Bob Toski
| Bob Toski | |
|---|---|
| — Golfer — | |
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Robert John Toski |
| Born |
September 18, 1926 Haydenville, Massachusetts |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
| Weight | 135 lb (61 kg; 9.6 st) |
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Career | |
| Turned professional | 1945 |
| Former tour(s) |
PGA Tour Champions Tour |
| Professional wins | 11 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| PGA Tour | 5 |
| Other | 6 |
| Best results in major championships |
|
| Masters Tournament | T18: 1951 |
| U.S. Open | T17: 1956 |
| The Open Championship | DNP |
| PGA Championship | T9: 1950, 1954 |
| Achievements and awards | |
| PGA Tour leading money winner |
1954 |
Robert John Toski, born Algustoski (born September 18, 1926), is an American professional golfer and golf instructor. He was inducted into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame in 2013.
He was born in Haydenville, Massachusetts of Polish descent, the eighth of nine children born to Walenty Algutoski and his wife Mary. He learned to play golf at Northampton Country Club, where he caddied and where two of his elder brothers, Jack and Ben, were assistant professionals.
He joined the PGA Tour in 1949 and broke through for his first win in the Insurance City Open in 1953. He was the leading money winner in 1954, when his four victories included the World Championship of Golf, where first prize was $50,000, by far the richest prize-money golf event in the world. That victory also earned him a $50,000 contract from promoter George S. May to put on 50 exhibitions the following year; he would put on 57 and play in only 14 events in 1955. He scaled back his playing career starting in 1957 after wife Lynn gave birth to three boys in a span of less than four years.
Toski found stardom on the Tour despite weighing only 118 pounds. He was the smallest Tour player throughout his playing career and his combination of his small size and his driving prowess earned him the nickname "Mouse" from Sam Snead, a reference to the cartoon superhero Mighty Mouse popular at that time.
Toski left the tour aged 30 so he could spend more time with his young family (perhaps influenced by having lost his own mother at age six), and took a series of jobs as a club professional, while still competing occasionally on the Tour.
Later he found renewed fame as a leading golf coach, assisting tour pros such as World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Tom Kite and Judy Rankin as well as Australian star Bruce Crampton. He also wrote several golf instructional books, and made some of the earliest golf instruction videos. In the early 1980s he was a regular on NBC Sports golf telecasts. He worked as color commentator with Hughes Sports Network golf telecasts in the 1970s.
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Wikipedia