Sports Notables Golf Masters Challenge - April 2024

Question

Perhaps this month's biggest sporting event is the Marsters Golf Tournament to be held April 14, in Augusta, Georgia. Founded by Bobby Jones in 1934, this is the first of the big four major men's golf tournaments held throughout the year. 

This month we are honoring 21 past Master Tournament winners. Won't you please help us make each of their profiles a shining star of WikiTree! Some are already close, while others still need quite a bit of work.  

We need the help of BioBuilders, Sourcerers, DataDoctors, Categorizers, Formatters, Proofreaders, PhotoFinders, and more. For those who prefer research over profile building, we also want to increase each of our Notables' CC7s, and of course we want to make sure that each gets connected to the Big Tree.

Remember, no contribution is too small, so jump in wherever you think you'll have the most fun. Just remember to keep us posted on your accomplishments on this G2G thread so that we can all share in the fun of your success.

And by the way, this is an excellent opportunity to score some points in this month's upcoming Connect-a-Thon. If you haven't already, you can do so here: Connect-a-Thon Registration.

Comments

Our Masters Golf Challenge is off to a much slower start than some of our prior sports challenges. I would have excepted a larger golf fan base amongst our genealogical community. Perhaps we're too busy watching the actual tournament. Or maybe we're holding off until this weekend in order to maximize our Connect-a-Thon points!

We have made two connections - Byron Nelson and Craig Wood - and we've increased CC7's on a few more. But we still have 13 Masters golf champions who remain unconnected. We still have three weeks left in the month, so I'm not giving up hope that we can get most of them connected before the next challenge begins!

---

Things have turned around quickly. We now have 16 players connected with half a month left to go. Way to go team!

---

With ten days left to go, we are now down to just two unconnected golf masters:

Doug Ford, who won the Masters Tournament in 1957, has a rather common name and hailed from a rather large town (NYC). But his family name wasn't actually Ford - it was Fortunato - which is not so common after all. We've already identified his parents as having been born in NYC, which means his grandparents are out there somewhere. 

Seve Ballasteros is another story. He won the Masters Tournament in 1980 and 1983. He was from Spain. I'll send a shout out to the Spain Project to see if we can get some help with this one. 

Answer 1

Byron Nelson is connected.

Answer 2

For those working on the profiles, there are new categories for awards/winners of golf tournaments. I still need to add the LPGA tour related categories.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Golf_Awards_and_Honors

Comments

Can we please have a category for South African PGA Championship - Wikiwand and Senior Open Championship - Wikiwand

Thx

Answer 3

Gardner Edward Dickinson, III was my father, James Bostwick Gaston, III's cousin. They played many around of golf, both friendly & competitive. Every year when Gardner came to Augusta to play in the Masters, he would stay at our house. It was always fun hearing the "behind the scenes" banter of the famed Augusta National lockerroom during the tournament.

We never knew who Gardner would bring home for dinner... Sam Snead, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Doug Ford just to name a few. They all just to bring a golf ball they had used that day for Jimmy & Mary's little boy (me).

Comments

What a cool story. Hope we helped stir up some fond memories.

Answer 4

All 21 golf masters now have their parents attached to their profiles. This should make connecting them to the Big Tree a bit easier.

If you are participating in this weekend's Connect-A-Thon, several of these men have well documented Colonial American ancestry so making connections should be relatively easy.

Answer 5

Claude Harmon is now connected.

Answer 6

Gene Sarazen is connected!

Answer 7

Art Wall, Jr, and Jimmy Demaret are connected.

Answer 8

Sorry, I connected Picard, demaret, keiser, brewer, casper earlier today .

Goalby already showing as connected.

Comments

Amazing job!

Answer 9

Ralph Guldahl is connected.

Answer 10

I'm working on the South African golfer's, maybe one of the world's greatest. Gary Jim Player 

[[Player-803|Gary Jim Player]]

Then I'm busy with his brother-in-law also a professional golfer

[[Verwey-363|Frank Robert Verwey]] and also his father was a professional golfer [[Verwey-222|Jacob Wynand Verwey (1913-1994)]] 

Answer 11

Congratulations to Scottie Schaffer on his second Masters Tournament win!

Answer 12

Old Tom Morris: Profile of the Golf Pioneer (liveabout.com)

Interesting one 

Old Tom Morris: A Pioneer of Golf

Answer 13

George William Archer is now connected thru his grandfather George Edward Archer

Answer 14

The team has pulled through and has succeeded in connecting all but three of our Golf Masters. Hurray!

Here are the remaining three:

Jack Burke Jr.

Doug Ford

Seve Belesteros

Answer 15

Jack Burke Jr. is connected.

Answer 16

Just connected Doug Ford, so I believe we have now connected all of our Gold Legends!  Chris

Answer 17

Three Cheers for the WikiTree Sports Team!

...or should I say "21 Cheers!" as we have now connected all 21 of this month's featured Golf Masters. I believe this is the first time we have ever connected 100% of our profiles.  

Be aware that when we connect a Notable to the Big Tree, we are actually connecting an entire family branch. Each new profile created of a family member provides one more potential opportunity for a WikiTree member to connect their own family to the Tree. So as enjoyable as these challenges are, they are also super important to the overall growth of WikiTree.   

Thank you to all who participated in this month's challenge and hold tight as we prepare to give you a run for your money with our May Sports Challenge. (Yes, that is a clue to our next chosen sport. Feel free to post your guesses below.)