Frank Donovan "Sandy" Tatum Jr. (July 7, 1920 – June 22, 2017) was an attorney, a golf administrator, a golf course architect, a golf promoter, and an amateur

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

er.

Education

Tatum attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where he was a member of Stanford's golf team, which won back-to-back NCAA Men's Golf Championships in 1941 and 1942. In 1942, Tatum won the individual title.

Career

Following his graduation from Stanford, Tatum attended

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

, and received his BCL in 1949. He returned to Stanford, where he earned a JD in 1950, and was admitted to the bar in California in 1950. He was an attorney with Cooley Godward Kronish in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. From 1978 to 1980, Tatum served as president of the

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rule ...

, and he served on the USGA executive committee from 1972 to 1980. Tatum played an important role in persuading the USGA to bring the U.S. Open to the

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1955; the championship has since returned there four times: in 1966, 1987, 1998, and 2012. He also was instrumental in the USGA's decision to take the Open to

Pebble Beach Golf Links Pebble Beach Golf Links is a public golf course located in Pebble Beach, California, U.S. Opened in 1919, it is regarded as one of the most beautiful courses in the world. It hugs the rugged coastline and has wide open views of Carmel Bay, o ...

, south of the Bay Area, for the first time in 1972; the championship has since returned there five times: in 1982, 1992, 2000, 2010, and 2019. In the early 2000s, Tatum led a successful campaign for renovation of the Harding Park Golf Club in

, which had previously hosted many PGA Tour events in the 1950s and 1960s, but which had fallen into disrepair. It took several years, but the Harding Park course was restored to prominence, and has since held several high-profile golf events, including the 2020 PGA Championship. Tatum was involved in the design and development of The Links at Spanish Bay golf course in

Pebble Beach, California Pebble Beach is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, California, United States. The small coastal residential community of mostly single-family homes is also ...

. He co-designed The Preserve Golf Club in

Carmel, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), commonly known simply as Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 3,220, down from 3,722 a ...

and Lockeford Springs Golf Course in

Lodi, California Lodi ( ) is a city in San Joaquin County, California, United States, in the center portion of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. The population was 66,348 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History When a gro ...

, as well as Mount Shasta Resort in

Mount Shasta, California Mount Shasta (also known as Mount Shasta City) is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States, at about above sea level on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the s ...

. He was involved with The First Tee of San Francisco chapter out of Harding Park, and went on to host "Sandy's Circle" through the Northern California Golf Association to help fund the Youth on Course subsidized round program in 2007. Tatum remained an active golfer into his 90s.

Death

Tatum died on June 22, 2017, at the age of 96.

Awards and honors

* Tatum is a member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame * In 2011, Tatum was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

Bibliography

* ''A Love Affair with the Game'', with foreword by Tom Watson,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatum, Sandy American male golfers American memoirists Amateur golfers Stanford Cardinal men's golfers American golf administrators Golfers from California American golf course architects American golf writers 20th-century American lawyers American Rhodes Scholars Stanford Law School alumni Lawyers from San Francisco 1920 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American sportsmen