They used to say that Doug Sanders could practice his golf swing in a phone booth.
The late Tommy Bolt, a dapper dresser himself, once said of Sanders: “The man looks like a jukebox with feet!”
Sanders, the most colorful dresser in the history of professional golf, died Sunday morning in Houston at the age of 86.
He’s best known for his near misses in the majors, especially the three-footer on the 72nd hole at the 1970 Open Championship at St. Andrews. The putt would given him the win but Sanders hit a weak bleeder that slid to the right. He lost the following day in a playoff with Jack Nicklaus.
He carried that one with him for the rest of his career: “But they still ask me if I ever think about that putt I missed to win the 1970 Open at St. Andrews,” he said. ”I tell them sometimes it doesn’t cross my mind for a full five minutes.”
Sanders was ahead of his time when it came to fashion on the fairways — pinks, purples, bright yellow — y0u name it, Sanders wore it. Typically he had shoes that matched the color of the shirt or sweaters he wore.
What many don’t realize is that Sanders won 20 PGA Tour events during his long career.
Sanders was still an amateur when he won his first PGA Tour event in 1956 at the Canadian Open in a playoff against Dow Finsterwald. His best year on tour was in 1961 when he won five times and finished third on the PGA Tour money list.
In the majors, he finished runner-up four times. Sanders finished one shot behind Nicklaus in the 1966 British Open at Muirfield. He had a one-shot lead going into the final round of the 1961 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills and finished one behind Gene Littler, and he finished one shot behind Bob Rosburg in the 1959 PGA Championship at Minneapolis Golf Club.
Sanders was famous for his one-liners and one of his best was:
“I’m working as hard as I can to get my life and my cash to run out at the same time. If I can just die after lunch Tuesday, everything would be perfect.”
