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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

It's not often that siblings find themselves in the same PGA TOUR field.

Joe Durant, who won the event last year when it was known as the Funai Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort, poses with his family and his trophy. (Greenwood/WireImage)

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Last week's Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro was the latest example with Daryl and Derek Fathauer, 21-year-old seniors at the University of Louisville, missing the cut as amateurs. They became the first set of twins in a TOUR event since Allen and Curtis Strange competed in the Texas Open 26 years ago.

But brothers winning the same TOUR event? In the same year?

Ah, yes, that's happened, too.

We go back to 1980, when the tournament at Walt Disney World was celebrating its 10th playing. What started as an individual stroke-play tournament -- won the first three times by Jack Nicklaus -- switched in 1974 to the Walt Disney World National Team Championship.

Those late-season events promulgated a relaxed atmosphere, in part because birdies were plentiful: The highest winning return was a 260 by Woody Blackburn and Bill Kratzert, taking a 1976 playoff over Gay Brewer and Bobby Nichols.

The fact that players could buddy up and knock it around for a week in the sunshine before heading home for the winter break contributed to the vibe, too.

Bobby and Lanny Wadkins nearly won the title in 1978, shooting 257 to finish three strokes behind Wayne Levi and Bob Mann. But the brothers Edwards would beat them to the punch, sibling-wise, two years later.

In those days, Danny was the better known of the pair. A native of Alaska (born in Ketchikan, a fact to remember for stumping know-it-alls), he was five years older than his brother and an Oklahoma State product who turned pro in 1973. The two-time Big Eight Conference champ broke through as a pro at the 1977 Greater Greensboro Open. He'd already established himself as a road-racing buff -- he'd driven much of the Midwest Regional circuit that summer.

David, born in Missouri, also wound up at Oklahoma State and didn¹t make it out on TOUR until 1979, so he was still learning life inside the ropes in October 1980 when it came time for Disney. But he knew how to hit the ball close in key moments, and that would come in especially handy late in the week.

David Edwards plays on the Champions Tour these days. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

The Edwards boys never let any of the other 127 teams get in front of them, leaping out of the gate in the first-year, double-vision pro-am format (two pros, three amateurs) by going six under through the first five holes of the opening round. Granted, they were playing the Lake Buena Vista Course, the pushover of the Disney World trio, but six under through five is still a heck of a run.

Their first-round 60 put them 12-under par and ahead by two. A 63 at the Magnolia the next day put them 21 under and still two ahead. And when they tacked on a 65 at the Palm, they were 28 under, a shot ahead of Doug Campbell and Mike Gove - a pair of rookies from the West Coast - and three in front of Gary Koch and Curtis Strange.

The final round was fairly uneventful, thanks to another 65 at the Magnolia that guaranteed a $31,500 payday for each Edwards and a trophy presentation featuring Mickey Mouse, always a scrapbook keeper. David's strong iron play kept ticking shots off par so that even strong rushes from Gibby Gilbert-Grier Jones (61), Mike Harmon-Barry Herwell (62) and Dan Halldorson-Dana Quigley (62) could draw no closer than two strokes.

All in all, it was a pretty special week. The unusual pro-am format, an East-Coast version of the Bob Hope tournament, raised nearly $1 million for junior golf. The Disney went up against baseball's World Series yet drew plenty of attention. And the TOUR, wrapping up for the season, unveiled the award it would give each season's money leader. The Arnold Palmer Trophy showed the great man club in hand, gauging his next shot.

The tournament lasted one more year in a team format, with Vance Haefner and Mike Holland posting an absurd 246 for a five-shot win over Chip Beck and Rex Caldwell. The following autumn, 1982, it revered to mano-a-mano stroke play with Hal Sutton defeating Bill Britton in a playoff.

This year, the event takes on a new name: the Children¹s Miracle Network Classic presented by Wal-Mart. It¹s the final showdown for spots in the top 125 on the money list, the ultimate battle for a TOUR of independent contractors. All those guys on the bubble probably would breathe a lot easier, and enjoy the week a ton more, if they had a partner -- or a brother -- on their side.