Sheldon George "Don" Pooley, Jr. (born August 27, 1951) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who has won tournaments on both 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 k ...

and the Champions Tour. Pooley was born in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. He grew up in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

. He attended the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, where he was a member of the golf team. He turned pro in 1973. Despite winning the 1980

B.C. Open The B.C. Open was a PGA Tour golf tournament in New York, held annually from 1971 to 2006. In 1971, it was called the Broome County Open, and the next year it switched to the B.C. Open. In 1973, it became a PGA Tour regular 72-hole money event. F ...

and the 1987

Memorial Tournament The Memorial Tournament is a PGA Tour golf tournament founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on a Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The golf course passes through a large n ...

, Pooley is probably best remembered in his PGA Tour career for his dramatic million-dollar hole-in-one at the 1987

Bay Hill Classic The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando, Florida ...

. Pooley received $500,000 as did Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

because of this once-in-a-lifetime shot. In 1985, he won the

Vardon Trophy The Vardon Trophy is awarded by the PGA of America to the PGA Tour's leader in scoring average. When the award was first given in 1937, it was awarded on the basis of a points system. No award was given from 1942–1946 due to World War II. In ...

, awarded annually by the PGA to the Tour leader in scoring average. His best finish in a

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

was T-5 in consecutive major championships – the 1987

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 ...

and the 1988

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

. Late in his PGA Tour career, Pooley began to experience many debilitating ailments, and missed several years of playing time as a result; however, he enjoyed a resurgence in his career after turning 50 in August 2001 when he began play on the Champions Tour. The biggest win in his

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

career was his first on the Champions Tour. In 2002, he won on the biggest stage in men's senior golf, the

U.S. Senior Open The U.S. Senior Open is one of the five major championships in senior golf, introduced in 1980. It is administered by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and is recognized as a major championship by both the PGA Tour Champions and the Eu ...

. Pooley was inducted into the Pima County (Arizona) Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

Professional wins (7)

PGA Tour wins (2)

Other wins (3)

*1983 Jerry Ford Invitational (tie with

Gil Morgan Gilmer Bryan Morgan II, OD (born September 25, 1946) is an American professional golfer. Morgan was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma. He graduated from East Central State College in Ada, Oklahoma in 1968. In 1972, Morgan earned a Doctor of Optometry de ...

) *1989 Ebel Match Play *1992 Amoco Centel Championship

Champions Tour wins (2)

Champions Tour playoff record (1–2)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 12 (1982 PGA – 1988 Masters) *Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (1987 PGA – 1988 Masters)

Champions Tour major championships

Wins (1)

¹ In the three-hole aggregate playoff, Pooley and Watson tied with three pars each.
On the second sudden-death hole, Pooley won with a birdie to Watson's par.

Results timeline

''Results not in chronological order before 2012.'' ''The Senior British Open was not a Champions Tour major until 2003.''
CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew from tournament
"T" indicates a tie for a place

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pooley, Don American male golfers Arizona Wildcats men's golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers Winners of senior major golf championships Golfers from Phoenix, Arizona Sportspeople from Tucson, Arizona Sportspeople from Riverside, California 1951 births Living people