Lou Graham

Lou Graham
Personal information
Full name	Louis Krebs Graham
Born	(1938-01-07) January 7, 1938 Nashville, Tennessee
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	175 lb (79 kg; 12.5 st)
Nationality	United States
Career
College	Memphis State University
Turned professional	1964
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour Champions Tour
Professional wins	7
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	6
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament	T6: 1977
U.S. Open	Won: 1975
The Open Championship	T47: 1975
PGA Championship	T6: 1977

Louis Krebs Graham (born January 7, 1938) is an American professional golfer who won six PGA Tour tournaments including the 1975 U.S. Open. Most of his wins were in the 1970s.

Lou Graham was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He started playing golf when he was seven years old. He attended Nashville's Father Ryan High School, and then Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played on the golf team for three years. Later, Graham was drafted into the U.S. Army. While in the Army, Graham served as a member of the Old Guard — Company E of the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment — the ceremonial Honor Guard that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. During his Army career, he made the Army golf team that won the Inter-Service championship in 1961.

Graham joined the PGA Tour in September 1964. His first win was at the Minnesota Golf Classic at Hazeltine National Golf Club in 1967 during his third full year on the tour. Graham won again in 1972 at the Liggett Myers Open, followed by the U.S. Open in 1975. Graham had only three wins in fifteen years, and then in 1979, he won three more times in the space of eleven weeks. For this achievement, he won Golf Digest's 1979 Comeback of the Year award.^[1]

Graham played on three Ryder Cup teams (1973, 1975, 1977), and was a member of the victorious 1975 World Cup Team. He was inducted as a charter member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame in 1992. During his career, he won over $1.4 million on the PGA Tour and over $600,000 in Senior Tour career earnings.^[1]

Graham's greatest success in major championships has been at the U.S. Open. He won in 1975 at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois beating John Mahaffey by two strokes in a playoff. In 1977, he finished 2nd – losing by one stroke to Hubert Green at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also had a previous T-3 finish at the Open in 1974.^[2] On the Senior Tour (now known as the Champions Tour), his best finish was a T-3 at the AT&T Championship in 1990.

Professional wins (7)

PGA Tour wins (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jul 30, 1967	Minnesota Golf Classic	−2 (76-68-70-72=286)	1 stroke	Bob Verwey
2	Aug 27, 1972	Liggett & Myers Open	−3 (71-74-70-70=285)	Playoff	David Graham, Hale Irwin, Larry Ziegler
3	Jun 23, 1975	U.S. Open	+3 (74-72-68-73=287)	Playoff	John Mahaffey
4	Jul 22, 1979	IVB-Philadelphia Golf Classic	−11 (68-70-71-64=273)	Playoff	Bobby Wadkins
5	Sep 9, 1979	American Optical Classic	−9 (68-67-71-69=275)	1 stroke	Ben Crenshaw
6	Oct 7, 1979	San Antonio Texas Open	−12 (69-64-69-66=268)	1 stroke	Eddie Pearce, Bill Rogers, Doug Tewell

PGA Tour playoff record (3–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1971	Greater Hartford Open	George Archer, J. C. Snead	Archer won with birdie on first extra hole
2	1972	Liggett & Myers Open	David Graham, Hale Irwin, Larry Ziegler	Won with birdie on third extra hole D. Graham and Ziegler eliminated with par on first hole
3	1975	U.S. Open	John Mahaffey	Won 18-hole playoff (Graham:71, Mahaffey:73)
4	1979	IVB-Philadelphia Golf Classic	Bobby Wadkins	Won with birdie on first extra hole

Major championship is shown in bold.

Other wins (1)

• 1975 World Cup (with Johnny Miller)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
1975	U.S. Open	4 shot deficit	+3 (74-72-68-73=287)	Playoff1	John Mahaffey

¹Defeated Mahaffey in an 18-hole playoff – Graham 71 (E), Mahaffey 73 (+2).

Results timeline

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

Summary

• Most consecutive cuts made – 11 (1974 U.S. Open – 1977 U.S. Open)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 3 (1977 Masters – 1977 PGA)

U.S. national team appearances

Professional

• Ryder Cup: 1973 (winners), 1975 (winners), 1977 (winners)
• World Cup: 1975 (winners)

See also

• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins

References

External links

• Lou Graham at the PGA Tour official site