The Seattle Open Invitational was a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

tournament on the

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in the

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, in the greater Seattle area. It was played eight times over three decades under five names at three locations.

History

The first Seattle Open was held in 1936 at Inglewood Golf Club in Kenmore in early August.

Macdonald Smith Macdonald "Mac" Smith (March 18, 1890 – August 31, 1949) was one of the top professional golfers in the world from about 1910 into the mid-1930s. He was a member of a famous Scottish golfing family. Smith is regarded, based on his results, as on ...

won an playoff with a course record 65 (–8), six strokes ahead of runner-up Ralph Guldahl, who won the next two U.S Opens and the Masters in

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidde ...

. The next Seattle Open was played nine years later in October 1945 at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle and won by

Byron Nelson John Byron Nelson Jr. (February 4, 1912 – September 26, 2006) was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. Nelson and two other legendary champions of the time, Ben Hog ...

, with a world record 259 (–21) and a victory margin of 13 strokes. He won a record eighteen tournaments in 1945, including eleven consecutive. Sixteen years later, the tour returned to Seattle in 1961 at Broadmoor in mid-September with the Greater Seattle Open Invitational. won in a sudden-death playoff, over

Bob Rosburg Robert Reginald "Rossie" Rosburg (October 21, 1926 – May 14, 2009) was an American professional golfer who later became a sports color analyst for ABC television. Early years, college Rosburg was born in San Francisco, California. He played gol ...

and Jacky Cupit; Marr shot a final round 63 (–7) and birdied the first extra hole In 1962, it was renamed the Seattle World's Fair Open Invitational as part of the region's celebration of the

1962 Seattle World's Fair The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States.Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

named

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won 117 professional tou ...

. It was his second tour win and first non- major, following a playoff victory over

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous ev ...

in June at the U.S. Open at

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. Nicklaus had won $50,000 in the exhibition World Series of Golf the week before, and won in

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the following week for his third tour title. The last event in 1966, the Greater Seattle-Everett Classic, was held at the Everett Golf & Country Club. It was won by Homero Blancas, one stroke ahead of Cupit, a two-time runner-up. Inglewood later hosted the GTE Northwest Classic on the

Senior PGA Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many year ...

, from

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

through

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

Venues

Winners

Playoffs

*1936: 18-hole playoff, Smith 65 (–8), Guldahl 71 (–2). *1961: Marr sank a birdie putt on the first playoff hole, a par-5, for the win. *1965: Brewer had a tap-in par on the first playoff hole, a par-4, and Sanders bogeyed.

Notes

References

External links

Broadmoor Golf ClubInglewood Golf ClubEverett Golf & Country Club
{{Former PGA Tour Events Former PGA Tour events Golf in Washington (state)