William George Longmuir (born 10 June 1953) is a Scottish professional

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 ...

er.

Personal life

Longmuir was born in

Thundersley Thundersley is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Benfleet, in the Castle Point borough, in southeast Essex, England. It sits on a clay ridge shared with Basildon and Hadleigh, east of Charing Cross, London. In 1951 ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

parents. Despite having lived in England all his life, he regards himself as Scottish and is classified as such for international competition. Longmuir now lives in

, England. He has four children.

Professional career

He turned professional in 1968 and played full-time on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...

from 1979 to 1993. He never won on tour but finished runner-up three times. He made the top 100 on the Order of Merit every year from 1976 to 1990. Although Longmuir started playing some events on the

in 1976, he originally found more success on its offshoot tour, the

Safari Circuit The Safari Circuit, or Safari Tour, was a small professional golf tour based in West and East Africa that ran from the 1970s through into the 1990s. From 1977, the tour was organised by the PGA European Tour and from 1991 the tournaments were incl ...

, in Africa. Longmuir won the 1976

Nigerian Open The Nigerian Open was a golf tournament in Nigeria, played between 1969 and 1999. It was generally played at the Ikoyi Club in Ikoyi, Lagos. From 1997 to 1999 it was played at the IBB International Golf & Country Club in Abuja. It was an fixtur ...

for his first professional victory. He achieved this despite political violence emanating from the fringe of the course. He would win three more times in Africa. Longmuir may be best known to international audiences for his performance in the

1979 Open Championship The 1979 Open Championship was the 108th Open Championship, held 18–21 July at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England. Seve Ballesteros, 22, won the first of his five major titles, three strokes ahead of runners-up Jack Nic ...

Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England, is one of the courses in the The Open Championship, Open Championship rotation. The Women's British Open has also been played on the course five times: once prior to being ...

. He shot an opening round 65 (−6) to take a three-stroke lead over defending U.S. Open champion

Hale Irwin Hale S. Irwin (born June 3, 1945) is an American professional golfer. He was one of the world's leading golfers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He is one of the few players in history to win three U.S. Opens, becoming the oldest ever U.S. Op ...

. He shot a second round 74 but, in the difficult conditions, was still in solo third place only one behind

Seve Ballesteros Severiano Ballesteros Sota (; 9 April 1957 – 7 May 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A member of a gifted golfing family, he won 90 inte ...

and three behind Irwin. A third round 77 drew him back but he was still in the top 10, 5 behind, with an outside chance. He then exploded with an 82 during the final round, the second worst round of the day, to finish at 298 (+14) in a tie for 30th. Although the tournament did not end well, he won the Tooting Bec Cup. The award goes to the British golfer who shot the lowest single round in the Open Championship. Longmuir best year on the European Tour was in 1982. He finished tied in regulation at the

German Open German Open is a name given to many sports events established in Germany, and include: *German Open (badminton), an annual badminton tournament held since 1955. *German Open (golf), was a golf tournament on the European Tour *German Masters, a snook ...

and

Swiss Open The Omega European Masters is the Swiss stop on professional men's golf's European Tour, and in 2009 it became the first event in Europe to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour. Founded as the Swiss Open in 1923, the tournament was prefixed with ...

. However, he would lose both events in playoffs to

Bernhard Langer Bernhard Langer (; born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first official number one ran ...

and

Ian Woosnam Ian Harold Woosnam (born 2 March 1958) is a Welsh professional golfer. Nicknamed 'Woosie', Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europ ...

, respectively. He would record a career-best 24th on the European Tour Order of Merit. Longmuir kept his card for the remainder of the '80s but could not repeat this success. After his playoff loss to Woosnam he would only record one more top ten over the next five years. Like his 1979 early round success, his top achievement during this era may be sticking close to the lead at the early rounds of the Open Championship. At the

1984 Open Championship The 1984 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 113th Open Championship, held from 19 to 22 July at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. Seve Ballesteros won his second Open Championship and fourth major title, two st ...

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's four ...

he shot 67 (-5) to hold the lead with

Peter Jacobsen Peter Erling Jacobsen (born March 4, 1954) is an American professional golfer and commentator on Golf Channel and NBC. He has played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He has won seven events on the PGA Tour and two events on the Champions ...

and

Greg Norman Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournamen ...

. He shot one under the next day to stay in the top 5. Like 1979, he fell back mightily over the last two days and finished T55. He would win the Tooting Bec Cup again, however. 1990 was Longmuir's final good season on the European Tour. He recorded 3 top tens including his third and final runner-up finish. It was his final year inside the Top 100 on the Order of Merit. Longmuir joined the

European Senior Tour The Legends Tour is the current branding of the European Senior Tour, a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over, run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was branded as the Staysure Tour for the 2018 and 2019 seasons after UK-based insur ...

in 2003 and has had great success. In his rookie season he won two events and finished runner-up on the Order of Merit. By 2012 he finished in the top 30 of the Order of Merit every year and won eight events. In 2006 he played on the United States-based

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many year ...

after coming through its

Qualifying School In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

. His son, Callum, often

caddie In golf, a caddie (or caddy) is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives the player advice and moral support. Description A good caddie is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with th ...

s for him on the European Senior Tour.

Professional wins (14)

Safari Circuit wins (4)

*1976

*1980

*1983

Ivory Coast Open The Ivory Coast Open or Open de Côte d'Ivoire was a golf tournament in the Ivory Coast. It was founded in 1980, and was an event on the Safari Circuit the following year. It was an event on the European-based Challenge Tour schedule in 1990 and ...

*1985

Other wins (2)

*1976

Southland Charity Golf Classic The Southland Charity Golf Classic was a professional golf tournament played at Invercargill Golf Club near Invercargill in South Island, New Zealand. It was played in 1975 and 1976. The 1976 event was played at the same time as the Colgate Cham ...

*1996

Glenmuir Club Professional Championship The PGA Professional Championship is a golf tournament run by The PGA for club professionals. It was first played in 1973 as the MacGregor PGA Club Professionals' Championship. The leading nine players in the event became the Great Britain and Ir ...

European Senior Tour wins (8)

Playoff record

European Tour playoff record (0–2)

Results in major championships

''Note: Longmuir only played in The Open Championship.''
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Team appearances

* Europcar Cup (representing Scotland): 1988 *

PGA Cup The PGA Cup is a men's golf competition for club professionals played between a Great Britain and Ireland team and a United States team. The winning team is presented with the Llandudno Trophy. The competition is run by the British PGA and the ...

(representing Great Britain and Ireland): 1996 (tie), 2003 * UBS Cup (representing the Rest of the World): 2003 (tie)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Longmuir, Bill Scottish male golfers European Tour golfers European Senior Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers People from Thundersley People from Redhill, Surrey 1953 births Living people