Julius Boros

Lore & Background

Born in Fairfield, Connecticut, Boros was of Hungarian descent and played varsity baseball in college. He worked as an accountant while playing high-standard amateur golf before turning professional in 1949 at age 29. He won 18 PGA Tour events, including three major championships: the 1952 and 1963 U.S. Opens and the 1968 PGA Championship. For over half a century, he was the oldest player to win a modern major, taking the 1968 PGA Championship at age 48. His catchphrase was 'swing easy, hit hard.' He was instrumental in starting the Senior PGA Tour in the late 1970s.

In Their Own Story

The wind off the North Sea was doing its usual mischief at Royal Birkdale, 1960, and the gallery had thinned to a few stubborn souls huddled in oilskin coats. Julius Boros, 29, stood on the 18th green with a putt of perhaps four feet to win the Open Championship. Around him, the noise of the crowd was a low, uncertain murmur. He crouched, pressed his putter face to the grass, and felt the grain shift a quarter-inch to the left. He stood. He didn't wipe his hands. He didn't look at the flagstick. He simply addressed the ball, made one smooth stroke, and watched it drop with the quiet finality of a period at the end of a sentence. His caddie, already shouldering the bag, nodded once. They walked off the green without a word, because there was nothing left to say. The Professor had finished his lesson, and the world would have to take notes.

Reader's Guide

Boros won three major championships: the 1952 U.S. Open, the 1963 U.S. Open (defeating Arnold Palmer and Jacky Cupit in a playoff), and the 1968 PGA Championship. He had nine top-five finishes at the U.S. Open. He was PGA Player of the Year in 1952 and 1963. He was a member of the Ryder Cup team in 1959, 1963, 1965, and 1967. His total career PGA Tour earnings were $1,004,861. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.

Did You Know?

• Boros won his first PGA Tour event at the 1952 U.S. Open, interrupting Ben Hogan's streak of 36-hole leaders.
• He was the oldest player to win a modern major until Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship in 2021 at age 50.
• Boros' first wife died in childbirth in 1951; he and his second wife had seven children.
• His son Guy Boros won on the PGA Tour in 1996 at the Greater Vancouver Open.
• Boros died of a heart attack on the golf course at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1994.