Born: 10 May, 1927, in Berwick, Pennsylvania.
Died: 10 July, 2008, in Belleair, Florida. MIKE Souchak may "only" have come eighth in a British Open Championship, won "only" 15 US PGA tour titles, come no better than third in
the US Open and played but twice in the Ryder Cup, but, for around half a century, he held a trio of impressive records, records that such greats as Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Watson or Woods never managed to beat.
Souchak, who has died after a heart attack at the age of 81, shot the lowest-ever 72-hole score in US golf history when he won his first PGA tour event, the Texas Open, in 1955, with a tally of 257. That total became a magical figure in golf and would not be bettered, despite the efforts of the all-time greats, for 46 years, until Mark Calcavecchia carded 256 at the 2001 Phoenix Open. With the help of modern club and ball technology, Tommy Armour III has since lowered the record to 254 – at the 2003 Valero Texas Open.
Souchak's 1955 score at Brackenridge Park in San Antonio, a par-71 course, represented 27 under par, tying the under-par record held by Ben Hogan since 1948 when he shot 261 on the par-72 course at the Portland (Oregon) Invitational. The Hogan/Souchak 27-under record stood until 1998 when John Huston stroked in a putt at the Hawaii Open (a par-72 course) for a score of 260, 28 under for the tournament.
Perhaps 27 was Souchak's lucky number for, on the back nine holes of his opening round in that same 1955 win, he needed only 27 strokes (and only nine of them putts), a nine-hole record which lasted no less than 51 years. Corey Pavin finally topped it with a front-nine score of 26 in his opening round of the 2006 US Bank Championship in Milwaukee, which he went on to win.
Watching his nine-hole record fall, on TV, Souchak said: "With the golf courses today and the condition they keep them in, it's surprising that the record lasted as long as it did. Then you throw in the equipment, and the golf ball, especially the golf ball. And in my day, the last thing in anyone's mind was to go and lift weights or get on a bicycle. To get in shape, we ran to the bar after we played."
He played in only one British Open, the 1956 event at the Royal Liverpool Club, Hoylake, when he shot 294 to finish a respectable eighth, eight shots behind Australian Peter Thomson, who won the title for the third consecutive year. Souchak later came closer in the US Open, finishing third in 1959 and 1960, both times after leading into the final round, and fourth in 1961. In the 1959 event, at Winged Foot, Billy Casper overtook him to win; in an unforgettable finish at Cherry Hills in 1960, Arnold Palmer came from seven shots off the pace to beat not only Souchak but Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan; and at Oakland Hills in 1961, after Souchak led into the last nine, Gene Littler forged ahead to push him into fourth.
The muscular, long-driving Souchak played in two winning US Ryder Cup teams, in 1959 and 1961, when only British, rather than European players represented this side of the Atlantic. Souchak's personal record was 5-1 over the two events, though some of the older TV commentators today might say he was lucky not to go head-to-head with a certain Peter Alliss, who teed off for Britain on both occasions. In the 1959 competition, at the Eldorado Country Club in California, Souchak beat Ken Bousfield in the singles and partnered Bob Rosburg to victory over Bernard Hunt and Eric Brown in the foursomes. Two years later, at Royal Lytham and St Annes and with the format doubled, Souchak won both his singles, against Ralph Moffitt and Bernard Hunt, won one of his foursomes and lost the other.
Michael Souchak was born in Berwick, Pennsylvania in 1927, impressing American football coaches at high school as a tight end and kicker and winning a football scholarship to the renowned Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 1948 after a two-year spell as a US navy gunner. He helped the university's "Blue Devils" teams to both football and golf titles before graduating in 1952, giving up football and becoming a golf pro.
His last PGA tour win was the Memphis Open in 1964. From 1966, he played only occasionally on the tour and worked as head pro at Oakland Hills before returning to competition in 1980 on the newly-created Seniors (now Champions) Tour – for players 50 years old or over. Although he finished second in its very first event, he won no titles on the tour before retiring in 1990.
Souchak's prize money for that first PGA tour win in Texas in 1955 was $2,200 but he became a multimillionaire businessman through his Florida-based company Golf Car Systems, which services the golf cart fleets at hundreds of clubs around the US. And he still retains one PGA tour record: he scored the most consecutive finishing birdies – six – to win a PGA title, at the 1956 St Paul Open in Minnesota.
Mike Souchak is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nancy, sons Chris, Frank and Mike jnr, and daughter Patti.
The full article contains 922 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
