Place of birth: San Bernardino, Calif.
Tour Victories:
Major Championships:
PGA Championship: 1970, 1976
Awards and Honors:
• Captain, U.S. Ryder Cup team, 1991
• Champions Tour Player of the Year, 1993
Trivia:
• One weekend in 1996, there was a Stockton playing on the Champions Tour (Dave Sr.), PGA Tour (son Dave Jr.) and Nationwide Tour (son Ronnie). That was the first time three family members played tournaments on three different tours simultaneously.
Dave Stockton Biography:
Stockton's father was a golf professional, but Dave didn't turn seriously to golf until his late teens. A California kid, he grew up loving surfing and playing basketball and baseball. But Stockton suffered a broken back when he was 15 in a surfing accident. Ironically, since he had a back injury, Stockton decided to focus on golf (which has caused quite a few back injuries in other golfers) and give up the other sports.
Just as his father before him, Stockton became captain of the golf team at the University of Southern California. He graduated in 1964, turned pro and joined the PGA Tour. His first years as a pro were lean, but the breakthrough came in 1967. That year, Stockton earned his first PGA Tour victory.
From 1968 through 1976, Stockton was a regular contender on tour. Known as one of the best putters in the game, Stockton won his first major at the 1970 PGA Championship, outlasting Arnold Palmer. His best tour season was 1974, when he won three times and posted his only Top 10 finish on the money list.
Stockton was runner-up at the 1974 Masters, then won the PGA Championship again in 1976. That was his 10th win on the PGA Tour, and his last. He finished second at the 1978 U.S. Open, but never won again.
Until reaching the Champions Tour, that is. As a senior golfer, Stockton won 14 more times, including the 1996 U.S. Senior Open. He was the Champions Tour Player of the Year in 1993, when he won five times.
In 1991, Stockton captained the American Ryder Cup team to victory at Kiawah Island, a battle that came to be known as the "War on the Shore." Stockton led the Americans in an aggressive, hyper-patriotic stance before and during the matches. For good or ill, that Ryder Cup became known as the match where the event's atmosphere became one of contentiousness.
Stockton's final Champions Tour win was in 1997. But he soon started gaining a reputation as a great putting instructor, his work with Annika Sorenstam bringing his teaching skills into the spotlight. Stockton has released several putting instructionals, including the DVD Putt to Win and the book Dave Stockton's Putt to Win: Secrets for Mastering the Other Game of Golf (compare prices).
Stockton's two sons, Dave Jr. and Ronnie, both played professional golf and also teach.
