Frank Richard Stranahan was an American sportsman.
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28 Facts About Frank Stranahan
2.
Frank Stranahan had significant success in both amateur and professional golf.
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3.
Frank Stranahan was ranked number one in his weight class in powerlifting, from 1945 to 1954, and he became known on the golf course and off as the "Toledo strongman" long before the modern game of golf and fitness.
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4.
Frank Stranahan was born into a very wealthy family; his father, Robert A Stranahan, Sr.
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5.
Frank's father's millions allowed Frank to concentrate on golf, and while in his teens he set a goal of becoming the best golfer in the world.
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6.
Frank Stranahan grew up playing the famous Inverness Club in Toledo, and won several club championships there.
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7.
Frank Stranahan received instruction as a junior at Inverness in the early 1940s from Byron Nelson, the club's professional, who was playing the PGA Tour at that time.
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8.
Frank Stranahan was able to remain amateur by forgoing the prize money he could have won as a professional, due to his family wealth.
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9.
Frank Stranahan won two major championships : the 1948 and 1950 British Amateurs.
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10.
Frank Stranahan was runner-up in five other major championships, including the British Amateur, the Masters Tournament, The Open Championship, and the US Amateur.
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11.
Frank Stranahan won the Canadian Amateur Championship in 1947 and 1948.
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12.
Frank Stranahan won the Tam O'Shanter All-American Amateur six consecutive years from 1948 to 1953; this was a significant extravaganza hosted by impresario George S May.
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13.
Frank Stranahan's globetrotting allowed him to compete in over 200 tournaments across three continents during his amateur career.
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14.
Frank Stranahan remained an amateur most of his career, during which time he played on three winning Walker Cup teams in 1947,1949, and 1951.
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15.
Frank Stranahan finally turned pro at age 32 in September 1954, after losing to 24-year-old Arnold Palmer in the round of 16 at the US Amateur the previous week.
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16.
Frank Stranahan is the only amateur golfer in PGA history to win a professional event as an amateur more than once.
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17.
Frank Stranahan's dream was to win this championship; his closest was a 1950 finals loss in extra holes to Sam Urzetta.
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18.
Frank Stranahan stated at the time of turning pro that one of his reasons for making the switch was a desire for the Tour players to develop greater respect for him, since if he won a Tour event as an amateur, the runner-up received the first-place money.
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19.
Frank Stranahan worked with several golf instructors in an attempt to find the perfect swing; he was characterized by his fellow competitors as someone who experimented too much with his game, with a 'made' swing as opposed to a 'natural' swing, although his short game was very well respected.
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20.
Frank Stranahan became good friends with the young Gary Player, then, in the mid-1950s, just beginning to make his mark on the professional circuit, with advice on fitness, which Player successfully incorporated into his own training and preparation which Player had been training on since a boy.
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21.
Frank Stranahan drew chuckles from many by traveling to golf tournaments with his weightlifting equipment, but was in fact pioneering an eventual method which would become the norm several decades later, with the Tour supplying staffed workout facilities to players at Tour events by the 1980s.
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22.
Frank Stranahan was known as something of a playboy during his amateur years, before settling down with his marriage in 1954.
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23.
Frank Stranahan was seen as arrogant by many fellow competitors, who often struggled to make ends meet, well before the evolution of golf into its modern big-money era.
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24.
Notably, Frank Stranahan was warned, and then finally suspended from the tournament in 1948, for playing more than one ball during practice rounds, although he had finished as runner-up the previous year.
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25.
Frank Stranahan appealed unsuccessfully to Bobby Jones, as well as fellow competitors, to be reinstated.
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26.
Frank Stranahan was invited to compete again the following year, despite the controversy, which continued, due to his failure to respect the rules.
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27.
Frank Stranahan studied at Harvard University and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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28.
Frank Stranahan died June 23,2013, aged 90, at his home in Miami Beach, Florida, where he had lived for many years.
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