Donald Everett Whitt (November 15, 1930 – September 25, 2013) was an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who played on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

in the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

Whitt was a student of accomplished black golf instructor Lucius Bateman, teacher of such other multiple-tournament-winning PGA Touring pros as

Tony Lema Anthony David Lema (February 25, 1934 – July 24, 1966) was an American professional golfer who rose to fame in the mid-1960s and won a major title, the 1964 Open Championship at the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland. He died two years later ...

, John McMullin, and

Dick Lotz } Richard Lotz (born October 15, 1942) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour. Lotz was born in Oakland, California. Along with his older brother John, he developed his game under the tutelage of ...

. Developing his swing at Oakland's Airway Fairways driving range under Bateman's tutelage, Whitt captured the 1948 Alameda Commuters tournament as a teenager and that summer came within one hole of winning the Northern California Junior Golf Championship.

Professional career

After serving in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

, Whitt decided to turn professional, accepting a job as a club pro at Sequoyah Country Club in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. There, in 1956, on his way to a world record golf score of 58, he three-putted the final two greens, but managed to establish a course record 60 - a score that still stands after more than a half-century of play by noted professionals and amateurs alike. After leaving Sequoyah, he joined the PGA Tour for several years. In 1957, Whitt finished the

Tucson Open Invitational The Tucson Open was a golf tournament in Arizona on the PGA Tour from 1945 to 2006, played annually in the winter in Tucson. It was last held at the Omni Tucson National Golf Resort in late February, with a $3 million purse and a $540,000 winne ...

in a tie for first (269), but lost in an 18-hole playoff to

Dow Finsterwald Dow Henry Finsterwald, Sr. (September 6, 1929 – November 4, 2022) was an American professional golfer who is best known for winning the 1958 PGA Championship, 1958 PGA Championship. He won 11 Tour titles between 1955 and 1963, played on four Ry ...

. That same year, in an article heralding professional golf's "Young Timers" ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine wrote of Whitt's "tremendous rally...that included a startling hole-in-one on the 145-yd 13th" before bowing - again to Finsterwald - in the semi-finals of the 1957

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

. The following year Whitt won his first professional golf tournament, the 1958 Montebello Open. His career year was 1959 when he won ''

Golf Digest ''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its TNT Sports unit. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competitive golf. The magazine started by John F. ...

s ''Most Improved Player'' award. He won the Memphis Open in a playoff on May 25 of that year, and just six days later won the Kentucky Derby Open. In January 1960, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' acknowledged Whitt as "a plugger...who can on occasion beat anybody." Aside from Whitt's semi-final loss in the 1957 PGA Championship, his best finish in a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

was a T-15 in the

1961 PGA Championship The 1961 PGA Championship was the 43rd PGA Championship, played July 27–31 at the North Course of Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois, a suburb south of Chicago. Jerry Barber, age 45, won his only major title in an 18-hole ...

, the same year he captured the Venezuela and Maracaibo Opens, and finished runner-up to

Gary Player Gary James Player (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tour and nine ...

in the

Lucky International The Lucky International Open was a PGA Tour event in the 1960s in San Francisco, California. It was played at Harding Park Golf Club, a public course across Lake Merced from the more glamorous Olympic Club. One of the founders and sponsors of the ...

tournament in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Whitt was a good friend of fellow Bateman-protégé Tony Lema, winner of the 1964 British Open, and is prominently featured in Lema's 1964 memoir "Golfer's Gold", that related their antics on the Caribbean Tour in 1961. After retiring from full-time play on the Tour, Whitt worked as a teaching pro at the San Diego Golf Academy.

Awards and honors

* In 1959, he earned ''

s Most Improved Player award

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour wins (2)

PGA Tour playoff record (1–1)

Other wins (4)

''This list may be incomplete'' *1958 Montebello Open *1959 Port Arthur Pro Am *1961 Caracas Open, Maracaibo Open Invitational

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitt, Don American male golfers PGA Tour golfers Golfers from San Francisco Golfers from San Diego 1930 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American sportsmen