Doug Sanders, who won 20 times on the PGA Tour but perhaps is best known for missing a chance to beat the great Jack Nicklaus in the 1970 Open Championship at St. Andrews, died on Easter Sunday at the age of 86.
The PGA Tour confirmed that Sanders passed away in Houston from natural causes.
Sanders never won a major championship, finishing second four times in the Grand Slam events, including at the 1959 PGA Championship, the 1961 U.S. Open and the 1966 and 1970 British Opens.
In all, he had 13 top-10 finishes in the majors.
Most notably, Sanders lost the 1970 British Open to Nicklaus by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff the day after missing a 30-inch putt on the 72nd hole that would have given him the victory on the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Nicklaus shot 72 in the playoff, while Sanders finished at 73.
“I didn’t get the job done,” Sanders once said of what later was tabbed the most famous missed putt in golf. “I knew the putt was going to miss straight away. I moved on it. The most expensive missed putt in the history of the game.”
Perhaps Sanders’ most notable victory came when he beat the Arnold Palmer with a birdie on the first playoff hole to win the 1966 Bob Hope Desert Classic at Indian Wells Country Club in Rancho Mirage.
Sanders was born in Cedartown, Ga., north of Atlanta, the fourth of five children, and taught himself the game on a nearby nine-hole golf course, where he developed a swing so short that sportswriters joked that he could take his club back in a phone booth.
After playing one college season at the University of Florida and helping the Gators win the 1955 Southeastern Conference and finish sixth in the NCAA Championship, Sanders won the 1956 Canadian Open on the PGA Tour and tour pro shortly after.
Sanders was the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour until Scott Verplank captured the 1985 Western Amateur.
Known as a stylish, flamboyant dresser on the golf course, Sanders earned the nickname of “Peacock of the Fairways,” and Esquire magazine named him one of America’s Ten Best Dressed Jocks in August 1972.
Sanders is a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and the University of Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
In addition to his PGA Tour victories, Sanders also won once in what is now the PGA Tour Champions, capturing the 1983 World Seniors Invitational.
