Unplayable Lies: (The Only Golf Book You'll Ever Need)

by Dan Jenkins

  The match started off with Jones playing beautifully, hitting fairways and greens, and Hagen hooking into the trees and rough, then hitting rescue shots and sinking putts. Through twelve holes Hagen held a one-up lead despite Jones’s excellent tee-to-green play.

  But Hagen and his putter didn’t let up. He birdied the 13th, 15th, and 16th to go 4-up, lost one hole to Jones’s birdie at 17, but ended the first 18 holes 3-up. That wouldn’t have been a steep hill to climb for Jones, except in the afternoon Hagen fired a 69 by holing everything he looked at, putts that ranged from 20 to 60 feet. He took a shocking 8-up lead.

  Jones had a week to let Walter’s putter cool off before the next 36 holes at the Pasadena Golf Club. An article written on the match by Connor T. Lewis, at the request of the USGA Golf Museum, reveals that the Sarasota Herald hadn’t given up on Bobby Jones. It printed the following headline: “Miracles Can Happen, and the Par Assassin Is Still Far from the Beaten Golfer.”

  Jones got away to a good start on March 6 by parring the first two holes, and with Hagen 50 feet away for his par at the second, he had every reason to think he was going to cut into Walter’s lead—with plenty of golf left. That’s when Hagen drained the 50-footer for a halve. Jones lowered his head in disappointment while Walter joked with the gallery.

  Hagen went on to take a 12-up lead through five holes, and laughingly showboated his way to his famous victory, 12 and 11. It was the worst defeat of Bobby Jones’s career.

  The result led to this quote by Jones:

  I would rather play a man who is straight down the fairway with his drive, on the green with his second, and down in two putts for his par. I can play a man like that at his own game, which is par golf. If one of us can get close to the pin with his approach, or hole a good putt, all right. He has earned something. But when a man misses his drive, misses his second shot, and then wins the hole with a putt … well, it gets my goat!

  Walter Hagen used the $10,000 in style. He donated $5,000 of it to the St. Petersburg Hospital, and spent much of the balance to buy Jones a pair of diamond cuff links.

  Jones was left to say, “Walter, you’ve now ruined me twice. First, you gave me this licking, and now I’ll be busted the rest of my life trying to buy shirts to go with this jewelry.”

  You could say that Jones eventually had his revenge on Hagen after losing “The Match of the Century.”

  It’s one of the more curious oddities in golf that Walter Hagen never won a major championship that Bobby Jones played in.

  THE GREATEST ROUNDS

  IN CERTAIN CIRCLES the subject of golf’s greatest rounds comes up, usually in step with adult beverages. I tend to dominate the conversation, basically because I am old enough to recall that the six-iron used to be called a spade-mashie.

  Today I’ve decided to put the discussion to rest. After careful rummaging through Herbert Warren Wind, and calling on my own memories of the rounds I’ve covered with my own typing fingers, I’ve settled on a list.

  Guidelines were established. The round had to be shot in a major championship, otherwise it would not be worth its weight in Argyle socks. It helped if the round went a long way toward winning a major.

  Here, then, in chronological order, are the heroes who shot the greatest rounds and where and when they did it:

  Francis Ouimet on September 20, 1913, at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Boston to me. That day the unknown twenty-year-old amateur won the U.S. Open in a playoff over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. It turned into a cakewalk. Ouimet shot a 72. Vardon shot 77, Ray 78.

  The Open had been scheduled for June that year but was moved to September so the two famous Englishmen could arrange their travels in order to compete. Ouimet’s stunning victory put golf on the front page of newspapers everywhere. I hadn’t been born yet.

  Walter Hagen on August 20, 1914, at Midlothian Country Club, eighteen miles southwest of Chicago. The flamboyant Hagen burst on the scene when he fired a four-under 68 in the opening round of the U.S. Open. It was the first sub-70 round in the Open’s history. It sent Walter on his way to a one-stroke win over Chick Evans, an amateur star likewise on the rise. I still wasn’t born yet.

  Bobby Jones on July 12, 1930, at Interlachen Country Club in Minneapolis. Jones won four U.S. Opens, but this 68 was the lowest round he ever shot in the Open, and only the second time he broke 70. It came in the morning round of the 1930 Open when he brought it home in four under par.

  That round gave Jones the cushion he needed to hold off Macdonald Smith in the afternoon and win by two strokes to capture the third leg of his Grand Slam.

  I was one year old and remember it well.

  Gene Sarazen on June 25, 1932, at Fresh Meadow Country Club in Flushing, Long Island, which is now gone. Sarazen’s four-under 66 came in the last round of the ’32 U.S. Open. He was actually four under over the last 36 holes, which enabled him to run away from Bobby Cruickshank and Phil Perkins and win by three strokes. Gene’s 66-70 on the last day was considered a rare feat.

  He joined Bobby Jones as the second player to win the U.S. and British Opens in the same year. The feat has been equaled since Sarazen’s day only by Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, and Tiger Woods.

  Henry Cotton on June 28, 1934, at Royal St. Georges Golf Club, Sandwich, England. Cotton started becoming the finest English golfer since Harry Vardon by ending the eleven-year dominance of Americans in the British Open. He did it at Sandwich by breaking all kinds of records, in particular his scorching 65 in the second round. It helped him to a five-stroke victory. Cotton would win two more British Opens in his career, in ’37 at Carnoustie and ’48 at Muirfield. But his round at Sandwich was the one that inspired the Dunlop 65 golf ball.

  The first golf ball I ever swung at, I’m certain.

  Byron Nelson on April 13, 1942, at the Augusta National. For all his other accomplishments—the win streaks and such—Byron himself always said that the three-under 69 he shot that day was the best golf he ever played. It won him the Masters in a historic playoff with Ben Hogan, who shot a 70.

  What made it special was that Ben led Byron by three strokes through the first five holes, but Nelson shot five under par over the last thirteen holes for the win.

  Ben Hogan on June 19, 1942, at Ridgemoor Country Club in Chicago. On this day Hogan shot a 10-under-par 62, which is still the lowest 18 ever shot in a major championship. It helped sweep Hogan to victory in an event officially called the Hale America National Open, now most often referred to as the U.S. “wartime” Open.

  It is still debated as to whether this is Hogan’s “fifth” Open—but not by Ben, or me. There was USGA regional qualifying and USGA sectional qualifying, the event was conducted under USGA rules, and Ben received the same prize money as at any previous Open and a gold medal for the win that looks an awful lot like the other four.

  Sam Snead on April 10, 1949, at Augusta National. Sam shot many low rounds in his six decades of competition, including a 60 on Old White at the Greenbrier, but his finest round in a major was his five-under 67 on the last day to win his first of three Masters tournaments. Sam made eight birdies in the round. He actually closed with a pair of 67s to come from five strokes back and win by three over Lloyd Mangrum and Johnny Bulla.

  This was the first year a green jacket was slipped on the Masters winner.

  Ben Hogan on June 16, 1951, at Oakland Hills Country Club in Detroit. If anyone was going to have two rounds on this list, you might have guessed it would be Hogan. This three-under 67 in the last round of the ’51 U.S. Open has been called the greatest ever played in the heat of a major on the most difficult course ever devised by man, beast, or Robert Trent Jones. It gave Hogan his third Open, and in fact his third in a row. He’d won in ’48 at Riviera and ’50 at Merion, but missed ’49, of course, due to that altercation with the Greyhound bus.

  As brilliant as it was, the round could have been lower. Ben bogeyed the 3rd and 14th holes with three-putt greens before closing with birdies at 15 an
d 18. It was my first Open to cover, and I’m pleased to report that after Ben brought “the monster” to its knees, I was able to wrestle my typewriter to the ground and write a story.

  Arnold Palmer on June 18, 1960, at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver. Show me a man who doesn’t know what Arnold did in the last round of the ’60 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills and I’ll show you a soccer fan in Uruguay.

  It was a six-under 65 that won Palmer the Open over Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan, a confluence of three kings of the fairway—past, present, and future. He came from fourteen players and seven strokes back in that final round.

  Johnny Miller on June 17, 1973, at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh. Miller came from only six strokes and twelve players back with his eight-under-par 63 in the last round of that U.S. Open.

  Miller passed such competitors as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Julius Boros, and Tom Weiskopf by going out early and getting to the clubhouse ahead of the traffic.

  Tom Watson on July 9, 1977, at Turnberry Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was in this British Open, the first ever held amid the sea views of Turnberry, that Watson and Jack Nicklaus engaged in the greatest two-man duel in the history of majors. After they both shot 65s in the third round, Watson’s five-under 65 in the fourth narrowly edged Jack’s 66 to give him the claret jug.

  Watson’s 72-hole score of 268 broke the record, as did Nicklaus’s 269.

  Hubert Green, the reigning U.S. Open champion, finished third at 279, eleven strokes back of Watson and ten strokes back of Nicklaus, and said:

  “I won the British Open. I don’t know what tournament Tom and Jack were playing.”

  Gary Player on April 9, 1978, at the Augusta National. As the final round of this Masters began, Gary trailed the leader, Hubert Green, by seven strokes, and a group of eight other competitors that included Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, Gene Littler, and Tom Weiskopf.

  All the South African did to win his third green jacket and his ninth, and last, major at the age of forty-two was shock the community by firing an eight-under 64. The round didn’t look like much for more than an hour and a half, but Gary implausibly birdied seven of the last ten holes!

  Jack Nicklaus on April 13, 1986, at the Augusta National. It’s no news bulletin that Jack won so many major championships that it takes four hands to count them. None, however, aroused more emotion than this victory for his sixth Masters and eighteenth professional major at the age of forty-six.

  Jack did it with a totally unexpected seven-under-par 65 in the last round that saw him make up four strokes and pass seven guys.

  As Jack trudged triumphantly up the last fairway, you couldn’t find a dry eye on the course, except maybe on Greg Norman and Tom Kite, who tied for second one stroke back.

  Seve Ballesteros on July 18, 1988, at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. The Spaniard who rejuvenated European golf, and didn’t do a bad job of livening up things in the United States, saved his greatest round for the last day of this British Open, and won the last of his five majors. It was a seven-under 65 to overtake the 36- and 54-hole leader Nick Price, and it came on the same course where he’d taken his first major in ’79.

  Seve was nicknamed the “Car Park Champion” by the press because he continually had trouble getting his tee shots in the fairways but also displayed an uncanny ability to recover and make pars and birdies.

  “I don’t aim for the rough,” he said. “It just goes there.”

  Greg Norman on July 18, 1993, at Royal St. Georges Golf Club, Sandwich, England. Greg set a record for meltdowns and bad luck in the majors during his prime, but this was one week when he was unbeatable. He not only carried off his second British Open, but did it with a flawless eight-under 64 in the final round. He broke the 72-hole record with a 267, and needed every bit of it to hold off Nick Faldo by two strokes.

  Tiger Woods on June 15, 2000, at Pebble Beach Golf Links, near Carmel, California. You could select any of three rounds Tiger shot in this U.S. Open as he shredded the record books and won by fifteen strokes. His seven-under 65 on opening day was low for Thursday. His three-under 69 on Friday was the only sub-70 round of the day. And his closing five-under 67 on Sunday was the best in the field. All week Tiger’s game and putting were genius. His talent was at its peak.

  I choose his opening 65. It caused heads to swim and jaws to drop and got him off and running on his way to trampling a legendary golf course.

  Phil Mickelson on July 21, 2013, at Muirfield Golf Links, Gullane, Scotland. After inflicting so many wounds on himself to finish runner-up in six U.S. Opens—including the one at Merion one month earlier—Phil played one of the great final rounds ever in a major with his winning 66 on the punishing and bewildering moonscape of Muirfield in the British Open.

  That round of five under brought him from five shots and seven players behind—two of whom were Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

  I gladly place it among the five greatest rounds I’ve covered. In there with Ben Hogan at Oakland Hills in ’51, Arnold Palmer at Cherry Hills in ’60, Johnny Miller at Oakmont in ’73, and Jack Nicklaus at Augusta in ’86.

  I might add that I will resent in the strongest possible terms any insinuation that this particular choice was influenced by the fact that I cashed a winning ticket on Phil for a handsome stack of coin.

  In forty-five years of covering British Opens and visiting betting shops, it was about time I had a winner.

  Finally, let me say that if I’ve overlooked or omitted somebody’s round you admire, feel free to call and complain about it whenever the two of us happen to be in Dobrich, Bulgaria, at the same time.

  GREATEST MOMENTS

  A GREAT MOMENT IN golf may obviously be an 18-hole round, but it may also be a spectacular shot, a stunning result, a streak, a season, an interlude, an escapade, the way you wear your hat, the way we danced till three.

  That said, I will now set about choosing golf’s eighteen greatest moments. To do this I shall rely on personal memories, considerable research, depth of thought, and a heavy dose of opinion.

  While little things may mean a lot in other aspects of life, they won’t here. You won’t find Mary, Queen of Scots swinging a shepherd’s crook for the first time, or the persimmon driver being replaced by the Graf Zeppelin, or Tour wives becoming cuter through the years, having discarded matronly wardrobes and needlepoint on the verandas.

  I will instead lean toward moments that have squeezed into the lore of the game, bought a condo, and live happily within sight of an ocean, a mountain range, or a bent green.

  The first three are gimmes. The others follow in no discerning order.

  • Bobby Jones and the Grand Slam thing in 1930. A moment that started in June and ended in September.

  • Ben Hogan’s Triple Crown in 1953. Rivals Jones’s Slam. Overall, Ben won five of the six pro tournaments he entered that year.

  • Byron Nelson’s streak and stockpile of wins in 1945. Not for nothing did he become known as “golf’s mechanical man.”

  • Arnold Palmer becomes Arnold Palmer in the Masters, and keeps on being Arnold Palmer through U.S. Opens, revives the British Open. Takes golf to the masses.

  • Ben Hogan’s comeback in 1950 from the near-fatal automobile crash in 1949. Takes golf to the movies.

  • Jack Nicklaus wins a sentimental sixth Masters and eighteenth professional major in 1986. Takes golf to the Kleenex box.

  • Francis Ouimet’s upset win over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline. A young amateur startles the world, takes golf to the front pages.

  • Gene Sarazen’s double eagle in the 1935 Masters. Makes the four-wood a household necessity.

  • Tiger Woods arrives.

  • Sam Snead’s horrendous 8 on the last hole that cost him the 1939 U.S. Open at Spring Mill in Philadelphia—and his other Open losses to follow. Most negative fame a golfer ever received.

  • Babe Zaharias takes up golf. Ladies who play the game enjoy increased accepta
nce. The LPGA is born in 1950.

  • Nature creates the Old Course at St. Andrews, which, in turn, creates the cashmere sweater and travel agents.

  • Gary Player’s years of success and competitiveness. Continually gives needed PR to his homeland of South Africa.

  • Lee Trevino bursts onto the scene by winning the U.S. Open of 1968 at Oak Hill in Rochester. Lee livens up the Tour for the next twenty years or longer.

  • Tom Watson outlasts Jack Nicklaus in a two-day sub-par battle for the 1977 British Open at Turnberry. No birdies left for anyone else.

  • Seve Ballesteros hand-carries golf around the European continent, achieves stardom in the United States, reinvents the Ryder Cup.

  • Lew Worsham holes out a miraculous wedge shot on the last hole at Tam O’Shanter—and on national TV—to win the All American Open in 1953, which causes commentator Jimmy Demaret to blurt out over the air, “The son of a bitch went in!”

  • Harry Vardon tours the United States for the first time in 1900, helps popularize the game by showing duffers how to grip the club and where the Vs should point, and demonstrating that the golf swing need not resemble a vicious cut with a baseball bat.

  Emergency Nine

  • President Dwight Eisenhower finally makes a par on the 12th at Augusta National, declares golf the national pastime.

  • Technology helps make bad golfers better.

  • Astronaut Alan Shepard hits a golf ball on the moon.

  • Ben Hogan fires a fantastic 67 to win the U.S. Open in the final round at Oakland Hills in 1951. Greatest round on the toughest Open course in the history of mankind.