George Archer

George Archer
Personal information
Full name	George William Archer
Born	October 1, 1939(1939-10-01) San Francisco, California
Died	September 25, 2005(2005-09-25) (aged 65) Incline Village, Nevada
Height	6 ft 5.5 in (1.97 m)
Weight	200 lb (91 kg; 14 st)
Nationality	United States
Career
Turned professional	1964
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour Champions Tour
Professional wins	44
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	12
Champions Tour	19
Other	9 (regular) 4 (senior)
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 1)
Masters Tournament	Won: 1969
U.S. Open	T5: 1971
The Open Championship	WD: 1969
PGA Championship	T4: 1968

George William Archer (October 1, 1939 – September 25, 2005) was an American golfer who won twelve events on the PGA Tour, including one major championship.

Archer was born in San Francisco, California and was raised just south in the city of San Mateo. He grew to 6 feet 5½ inches (1.97 m) tall, and as a boy he dreamed of a basketball career, but took up golf at San Mateo High School after working as a caddy at The Peninsula Golf and Country Club near his home. He turned professional in 1964 and claimed the first of 12 victories on the PGA Tour at the Lucky International Open the following year. The leading achievement of his career was his win at the 1969 Masters Tournament. His other top-ten finishes in the majors came at the U.S. Open, where he finished 10th in 1969, 5th in 1971, and at the PGA Championship, where he took 4th place in 1968.^[1]

Archer was hampered by injuries throughout his career and had surgery on his left wrist (1975), back (1979) and left shoulder (1987). In 1996, he had his right hip replaced and two years later became the first man to win on the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) after having a hip replacement. He won 19 times on the Senior Tour between 1989 and 2000, but he did not win a senior major. Archer is also the only player in Champions Tour history to win a tournament in each of the first three decades of its existence.

Archer is considered one of the game's all-time great putters, and at one time held the PGA Tour record for fewest putts over four rounds with 94 putts at the 1980 Sea Pines Heritage.^[2]

Archer was known as the "Golfing Cowboy," due to a summer job in his youth at his friend and sponsor, Eugene Selvage's Lucky Hereford Ranch in Gilroy, California.^[3][4]

Archer died of Burkitt's lymphoma — a lymphatic system malignancy — in Incline Village, Nevada in 2005.

Illiteracy

Six months after his death, Archer's widow, Donna, revealed in the March/April 2006 issue of Golf For Women magazine that he had suffered his entire life from a severe form of learning impairment. Despite years of effort and the consultation of many experts, he was never able to read more than the simplest sentences and could only write his own name. She reported that they never revealed this truth beyond their family and that Archer lived in constant fear that the secret of his illiteracy would be revealed.

In 2008, Donna created the George Archer Memorial Foundation for Literacy, a 501(c)(3) organization located in Incline Village, Nevada. The Foundation’s mission is to raise funds to identify reading deficiencies, diagnose causes and effective treatments for learning disabilities, improve systems for training teachers, tutors and other educators in literacy issues, provide grants, stipends and scholarships for deserving students, and assist in the development of tools and techniques for the effective teaching of reading and writing skills. The Foundation’s primary fundraiser is the George Archer Memorial Stroke of Genius Pro-Am golf tournament held every October since 2008 at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club, in San Mateo, California – the club at which Archer began his golf career.

Quotations

"One thing about golf is you don't know why you play bad and why you play good."

"When I joined the tour in 1964, I told my wife I wanted to play five years. Instead, I've played five careers."

"If it weren't for golf, I'd probably be a caddie today."^[5]

Amateur wins (1)

• 1963 Trans-Mississippi Amateur

Professional wins (44)

PGA Tour wins (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of Victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jan 31, 1965	Lucky International Open	-6(68-73=69-68=278)	Playoff	Bob Charles
2	Apr 2, 1967	Greater Greensboro Open	-17 (6-64-68-68=267)	2 strokes	Doug Sanders
3	Mar 25, 1968	Pensacola Open Invitational	-20 (66-68-69-65=268)	1 stroke	Tony Jacklin, Dave Marr
4	May 12, 1968	Greater New Orleans Open Invitational	-17 (69-65-70-67=271)	2 strokes	Bert Yancey
5	Jan 27, 1969	Bing Crosby National Pro-Am	-5 (72-68-72-71=283)	1 strokes	Bob Dickson, Dale Douglass, Howie Johnson
6	Apr 12, 1969	Masters Tournament	-7 (67-73-69-72=281)	1 stroke	Billy Casper, George Knudson, Tom Weiskopf
7	Jan 31, 1971	Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational	-16 (67-72-68-65=272)	3 strokes	Dave Eichelberger
8	Sep 6, 1971	Greater Hartford Open Invitational	-16 (68-66-68-66=268)	Playoff	Lou Graham, J. C. Snead,
9	Jan 9, 1972	Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open	-14 (66-69-69-66=270)	Playoff	Tommy Aaron, Dave Hill
10	May 20, 1972	Greater Greensboro Open	-12 (70-68-66-68=272)	Playoff	Tommy Aaron
11	Oct 3, 1976	Sahara Invitational	-13 (67-66-69-69=271)	2 strokes	Dave Hill, Don January
12	Sep 9, 1984	Bank of Boston Classic	-14 (69-66-70-65=270)	6 strokes	Frank Conner, Joey Sindelar

PGA Tour playoff record (4-3)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1965	Lucky International Open	Bob Charles	Won with birdie on second extra hole
2	1969	Kaiser International Open Invitational	Billy Casper, Don January, Jack Nicklaus	Nicklaus won with birdie on second extra hole January eliminated with par on first hole
3	1970	Robinson Open Golf Classic	George Knudson	Lost to par on fourth extra hole
4	1971	Greater Hartford Open Invitational	Lou Graham, J. C. Snead	Won with birdie on first extra hole
5	1972	Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open	Tommy Aaron, Dave Hill	Won 18-hole playoff (Archer:66, Aaron:68, Hill:68)
6	1972	Dean Martin Tucson Open	Miller Barber	Barber won with birdie on third extra hole after 18-hole playoff (Archer:72, Barber:72)
7	1972	Greater Greensboro Open	Tommy Aaron	Won with par on second extra hole

Major championship is shown in bold.

Other wins (9)

• 1963 Northern California Open, Northern California Medal Play, San Francisco City Championship
• 1964 Northern California Open
• 1967 Northern California Open
• 1968 PGA National Team Championship (with Bobby Nichols)
• 1969 Argentine Masters
• 1981 Colombian Open
• 1982 Philippines Invitational

Senior PGA Tour wins (19)

• 1989 (1) Gatlin Brothers Southwest Senior Classic
• 1990 (4) MONY Senior Tournament of Champions, Northville Long Island Classic, GTE Northwest Classic, Rancho Murieta Senior Gold Rush
• 1991 (3) Northville Long Island Classic, GTE North Classic, Raley's Senior Gold Rush
• 1992 (3) Murata Reunion Pro-Am, Northville Long Island Classic, Bruno's Memorial Classic
• 1993 (4) Ameritech Senior Open, First of America Classic, Raley's Senior Gold Rush, PING Kaanapali Classic
• 1995 (2) Toshiba Senior Classic, Cadillac NFL Golf Classic
• 1998 (1) First of America Classic
• 2000 (1) MasterCard Championship

Other senior wins (4)

• 1990 Sports Shinko Cup, Princeville Classic
• 1991 Sports Shinko Cup
• 1994 Chrysler Cup (individual)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runners-up
1969	Masters Tournament	1 shot deficit	-7 (67-73-69-72=281)	1 stroke	Billy Casper, George Knudson, Tom Weiskopf

Results timeline

DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

See also

• Golfers with most PGA Tour wins
• Golfers with most Champions Tour wins

References

External links

• George Archer at the PGA Tour official site
• An interview from 2003
• The Secret They Shared Golf For Women, March/April, 2006
• George Archer at Find a Grave