Reader email prompts PGA Tour to bump up official win tally for four players
PGA Tour

Reader email prompts PGA Tour to bump up official win tally for four players

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A win is a win, right? Well, except when it isn't.

For the last 40 years, four PGA Tour players were gipped of a win that they should have been given. That error was rectified on Wednesday. thanks to a reader email.

Three weeks ago, a reader sent me an email with a rather curious - and rather random - question.

Just looking at Arnold Palmer's and Jack Nicklaus's win totals I noticed that they are credited with two official wins apiece in the National Team Championship.

This event was played in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972 but only the 1970 and 1971 event are considered as official wins. Coincidentally, both times those events were won by Palmer/Nicklaus. Palmer/Nicklaus also won the event in 1966 but that win is not official.

I suspect it has something to do with the Tour Players forming their own organization (separate from the PGA of America) in the late 1960's but it seems strange that the 1970-71 events are official while the 1972 event is unofficial. (won by Babe Hiskey/Kermit Zarley)

The logical next step is to wonder why Palmer and Nicklaus each got two official wins added to their tally, while Hiskey and Zarley - an awesome team name - did not get the same credit.

But, was this an oversight by the PGA Tour? Was it part of some malicious scam to pad the win totals of two of the game's biggest names? Or was a Wikipedia page wrong?

Well, completely unaware of the event's history and the quality of the Wikipedia research, I forwarded the reader email to the PGA Tour.

On Wednesday, the Tour responded: they would be changing the record books.

Simple answer is that it was an oversight on the TOUR's part and thank you for pointing it out.

The wins in 1968 and 1972 have been made official. Because of the merger the event prior to 1968 will not be considered. There was not an event in 1969.

That means Babe Hiskey and Kermit Zarley now have three PGA Tour wins as a result of winning the event in 1972, while George Archer and Bobby Nichols are each credited for their '68 win. Archer has a baker's dozen of wins now, while Nichols is up to a full dozen.

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is a scratch golfer...sometimes.

Ballengee can be reached by email at ryan[at]thegolfnewsnet.com

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