Curtis Strange

Curtis Northrup Strange, born January 30, 1955, in Norfolk, Virginia, is an American professional golfer and television color commentator. He is best known for winning back-to-back U.S. Open titles, and he belongs to both the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Between 1986 and 1990, he ranked among the top ten in the Official World Golf Ranking for more than 200 weeks.

Strange and his identical twin brother, Allan, were born in 1955. Allan also played professional golf for a short time. Their father owned a local country club and introduced Curtis to golf at age seven. Though naturally left-handed, Strange learned to play right-handed. He graduated from Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach in 1973.

That fall, Strange entered Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Playing for the Demon Deacons, he was part of an NCAA Championship team alongside Jay Haas and Bob Byman—a squad Golf World later called "the greatest of all time." In 1974, Golf Digest ranked him the second-best amateur in the country; the following year, he was third. By spring 1976, still a junior, Strange planned to turn professional. Richard Sink, a golf columnist for The Charlotte Observer, wrote that Strange would leave behind "a collegiate record perhaps unmatched." In all 25 of his college matches, Strange finished in the top ten, and in 21 of those he placed in the top five. He won nine individual events and became the youngest NCAA Champion in golf at that time. Golf Digest ranked him the ninth-best amateur in 1976.

Strange turned professional in 1976 and attempted to earn his PGA Tour card at the Fall Qualifying School. He was the favorite to earn medalist honors, but he bogeyed the final three holes and missed qualifying by a single shot. He later told The Item, "I thought it was the end of the world. It wasn't something I was ready for. I thought, 'Good God, what am I going to do.' I was scared."

During the 1980s, Strange became one of the PGA Tour's leading players, winning 16 of his 17 tour victories in that decade. He topped the money list in 1985, 1987, and 1988—the year he became the first golfer to earn a million dollars in official prize money in a single season. His two major championships were the U.S. Open in 1988 and 1989. Since World War II, only three golfers have successfully defended their U.S. Open titles: Ben Hogan in 1951, Strange in 1989, and Brooks Koepka in 2018. The 1989 U.S. Open was Strange's final PGA Tour win. In other majors, he led midway through the final round of the 1985 Masters but finished two strokes back, and he was runner-up at the 1989 PGA Championship, losing by one stroke. Strange played on five Ryder Cup teams (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, and 1995) and captained the squad in 2002.

Although he skipped the Open Championship several times during his prime, Strange competed often in international events. He won the 1986 ABC Japan-U.S. Match on the Japan Golf Tour, which featured many American pros. He also played extensively on the Australasian Tour, winning three events in Australia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He recorded runner-up finishes at the 1976 Australian Open, the 1977 Colgate Champion of Champions, the 1986 Air New Zealand Shell Open, and the 1990 Daikyo Palm Meadows Cup.

After turning 50 in January 2005, Strange began playing on the Champions Tour, saying, "I was getting worse and said, 'To hell with it.'" His only top-five finishes came that first season: third at the Constellation Energy Classic and a tie for fifth at the FedEx Kinko's Classic. In 1997, he became the lead golf analyst for ESPN/ABC, working alongside host Mike Tirico. He left due to a contract dispute before the 2004 U.S. Open but returned to ESPN/ABC for the 2008 U.S. Open, four years after his departure.

In 2016, Fox hired him as a course reporter for their USGA championships. In this role, Strange has provided commentary on many notable events, including Tiger Woods' playoff win at the 1997 Mercedes Championships, David Duval's final-round 59 at the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Jean van de Velde's collapse at the 1999 Open Championship, Woods' career grand slam at the 2000 Open Championship, Peter Jacobsen's victory at age 49 in the 2003 Greater Hartford Open, Woods' U.S. Open win in 2008 (early rounds), Tom Watson's near-miss at age 59 in the 2009 Open Championship, and Phil Mickelson's final-nine charge to win in 2013.

Strange won the Haskins Award in 1974 as the top college golfer. He led the PGA Tour money list three times (1985, 1987, 1988) and was voted PGA Player of the Year by his peers in 1988. He was elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and to the World Golf Hall of Fame on April 18, 2007, with induction on November 12 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida. In May 2009, he was named to the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame, which honors those who contributed to sports in southeastern Virginia.

As an amateur, Strange won the 1974 Western Amateur, North and South Amateur, and NCAA Division I Championship, and in 1975 he won the North and South Amateur and the Eastern Amateur. His professional career includes 29 wins: 17 on the PGA Tour (with a 6–3 playoff record), one on the PGA of Japan Tour, three on the PGA Tour of Australasia (with a 0–1 playoff record), one on the South American Golf Circuit (the 1981 Panama Open), and seven other victories. His two major championship wins were the 1988 U.S. Open (defeating Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff, 71 to 75) and the 1989 U.S. Open.