LEFTHANDERS IN SPORTS

Bob Charles is a professional golfer from New Zealand. He was the first lefthanded golfer to win a PGA tournament, and he was one of the top professional golfers of his era. No matter how many other lefthanded golfers eventually surpass his totals for tournament wins and money won, he will always be considered one of the very best lefthanded golfers of all time. Bob Charles broke down the barriers and made it possible for others to follow.

Charles is a natural righthander who learned to play golf lefthanded. He won the New Zealand Open as an 18 year old amateur, and continued working as a bank teller for another 6 years while he played as an amateur and honed his skills. After winning the New Zealand PGA Championship in 1961, he turned his efforts toward the European and North American Tours.

He earned his first PGA victory at the Houston Classic in April 1963, becoming the first lefthanded golfer ever to win a PGA tour event. Four months later he won The Open Championship (now known as The British Open). It was almost 20 years until another lefthanded golfer won a PGA tour event, and almost 40 years until another lefthanded golfer won one of the four major tournaments.

For his career on the PGA Tour, Charles finished with 6 wins, 8 second-place, and 5 third-place finishes. His other wins came at The Tucson Open Invitational in 1965, The Atlanta Classic in 1967, The Canadian Open in 1968, and the Greater Greensboro Open in 1974. During the time when Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were in their prime and golf was becoming popular on American television, Bob Charles made the cut in 248 of the 293 tournaments he started and was often seen competing with the best in the game on Sunday afternoon.

Besides his success of the PGA Tour, Charles has played and won on the European Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia, the PGA Tour Champions, the European Senior Tour, and others, for a total of 76 professional wins. While he earned only $546,868 in his time on the PGA tour, he made over $9,000,000 in his time on the Champions tour (mostly from 1986 to 2002). He played in his last Champions tour event in 2010.

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Bob Charles

LEFTHANDERS IN SPORTS​

LEFTHANDERS IN SPORTS