| Although some professional golfers have won more major tournaments and others have collected more in winnings, Ben Crenshaw remains after twenty nine years on tour one of the most popular and talented players on the grueling PGA circuit. His all-American looks, charisma, and grace under pressure have made him a gallery favorite from his days at the University of Texas, where he was heralded as the next Jack Nicklaus, to the 1984 Masters Tournament, where he ended a decade of frustration to capture his first major championship title. His second victory at Augusta in April of 1995 secured his place in golf history. Ben Daniel Crenshaw was born on January 11, 1952 in Austin, Texas to Pearl (Johnson) Crenshaw, an elementary school teacher from Tazewell, Virginia, and Charles Edward Crenshaw IV, an attorney who had worked as an assistant to State Attorney General Price Daniel. The Crenshaws gave Ben his middle name in honor of Daniel, who later became a United States senator and governor of Texas. Ben Crenshaw has two siblings: Bonnie, who is ten years his senior, and Charles Edward V, who is one year older. Members of the family treasured Pearl Crenshaw, and her death of a heart attack in 1974, during Ben's second year on the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) tour, traumatized them. As one of the best and most personable players of his generation never to have won a major title, Crenshaw had the entire golfing world behind him at the 1984 Masters as he took a one-stroke lead with a first-round 67 and then dropped two shots behind Tom Kite's nine-under-par 207 over the next thirty-six holes. In spite of the enormous pressure, Crenshaw continued to play smoothly during the fourth round. With a ten-foot putt for a birdie on the ninth hole, he moved into the back side with a three-under-par 33 to take a one-stroke lead over Kite and a two-stroke lead over Larry Nelson. When Crenshaw sank a seemingly impossible sixty-foot putt on the tenth hole, his opponents were visibly shaken. Using an iron on the twelfth tee, Nelson splashed into the creek to take a double bogey. Moments later, after Crenshaw birdied the twelfth, Kite also found the water with a seven-iron: he holed out with a triple bogey that shattered his hopes for victory. Playing conservatively, Crenshaw hit safe tee shots to the fat part of the green on the thirteenth hole for par and on the fifteenth for a birdie rather than gambling on his woods or irons for a more spectacular eagle and took par on the fourteenth hole with a fifteen-foot second putt. Although a bogey on the seventeenth narrowed his lead to two strokes over Tom Watson, who had finished the round, Crenshaw insured his victory with a perfect three-wood shot into the eighteenth fairway and a five iron onto the green, twenty feet from the cup. He holed out with two putts for par to take the title by two strokes with a final score of 277 (eleven under par). For winning that tournament, his first major victory in his eleven years on the tour, he received the prized green blazer awarded to all Masters champions. Following his l984 Masters win, Crenshaw's play slowly deteriorated over the next eighteen months. He was going through some changes in his personal life, having divorced from his wife, Polly, in the fall of l984. In late l985, while taking a routine physical, Crenshaw was diagnosed with a hyperactive thyroid. Once the problem was treated for several months and brought under control, Ben's play slowly started to improve. Ben married the former Julie Forrest in November, l985 and began l986 with renewed enthusiasm for the game. Crenshaw was in the thick of the U.S. Open battle at Shinnecock Hills in June of l986, and briefly held the lead before dropping back into a tie for sixth place. He ended his victory drought a few weeks later with a win at the Buick Open in Flint, Michigan and later followed up that triumph with a win at the Vantage Championship (the predecessor to the Tour Championship) at Oak Hills in San Antonio. Crenshaw's play remained strong through the late eighties as he added victories at New Orleans (l987) and Doral (l988) to his record. He remained one of the leading money winners on tour right through the end of the decade. |
| In recent years Crenshaw has spent considerable time away from the PGA Tour developing his golf course architecture business. Along with partner, Bill Coore, the firm of Coore & Crenshaw has done restoration work on some of the finest courses in the country including Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, Houston Country Club in Houston, Texas and Brook Hollow Country Club in Dallas, Texas. They have added nine new holes at both Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma and at Onion Creek Country Club in Austin, Texas. Coore & Crenshaw have also built championship courses throughout the United States including The Plantation Club at the Kapalua Bay Resort on Maui, Hawaii, the Crenshaw/Coore course at the Barton Creek Club in Austin, Texas and The Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen, Nebraska. Yet another major chapter began to unfold in Ben's life in October, 1997. The PGA of America named Ben to captain the 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team in matches to be held at The Country Club in Brookline. Ben had first been exposed to The Country Club in 1968 when he visited Boston to play in the U.S. Junior Championship. |
