Historical Notes - Past Champions - Championship Records

 

Rosa Parks arrested, fined and jailed

Rocky Marciano retires undefeated

Elvis Presley gains record TV audience

1956

E. Harvie Ward, Jr. successfully defended his Championship by defeating Charles (Chuck) Kocsis, 43, of Detroit, 5 and 4, at the Knollwood Club, Lake Forest, Ill. He was the sixth Champion to win in successive years, but it had been 21 years since Lawson Little's successive victories.

One down at noon and 2 down after 19 holes in the final, Ward went five under par for the last 13 holes. He was three under for the 35 holes of the final, and 11 under for the 142 holes required to win his seven matches.

Now 30, he continued to represent the San Francisco Golf Club. In the semi-finals, Joe E. Campbell, 20, Purdue University senior, played the last eight holes in five under par, including a hole-in-one on the 13th hole, and still lost to Ward, 2 and 1.

Kocsis defeated Gerald J. Magee, of Toronto, Canada, 4 and 2, in the other semi-final; Magee was the second Canadian semi-finalist in four years. The entry of 1,600 set a new record.