Don Massengale: Winner on PGA Tour, Champions Tour
Full name: Donald Ray Massengale Sr.
Date of birth: April 23, 1937
Place of birth: Jacksboro, Texas
Date and place of death: January 2, 2007, in Conroe, Texas
Nickname: Bugs Bunny (or just Bugs) because of prominent front teeth
His Biggest Wins
Don Massengale won twice on the PGA Tour:- 1966 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am
- 1966 Canadian Open
He also won twice on the Senior PGA Tour:
In the Majors
Massengale played in 16 major championships over his career, first in the 1965 U.S. Open, last in the 1982 PGA Championship. In those 16 appearances, he finished better than 22nd just twice, and better than 15th just once. But that one time was nearly a victory.In the 1967 PGA Championship, Massengale carded a 66 in the fourth round, the best score of the final round, to tie Don January atop the leaderboard. At the time the PGA Championship used an 18-hole playoff, and the Massengale-January showdown turned out to be the last 18-hole playoff in this major's history. Massengale played well with a 71, but January beat him by two strokes to win the Wanamaker Trophy.
Massengale's only other Top 20 finish in a major was tied for 15th place in the 1972 U.S. Open.
More About Don Massengale
Lifelong Texan Don Massengale played college golf at TCU in Fort Worth in the late 1950s. While there he won the 1958 Texas State Amateur and 1959 Southwest Conference individual golf championship.He turned pro in 1960 and immediately joined the PGA Tour. He made 18 starts in that rookie season, with four Top 25 finishes. Massengale's first Top 10 finish was a tie for fourth in the 1961 Milwaukee Open Invitational.
The 1962 season was his best until his two wins in 1966. In 1962, Massengale twice finished runner-up: at the Motor City Open and Beaumont Open. He also had a third-place showing and six total Top 10s in 25 starts, and finished in the Top 60 on the season-ending money list for the first of three times.
He didn't have much success the following three years, though, dropping out of the Top 60 — then the cutoff to avoid Monday qualifying — in each of 1963, 1964 and 1965.
But the next two years were his best. He finished in the Top 10 only three times in 1966, but two of those were victories. They were both big tournaments, too. At the 1966 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, Massengale beat runner-up Arnold Palmer by one stroke. And in the 1966 Canadian Open, he finished three ahead of second-place Chi Chi Rodriguez. Massengale finished 27th on the money list, his career best.
There were no more wins for Massengale after 1966, but there were a handful of close calls. Most prominent among those was his playoff loss and second-place finish in the 1967 PGA Championship. That year, 1967, was the third and last in which he finished inside the Top 60 on the money list.
He had more seconds, including at the 1968 Lucky International Open and 1970 Greater Milwaukee Open. Although his final tour start wasn't until 1985, 1970 was the last year in which Massengale made 20 starts, or even as many as 10 starts. He left the tour after 1970 to work as a club professional (and in 1972 Massengale won the national championship for club pros, then called the PGA Club Professional Championship).
PGA Tour statistics show Massengale with 291 career starts on the tour. In addition to his two victories, Massengale finished second five times, had 15 Top 5 finishes and 32 Top 10 finishes.
He spent much of his 40s working as a club pro in the Houston, Texas, area, but when he turned 50 Massengale was ready to try another tour.
His rookie year on the Senior PGA Tour was 1987, and he finished 28th on money list. In 1988 he improved to 21st in earnings, which remained his highest money-list finish even though his two wins came later.
Those two victories happened in the 1990 Greater Grand Rapids Open (by one over runners-up Terry Dill, Dave Hill and Larry Laoretti), also known as the Farmers Charity Classic; and the 1992 Royal Caribbean Classic (by one over Gary Player).
On the Champions Tour, Massengale made 271 career starts. In addition to his two wins, he finished second four times, and had 24 Top 10 finishes.
Among the clubs where Massengale served as pro were Elmwood Country Club in New York, and the Texas clubs River Plantation (Conroe), Harlingen Country Club, Club Del Lago (Conroe), and April Sound Country Club (Montgomery). He built a strong reputation as a teacher of the game.
Golf runs in the Massengale family. Don's younger brother Rik Massengale was also a PGA Tour player. In fact, Rik beat Don's two tour wins with three of his own from 1975-77. The Massengales were the eighth set or pair of brothers to each record PGA Tour wins.
Don and wife Judy had two sons, Donnie and Mark, both of whom followed in their father's footsteps to become golf instructors. Donnie Massengale spent one year playing the Korn Ferry Tour in early 1990s.
Don Massengale was 69 years old when he died of a heart attack in 2007. At time of his death, he owned and operated the Massengale Golf Academy at Augusta Pines Golf Club in the Houston area.
Massengale is a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame and the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Campbell, Steve. "Local golfer Massengale passes away," Houston Chronicle, January 4, 2007, https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/woodlands-news/article/local-golfer-massengale-passes-away-1626559.php.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
PGA Tour. "Former PGA TOUR player Don Massengale dies," January 5, 2007, https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073750/http://www.pgatour.com/2007/r/01/03/massengale_dies/.
PGA Tour. Players, Don Massengale, Career, https://www.pgatour.com/player/01752/don-massengale/career.
PGA Tour. 1995 Senior PGA Tour Official Media Guide, Player Biographies, Don Massengale.
Texas Golf Hall of Fame. Members, Don Massengale, https://www.texasgolfhof.org/exhibit/don-massengale.
