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Alex Caygill

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Alex Caygill
Personal information
Full nameGordon Alexander Caygill
Born (1940-04-24) 24 April 1940 (age 84)
Appleby-in-Westmorland, England
Sporting nationality England
Career
StatusProfessional
Former tour(s)European Tour
Professional wins20
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentDNP
PGA ChampionshipDNP
U.S. OpenDNP
The Open ChampionshipT16: 1966
Achievements and awards
Sir Henry Cotton
Rookie of the Year		1961

Gordon Alexander Caygill (born 24 April 1940) is an English professional golfer. He had considerable early success as a young professional from 1960 to 1963 but then had a lean period, partly due to a stomach ulcer. He made a comeback in the late 1960s, winning two tournaments in early 1969, and gained a place in the 1969 Ryder Cup team.

Professional career

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Caygill turned professional at an early age, becoming an assistant professional at West Bowling Golf Club near Bradford.[1] He was briefly an assistant at Sunningdale, during which time he won the 1960 British Youths Open Championship at Pannal Golf Club by 7 strokes.[2] He became an assistant at Pannal in 1961 and was chosen that year by Henry Cotton as his Rookie of the Year.[3] In 1962 he won the British Youths Open Championship, which was again played at Pannal, for a second time, winning this time by 12 strokes.[4] He had more success in 1963, winning the Coombe Hill Assistants' Tournament and the Rediffusion Tournament in the same week.[5][6] In the 1964 Swallow-Penfold Tournament Caygill led Peter Alliss by 3 strokes with 5 holes to play but finished badly to drop into a tie for second place.[7]

After his early successes he did not win again on the circuit until 1969 having suffered with stomach ulcers.[8] That year he won twice, first at the Penfold Tournament,[9] and then again at the Martini International, where he tied with South African Graham Henning.[10] Caygill finished 8th in the points list for the Great Britain and Ireland 1969 Ryder Cup team.[11] The leading six were chosen automatically and Caygill was one of the remaining six selected by a committee a few days later.[12] He only played one match, partnering Brian Huggett in Friday's foursomes. They halved their match against the American pair of Raymond Floyd and Miller Barber.[13] He finished the season 9th in the Order of Merit.[14]

In 1970 Caygill had his only foreign win, the Lusaka Dunlop Open on the Safari Circuit, finishing two strokes of Craig Defoy.[15] He played a limited number of events during the early years of the European Tour, from 1972 to 1977. His best finish was to reach the semi-final of the 1975 Piccadilly Medal.[16] Caygill finished third in the 1974 PGA Club Professionals' Championship to qualify for the Diamondhead Cup, the forerunner of the PGA Cup.[17] Caygill made 14 appearances in the Open Championship between 1962 and 1977, making the cut six times.[18]

Caygill became the professional at Cleckheaton Golf Club in the mid-1960s, leaving in 1973 to join the Pleasington club in Lancashire.[19] He later moved to the Crimple Valley club, near Harrogate and later to Branshaw.[20][21] In 1981 Caygill was fined £500 and suspended by the PGA following an incident the previous October at the Wansbeck Classic, a pro-am event.[21]

Professional wins (20)

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Great Britain and Ireland wins (6)

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Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner(s)-up Ref.
5 Aug 1960 British Youths Open Championship 66-71-71-71=279 7 strokes Scotland Campbell Brownlee (a) [2]
10 Aug 1962 British Youths Open Championship 74-73-72-68=287 12 strokes England Cliff Bowman (a) [22]
26 Sep 1963 Coombe Hill Assistants' Tournament 71-76-69=216 2 strokes England Malcolm Gregson, England Tony Jacklin [5]
29 Sep 1963 Rediffusion Tournament 70-68-66-67=271 Playoff England David Snell, Belgium Flory Van Donck [6]
3 May 1969 Penfold Tournament 67-70-70-71=278 2 strokes Republic of Ireland Christy O'Connor Snr [9]
14 Jun 1969 Martini International 70-66-77-69=282 Tie South Africa Graham Henning [10]

Safari circuit wins (1)

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Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up Ref
22 Mar 1970 Lusaka Dunlop Open −7 (70-68-73-74=285) 2 strokes Wales Craig Defoy [15]

Other wins (13)

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Results in major championships

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Tournament 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
The Open Championship CUT CUT T17 CUT T16 CUT T24 T25
Tournament 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977
The Open Championship T41 CUT CUT CUT T63 CUT

Note: Caygill only played in The Open Championship.

  Did not play

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

Source:[18]

Team appearances

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References

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  1. ^ "Conditions perfect at Pannal". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 26 September 1956. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b "Caygill's record aggregate". The Glasgow Herald. 6 August 1960. p. 5.
  3. ^ "Cdr. Roe awarded writers' trophy". The Daily Telegraph. 20 December 1961. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Caygill youths' champion for a second time". Glasgow Herald. 11 August 1962.
  5. ^ a b "G A Caygill's victory at Selsdon Park". The Glasgow Herald. 27 September 1963. p. 6.
  6. ^ a b "Victory for Caygill in play-off". The Glasgow Herald. 30 September 1963. p. 4.
  7. ^ "Penfold and Swallow win for Alliss". The Glasgow Herald. 11 May 1964. p. 5.
  8. ^ "Record 66 puts Caygill three ahead". Glasgow Herald. 14 June 1969.
  9. ^ a b "Caygill wins after dispute with rival". The Glasgow Herald. 5 May 1969. p. 15.
  10. ^ a b "Caygill and Henning tie for Martini". The Glasgow Herald. 16 June 1969. p. 5.
  11. ^ "Gallacher nosed out by 1/2 point". The Daily Telegraph. 16 July 1969. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Ward-Thomas, Pat (21 July 1969). "Gallacher wins Ryder place". The Guardian. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Alliss, Peter (1983). The Who's Who of Golf. Orbis Publishing. p. 222. ISBN 0-85613-520-8.
  14. ^ "Gallacher top". The Daily Telegraph. 3 October 1969. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ a b "Caygill leads British sweep". The Glasgow Herald. 24 March 1970. p. 7.
  16. ^ "British golf prestige takes another knock". The Glasgow Herald. 12 May 1975. p. 19.
  17. ^ "'Wild' Bill is champion". The Glasgow Herald. 3 June 1974. p. 5.
  18. ^ a b Brenner, Morgan G. (2009). The Majors of Golf: Complete Results of the Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters, 1860-2008. Vol. 1. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3360-5.
  19. ^ a b "Caygill leaves Yorks in style". The Guardian. 5 May 1973. p. 21 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b Cockin, Geoff (10 May 1978). "Bickerdike does his first hole in one". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ a b "Alex Caygill is suspended". Evening Times. 7 January 1981.
  22. ^ "Caygill youths' champion for a second time". The Glasgow Herald. 11 August 1962. p. 5.
  23. ^ "Caygill's double success". The Guardian. 20 May 1961. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Northern title for Caygill". Birmingham Post. 3 August 1963. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Mr. Arthur Hill". Liverpool Echo. 18 July 1963. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Caygill wins title by Muscroft sets new record". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 13 August 1964. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ "Bousfield and Caygill win by two strokes". The Guardian. 14 September 1964. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ "'Steady golf' earns Alex Caygill third pro. title". Hull Daily Mail. 16 June 1966. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ "Cotton's challenge ends gallantly". The Glasgow Herald. 29 October 1966. p. 11.
  30. ^ "Caygill does it". The Guardian. 29 July 1967. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Caygill's title at last". The Guardian. 15 July 1971. p. 21 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ Johnson, Bill (8 September 1973). "Caygill completes double". Liverpool Daily Post. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ^ "Caygill beats Platts in play-off". The Guardian. 19 June 1974. p. 25 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ "Second chance for Sandy?". The Glasgow Herald. 24 March 1978.
  35. ^ "2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  36. ^ "Jamieson only British winner". The Glasgow Herald. 1 November 1974. p. 4.
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