Sam Snead’s 1949 Masters trophy. No, not a replica or a backup or a scrapped version where they accidentally spelled “Snead” with two Es. We’re talking about the real McCoy.

Snead’s 1949 trophy sold through Golden Age Auctions this week for a whopping $766,432.80. Bidding began at $25,000 and the item received 36 total bids enroute to its final selling price. As Action Network’s Darren Rovell points out, the trophy sold for just $143,000 a decade ago. Inflation is a hell of a drug.

Sam Snead’s 1949 Masters Trophy sold tonight at @GoldenAgeBid for $766,433.

It sold for $143,000 in 2013. pic.twitter.com/8MESXje7PB

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 20, 2023

Part of the reason for the hefty six-figure price is the unique place the trophy holds in Masters history. Not only was 1949 Snead’s maiden Masters win, but it was also the first year Augusta National awarded a green jacket to the victor. Snead would go on to win the Masters a total of three times (not to mention more golf tournaments than any male golfer not named “Tiger Woods”) but 1949 was truly a tournament unlike any other.

Image: Twitter

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You would have seen this if you were watching a rerun of the 1968 Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between Snead and Roberto De Vicenzo at Congressional Country Club. And you probably would have thought this was due to some sort of side bet like the one-club challenge we recently saw in The Match involving Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. But you would be wrong, because this is how Snead putted all the time. At least, for a short time.

As Bill Fields wrote in 2011, Snead adopted the bizarre method late in his career at the 1966 PGA Championship. The man credited with as many PGA Tour titles as Tiger Woods was struggling so much on the greens by that point that he even double-hit a two-and-a-half footer in that tournament.

The Golf Channel is currently capturing a historical moment in golf. They are re-airing Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf where Roberto De Vicenzo faced off against San Snead.

This is a period of time when Snead putted croquet style. Which was banned due to Snead’s effectiveness pic.twitter.com/ffHxm2COMc

— Society of Golf Historians (@SHistorians) January 12, 2023

But after making the switch, something funny happened. He started making putts (like that one above). Snead finished T-6 that week then won the following year’s Senior PGA Championship by nine shots. Then the 54-year-old finished T-10 at the Masters. But according to Fields, Augusta National co-founder Bobby Jones didn’t like his new style and got in the ear of USGA Executive Director Joseph C Dey Jr.

Fields writes: “The wheels to outlaw croquet putting turned very fast. A little more than a month after the 1967 Masters, the USGA and Royal and Ancient GC met in Great Britain on the eve of the Walker Cup and proposed a rules change, subject to final approval by the association’s executive committees, that would be effective January 1, 1968: ‘On the putting green a player shall not make a stroke from astride, or with either foot touching the line of the putt, or an extension of that line behind the ball.’”

That’s a tough break for Snead. He eventually switched to using a side-saddle method the rest of his career, but never had the same magic with it.

As for that match, Snead wound up losing to De Vicenzo, who was asked about the seven-time major champ’s unconventional putting stroke. “Oh, I close my eyes when I see him putting,” he said with a chuckle. Maybe so, but don’t laugh until you’ve tried it. Actually, don’t bother trying, because, again, it’s against the rules.

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Golf faces a peculiar challenge in this regard. It’s not just that the fields have got stronger generally, but the equipment has changed, too. And the courses along with it. Ben Hogan and Sam Snead are undoubtedly two of the best golfers of all time whose names often — and rightfully — arrive in this conversation. But how can we truly estimate how good those players would fare against, say, Tiger Woods, when without a firm grasp of how far they drove the ball with the tools they did have?

Stumbled across this amazing old footage of Hogan the other day.

Pour some coffee and play it on repeat. No better way to start the day ? pic.twitter.com/p8v5p0P9UX

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) May 5, 2022

Sadly, stat-tracking capabilities weren’t much of a thing back in their primes. Various golf historians have done a good job piecing together anecdotes and slivers of data from the time to help paint a picture, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better snapshot than a Golf Digest-USGA study from the May 1953 edition, which I stumbled across while perusing the Golf Digest archive last week.

The year 1953, for some context, represented one of the best years of Ben Hogan’s career: He won all three majors he played. Snead won three total events that year, and eight official PGA Tour victories in all between 1952 and 1954 — including two Green Jackets. He was still very much one of the game’s best players.

THE STUDY

The study, conducted by Robert Trent Jones, measures every player’s drive on the 18th hole during the third round of the 1953 US Open at Oakmont Country Club.

“I tried to select a hole which would be most feasible for the purpose and which would bring out the true character of the normal hitting of the country’s finest golfers,” Trent Jones writes.

He admits the hole was “not ideal”, because the tee box is elevated slightly and the wind, which was blowing straight downwind, ranged from “3.4 miles per hour to as high as 14mph” which helped golfers gain approximately “five to eight yards”.

Nevertheless, Trent Jones settled on the 18th because of its wide landing area, and length forcing every pro to hit driver.

THE RESULTS

You can see the full results below, but the driving distance average for the 59 players was 240 yards of carry, and 261 yards in total. (11 players failed to hit the fairway.)

• 300+ yards: 1 drive
• 300-290 yards: 2 drives
• 270-260 yards: 19 drives
• 260-250 yards: 16 drives
• <250 yards: 10 drives

The drives for Hogan and Snead specifically are below. Both ended above the field average, and Snead hit one of the longest drives of the day (though had slightly more wind helping him than most)

• Ben Hogan: 258 yards (carry) 266 yards (total)
• Sam Snead 270 yards (carry) 290 yards (total)

Great quote from Sam Snead:

"There never was a golfer worth his spikes who didn't pulverize the ball. When the time comes, you gotta mash it."pic.twitter.com/CABVPiFAxh

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) October 28, 2022

The PGA Tour average driving distance last season was just over 299 yards. Taking the almost 40-yard distance difference, some (very) unscientific estimates would suggest that Snead, in the modern era, would be one of the very longest players on tour. Something akin to the Rory McIlroy, Cam Champ 320-yard range.

Hogan probably would be an elite ball striker with slightly-above-average distance, similar to perhaps Corey Connors or Matt Fitzpatrick in terms of distance. There is other evidence that Hogan would be an even longer driver than that, though. Again, not scientific, just a quick estimation based on these specific findings.

As for how they’d both fare against the current greats of the game? We’ll leave that up for debate.

The post How far did Ben Hogan and Sam Snead drive the ball? Unearthed study reveals the facts appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Seve Ballesteros celebrates making the winning putt in the 1984 Open Championship. Tony Roberts

By Shane Ryan
There are a couple things you may not know about the 29 Open Championships played at St Andrews since time immemorial. First, it being only the second course ever to host the Open, it wasn’t until the event’s 13th iteration that it came to St Andrews — the first 12 were all at Prestwick.

Second, despite Tom Morris, both Old and Young, being so closely associated with the town and course — Old Tom was the greenskeeper and pro there for 39 years — neither one of them ever won an Open Championship at the course. Those facts provide a microcosm of everything to come later, in the sense that the history of the Open at St Andrews is both long and glorious, but also a little strange.

With that in mind, let’s look at the 15 best Open Championships played at the Old Course.

1885 — Bob Martin, Champion

There is a piece of fake history here that is so good we wish it was real. The story goes that David Ayton Sr was winning the event, and by a considerable margin, when he took an 11 on the Road Hole to blow it and lose by two shots. Unfortunately, it appears this is not true, as accounts later discovered list him as shooting a 6 and 7 there. Seven is still not great, and probably cost him the tournament, but it’s no 11.

1933 — Denny Shute, Champion

The only reason we mention 1933 is for a small detail about Leo Diegel, who had two putts on 18 to join a playoff with eventual champion Shute and Craig Wood. Diegel left his first putt short, and then … he missed the ball. Yes, he literally whiffed on a putt. How this happened is a total mystery, especially for a guy who was a two-time PGA Championship winner. Later reports cast some doubt on whether he actually whiffed, or how long the putt was (accounts indicate between three feet and a tap-in), but the most common story, and the one we have to believe, is that he somehow failed to make contact with the ball.

1876 — Bob Martin, Champion

This was the second Open ever at St Andrews, and it merits mention here as both the weirdest and funniest. This tournament marks one of the strangest circumstances in major golf history, in that one of the players who qualified for a Monday playoff opted not to play. That’s Davie Strath, and the whole thing came about because, in a situation that seems comical when viewed from the present, St Andrews members were allowed to play the course during the Open Championship. That led to congestion, and on the 14th hole in the second round (there were only two rounds back then), Strath hit a member of the public named Hutton, an upholsterer, in the head, and Hutton fell to the ground. That rattled Strath, leading to back-to-back 6s, and after climbing a wall to play a ball on 17 and hitting a spectator on 18, he finished with a 90, tied for the lead with Bob Martin.
However, it came to pass that Strath likely hit up to the 14th green in frustration before Hutton the upholsterer had finished the hole, and there was an official “objection” that could not be decided on Sunday night, which meant that the playoff would be played “under protest” pending the outcome. This enraged Strath, who flat out refused to play, and Martin won the event just by going out by himself. That was Strath’s third runner-up, and the rest of his life was not happy; he fell ill with consumption in 1878, decided to recover in Australia, and died in Melbourne 20 days after landing, likely only 29 years old.

1882 — Bob Ferguson, Champion

This was a big one, since for the first time ever the prize for the winner topped £10, with Ferguson winning £12. This week, the winner will take home £2.1 million. Clearly, 1882 is where professional golf began to spiral out of control into the big-money behemoth that it is today.

1888 — Jack Burns, Champion

The weird thing here? Burns was almost the original Roberto DiVicenzo. Whereas DiVicenzo inadvertently signed for a 66 at the 1966 Masters, costing him a spot in the playoff when he had shot a 65, Jack Burns originally signed for an 87 in the first round when he had shot an 86. He won the tournament by a shot, but only because an R&A member noticed that his scorecard for the first day wasn’t adding up. So what did they do? Well, they changed the 87 to an 86, rather than making him take the 87 the way Augusta did to DiVicenzo. It’s almost too sane! Burns followed his 86 with an 85 and captured his only Open Championship.

Sam Snead holds the claret jug in 1946. New York Times Co

1946 — Sam Snead, Champion

The best detail here is that upon arriving at the course, Snead remarked that “it looks like an old abandoned kinda place,” and the Scottish crowd, as you might imagine, did not particularly like him. Nevertheless, Snead was the best man for the job when the heavy winds hit in the final round, and he out-duelled Johnny Bulla and Bobby Locke to win by four shots as the only player under par. This was his only Open title, and one of just three times he ever played, and it got Snead three-quarters of the way to a career Grand Slam. Unfortunately, despite four second-place finishes, he never won the US Open, making him the Mickelson of his day.

1921 — Jock Hutchison, Champion

There are always amazing little details in history that show how the importance and status of events has changed over time. Here again, as in 1876, we have some playoff drama around one guy not wanting to play. That person was Roger Wethered, an amateur who tied with Jock Hutchison at 296. The problem? He was scheduled to play for his cricket team on the Monday when the 36-hole playoff was scheduled, and cricket was a priority. Apparently, the powers-that-be had to work very hard to convince him to stay and play. In the end, he was probably annoyed that he did, since Hutchison raced out a three-shot lead on the first nine and widened that lead to insurmountable territory by their second round. Hutchison, though born in Scotland, was a US citizen who was credited as the first American champion of the Open. Wethered went on to win the 1923 Amateur Championship, but never came close in the Open again, though his sister Joyce was a star whose swing was admired by Bobby Jones.

1927 — Bobby Jones, Champion

Speaking of Jones, he was back at St Andrews to atone for what he’d done in 1921, when he walked off the course in anger during the third round. He won by six strokes, and this is the start of St Andrews’ reputation for producing truly great champions. He was so beloved after this win that by 1958, he was named a Freeman of the City of St Andrews, becoming only the second American after Benjamin Franklin to receive the honour. (Jack Nicklaus became the third this year.)

1957 — Bobby Locke, Champion

First interesting tidbit: Cary Middlecoff was so maddeningly slow to the British players that they actually filed an official complaint with the R&A. Middlecoff’s total time on the course? Three hours, 18 minutes. How times have changed. Second interesting tidbit: Bobby Locke, playing the final hole, forgot to move his ball marker back after moving it out of the line of his playing partner. It was brought to the R&A’s attention, and, showing the same as they had in 1888, they decided no harm had been done, and issued no penalty.

But the really dramatic thing about the incident is that the man who ratted out Locke was none other than Peter Thomson, his supposed friend. Thomson finished second and may have been hoping for a big penalty that gave him the Claret Jug. Friendship over. It’s especially egregious because Thomson had won the last three Opens.

1960 — Kel Nagle, Champion

Nagle won by a stroke over a hard-charging Arnold Palmer, but the important thing about this tournament, in terms of the history of golf, was Palmer’s mere presence. The fact that he was there at all made a massive impact in the US, and while only four Americans played in 1960 — a typical number — there were 24 a decade later, and that number continued to grow with time. Palmer was the one who changed that, and even though he didn’t win in 1960 (he would in ’61 and ’62), he set the tone for the modern era.

Jack and Barbara Nicklaus celebrate his 1970 Open Championship win. R&A Championships

1970 — Jack Nicklaus, Champion

You knew this one was coming. This was Nicklaus’ second of three Open championships, but it will always be known for Doug Sanders’ missed putt on the 18th hole on Saturday’s final round. Clad in a purple sweater, with three feet to win the Open, Sanders stalked it like a man on a mission. But when he struck the ball, it slid past on the right, and he almost seemed to reach out for it, wanting to take it back and try again. This video should probably come with a content warning:
Nicklaus’ quote after his first victory must have been a real rub-salt-in-the-wounds moment for Sanders: “How lucky can you get? I never expected to be here now. Doug had it all wrapped up on the final hole Saturday. Then he missed that short putt.”
Nicklaus would win again at St. Andrews in 1978, but the best Sanders would ever do in majors was runner-up … four times.

1984 — Seve Ballesteros, Champion

On the 18th hole, Ballesteros didn’t know that Tom Watson was struggling on the 17th, eventually making bogey to open the door for him to win. His short pitch over the Valley of Sin gave him a seven-footer for birdie. Watson lost the lead on 17, and Ballesteros hit the tricky right-to-left putt for birdie, and gave one of the most famous fist-pumps ever:

Watson was now down two strokes, essentially ending the tournament. At 12-under, Ballesteros set an Open record at the Old Course. And it remains a little stunning that for all the great Open champions at St Andrews, Watson never joined the club. This was his best chance.

John Daly drives during his 1995 Open win. Jacqueline Duvoisin

1995 — John Daly, Champion

Daly emerged in a four-hole playoff against Constantino Rocca, but for anyone watching this tournament will be remembered for Rocca’s improbably tying putt on the 18th after duffing his pitch, while Daly watched in agony.
It’s hard to tell now what’s more miraculous: Rocca’s putt, or the fact that Daly could somehow recover psychologically in the space of mere minutes to go out and win anyway.

2000 and 2005 — Tiger Woods, Champion

Let’s group these together because they are essentially the same. Neither one was close, but both mattered and were fascinating to watch for the same reason: It was Tiger Woods showing the world, yet again, the dizzying levels of his absurd greatness.

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By E. Michael Johnson
AUGUSTA — As Tom Watson prepares to join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as honorary starters for the 2022 Masters, the significance of joining a select group hasn’t been lost on him.

“It’s such a great honour to tee it up with Jack and Gary,” Watson told Golf Channel in January. “They are icons in the game of golf.”

Although the honorary starters are at Augusta National in a ceremonial capacity, they are indisputably a hefty part of the tournament’s lore. It is why patrons, media and even numerous tour pros make sure to arrive plenty early on Thursday morning and head to the first tee as soon as allowed to grab a spot. It is watching history in person.

The tradition began in 1963 with Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod tabbed to do the honours. For nearly a decade leading up to that year, the pair often played nine or 18 holes together before withdrawing. The move to honorary starters merely formalised the arrangement.

Although neither won the Masters, both were major championship winners and had a connection to Augusta National. Hutchison won the 1937 PGA Seniors’ Championship and McLeod won the same event a year later — the only two times the tournament was held at Augusta National. Hutchison held the role until 1973 when he was 88 years old. McLeod continued alone until 1976 when he was 93.

After a brief hiatus, Chairman Hord Hardin revived the tradition in 1981 with Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen taking on the role. Both among the game’s all-time greats, Nelson was a two-time Masters champion and Sarazen the owner of the greatest shot in tournament history, the albatross on No. 15 in 1935 that allowed him to tie Craig Wood and win in a playoff. In the early years of their tenure as starters they would not only strike the ceremonial swat, but like McLeod and Hutchison, play nine holes before retiring.

A little-known honorary starter fact is that Ken Venturi, who twice nearly won the Masters as an amateur, pinch-hit for Nelson in 1983 as Nelson was tending to his wife, who was ill. Other than that blip, Nelson, Sarazen and Sam Snead, who joined the pair in 1984, proved a fixture in opening the tournament, providing incredible cachet to the ceremony and making it a can’t-miss event.

Honorary starter Sam Snead watches as Gene Sarazen tees off during the 1984 Masters Tournament. Augusta National

The trio got the Masters off and running until 1999 before Sarazen passed shortly after that year’s Masters at 97. Nelson stopped after 2001, saying, “OK ball, one more time” before striking a reasonably solid final shot for an 89-year-old. Snead kept up the tradition one more year, with unfortunately an ugly flare to the right that struck a patron as his final swing at Augusta National. He passed the following month at 89.

The tradition lay dormant for a few years until Chairman Billy Payne asked Arnold Palmer — who played his first round in the Masters with Sarazen — to take on responsibilities. Although Palmer stopped competing in 2004, it took the four-time Masters champion a few years to come to grips with coming to Augusta National in a non-competing role.

“When I quit, I just wanted to think about not playing in the Masters, and get over that, and then I would be ready,” he said in 2007. “I’m ready.” Palmer also was asked at the time if he would twist Chairman Payne’s arm to have Nicklaus and Player join him. “To let them join me or to tell them to stay the hell away?” he joked.

Palmer went solo for a few years but in the lead-up to the 2010 Masters, Palmer asked Payne to have Nicklaus join him and the six-time Masters champion, who once said he did not want to be a ceremonial golfer, readily accepted the invitation.

“Billy called me and said that Arnold would like to have me do it with him,” said Nicklaus. “I’m old enough now, I can do that.”

In 2012, Gary Player completed ‘The Big Three’ by being asked to join the pair, a significance Player fully understood.

“Teeing off with Arnold and Jack is going to be very special,” said Player, a three-time Masters winner and the tournament’s first international champion. “I go back to Jock Hutchison. I always loved the history of golf. I stood there and watched Jock Hutchison hit off the first tee and watched that incredible swing of Sam Snead hit off the first tee. It’s got a lot of wonderful memories for me.”

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer on the first tee at Augusta. Andrew Redington

The threesome started the tournament each year until 2016, when Palmer informed the club he could no longer continue in the role. That didn’t stop Palmer from being part of the proceedings, however.

“I plan to go out to the first tee with the chairman on Thursday morning and watch Jack and Gary sweat it out and hit the shots,” he said. And indeed, Palmer was there in his green jacket to join them. Palmer passed later that year and Nicklaus saluted Palmer during the 2017 ceremony by lifting his hat and raising it in the air as he looked toward the sky in perhaps the ceremony’s most emotional moment.

In 2021, Lee Elder joined Nicklaus and Player, and although he did not strike a shot due to physical limitations, his presence served as a poignant reminder of his legacy as the first Black man to play in the Masters in 1975.

Now it’s Watson’s turn, and it is certain to hold nearly as much meaning as his two Masters titles. Watson, who regularly plays with Nicklaus and Player in the Par 3 Contest, put the green jacket on Player in 1978. He also made sure to get a photo with Snead and Nelson in 2001 during Nelson’s swansong.

Now Watson joins the club and gains a new appreciation for the significance of being an honorary starter. Play away, please.

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By Ryan Herrington and Joel Beall
Another beloved tradition has been put on hold for 2020: the Wednesday Par 3 Contest.

Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley announced on Tuesday that the low-key lead-in to the tournament, first held in 1960, will not take place when the Masters is contested without fans next month.

“The fun and excitement of watching Masters competitors with their friends and family is what makes the Par 3 Contest such a special part of Masters week,” Ridley stated in a press release. “We know that experience could not have been replicated without guests and patrons at Augusta National, and we eagerly anticipate the opportunity to bring back this signature tradition.”

Augusta National’s Par 3 course will be the scene, however, of an unusual one-off event during Masters week. Ridley also announced that ESPN’s College GameDay football program will air live from beside the ninth green on Nov. 14. The college football program will be broadcast live from 9 a.m.-12 noon just prior to CBS’ live broadcast of the third round of the tournament.

“When exploring ways to showcase a fall Masters, we were drawn to the concept of hosting College GameDay at Augusta National to introduce the tournament to a new audience and provide even more anticipation and excitement to the event,” Ridley said.

Ridley had previously announced the cancellation of this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, two other Masters-week events waylaid due to COVID-19.

Still, not all early week traditions are going missing. The club is planning to hold the Champions Dinner on Tuesday evening and announced it will still start the 84th playing of the tournament on Thursday Nov. 12 with the ceremonial opening tee shots from honorary starters Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Augusta National’s Par 3 course, designed by George Cobb and club co-founder Cliff Roberts, opened in the fall of 1958 to rave reviews. The nine-hole course was such a hit that it was incorporated into the Masters, with the inaugural Par 3 Contest won by Sam Snead.

“Due to the indicated popularity of this new type of preliminary event with the patrons and players, it is likely that it will be staged again next year on the day preceding the first round of the Masters Tournament,” Roberts told the Augusta Chronicle.

In the years since, Roberts’ words have proven true, as the Par-3 Contest has become one of the more popular traditions during tournament week. Aside from those playing in the Masters, the Par 3 is filled with retired legends making a victory lap of sorts, producing a nostalgic ambience to the proceedings.

Over the years the Par 3 Contest has transformed into something resembling a “family day” for the players, many allowing friends or family to serve as their caddies (or in some instances, their proxy on the ninth tee box).

The Par 3 is also noted for its “curse,” as no player has won the Par 3 and the Masters in the same year. Most Masters entrants will purposefully DQ at the Par-3 Contest, hoping to avoid the event’s jinx. Last year’s winner, Matt Wallace, missed the cut with a 75 and 77.

The post Par 3 Contest cancelled for this November appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There is probably no man on the planet who has a better perspective for this particular question, and the rankings you see below are mostly his, with an occasional (but rare) thumb-on-the-scale from me … and only in cases where we neglected to talk about a Championship or two. Aside from those anomalies, what you see below comes from Denney—I’m just the transcriber.

Let’s count it down from 15.

15. 1955, Doug Ford, Meadowbrook Country Club

This one is mostly about personal achievement. From 1916 until 1957, the PGA Championship was decided by match play, with stroke-play qualification rounds starting in 1924. In that time, only four men were both medalists (for winning the stroke-play rounds) and overall champions. They included Byron Nelson, Walter Hagen, Olin Dutra and Doug Ford in ’55. Of those, Ford was the only one who managed it in a field of 128 golfers, meaning he had to win a 36-hole qualifier and then prevail in six straight matches. He pulled it off, capping the incredible week with a 4-and-3 win over Cary Middlecoff in the final. As it happens, Denney was the last person to interview Ford before he passed in 2018 at age 95.

14. 1963, Jack Nicklaus, Dallas Athletic Club

Nobody has won more PGA Championships than Nicklaus and Walter Hagen (with five each), and this was Jack’s first. He won the long drive contest that week, hitting 341 yards with a persimmon-headed driver, and the gold money clip he won became his good luck charm starting that week. He was also exhausted, having just flown in from the Open Championship where he finished one-shot out of a playoff after bogeying his the last two holes. Somehow, with temperatures in the triple digits on Sunday in Texas, Nicklaus came from three strokes back to win. That made him just the fourth player to have won all three American majors, and he was only 23. Safe to say he had a good career ahead of him.

13. 1921, Walter Hagen, Inwood Country Club

Photo by E. Bacon

This was the first American-born player to win the PGA Championship run by the PGA of … AMERICA. We have to include this, right? Right?!? Anyway, Hagen is a legend, but the real story here is that in the final, he defeated a man named Johnny Golden from Tuxedo, N.Y. Tell me that’s a real person, and not a character from a Michael Scott improve scene.

12. 1945, Byron Nelson, Moraine Country Club

Photo by Bettmann

As Denney pointed out, this was the ninth victory of Nelson’s famous 11-victory streak in 1945, at a time when he was burning out to a great degree. This was the only major championship played that year because of World War II (bad luck for Nelson, right??), and in the championship match, he defeated Sam Byrd, who had played for the Yankees as a backup outfielder from 1929 to 1934 as a reserve to none other than Babe Ruth. Which makes him one of the few people who could say to Nelson, “I’ve lost to better men than you,” and have it be true. This was a different era, but there was still a ton of pressure on Nelson … imagine winning almost every tournament played that year, but losing the only major.

11. 1942, Sam Snead, Seaview Country Club

This was Snead’s last event before joining the U.S. Navy—he would report for duty the next day. As it happened, he met an army corporal named Jim Turnesa in the final, and Turnesa was no slouch, having upset Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson in the quarters and semis. Snead won on the 35th hole by chipping in from 60 feet for birdie, and Denney noted there’s a photo of both men signing war bonds from after the round. Snead said at the time, and later repeated in Denney’s hearing, that it was his most meaningful victory because like many other Americans at that time, he didn’t know what the war might bring. (He never went overseas, serving mostly in San Diego before earning a medical discharge in 1944.)

10. 1968, Julius Boros, Pecan Valley Golf Club

This course no longer exists, but Boros’ record does—52 years later, he’s still the oldest man to ever win a major. Boros was 48, and it didn’t come easy. Arnold Palmer, a shot behind him, hit a spectacular curving 3-wood on the 72nd hole to eight feet, but couldn’t make the birdie putt. Boros had to make par, and went up and down to seal the deal. Also, as a footnote, Boros’ choice of hat that Sunday (Amana Refrigeration) seems to have accidentally spawned the clothing logo craze we know and hate today.

9. 2001, David Toms, Atlanta Athletic Club

“The layup to remember.” This one flies under the radar because it came one year after a certain other entry we’ll see later on the list, but the ending was spectacular. Dueling with a then major-less Phil Mickelson all day (Phil holed a dramatic long chip on 15 before giving it right back with a bogey on 16), and leading by a single stroke on the 72nd hole, Toms put his tee shot in the rough. Rather than risk the water on the par-4 home hole (playing a tick over 500 yards that day), he laid up and prayed for his short game to save him. His wedge came to rest 12 feet from the hole, and when Phil missed his birdie putt, Toms had his moment. Start at the 11:50 mark here for the layup and all that came after:

Afterward, Denney was the one who escorted Toms from the green to the trailer, and Toms was on the phone with his young son, saying, “Did you see that one?”

8. 1986, Bob Tway, Inverness Club

The next two entries belong in the long litany of Greg Norman heartbreaks, and this one comes from the year when he became the first man to lead every single major after 54 holes in a single year … and won just one of them. In this case, he held a four-shot lead heading into Sunday and still held it after nine holes before going into a tailspin. But in typical Norman fashion, he got very unlucky too. That twist came on the 72nd hole, when Tway, in the worse position of the two and tied with Norman, holed-out improbably from a greenside bunker. Norman, on the fringe, missed his birdie putt, and it was another chance gone. Watch Tway’s shot, one of the most famous in major history:

That’s some good leaping!

7. 1993, Paul Azinger, Inverness Club

Paul Azinger claims his one and only major at Inverness Club in 1993. (Photo by David Cannon)

This one actually went in Denney’s top five, but I’m being a jerk and knocking it back a few spots … but only because Denney admits he’s a bit biased. It was the first PGA Championship he worked, and he watched as Azinger emerged from “the greatest assembly of contenders on a Saturday leader board,” a group that collectively boasted 23 majors. Just like Bob Tway, Azinger overcame Norman, though this time Norman was very good, with a final-round 69. That’s the thing about Norman—when he wasn’t booting a major, he was the victim of terrible luck. In this case, Azinger had to birdie four of the last seven holes just to make a playoff, and then Norman missed a four-foot par putt on the second sudden-death hole to lose it. With the loss, Norman earned a dubious distinction, becoming just the second golfer after Craig Wood to have lost each of the four majors in a playoff. The legacy with Azinger is happier—it was his only major, but it opened up the chance for him to become a Ryder Cup captain back when winning the PGA was seen as an unwritten prerequisite for the Americans. He got the job in 2008, and was brilliant, providing one of the few bright spots for the U.S. in the past 40 years.

6. 1961, Jerry Barber, Olympia Fields

Let’s put it this way: If the last three holes of Barber’s Sunday round happened today, social media would cease to exist—it would be too overwhelming for all the 1s and 0s to process. Here’s how Denney described what Barber, who stood all of 5’3”, pulled off starting on the 16th hole, to force a tie with Don January:

On the 16th, a 458-yard par 4, he hit a 4-wood to 20 feet and made the birdie. On 17, he topped his drive and watched it roll barely 100 yards. Another 4-wood brought him within 90 yards of the green, but his approach was mediocre, leaving him with a 40-foot putt for par. He nailed it. Then, needing a birdie on the 436-yard 18th, in near darkness, he hit a 3-iron approach 60 feet away…AND MADE THAT PUTT TOO.

Barber came back in the 18-hole playoff the next day and beat January by a stroke on the 18th by hitting a 3-iron from the sand to 18 feet. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, he also became the oldest major winner ever at age 45 … a record that wouldn’t stand for very long. (Lucky for January, he won a PGA in 1967, and thank God, because that is a brutal way to go down.)

5. 2009, Y.E. Yang, Hazeltine National

Y.E. Yang acknowledges the fans as he walks up the 18th hole during the final round of the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National, runner-up Tiger Woods trailing behind him. Yang was the first Asian-born golfer to win a men’s major. (Photo by Icon Sports Wire)

It seems almost unfair to say this, but Yang’s win is more exciting after the fact than it was at the time. I was never the No. 1 Tiger homer, but I remember that Sunday at Hazeltine feeling like the ultimate anticlimax, a slow energy drain as we realized that Tiger would fail. What Yang pulled off is beyond incredible—the first (and still only) Asian-born golfer to win a men’s major, and the first person to beat Tiger at a major when Woods had a 54-hole lead. It’s the ultimate underdog story, but what we remember most is Tiger’s struggles that day and, of course, the worse struggles waiting for him just three months down the road. So let this be my attempt to right the wrongs: Yang was a monster that day, and made history in two indelible ways. He deserves to be thought of as more than just Tiger’s foil.

4. 1923, Gene Sarazen, Pelham Country Club

There are a lot of good reasons not have a match-play major championship, but then again, you could get the kind of action we got in 1923 when Sarazen met Walter Hagen in the championship match. You could make a good argument that this was the best match ever played, according to Denney, and it was dramatic until the finish. Sarazen actually blew a 2-up lead with three to play, Hagen sent it to extra holes, they birdied the 37th, and on the 38th, a drivable par 4, Hagen got in a bunker and couldn’t get out. (Again, imagine social media.) It’s worth noting that Hagen responded by going on one of the great revenge tears, winning the next four PGA Championships and three more Open Championships for good measure. Also worth noting that both men remain in the record books for the most holes playing in a single event as every match was a scheduled 36 holes—Sarazen played 194, Hagen 188.

3. 2014, Rory McIlroy, Valhalla

I was thrilled when Denney had this in his top five, because my own personal bias was likely to land it there anyway. I followed Rory that day, and the way he ignored Mickelson and Fowler on the sixth tee box (rain delays had stacked the groups up), almost creating a force field of energy around himself as he glared at nothing, was one of the most fierce and hostile acts I’d ever witnessed in this very polite sport. The ending is what everyone will remember—Rory playing on Rickie and Phil’s heels in the darkness, hitting a controversial approach shot before they had finished that privately left Phil fuming—and it was every bit the epic to Rory’s brilliant season. But the real story for me will always be one of the greatest golfers of his generation out-willing his rivals because he’d allow for no other outcome than a win. It’s made more special because, six years later, it remains the last time we saw that level of defiant greatness.

2. 2000, Tiger Woods, Valhalla

Are you steaming with rage that the Tiger-Bob May duel is only No. 2? Hang on to your hat, because there are a lot of nice things to say about it. Denney called it “the greatest modern shot-making duel” (distinguishing it from Henrik Stenson-Phil Mickelson, 2016 British Open at Troon, which he called a “scoring duel”), and “easily the best modern-era playoff.” My personal hot take is that May’s pitch on the first playoff hole followed by Tiger nailing his birdie putt is the greatest two-shot sequence I’ve ever seen, considering the circumstances. You can see those, and the rest of the staggering face-off, here:

One interesting side note from Denney: According to Ron Hickman, a rules official who was on the course at the time, Ken Venturi was wrong when he said that someone might have interfered with Tiger’s drive on 18, sending it to a better position. Per Hickman, who watched the ball, nobody touched it, and it was only a fortunate carom.

1. 1991, John Daly, Crooked Stick

You’re still mad about Tiger, aren’t you? Well shake it off, because this is one of the greatest golf stories ever, and that’s what it would take to usurp Tiger v. May. John Daly only made it into this tournament because nine—NINE—people dropped out, and Denney told me that when the PGA of America official called Daly to tell him he was in (at 5 p.m. on Wednesday), Daly was in Memphis and had to drive seven and a half hours to Indianapolis. Nick Price was one of the ones who dropped out, so Daly hired his caddie, Jeff (Squeaky) Medlen. They had never worked together before, and after seeing Daly’s swing, Medlen’s advice was simple: “Kill it.” Daly did, but did a lot more than just bomb on the tough Pete Dye course. He took the lead in the second round and never let it go, finishing at 12 under for the most shocking major-championship victory … ever? Daly has become an infamous character, iconic in his own way, but back then he was beyond unknown. This is the tournament that birthed the legend.

Photo by Stephen Munday

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Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesTiger Woods reacts to his tee shot on the fifth tee during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South.

By Daniel Rapaport

LA JOLLA, Calif. — It’s tough to play a better nine holes than Tiger Woods’ front side at Torrey Pines South on Saturday, when he picked apart this U.S. Open muny and made it look like, well, just an ordinary muny. The trusty slap cut off the tee was there, and the always-crucial distance control with the irons was, too. He even returned to the scene of the crime—the green at the first hole, where he four-putted for double bogey on Friday—and poured a 14-footer dead centre for birdie.

Buoyed by a chip-in for par at 4, Woods kept his card bogey-free while writing down four birdies for a four-under 32 that was frightening in its simplicity. He was two within the lead, charging up the board at a place he’s won eight times as a pro. Put another way, this was the last thing his competitors wanted to see.

But Torrey Pines was always going to fight back. If the front nine was a cruise, the back nine was a slog. Woods couldn’t find a birdie, three-putted the par-3 11th and after finishing with a 37 had to settle for a disappointing three-under 69 overall, if such a thing is possible at this beast of a track.

Woods will have his work cut out for him if he is to win his eighth Farmers Insurance Open and claim his 83rd PGA Tour victory, which would break a tie with Sam Snead for the all-time record. At seven-under at 54 holes, in a tie for 14th, he trails Jon Rahm by five shots with 18 to play.

“The goal was to get to double digits by the end of the day,” Woods said after a crucial up-and-down for par on 18. “I figured that would be within the last couple groups going out tomorrow. Wasn’t quite able to get there, but hopefully tomorrow I can get off to another quick start and keep it going.”

The day began unreasonably early, as it always does when Woods has an early tee time. The initial tee times was 7:55 a.m. local time, but a stubborn layer of fog seemed to have no intention of lifting. It eventually did, but not before multiple delays that added up to two hours.

“We kind of knew [a delay was coming] going into it,” Woods said. “When we were warming up, I kept delaying the warm up, kept delaying the warmup, kind of stalling. Hitting a few shots to stay loose, but not wear myself out. Eventually we went into the car, turned the heater on and stayed warm.”

Woods eventually headed to the tee and was greeted by two unfamiliar faces, though one with a familiar name for golf fans: Chris Baker and Tyler McCumber, the latter being the son of Mark McCumber, a 10-time tour winner, including the 1988 Players Championship. “An amazing experience,” the younger McCumber said of his first time playing with Woods.

After Woods tugged his first tee shot into a fairway bunker, it looked like the opening hole might strike again, as it did in when he made double bogeys in three of the four regulation rounds during his 2008 U.S. Open victory here. But Woods summoned a fantastic fairway bunker shot to the fat part of the green to improve his score from Friday by three.

Donald Miralle/Getty Images. Woods reacts to a shot from a bunker on the first hole during Saturday’s third round at Torrey Pines.

He was off and running. The second birdie came at the par-3 third after a laser from around 200 yards to seven feet. After the chip-in at four, he added another birdie in textbook fashion at the par-5 sixth. Things seemed to be rolling after the fourth birdie at the ninth hole … until he made the turn.

Woods made par at 10 before, in his own words, “sticking it in the ground” at the par-3 11th, where he eventually three-putted. Golf is funny in that way—in a sport with 300-yard drives, it’s often the six-foot putts that tilt momentum most. He grinded through the rest of the round, frequently having to chop approaches from Torrey’s juicy rough.

But Woods looked in good position to steal a final birdie at the par-5 18 before pumping a wedge into a back bunker with his approach. “Just a bad shot,” he said with a smile. His bunker shot was a bit unlucky to land on a collar and trickle out to 15 feet, and he gave a mini-putter raise as the par effort found the hole. Among all golfisms, there is perhaps none truer than not all pars are created equal.

“It was important to have some kind of positive momentum going into tomorrow,” he said.

However, if he is to break the tour’s wins record on Sunday, he’ll need to chase down one of the hottest players in the planet in Rahm. And Woods knows it.

“I still got to go out there and post a low one tomorrow, still got to make a bunch of birdies tomorrow and move up that board.”

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By Daniel Rapaport
LA JOLLA, Calif. — The GOATs don’t tend to stay tied for very long. They prefer an unimpeded view from the top. Roger Federer, for instance, won his 14th Grand Slam singles title at the 2009 French Open to tie Pete Sampras, then won Wimbledon a month later to break the record. After tying Hank Aaron’s all-time mark of 755 home runs, Barry Bonds needed just 10 plate appearances before smashing his 756th into right-center two nights later.

In his last PGA Tour start, 6,000 miles across the Pacific, Tiger Woods won the Zozo Championship to tie Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour victories. That was three months ago—so how much longer will he have to wait before he stands alone as the winningest player in tour history? We’re about to find out.

Woods is back at Torrey Pines this week for his 19th start in the Farmers Insurance Open, his first start of 2020, and his first opportunity to win No. 83 at a course that has played host to so, so many iconic moments throughout his golfing life.

“Looking forward to it. I have always enjoyed coming down here in junior golf and obviously played well here as a professional,” Woods said Tuesday. His alma mater, Cypress High School, is about a 90-minute drive from here up I-5—depending on Southern California traffic, of course.

“My dad brought me down here when it was the old Andy Williams, so it’s been near and dear to my heart for a number of years, and looking forward to getting out there and playing this week.”

The memories at Torrey Pines are numerous. Of course, there’s the 2008 U.S. Open, where Woods overcame a broken leg, a torn ACL and a plucky-as-hell Rocco Mediate for a storybook victory. That was tour win No. 65. But there’s also the seven victories at this event, formerly known as the Buick Invitational: 1999 (tour win No. 8), 2003 (No. 35), 2005 (No. 41), 2006 (No. 47), 2007 (No. 55), 2008 (No. 62) and 2013 (No. 75). In 12 starts here between 1999 and 2008, he won seven times and finished in the top 5 four other times. His “worst” finish was T-10. He once won five straight events here: four Buick Invitationals (’05-’08) and that Open.

It would seem, then, to be an ideal venue for him to pick off No. 83. His recent results here tell a different story: A MDF in ’14 that included a third-round 79, a withdrawal in ‘15, a missed cut in ‘17, a T23 in ’18 and a T20 in ’19.

The expectations are for a better finish this year given how beautifully his swing looked toward the end of last year, post knee-surgery. He put on a masterful performance in Japan in October, contended at the Hero World Challenge in December, then was far-and-away the best player in going 3-0 as a playing-captain at the Presidents Cup. After his U.S. team’s comeback victory in Australia, Woods put the clubs away until the New Year … except for one round, on a special day, with a special person.

“I didn’t touch a club until after—I take that back. I did play on my birthday,” Woods said. That’s Dec. 30. “That was the only day I touched a club since the Presidents Cup [until the New Year]. Just wanted to get away from it. I was a little bit fried physically, mentally, emotionally and just wanted to have it all end.

“Played on my birthday with my son, and we had a great time. Very similar to what I used to do with my dad on each and every one of my birthdays when my dad was still alive.”

Woods ramped up the preparation around Jan. 4 and has been testing new woods, including a Taylormade SIM driver model that he plans to put in play this week so long as he’s happy with how it feels by Thursday (it’s a bit light for him right now). Apart from that, his bag will look the same as it did when he won No. 82.

Woods will play his first two rounds this week with World No. 3 Jon Rahm and 22-year-old Collin Morikawa. It’s the first time Woods will play with someone who was born after he turned professional. Woods turned pro in August 1996; Morikawa was born in February 1997. The threesome will tee off the 10th tee of the North Course at 9:40 a.m. local time on Thursday, then at 10:40 off No. 1 on the South on Friday.

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By Dave Shedloski
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Davis Love III, host of this week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club, doesn’t think Tiger Woods will get 83 PGA Tour victories and break the record he currently shares with Sam Snead.

Whoa, wait. What?

“I think if he’s healthy, he goes to 100 wins,” the former PGA champion said.

Oh, OK.

“He hasn’t really gotten going good,” Love said, explaining his line of thinking. “See, I think he’s different than Jack [Nicklaus]. He won the Masters at, what, 46, right? But he wasn’t really playing full time. If he was playing good he could win any time. And Greg [Norman] was sort of the same way and he just kind of stopped playing.

“Tiger Woods isn’t going to sit around. I think he’s going to go for 100. But if he gets hurt again … every time he gets hurt it’s just going to get harder and harder. But if he stays healthy. …”

Coming off a two-month break to recover from arthroscopic knee surgery, Woods, 43, won the inaugural Zozo Championship in Japan for his 82nd tour title. The victory was his second of the year following his Masters triumph in April and his third since he returned from a series of back problems that sidelined him for two years.

Love, who lost to Woods in a playoff at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational that constituted Woods’ first career title, said that Woods didn’t predict a win in Japan, but he did express confidence based on his health.

“He literally told me before Japan, ‘I am feeling really good. This is the best I’ve felt in a long time. I shot 66 the other day.’ So, he’s feeling it,” said Love, who insisted that 100 is not out of the question if Woods just played more often.

“My same old argument, and I’ve told him this, is if he just played a couple more tournaments and got in a rhythm when he’s healthy, he could win [more],” Love, 55, added. “I’ve watched him more from the inside the last few years, and he doesn’t let up on anything.”

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