Donald Everett Whitt (November 15, 1930 – September 25, 2013) was an American professional golfer who played on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

in the 1950s and 1960s. Whitt was a student of accomplished black golf instructor Lucius Bateman, teacher of such other multiple-tournament-winning PGA Touring pros as

Tony Lema Anthony David Lema (February 25, 1934 – July 24, 1966) was an American professional golfer who rose to fame in the mid-1960s and won a major title, the 1964 Open Championship at the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland. He died two years later ...

, John McMullin, and

Dick Lotz } Richard Lotz (born October 15, 1942) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour. Lotz was born in Oakland, California. Along with his older brother John, he developed his game under the tutelage o ...

. Developing his swing at Oakland's Airway Fairways driving range under Bateman's tutelage, Whitt captured the 1948 Alameda Commuters tournament as a teenager and that summer came within one hole of winning the Northern California Junior Golf Championship. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Whitt decided to turn professional, accepting a job as a club pro at Sequoyah Country Club in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. There, in 1956, on his way to a world record golf score of 58, he three-putted the final two greens, but managed to establish a course record 60 - a score that still stands after more than a half-century of play by noted professionals and amateurs alike. After leaving Sequoyah, he joined the PGA Tour for several years. In 1957, Whitt finished the

Tucson Open Invitational The Tucson Open was a golf tournament in Arizona on the PGA Tour from 1945 to 2006, played annually in the winter in Tucson. It was last held at the Omni Tucson National Golf Resort in late February, with a $3 million purse and a $540,000 winner' ...

in a tie for first (269), but lost in an 18-hole playoff to

Dow Finsterwald Dow Henry Finsterwald, Sr. (September 6, 1929 – November 4, 2022) was an American professional golfer who is best known for winning the 1958 PGA Championship. He won 11 Tour titles between 1955 and 1963, played on four Ryder Cup teams, and serv ...

. That same year, in an article heralding professional golf's "Young Timers" ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine wrote of Whitt's "tremendous rally...that included a startling hole-in-one on the 145-yd 13th" before bowing - again to Finsterwald - in the semi-finals of the 1957

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

. The following year Whitt won his first professional golf tournament, the 1958 Montebello Open. His career year was 1959 when he won '' Golf Digests ''Most Improved Player'' award. He won the Memphis Open in a playoff on May 25 of that year, and just six days later won the

Kentucky Derby Open The Kentucky Derby Open was a PGA Tour event in Kentucky that was played at Seneca Golf Course in Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Lo ...

. In January 1960, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' acknowledged Whitt as "a plugger...who can on occasion beat anybody." Aside from Whitt's semi-final loss in the 1957 PGA Championship, his best finish in a major was a T-15 in the 1961 PGA Championship, the same year he captured the Venezuela and Maracaibo Opens, and finished runner-up to

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

in the Lucky International tournament in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Whitt was a good friend of fellow Bateman-protégé Tony Lema, winner of the 1964 British Open, and is prominently featured in Lema's 1964 memoir "Golfer's Gold", that related their antics on the Caribbean Tour in 1961. After retiring from full-time play on the Tour, Whitt worked as a teaching pro at the San Diego Golf Academy.

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour wins (2)

PGA Tour playoff record (1–1)

Other wins (4)

''This list may be incomplete'' *1958 Montebello Open *1959 Port Arthur Pro Am *1961

Caracas Open The Venezuela Open or Abierto de Venezuela is a men's professional golf tournament. It has only been staged intermittently since 1957, 2019 being the 35th edition of the event. Al Geiberger, Art Wall Jr., David Graham, Roberto De Vicenzo and Tony ...

, Maracaibo Open Invitational

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitt, Don American male golfers PGA Tour golfers Golfers from San Francisco Golfers from San Diego 1930 births 2013 deaths