David Graham (golfer)

Anthony David Graham, AM (born 23 May 1946) is a former professional golfer from Australia.
Born in Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, Graham turned professional in 1962 at age 16 and spent much of his career in the United States, playing on the PGA Tour. Turning age 50 in 1996, he joined the Senior PGA Tour, later known as the Champions Tour. Although known for his success in the U.S., he won events on six continents in his career, an achievement he shares with only four other players Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and Justin Rose.
In 1976, after several successful years on tours around the globe, Graham came to prominence with two wins on the PGA Tour, and then came from behind to secure a victory over the reigning champion Hale Irwin in the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship.
Graham won two major championships, the 1979 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills near Detroit, and the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion, just west of Philadelphia. He also finished third at the 1985 Open Championship, after sharing the third-round lead. Both of his major victories came in remarkable fashion. In the 1979 PGA Championship, he stood on the last tee at 7 under par for his final round and leading by two, but double-bogeyed the last hole for a 65 to drop back into a playoff with Ben Crenshaw. At each of the first two sudden-death holes he holed long putts to keep the playoff alive and finally won at the third extra hole. At the 1981 U.S. Open, Graham shot a 67 in the final round to overturn a three-shot deficit to overnight leader George Burns to win by 3 strokes. He became the fourth Australian major champion (after Jim Ferrier, Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle) and the first to win a U.S. Open.
Graham also participated on the Australian teams that won the World Cup (in 1970) and the Alfred Dunhill Cup (in 1985 and 1986). At the end of 1981, he was ranked 7th on Mark McCormack's world golf rankings.
On 27 June 2004, during the final round of the Bank of America Championship on the Champions Tour, Graham collapsed over a putt on the eighth green. He was later diagnosed with congestive heart failure, ending his competitive golf career at age 58. He is now retired and resides at Iron Horse Golf Club in Whitefish, Montana.
Graham was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988 and inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1990.
It was announced on 16 October 2014 that Graham has been elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame. His nomination was supported by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. He was inducted with other nominees Mark O'Meara, course architect A. W. Tillinghast and Laura Davies on 13 July 2015 at the University of St Andrews, during the 2015 Open Championship.

PGA Tour wins (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	3 Jul 1972	Cleveland Open	68-73-68-69=278	−6	Playoff	Bruce Devlin
2	18 Jul 1976	American Express Westchester Classic	63-68-70-71=272	−12	3 strokes	Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller
3	29 Aug 1976	American Golf Classic	69-67-69-69=274	−14	4 strokes	Lou Graham
4	5 Aug 1979	PGA Championship	69-68-70-65=272	−8	Playoff	Ben Crenshaw
5	25 May 1980	Memorial Tournament	73-67-70-70=280	−8	1 stroke	Tom Watson
6	24 Jan 1981	Phoenix Open	65-68-69-66=268	−16	1 stroke	Lon Hinkle
7	21 Jun 1981	U.S. Open	68-68-70-67=273	−7	3 strokes	George Burns, Bill Rogers
8	8 May 1983	Houston Coca-Cola Open	66-72-73-64=275	−9	5 strokes	Lee Elder, Jim Thorpe, Lee Trevino

PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1972	Cleveland Open	Bruce Devlin	Won with birdie on second extra hole
2	1972	Liggett & Myers Open	Lou Graham, Hale Irwin, Larry Ziegler	L Graham won with birdie on third extra hole D. Graham and Ziegler eliminated with par on first hole
3	1979	PGA Championship	Ben Crenshaw	Won with birdie on third extra hole

Australasian wins (8)

• 1967 Queensland PGA Championship
• 1970 Tasmanian Open, Victorian Open
• 1975 Wills Masters
• 1977 Australian Open
• 1979 Westlakes Classic
• 1985 Queensland Open
• 1987 Queensland Open

European Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	24 Oct 1982	Trophée Lancôme	−12 (66-70-70-70=276)	2 strokes	Seve Ballesteros

Other wins (16)

• 1970 Thailand Open, French Open, World Cup (with Bruce Devlin)
• 1971 Caracas Open, JAL Open
• 1976 Chunichi Crowns (Japan Golf Tour), Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
• 1977 South African PGA Championship
• 1978 Mexico Cup
• 1980 Mexican Open, Rolex Japan, Brazilian Classic
• 1981 Trophée Lancôme (unofficial event; became European Tour event in 1982)
• 1985 Alfred Dunhill Cup (with Graham Marsh and Greg Norman)
• 1986 Alfred Dunhill Cup (with Rodger Davis and Greg Norman)
• 1994 Australian Skins

Champions Tour wins (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	16 Feb 1997	GTE Classic	−9 (71-68-65=204)	3 strokes	Bob Dickson
2	30 Mar 1997	Southwestern Bell Dominion	−10 (68-69-69=206)	1 stroke	John Jacobs
3	21 Sep 1997	Kroger Senior Classic	−16 (67-68-65=200)	1 stroke	Buddy Allin, Larry Nelson
4	1 Feb 1998	Royal Caribbean Classic	−11 (67-68-67=202)	Playoff	Dave Stockton
5	17 Oct 1999	Raley's Gold Rush Classic	−17 (63-71-65=199)	4 strokes	Larry Mowry

Champions Tour playoff record (1–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1996	Emerald Coast Classic	Bob Eastwood, Mike Hill, Dave Stockton, Lee Trevino	Trevino won with birdie on first extra hole
2	1998	Royal Caribbean Classic	Dave Stockton	Won with birdie on tenth extra hole

Wins (2)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
1979	PGA Championship	4 shot deficit	−8 (69-68-70-65=272)	Playoff 1	Ben Crenshaw
1981	U.S. Open	3 shot deficit	−7 (68-68-70-67=273)	3 strokes	George Burns, Bill Rogers

1 Defeated Crenshaw with a birdie on third extra hole.

Results timeline

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

Summary

• Most consecutive cuts made – 20 (1979 U.S. Open – 1984 U.S. Open)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 3 (1979 U.S. Open – 1980 Masters)

• World Cup (representing Australia): 1970, 1971
• Dunhill Cup (representing Australia): 1985 (winners), 1986 (winners), 1988
• Nissan Cup (representing Australasia): 1985, 1986