Johnny Pott is the newly appointed PGA Director of Golf at the Langtry Farms Golf Course, a planning-stage golf facility located on Butts Canyon Road outside Middletown. Plans are afoot for a Tom Weiskopf-designed course.
Pott, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, played during golf”s golden era when Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Billy Casper and others of note roamed the fairways.
While I was interested in Pott”s role at Langtry, I was also intrigued by the fact that I was interviewing a man who was a part of the professional golf scene when the game exploded upon the American consciousness. Arnold Palmer was the game”s charismatic front man, the new medium of television brought the game into every American home, the nation was at peace, and there was more disposable income for entertainment.
Johnny Pott was active on the PGA Tour from 1957 through 1972. He won five times against strong fields. In 1960, Pott won the Dallas Open, nowadays called the Byron Nelson, and the West Palm Beach Open, where he ran down Sam Snead in the final round. Two years later, Pott captured the 1962 Waco Turner Open. By the way, Waco Turner was a person. In 1963, he won the American Golf Classic at Firestone in Akron. His high-water mark occurred 40 years ago when he won the Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Pott beat Billy Casper and Bruce Devlin in a playoff.
Pott also played on three winning American Ryder Cup teams, competing at East Lake in Atlanta in 1963, Royal Birkdale in 1965, and Champions Golf Club in Houston in 1967. Pott felt quite nervous as a Ryder Cup rookie in 1963 and he made his thoughts known to the last of the American playing captains, Arnold Palmer. Palmer told Pott to just relax. Arnie paired himself with Pott during the opening-round foursome (alternate shot). Pott also played with Tony Lema in fourball (better ball).
The 1965 Cup matches marked the beginning of the non-playing captain, and Byron Nelson was the United States captain at Birkdale, site of this year”s British Open. In 1967, Ben Hogan was the captain. He paired Pott with PGA champion Bobby Nichols and they had a 3-0 record in the ”67 Cup. Pott also beat George Will in singles, giving the U.S. team four points toward its runaway win.
Pott played in Ryder Cup matches at a time when America dominated the contests. The American players had an invincible aura about them. It was a time when the American players stuck to the PGA Tour and the golfers representing Great Britain and Ireland played primarily in Europe. The Americans only saw their Ryder Cup foes at Augusta in the Masters and they were convinced that they were better than the Europeans.
“If I could compete with Arnie or Jack or Casper or Geiberger or Littler, then I could handle the Euros,” Pott said.
Pott believes now that professional golf is international in scope, familiarity breeds confidence among the Europeans. Sergio Garcia is successful on our tour, therefore he is confident against the U.S. in the Ryder Cup. He has beaten Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk on occasion, so it”s not like Christy O”Connor Sr. and Peter Aliss seeing the likes of Pott and Nichols for the first time in a pressure-packed situation. Pott made it very clear to me that back in 1967, “even then, the Ryder Cup was serious competition.”
I crossed paths with Pott many years ago as he played in three Western Opens at Chicago”s Beverly Country Club. I worked there as a teenage caddie for Bob Lunn. I had to ask Pott about his view of the loopers who worked the tour in the 1960s when the pro was at the mercy of the “draw-of-the-caddie pen.” No one made big bucks as a caddie. The caddies were usually kids who carried the bags of private club members.
In 1960, the year Pott won twice on tour, Arnold Palmer was the leading winner. He won the Masters and the U.S. Open, had eight total wins, and accumulated earnings of $75,263.
Pott said “if you”re going to be a competitive professionally, you just need one practice round to familiarize yourself with the course.” Pott played at a time when the golfers eyeballed or paced off the course without the assistance of yardage books, Cirby markers, ShotLink or GPS.
We also talked about the golf gurus of today such as Butch Harmon. There was no equivalent of Dave Pelz or Rick Smith some 40 years ago. Johnny Pott said that the golfers of his era were social creatures that knew one another and helped out their close friends. He said he made it through 16 years on tour by relying on tips from friends such as Tommy Jacobs, Tony Lema, Dave Marr and Jim Ferree.
“I would be playing with someone such as Mason Rudolph and after a couple of holes, he”d tell me that I was aiming too far to the right.”
Unlike today”s PGA golf professional that earns $1.7 million for finishing 61st on the money list, not many rank-and-file pros became wealthy from tournament golf. If you came in 61st in those days, you lost your exempt status. You could make the cut and still not cash a paycheck should you finish higher than 40th after 72 holes. When Pott came in fifth at the 1961 PGA Championship at Olympia Fields, he won $2,208. Last year, Aaron Oberholser made $308,000 for doing the same thing.
Johnny Pott along with good friend and former PGA champion Dave Marr are often credited for being the creators of the corporate golf outing. Pott and Marr broke new ground by playing with captains of industry and corporate executives. After talking with Johnny, it was obvious that he was successful with the business world because of his affability and great storytelling skills.
Johnny Pott is a class act, a truly nice person, and I had a great time talking with him. He played on the tour during golf”s golden age, and the folks at Langtry Farms have made a wise choice in making him their Director of Golf. It”s not every day that Lake County”s newest golf professional beat Sam Snead and Billy Casper to win tour events, helped the U.S. win a trio of Ryder Cups, and partnered up with Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema.
