Ken Venturi

Professional Golfer and CBS Sports Commentator

Fall 1949 Graduate

        Ken, one of the country's finest professional golfers, played his first round of golf at Harding Park at the age of 12. By the time he was eighteen, he had won the San Francisco City Championship. After graduating from Lincoln in 1949, Ken attended San Jose State College where as a member of the golf team, he twice won the Northern California Intercollegiate Championship (1951 and 1953) and the California State Amateur Championship in 1951 and 1956. He graduated in 1953 from San Jose State with a BA in Physical Education . In 1957, he turned professional, joining the PGA tour. Ken immediately began winning tournaments as he rapidly became one of professional golf's best performers, with 14 tour victories in all.

        In 1957, he won the St. Paul Open and Miller Open. In 1958, he won the Thunderbird Invitational, Phoenix Open, Baton Rouge Open and the Gleneagles-Chicago, Open, which he also won in 1959 along with the Los Angeles Open. In 1960, he won the Bing Crosby National and Milwaukee Open and was the tour's second leading money winner. His greatest achievement occurred in 1964 when after three years in which he had no tour victories, he won the United States Open at Congressional Country Club outside Washington D.C. Although, so sick that he was accompanied by a doctor, he played 36 holes in one, sweltering 100 degree day, in which he staged a dramatic come-from-behind victory to become the best golfer of 1964, He also won the Insurance City Open and American Golf Classic that year. In 1966, Ken won his final tournament, the Lucky International, played at Harding park in San Francisco where he had first played golf 23 years before. After leaving the tour, Ken became a golf course design consultant, working throughout the world. Currently, although kept busy as CBS Sports' lead golf commentator, Ken devotes time to a number of charities, including Guiding Eyes for the blind and Camp Venture.

        Ken's Achievements include being named the PGA Player of the Year in 1964; the Sports illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1964 and the Come-back Athlete for 1964. In 1979, he was inducted into the Smithsonian Institute, and in 1985 he was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

        In recognition of his many accomplishments, Ken was inducted into the Abraham Lincoln High School Wall of Fame in May 1992.