Nickname "The Golfing Lawyer" Masters Tournament 5th: 1965 PGA tour wins 6 Nationality United States Name Dan Sikes Champions tour 3 | College University of Florida Role Golfer Professional wins 9 Turned professional 1960 Education University of Florida | |
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Full name Daniel David Sikes, Jr. Born December 7, 1929
Wildwood, Florida ( 1929-12-07 ) Died December 20, 1987, Jacksonville, Florida, United States | ||
Former tours PGA TOUR, Champions Tour | ||
Daniel David Sikes, Jr. (December 7, 1929 – December 20, 1987) was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour. Sikes won nine tournaments as a pro, including six PGA Tour events. He was influential as the chairman of the tournament players committee in the late 1960s, prior to the formation of the PGA Tour.
Contents
- Early years
- College career
- Professional career
- PGA Tour wins 6
- Senior PGA Tour wins 3
- Results in major championships
- Summary
- References
Early years
Born in Wildwood, Florida, Sikes was raised in Jacksonville and attended Andrew Jackson High School.
College career
He enrolled the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he played for the Florida Gators' golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1951 to 1953. He was recognized as an All-American in 1952—the University of Florida's first All-American golfer. Sikes graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1953, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."
Professional career
Although he later earned a law degree from the university's College of Law and was known as the "golfing lawyer," he never actually practiced law. He was the chairman and spokesman of the controversial tournament players' committee prior to the formation of the "Tournament Players Division" in late 1968, which was later renamed the PGA Tour.
Sikes won the U.S. Amateur Public Links championship in 1958 while in law school. He turned professional in 1960 and won six tournaments on the PGA Tour, half in his home state of Florida. Sikes' career year was 1967, when he won two events and was fifth on the money list. He was also the 54-hole leader at the PGA Championship and finished one shot out of the playoff, in a tie for third with Jack Nicklaus. Due to disputes with the PGA of America, the championship was nearly boycotted by the top tournament players. Sikes played on the Ryder Cup team in 1969 at Royal Birkdale.
Sikes later represented caddies on tour in 1970 and was instrumental in helping organize the Senior PGA Tour, later renamed the Champions Tour. He won three times in the senior tour, the first at the rain-shortened Hilton Head Seniors International in 1982, which Sikes and Miller Barber were leading when play was stopped.
Sikes died in Jacksonville at age 58 in late 1987 and was posthumously inducted into the Jacksonville Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.
PGA Tour wins (6)
PGA Tour playoff record (0–2)
Senior PGA Tour wins (3)
Results in major championships
Note: Sikes never played in The Open Championship.
DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Yellow background for top-10