitational	67-67-67-69=270	−18	1 stroke	Don Fairfield
10	Aug 19, 1962	St. Paul Open Invitational	66-69-69-65=269	−19	3 strokes	Dave Hill
11	Aug 26, 1962	Oklahoma City Open Invitational	70-69-74-67=280	−8	2 strokes	Johnny Pott
12	Apr 14, 1963	Greater Greensboro Open	68-65-68-69=270	−14	4 strokes	Jimmy Clark
13	Mar 7, 1965	Pensacola Open Invitational (2)	68-71-65-73=277	−11	Playoff	Jack Nicklaus
14	Mar 14, 1965	Doral Open Invitational	65-71-71-67=274	−14	1 stroke	Bruce Devlin
15	Feb 6, 1966	Bob Hope Desert Classic	70-72-68-73-66=349	−11	Playoff	Arnold Palmer
16	Mar 27, 1966	Jacksonville Open Invitational	71-65-66-71=273	−15	1 stroke	Gay Brewer
17	Apr 3, 1966	Greater Greensboro Open (2)	65-70-71-70=276	−8	Playoff	Tom Weiskopf
18	Mar 5, 1967	Doral Open Invitational (2)	68-71-66-70=275	−9	1 stroke	Harold Henning, Art Wall Jr.
19	Dec 13, 1970	Bahama Islands Open	66-70-68-68=272	−16	Playoff	Chris Blocker
20	Jun 4, 1972	Kemper Open	71-68-68-68=275	−13	1 stroke	Lee Trevino

PGA Tour playoff record (5–5)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1956	Canadian Open (as an amateur)	Dow Finsterwald	Won with par on first extra hole
2	1961	Phoenix Open Invitational	Arnold Palmer	Lost 18-hole playoff; Palmer: −3 (67), Sanders: E (70)
3	1962	West Palm Beach Open Invitational	Dave Ragan	Lost to birdie on second extra hole
4	1964	Greater Greensboro Open	Julius Boros	Lost to par on first extra hole
5	1965	Pensacola Open Invitational	Jack Nicklaus	Won with birdie on third extra hole
6	1965	Greater Seattle Open Invitational	Gay Brewer	Lost to par on first extra hole
7	1966	Bob Hope Desert Classic	Arnold Palmer	Won with birdie on first extra hole
8	1966	Greater Greensboro Open	Tom Weiskopf	Won with par on second extra hole
9	1970	The Open Championship	Jack Nicklaus	Lost 18-hole playoff; Nicklaus: E (72), Sanders: +1 (73)
10	1970	Bahama Islands Open	Chris Blocker	Won with par on second extra hole

Far East Circuit wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Mar 25, 1963	Yomiuri International	68-77-71-73=289	+1	5 strokes	Hideyo Sugimoto

Far East Circuit playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1964	Philippine Open	Peter Thomson	Lost to bogey on first extra hole

Other wins (2)

• 1957 Colombian Open
• 1959 Sahara Pro-Am

Senior PGA Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Sep 25, 1983	World Seniors Invitational	70-70-73-70=283	−5	1 stroke	Miller Barber

Amateur

Professional

CUT = missed the half-way cut
R256, R128, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Sources: Masters Tournament,^[16] U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur,^[17] Open Championship,^[18] PGA Championship,^[19] 1956 British Amateur^[20]

Summary

• Most consecutive cuts made – 14 (1965 PGA – 1969 Masters)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 4 (1966 Masters – 1966 PGA)

• List of American Ryder Cup golfers
• List of Florida Gators men's golfers on the PGA Tour
• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins
• List of University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame members

• Official website
• Doug Sanders at the PGA Tour official site
• Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Profile Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine