October 13, 2007
Adminstaff Small Business Classic
Ben Daniel Crenshaw (born January 11, 1952) is an
American professional golfer.
Crenshaw was born in Austin, Texas. He attended and
played golf at Austin High School and the University
of Texas before turning professional in 1973.
In 1973, Crenshaw became the second player in Tour
history to win the first event of his career; this
accomplishment was achieved earlier by Marty
Fleckman (1967) and later repeated by Robert Gamez
(1990) and Garrett Willis (2001). In 1984 he won The
Masters, one of golf's four major championships. In
the mid-1980s he suffered from Graves' disease, a
disease of the thyroid, but he continued to
accumulate victories, finishing with 19 on the PGA
Tour, including a second Masters in 1995.
Crenshaw won several further professional events
outside the PGA Tour, including individual and team
titles in the World Cup of Golf in 1988. He spent 80
weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf
Rankings from 1987 to 1989.
Crenshaw is widely regarded as one of the best
putters in golf history. His instructor growing up,
Harvey Penick, taught Ben a smooth, effortless
stroke on the greens, which allowed him to master
even the speediest of greens — including those at
Augusta National Golf Club. In winning the Masters
in 1995 (a victory that came a week after Penick's
death), "Gentle Ben" did not record a single
three-putt during the tournament.
Since 1986, Crenshaw has been a partner with Bill
Coore in Coore & Crenshaw, a golf course design
firm.
