OK, weekend golfers, admit it! On some practice putting green, sometime in your life, as you’ve lined up a seven-footer, the imaginary commentator’s voice has popped into your head with a delicate whisper: “just one stroke away from winning the U.S. Open…” A fantasy for most became a reality for Tennessee’s Lou Graham in 1975, when he did, in fact, win the U.S. Open. Graham also had the prestigious honor of being a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup teams of 1973, 1975, and 1979, as well as the 1975 World Cup team. A graduate of Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Graham was one of the city’s best athletes, and he attended Memphis State University on a golf scholarship. After college he joined the military and in 1960 was a member of the all-army and interservice golf teams. He joined the PGA Tour in October 1964 and won the Minnesota Golf Classic in 1967 and the Liggett and Myers Open in 1972. Graham’s sixth and final PGA championship came in 1979. In 1988 he joined the Senior Tour. With career money earnings totaling more than $2 million, Graham made a great living doing what he loved to do. In his own words as a sixty-year-old on the Senior Tour: “I’m out here still doing it and I have a smile on my face.”
