Hale Irwin is a former professional golfer. He broke 70 for the first time at the age of 14. He won the individual NCAA Division I Championship in golf in his senior year in 1967 and turned professional the following year.

Irwin was also an academic all-American and all-conference football player in college. Irwin won his first U.S. Open in 1974, at the Massacre at Winged Foot. He was one of the world's leading golfers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He is one of the few players in history to win three U.S. Opens, becoming the oldest ever U.S. Open champion (record stands as of 2021)  in 1990 at the age of 45. As a senior golfer, Irwin ranks first all-time in PGA Tour Champions victories, also as of 2021. He is widely regarded as the greatest player in Champions Tour history. Along with Gary Player, David Graham, Bernhard Langer and Justin Rose, Irwin is one of five golfers to win official tournaments on all six continents on which golf is played, as of 2021.

He has also developed a career as a golf course architect. In 2000, Irwin was ranked as the 19th greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine. In 2019, in acknowledgement of his character, sportsmanship and commitment to charity, Irwin received the PGA Tour's Payne Stewart Award.