Bill Rogers

William Charles Rogers (born September 10, 1951) is an American professional golferwho is best known as the winner of the 1981 British Open.

Rogers was born in Waco, Texas. His father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and he spent time in Morocco and Germany as a boy. Later he attended theUniversity of Houston, where he roomed with fellow future PGA Tour pro Bruce Lietzke. As an amateur golfer he played for the U.S. in the 1973 Walker Cup.

Rogers played the PGA Tour full-time from 1975 to 1988. He won six tournaments, including four in 1981. Almost uniquely for an American golfer, his two most notable victories were in Britain: in 1979, he won the Suntory World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, and two years later, he won the British Open at Royal St George's, where he bettered runner up Bernhard Langer by four strokes. He was the PGA Player of the Year for 1981, and that year finished second on McCormack's World Golf Rankings. He also made an appearance in the Ryder Cup that year.

In 1982 Rogers won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, and led the U.S. Open during the final day before falling short. After one further PGA Tour win in 1983, Rogers' tour career faded away and he left the tour in 1988 and took a position as director of golf at San Antonio Country Club, where he worked for eleven years.

Since turning fifty in 2001, Rogers has played sporadically on the Champions Tour, and his most notable accomplishment was winning the team portion of the 2002 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf with Bruce Lietzke.

Amateur wins

this list may be incomplete

• 1972 Southern Amateur

[edit]PGA Tour wins (6)

Legend Major Championships (1) Other PGA Tour (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of Victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Feb 11, 1978	Bob Hope Desert Classic	-21 (69-67-67-67-69=339)	2 strokes	Jerry McGee
2	Mar 29, 1981	Sea Pines Heritage	-6 (71-69-68-70=278)	1 stroke	Bruce Devlin,  Hale Irwin,  Gil Morgan,  Craig Stadler
3	Jul 19, 1981	British Open	-4 (72-66-67-71=276)	4 strokes	Bernhard Langer
4	Aug 30, 1981	World Series of Golf	-5 (68-69-71-67=275)	1 stroke	Tom Kite
5	Oct 4, 1981	Texas Open	-14 (67-66-70-63=266)	Playoff	Ben Crenshaw
6	Mar 20, 1983	USF&G Classic	-14 (69-67-69-69=274)	3 strokes	David Edwards,  Jay Haas,  Vance Heafner

[edit]Japan Golf Tour wins (3)

• 1977 Pacific Masters
• 1980 Suntory Open
• 1981 Suntory Open

[edit]Other wins (4)

• 1979 Suntory World Match Play Championship
• 1981 Australian Open, New South Wales Open
• 1982 PGA Grand Slam of Golf

[edit]Other senior wins

• 2002 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf - Raphael Division (with Bruce Lietzke)

[edit]Major championships

[edit]Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runner-up
1981	The Open Championship	5 shot lead	-4 (72-66-67-71=276)	4 strokes	Bernhard Langer

[edit]Results timeline

Tournament	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
The Masters	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T29	DNP
U.S. Open	CUT	DNP	CUT	DNP	61	DNP	CUT	T44	T4
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT	T42	T35

Tournament	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986
The Masters	T33	T37	T38	CUT	CUT	CUT	CUT
U.S. Open	T16	T2	T3	CUT	57	WD	CUT
The Open Championship	T19	1	T22	T8	CUT	CUT	CUT
PGA Championship	T8	T27	T29	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP

DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

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