The Rubber City Open Invitational, first played as the Rubber City Open in 1954, was the first

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 ...

golf event to be held at

Firestone Country Club Firestone Country Club is a private golf club in the United States, located in Akron, Ohio. It was a regular stop on the PGA Tour and has hosted the PGA Championship three times. It is the current home of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championsh ...

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

, US. The tournament, last played in 1959, was discontinued as Firestone gained national prominence and attracted bigger events beginning with hosting the 1960

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

American Golf Classic The American Golf Classic was a tournament on the PGA Tour from 1961 to 1976 at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. It was the third event at the storied South course, after the Rubber City Open Invitational (1954–1959) and the PGA Champio ...

in 1961, and in 1962 the World Series of Golf now known as the

WGC-Bridgestone Invitational The WGC Invitational was a professional golf tournament that was held in the United States. Established in 1999 as a successor to the World Series of Golf, it was one of three or four annual World Golf Championships (WGC) until 2021, when the nu ...

. The first edition in September 1954 had a $15,000 purse with a winner's share of $2,400, won by

Tommy Bolt Thomas Henry Bolt (March 31, 1916 – August 30, 2008) was an American professional golfer. He did not join the PGA Tour until he was in his thirties, but he went on to win 15 PGA Tour titles, including the 1958 U.S. Open. He played in the Ryder ...

. The sixth and final champion in August 1959 was

Tom Nieporte Thomas Nieporte (October 21, 1928 – December 21, 2014) was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour in the 1950s and 1960s. Nieporte grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of North College Hill, Ohio. He attended the Ohio State Univ ...

, who won $2,800 from a $20,000 purse. At the time, there were only 18 holes at Firestone, today's "South Course." The North Course was the second course, added in 1969.

Winners

References

External links

Firestone Country Club
Former PGA Tour events Golf tournaments in Ohio Sports in Akron, Ohio Recurring sporting events established in 1954 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1959 1954 establishments in Ohio 1959 disestablishments in Ohio {{Ohio-sport-stub