Littler, "Gene" (Eugene A.)
Golf
b. Nov. 16, 1930, San Diego, CA
After winning the U. S. Amateur, the California Amateur, and the California Open in 1953, Littler joined the PGA tour. He won the first tournament he entered, the 1954 San Diego Open, and he finished second in the U. S. Open.
Litter won five tournaments in 1955, then went into a three-year slump. He came out of it with five more victories in 1959, when he finished second in winnings.
His only major victory came in the 1961 U. S. Open, when he shot a 68 in the final round to overtake Doug Sanders. Littler lost playoffs in two other major tournaments, to Bill Casper in the 1970 Masters and to Lanny Wadkins in the 1977 PGA Championship.
In the spring of 1972, Little underwent an operation for cancer of the lymph nodes. Against all odds, he returned to the tour that fall and won the St. Louis Chldren's Hospital Classic. He was given the Ben Hogan and Bob Jones awards for hius remarkable comeback.
Nicknamed the "Machine" because of his perfectly consistent swing, Littler won 29 PGA tournaments. In 1981, he began playing on the Senior PGA Tour and he won eight tournaments in the next seven years.