The flamboyant golfer who partied with Sinatra
Doug Sanders won 20 events on the PGA Tour and made a legion of fans with his snappy, rainbow-hued attire and easygoing personality. But his sporting career was forever defined by a 30-inch putt. With one hole left at the 1970 Open Championship, the player known as the Peacock of the Fairways needed a four-shot par to defeat the great Jack Nicklaus and win golf’s most coveted trophy. He hit a long drive and a safe second shot onto the 18th green at Scotland’s iconic St. Andrews. His first putt ended just short of the cup, and he agonized over his next shot, which missed by an inch. Sanders lost an 18-hole playoff against Nicklaus by a stroke the following day, cementing his miss as one of the great chokes in sports history. “If I was a master of the English language,” he said, “I don’t think I could find the adjectives to describe how I felt when I missed that short one.”
Born in Cedartown, Ga., “in the middle of the Depression,” Sanders grew up picking cotton alongside his parents, said The Times (U.K.). “There wasn’t enough to eat,” he recalled. “No doctors, lice in our hair, ratty hand-me-down clothes.” Sanders made extra money at a nearby
Doug Sanders
golf course, “where he would look for lost balls and sell them to members,” said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). A caddy by age 10, Sanders “was nurtured by the club professional” and earned a golf scholarship to the University of Florida. In 1956, while still an amateur, he won his first PGA Tour event at the Canadian Open. He went pro the following year.
“Sanders was often on the brink of stardom,” said The New York Times. With his upright stance and compact swing—the result of a debilitating neck condition—he won five PGA Tour events in 1961 and three the next year. But as with the 1970 Open, Sanders became famous for his defeats, finishing runner-up by one stroke at three other majors. Even so, with his quick wit and flashy clothes—Sanders wore vibrant pinks, yellows, and purples on the green—he made a fortune in endorsements and advertising deals, which paid for a fleet of expensive cars and nights out with celebrity pals, including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Still, all that high living couldn’t take his mind off that missed putt in 1970. Asked years later if he ever thought about it, Sanders replied, “Oh, only every four or five minutes.”