Gene Alec Littler was born on July 21, 1930, in San Diego and grew to love golf while playing on area courses. He graduated from San Diego State University and then entered the Navy. He won the United States Amateur and played in the Walker Cup amateur competition between the United States and a British-Irish team in 1953.

The prominent golf writer Herbert Warren Wind was impressed by the fluidity of such a young player’s swing.

“Gene took the club back with a very, very slow, easy, relaxed rhythm, then paused a lazy second at the top before droning slowly down into the ball, delaying his accelerated hitting action until the very last moment when the club head was only two feet or so from the ball,” Wind wrote in 1955 in Sports Illustrated.

While still an amateur, Littler won the San Diego Open in January 1954, and he turned pro soon afterward. He almost won the United States Open in June 1954, losing to Ed Furgol by one stroke, and then won four tournaments in 1955. He captured the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas three consecutive times, from 1955 to 1957. Littler lost to Billy Casper, a friend since their boyhood in San Diego, in an 18-hole playoff at the 1970 Masters.

Two years later, Littler was found to have lymph cancer, requiring surgery. Much of the muscular structure on his left side was removed. But through arduous rehabilitation, he was able to regain the use of his left arm and rejoin the tour. He won the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Classic in July 1973 and received the Ben Hogan Award as comeback player of the year and the Bob Jones Award for distinguished sportsmanship in golf.

Littler went to a playoff at the 1977 P.G.A. Championship at Pebble Beach, losing to Lanny Wadkins on the third hole of sudden death after leading by five strokes with nine holes to play.