Cesar Sanudo: First Mexican Winner on PGA Tour
Date of birth: October 26, 1943
Place of birth: Tijuana, Mexico
Date and place of death: August 28, 2011, in La Mesa, California
His Biggest Wins
- 1966 Mexican Amateur
- 1970 Azalea Open (PGA Tour)
In the Majors
Cesar Sanudo got into eight major championships during the period 1966-76: two Masters, five U.S. Opens and one PGA Championship. He had only one finish higher than 39th: tied for ninth in the 1972 U.S. Open. Sanudo was one stroke off the lead following the first round, and tied (with, among others, Jack Nicklaus) for the 36-hole lead following the second round. But after opening 72-72, the Pebble Beach winds blew Sanudo down the leaderboard with 78-77 in the final two rounds. (Nicklaus was the winner.)
More About Cesar Sanudo
Cesar Sanudo was born in and spent his early years in Tijuana, Mexico. He got into golf when he began working as a caddie at Tijuana Country Club in 1954. Naturally left-handed, Sanudo taught himself to play golf right-handed after a club member gave him a hand-me-down set of right-handed clubs.Sanudo's mother moved the family to the U.S. when he was in his teens, settling in San Diego, Calif. Sanudo spent the rest of his life in that area.
Sanudo's golf successes began in earnest in his early 20s. He was medalist in the California State Amateur in 1964 and 1965. The U.S. Amateur Championship switched to stroke play for a few years beginning in 1965, and that year Sanudo tied for third, two strokes behind winner Bob Murphy.
He won the 1966 Mexican Amateur Championship. And he received an invitation to The Masters in 1966, where he made his major championship debut as an amateur.
Sanudo turned pro in 1966. In 1968, he made it through the PGA Tour's qualifying tournament, and 1969 was his rookie year on the tour.
Sanudo was always a good ballstriker with an attractive swing, but he was also always a poor putter. In all his years on the PGA Tour, he was never able to gain fully exempt status. Sanudo finished inside the Top 100 on the season-ending money list only once, 75th in 1972. But at that time, a golfer had to finish in the Top 60 in money to acquire fully exempt status.
But Sanudo did write his name into the tour's record-book at the 1970 Azalea Open, where he became the first Mexican golfer to win on the PGA Tour. Sanudo opened 66-68-68 over the first three rounds, but trailed leader Bobby Mitchell by four. Then Sanudo bogeyed the first hole of the final round.
But he rallied to score 67 in that final round. And he won when Mitchell lost his own putting stroke: Mitchell bogeyed the final three holes of the tournament, 3-putting each one.
Sanudo, 26 years old at the time, said after winning, "To be honest, I didn't think much of my chances when I started the final round. I'm not an unknown now. Believe me, this is the greatest thing that has happened to me."
There weren't many successes at the pro tournament level after that for Sanudo, however. Struggling to make ends meet, he worked as a used-car salesman when he was home from the tour.
He did come close in one other tournament. At the 1974 British PGA Match Play Championship on the European Tour, Sanudo reached the championship match before losing, 2 and 1, to Jack Newton.
PGA Tour statistics show that Sanudo made 259 starts on the tour, first in 1966, last in 1989, but most of them from 1969-82. He made 143 cuts. He had no Top 3 finishes other than his one victory. Sanudo finished in the Top 5 of a PGA Tour event twice, in the Top 10 11 times.
Sanudo was never a member of the Champions Tour, but did make seven starts from 1994 through 2001. He had no Top 10s.
Sanudo was known as a friendly, well-liked player on the tour, and his charm helped him meet and play with many famous people. He played golf with three American Presidents (Nixon, Ford and Bush the elder), and with many celebrities.
One of Sanudo's best friends on the PGA Tour was Lee Trevino. In 1972, Sanudo borrowed the putter that Trevino had used to win the U.S., British and Canadian Opens in 1971. And in the three tournaments he used Trevino's putter, Sanudo recorded three Top 10s, including fourth in the Kemper Open plus his U.S. Open Top 10. Outside of his one win, that was the most success Sanudo had on the tour.
"My only mistake was giving (the putter) back," Sanudo later said.
But he paid Trevino back. In 1973, after Trevino got off to a slow start, he grabbed a set of stiffer-shafted clubs out of the trunk of Sanudo's car, then immediately won two tournaments with them in Florida.
In the 1980s Sanudo began working club pro jobs in the San Diego area, which he did for the rest of his life. He was head pro at the municipal courses in El Cajon and later Coronado, as well as an instructor.
In 2011, when he was 67 years old, Sanudo suffered a torn aorta. He survived the emergency heart surgery, but died about a month later from complications.
Sanudo also has a place in celebrity, pop-culture trivia: In the 1970s, he dated and then lived with a woman named Kris Houghton. She went on to fame decades later as Kris Jenner, matriarch of the Kardashian clan of reality TV stars.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Antonini, John. "Sanudo: 1970 Azalea champ dies at 67," Golf World, September 12, 2011.
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Coronado Municipal Golf Course. Instructional Staff, Cesar Sanudo, via the Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20100920140911/http://golfcoronado.com/pages/cesar-sanudo.html.
Leonard, Tod. "Sanudo was 'idol, hero' to many in golf circles," San Diego Union-Tribune, August 30, 2011, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2011/08/30/sanudo-was-idol-hero-to-many-in-golf-circles/.
Monroe (La.) Morning World. "Cesar Sanudo is Azalea Golf Champ," Associated Press, October 5, 1970.
PGA Tour. The Tour Book 1982, Tournament Players Association.
PGATour.com. Players, Cesar Sanudo, https://www.pgatour.com/player/02045/cesar-sanudo/career.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990, Triumph Books, 1992.
