Frank Stranahan
Stranahan in 1951
Personal information
Full name	Frank Richard Stranahan
Born	(1922-08-05)August 5, 1922 Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Died	June 23, 2013(2013-06-23) (aged 90) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Sporting nationality	United States
Spouse	Ann
Children	3
Career
College	University of Miami Harvard University University of Pennsylvania
Turned professional	1954
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour
Professional wins	9
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	6[1]
Other	3
Best results in major championships (wins: 2)
Masters Tournament	T2:1947
PGA Championship	DNP
U.S. Open	T10:1958
The Open Championship	T2:1947,1953
U.S. Amateur	2nd: 1950
British Amateur	Won: 1948, 1950

Frank Richard Stranahan (August 5, 1922 – June 23, 2013) was an American sportsman. He had significant success in both amateur and professionalgolf. He was ranked number one in his weight class inpowerlifting, 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. After he retired from tournament golf in the early 1960s, he became a prolific long-distance runner, competing in 102marathons.

Stranahan was born inToledo, Ohio, on August 5, 1922.^[2] He was born into a very wealthy family; his father, Robert A. Stranahan Sr., was the founder of the highly successfulChampion Spark Plug company.^[3] 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. He grew up playing the famousInverness Club in Toledo, and won several club championships there.

Stranahan received instruction as a junior at Inverness in the early 1940s fromByron Nelson, the club's professional, who was also playing thePGA Tour at that time. Nelson retired in 1946 after one of the greatest competitive careers in golf history.^[4]

Stranahan played college golf for theUniversity of Miami. Nelson later mentored several other young players who went on to significant competitive success, including World Golf Hall of Fame membersKen Venturi,Tom Watson, andMarty Fleckman.

During his amateur golf career, spanning from 1936 to 1954, Stranahan won over 70 amateur tournaments, and several Open events as well, competing against professionals. Stranahan was able to remain amateur by forgoing the prize money he could have won as a professional, due to his family wealth. His greatest accomplishments included appearing as a finalist in over a dozen national championships, winning seven. He won two major championships (as they were counted at the time): the 1948 and 1950British Amateurs.^[2] Stranahan was runner-up in five other major championships, including theBritish Amateur, theMasters Tournament,The Open Championship, and theU.S. Amateur. He won theCanadian Amateur Championship in 1947 and 1948.^[2] He won the Tam O'Shanter All-American Amateur six consecutive years from 1948 to 1953; this was a significant extravaganza hosted by impresarioGeorge S. May.^[2] His globetrotting allowed him to compete in over 200 tournaments across three continents during his amateur career.

He remained an amateur most of his career, during which time he played on three winningWalker Cup teams in 1947, 1949, and 1951.

In September 1954, at age 32, he turned pro^[2] after losing to 24-year-oldArnold Palmer in the round of 16 at theU.S. Amateur the previous week.^[5] He is the only amateur golfer in PGA history towin a professional event as an amateur more than once.^[6] Stranahan's dream was to win this championship; his closest was a 1950 finals loss in extra holes toSam Urzetta. 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. As a pro, his greatest victory was the 1958Los Angeles Open.^[2]

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. Stranahan became good friends with the youngGary 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. 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.

Stranahan was known as something of aplayboy during his amateur years, before settling down with his marriage in 1954. He 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.

Several times during his amateur career, Stranahan ran afoul ofClifford Roberts, the chairman ofAugusta National Golf Club and theMasters Tournament, because of his unsportsmanlike conduct, which violated club and tournament rules. Notably, 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. Stranahan appealed unsuccessfully toBobby Jones, as well as fellow competitors, to be reinstated. Stranahan was invited to compete again the following year, despite the controversy, which continued, due to his failure to respect the rules. After Stranahan's father was approached by Jones over the matter, the younger Stranahan eventually wrote letters of apology to Jones, and behaved properly thereafter at the tournament, while maintaining there was much more to this situation which remained behind the scenes, without ever specifying the details of this.^[7] Stranahan retired from competitive golf in the early 1960s.

After leaving competitive golf, he concentrated on business. He studied atHarvard University and theWharton Business School at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.^[8]

Stranahan married his wife Ann in 1954. Like Stranahan, she was also a top-class amateur golfer, finishing as the runner-up in the 1960Canadian Women's Amateur.^[8][9][10] At age 45, Ann died fromcancer. His eldest son Frank Jr. died from cancer at age 11. His second son Jimmy died of adrug overdose inHouston at age 19. Stranahan's father also died from cancer.^[11] His youngest son Lance works in real estate inFlorida.^[12]

Stranahan died June 23, 2013, aged 90, at his home inMiami Beach, Florida.^[13][14][15]

Stranahan's helped save theOpen Championship. AfterWorld War II when few American golfers competed in the event, Stranahan competed in eight consecutive Open Championships, and was runner-up in1947 and1953. His personal support, along with the1961 and1962 wins ofArnold Palmer, revived, sustained, and returned the greatness of the Open Championship through encouraging other top Americans to compete, despite the low prize funds of that era.^[14]

this list is incomplete

• 1940 Toledo District Junior Championship
• 1941Trans-Mississippi Amateur,Ohio Amateur
• 1942 Ohio Amateur, South Florida Championship
• 1946 Mexican Amateur,Western Amateur,North and South Amateur, Great Lakes Amateur
• 1947Canadian Amateur, Great Lakes Amateur
• 1948British Amateur,Canadian Amateur, Mexican Amateur, All-American Amateur
• 1949Western Amateur,North and South Amateur, All-American Amateur
• 1950British Amateur, All-American Amateur
• 1951 Mexican Amateur,Western Amateur, All-American Amateur
• 1952Western Amateur,North and South Amateur, All-American Amateur
• 1953 All-American Amateur

• 1945Durham Open (as an amateur)
• 1946 Kansas City Invitational Victory Bond Golf Tournament,Fort Worth Invitational (both as an amateur)
• 1948Miami Open (as an amateur)
• 1955Eastern Open
• 1958Los Angeles Open

this list is incomplete

• 1948Ohio Open (as an amateur)
• 1960Ohio Open
• 1961Ohio Open

Year	Championship	Winning score	Runner-up
1948	British Amateur	5 & 4	Charlie Stowe
1950	British Amateur	8 & 6	Dick Chapman

Amateur

Professional

Note: Stranahan never played in thePGA Championship.

LA = low amateur
NT = no tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
DNQ = did not qualify for match play portion
R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Sources: Masters,^[16] U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur,^[17] The Open Championship,^[18] The Amateur Championship: 1946,^[19] 1947,^[20] 1949,^[21] 1951,^[22] 1953,^[23] 1954.^[24]

• Most consecutive cuts made – 8 (twice)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (five times)

Amateur

• Walker Cup:1947 (winners),1949 (winners),1951 (winners)
• Americas Cup: 1952 (winners)

• American male golfers
• Miami Hurricanes men's golfers
• PGA Tour golfers
• Golfers from Ohio
• Harvard University alumni
• Wharton School alumni
• Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio
• Golfers from West Palm Beach, Florida
• 1922 births
• 2013 deaths
• 20th-century American sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from May 2023