TRIVIA Question: To celebrate Tom Kite's upcoming 1,000th Tour event:

Tom Kite will be teeing it up at this week's Champions Tour "SAS Championship" in North Carolina. It will be his 1,000th event under PGA Tour auspices (including Majors), 713 on the PGA Tour, 286 so far on the Seniors/Champions Tour.

He'll be the 12th to reach this milestone, following Hale Irwin last year.

Who will be Number 13? Not likely to be Dave Stockton who seems stuck on 991.
More likely a golfer who should reach the milestone very late in 2012, or early 2013.

So: Trivia question: Who is the active golfer closest to 1,000?

Clue 1: If Nationwide events were included he'd already be there.

Tom Kite, the only professional golfer whose doppelganger is Niki Lauda's ear.

VJ or Love III?

Mac, I think it would have to be someone who has been around longer than those two. Someone like Gary Player or Tom Watson.

Yes, I think it's fair to say you've got to be looking at someone in at least their mid-fifties who played a heavy schedule on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour.

SR

Yes the maths does not seem to stack up for those guys. I am a little confused by the nationwide clue, does this mean the nationwide only when that tour has been called the nationwide or just that level of tour?

The Nationwide reference is a bit of a red herring unless you think to consider a player who kept on playing even when not fully exempt, regardless whether PGA or Nationwide competition.

Bob Gilder?

Hale Irwin?

Bob Gilder would have been my choice Faldo.
He would be second in line, with 947 events total, plus 42 Nationwiders.

Great guess!!

s_r: Read the question! Hale Irwin reached 1,000 last year!!

Ha ha, honestly missed that. Selective reading, or perhaps I subconsciously read it but didn't clock it.

This is tough!

Scott Simpson?

Not Scott Simpson, Ned, he missed a few years at the end of his Tour career and has been injury-plagued in his old age.

Hmm, someone who plays huge amounts of Seniors stuff then... doesn't help that I don't follow the CT at all!

Billy Casper?

I think it's time for another CLUE!

Clue 1: If Nationwide tournaments were included he'd already have reached 1,000 events.

Clue 2: Prior to the age of 50, his biggest win was in Europe.

Could there be a clue in this week's results? Jay Haas?

s_r: The question is who is the active golfer closest to reaching 1,000 events on both Tours.
Billy Casper almost defines inactive.

Ned,
Jay Haas would be 3rd! Just behind the Gildermeister. He'll reach 1,000 in 2013 or perhaps 2014.
Great guess!!

kwinigolfer wrote:Ned,
Jay Haas would be 3rd! Just behind the Gildermeister. He'll reach 1,000 in 2013 or perhaps 2014.
Great guess!!

Not entirely a guess kwini... thought I'd go on pgatour.com to try and find some likely names, since I don't have a clue who's fulltiming it on the CT. Opened the homepage and there was his face staring out at me

Kwini, I should think he almost defines DEAD.

kwinigolfer wrote:I think it's time for another CLUE!

Clue 1: If Nationwide tournaments were included he'd already have reached 1,000 events.

Clue 2: Prior to the age of 50, his biggest win was in Europe.

Too soon for Michael Allen I guess?

That's where I was leading s_r, except that he's alive and quite possibly kicking.

See, no point in offering a clue, Ned, if it can't possibly have another answer. Not Michael Allen then. Still at the A's?

Got it. Bobby Wadkins who won the european open?

That latest clue (2) would suggest he's done better on the Champions Tour than the regular Tour....Loren Roberts?

kwinigolfer wrote:That's where I was leading s_r, except that he's alive and quite possibly kicking.

See, no point in offering a clue, Ned, if it can't possibly have another answer. Not Michael Allen then. Still at the A's?

Like JAS, was thinking of guys whose careers began at 50, think Faldo's got it though!

Calcavechia?

Gentle Ben?

Well done Nick!!!!

Bobby Wadkins is the answer, 971 plus 65 Nationwiders.

Funny old career, just about defining journeyman, unlucky runner up finishes every so often, and then tied the record of youngest Senior Tour winner ten days after he turned 50. Go figure, as some Americans like to say.

JAS, Loren Roberts started his Tour career comparitively late - didn't really get established until his mid-thirties.

Well done indeed, would never have got it...Calc would have been my next shout...around at much the same time as Kite and his one big win was in Europe (1989 at Troon)

Calc will probably get there but more difficult now that the Champions Tour only has about 22 events these days instead of the 30 - 35 prevalent in the 90's and early '000's.
Calc is ten years younger than Kite . . . . .

Crenshaw never played enough events to get close - up to about 800 now and the same age as Kite.

Tom Kite would have played more, but filming his role as the pig faced Gestapo officer in Raiders of the Lost Ark took a lot longer than he thought.

Fancy having to play 1,000 tournaments with all that make up . . . .

Kwini,

One interesting story about Tom Kite for you. Doug Sanders used to promote a World Junior Golf Tournament in Aberdeen in the 80's. He always played the Links followed by a Q&A in one of the three Clubhouses on one of the days.

Tom Kite's name came up in the Q&A one evening. Sanders said he played with Tom Kite first turned pro. He claimed he then forcasted that Tom Kite would earn more prize money than any pro before him. His reason was that because he was "as ugly as sin and had no personality" his only source of income would be prize money so he would try harder than the other players.

I recall at one point in his career Tom Kite had earned more prize money than any other player.

Scottie

ScottieD18 wrote:Kwini,

One interesting story about Tom Kite for you. Doug Sanders used to promote a World Junior Golf Tournament in Aberdeen in the 80's. He always played the Links followed by a Q&A in one of the three Clubhouses on one of the days.

Tom Kite's name came up in the Q&A one evening. Sanders said he played with Tom Kite first turned pro. He claimed he then forcasted that Tom Kite would earn more prize money than any pro before him. His reason was that because he was "as ugly as sin and had no personality" his only source of income would be prize money so he would try harder than the other players.

I recall at one point in his career Tom Kite had earned more prize money than any other player.

I believe Kite was nicknamed the 6 million dollar man as he was the first player to reach that milestone? May be wrong though..................

Billy Haas won twice that for one event on Sunday

d4s,
I can't find the career earnings from any earlier than 2004 but I'm sure you're right - he's still 105th after all the purse inflation of the last 15 years.

I watched his 1992 US Open win, plus his exploits at the Ryder Cup; definition of a "grinder" before the term was invented. 61-y-o now and has still won almost $2M over the past three years.

(My pension does not quite reach that sum.)

I'm pretty rubbish at trivia quiz questions but here is one for the forum that I came across the other day.

Which two Open Championship winners were born in Dublin?

I've a feeling I've been there so won't respond.

Interesting i;m guessing that something in this may mean one of them is born in dublin ohio rather than dubil in ireland.

So one would be harrington

Mav

Correct, Harrington is one of them........

Hmm....a google search has revealed that the info I read was duff.

The player in question was Ben Hogan but it appears he was brought up in Dublin, texas but was actually born 10 miles outside.

I did say I wasn't very good at these sort of trivia questions

Was wondering who the other one was, because a fair few are from the ohio area but couldn't think of one from Dublin.

Here's a simple one for 10. Who is the only person to hole in one on a par for in a PGA tour event

Nice one d4s, I would have guessed Dublin, Ohio, home of Jack Nicklaus's Muirfield Village!

Maverick wrote:Was wondering who the other one was, because a fair few are from the ohio area but couldn't think of one from Dublin.

Here's a simple one for 10. Who is the only person to hole in one on a par for in a PGA tour event

I get confused with who did this on which tour, but was one of them Chip Beck?

Ned: no not according to the commentators on the Las Vegas event last night on which I'm basing this question. Though Beck is one of the PGA tour playes to shoot 59

Ned,
Beck might have been the first to do it on the Nationwide.


I won't spill the answer though.

Clue: His second name is Donald

Clue: He's american but was born in Paris France
Clue: He's hole in one was at the Phoenix Open

Andrew Magee via a deflection off Tom Byrum's putter 2001 Phonix open. I remember hearing he was born in France.