Shriners Hospitals Open: Memorable moments

In only his fifth start since turning pro, Tiger Woods earned his first PGA Tour win in the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational. Tied with Davis Love III after 90 holes, Woods won with a par on the first extra hole when Love couldn’t get up and down from a greenside bunker.

Despite never having seen the Sunrise Golf Club course prior to the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational, Chip Beck became just the second player to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour (joining Al Geiberger). For his 13-birdie (PGA Tour record), five-par third round on the 6,914-yard course, Beck won a $1 million bonus from Hilton Hotels, which he used to establish a scholarship fund. Beck finished third in the tournament.

Light was fading fast at the 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital Open, and it appeared that Jonathan Byrd, defending champion Martin Laird and Cameron Percy would have to come back Monday morning. They had already played three extra holes, all pars by all three players. They agreed to try one more hole, the 204-yard 17th. Byrd hit first, and his 6-iron shot found the cup (though it was too dark for him to see it go in). When neither of the other two could match the ace, Byrd had his win.

In 1986 the Panasonic Las Vegas Invitational became the first PGA Tour event with a total purse eclipsing $1 million. Just a month after finishing a shot behind Jack Nicklaus in the Masters, Greg Norman won the Tour’s biggest paycheck, $207,000.

Jim Furyk is a respected veteran with 17 PGA Tour wins, but in 1995 he was just a skinny 25-year-old with a funny-looking swing. That much-criticized swing earned a lot of respect in October 1995 when it produced Furyk’s first win, a one-stroke decision over Billy Mayfair.

Jim Furyk enjoyed winning in Las Vegas in 1995 so much, he did it twice more. In 1998 he edged Mark Calcavecchia by one shot, and in 1999 he successfully defended his title with another one-shot win, this one over Jonathan Kaye.

The Las Vegas Sun called it “A Perfect Homecoming.” UNLV grad Ryan Moore edged Brendon de Jonge by one shot to win the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals For Children Open. Moore’s win came just a week after he had been inducted into the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame.

Marc Turnesa added another chapter to his family’s illustrious history with his first PGA Tour win, a one-shot decision over Matt Kuchar. Turnesa’s grandfather, Mike, won six times on the PGA Tour. Mike’s brother, Joe, won 15 time on Tour, and another brother, Jim, won the 1952 PGA Championship. The only brother who never turned pro was Willie, and he had a stellar amateur career that included wins in the 1938 and 1948 U.S. Amateur and 1947 British Amateur.

For Smylie Kaufman, the hard part wasn’t shooting the lights-out final-round score that gave him his first PGA Tour win. The hard part was waiting for more than two hours to see if his score would stand up. In the end, it did – barely. Kaufman, who closed with a 10-under 61, edged six other players by one shot. “I dodged a lot of bullets coming down the stretch with guys coming,” Kaufman said. “So much more stressful than on the course. So much worse. I felt like I was watching an LSU football game.”

It’s hard to believe in this era of eight-figure purses, but the inaugural PGA Tour event in Las Vegas – the Panasonic Las Vegas Pro Celebrity Classic – had the Tour’s biggest purse at the time: $750,000. For his four-shot win over Rex Caldwell, Fuzzy Zoeller made a cool $135,000.