Julius Boros

Julius Nicholas Boros, born March 3, 1920, in Fairfield, Connecticut, and died May 28, 1994, was an American professional golfer. He was known for a swing that looked effortless and for performing well on tough courses, especially the U.S. Open.

Before turning pro, Boros played varsity baseball in college and worked as an accountant while competing as a high-level amateur golfer. He became a professional in 1949 at age 29. Over his career, he won 18 PGA Tour events, including three major titles: the U.S. Open in 1952 and 1963, and the PGA Championship in 1968. His first major win came at the Northwood Club in Dallas, where he won by four strokes in hot conditions; it was also his first PGA Tour victory and interrupted Ben Hogan’s streak of leading the U.S. Open after 36 holes. At the 1963 U.S. Open near Boston, played in windy conditions, Boros beat Arnold Palmer and Jacky Cupit in an 18-hole playoff after all three finished 72 holes at nine over par, a post-war record high.

For more than fifty years, Boros held the record as the oldest player to win a modern major, capturing the 1968 PGA Championship in San Antonio at age 48 by one stroke. Palmer, one of the runners-up, never won the PGA Championship to complete his career grand slam. The previous oldest major winner was Old Tom Morris, who was 46 when he won the 1867 Open Championship. Phil Mickelson later surpassed Boros’s mark by winning the PGA Championship in 2021 at age 50.

Boros’s best major results came at the U.S. Open, where he had nine top-five finishes. He remained competitive in that championship as late as 1973, at age 53, tying for seventh. He played on the Ryder Cup team in 1959, 1963, 1965, and 1967. He was named PGA Player of the Year in 1952 and 1963, and his career PGA Tour earnings totaled $1,004,861. He entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.

Unlike many players who studied greens for several minutes before putting, sometimes from their knees, Boros was known for playing quickly. He would walk up to the ball and simply hit it. His relaxed, nonchalant swing and manner were notable, and his catchphrase was “swing easy, hit hard.” He also had an exceptional short game.

Boros helped start the Senior PGA Tour in the late 1970s. The 1979 Legends of Golf tournament, where Boros and partner Roberto De Vicenzo beat Tommy Bolt and Art Wall Jr. in an exciting televised playoff, raised the profile of senior professional golf.

In his personal life, Boros’s first wife, Buttons Cosgrove, died in childbirth in 1951. He and his second wife, Armen, had seven children: four sons and three daughters. His son Guy Boros won a PGA Tour event in 1996, the Greater Vancouver Open in late August. Boros died of a heart attack in 1994 on the golf course at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Two club members found him sitting in a golf cart under a willow tree near the 16th hole, his favorite spot on the course.

His professional wins include 18 PGA Tour victories, with a playoff record of 4–6. Other wins include the 1951 Massachusetts Open, 1956 and 1964 Carolinas PGA Championships, and the 1979 South Florida PGA Championship. His senior wins were the 1971 and 1977 PGA Seniors’ Championships, and the 1979 Legends of Golf with Roberto De Vicenzo. His three major championship wins were the 1952 and 1963 U.S. Opens and the 1968 PGA Championship. In major results, his longest streak of consecutive cuts made was 14, from the 1950 Masters through the 1956 U.S. Open, and his longest streak of top-10 finishes was four, from the 1951 U.S. Open through the 1953 Masters. He represented the U.S. in the Ryder Cup (1959, 1963, 1965, 1967, all wins), the World Cup (1953, 1968), and the Hopkins Trophy (1952, 1953, both wins).