It was 50 years ago Friday that professional golf burst into American living rooms through the avenue of television. During a time when team sports reigned supreme and the Yankees, Packers, Celtics and Canadiens began their decade of dominance, Arnold Palmer of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, shot a final-round 65 at the United States Open at Cherry Hills outside Denver to win in dramatic style. In winning on that Saturday, June 18, 1960 afternoon, he not only jumped from a tie for 15th place into the winner”s circle, but he also brought the game into the modern era.
Television was relatively new in 1960 as the parents of the baby boom generation started to use their newfound disposable income for items of entertainment. The country was in a peacetime mode, seven years removed from the conflict in Korea. Golf had been the game of the country club elite set, but it had become increasingly popularized by 1960 with the building of many new municipal courses. The game”s blossoming star was Palmer, the two-time Masters champion. He was an everyman who came from a working class background, played the game aggressively, and won with an exciting style of play.
Yet after 54 holes at Cherry Hills, Palmer found himself mired in 15th place at 2-over-par and seven strokes behind the leader, Mike Souchak. Between Souchak and Palmer was a veritable who”s who of golf. Major champions Julius Boros, Dow Finsterwald and Jerry Barber were tied for second at 3-under-par, two strokes out of the lead. Tied at 2-under-par were 47-year-old Ben Hogan and 20-year-old amateur Jack Nicklaus. At 1-under-par was amateur golfer Don Cherry, a popular singer who had the hit song “Band of Gold,” former Open champ Jack Fleck, and Johnny Pott, the current PGA director of golf at Langtry Farms outside Middletown. Gary Player was at even par and the foursome of Billy Casper, Dutch Harrison, Bob Shore and Hogan”s contemporary, Sam Snead. Palmer was in a nine-way tie for 15th.
In those days they played the U.S. Open in a decidedly different format, playing 18 holes on Thursday, 18 holes on Friday and then 36 holes on Saturday. Between rounds on Saturday afternoon, the always positive Palmer asked Pittsburgh journalist Bob Drum what score he thought it would take for him to win the Open. Drum laughed at Palmer and told him he had no chance of winning. An angry Palmer stormed out of the locker room and headed to the first tee for his final round.
Palmer took out his driver and hit a mighty tee shot, his ball landing on the green of the 346-yard par-4 first hole. He two-putted for birdie. He then birdied the next three holes. He would go on to birdie two more holes on the front nine and made the turn in 30 strokes. The leaders were behind him and yet suddenly the dynamic Palmer was in the mix. While others were struggling to make par, he was playing the National Open as if it were just another round at the Pensacola Open. Yet it really was the fourth and final round of the world”s toughest golf tournament, and those who had been ahead of Palmer on the 54-hole leaderboard were starting to back up. The course was playing tough and the pressure during the afternoon 18 was excruciating.
Going into the back nine, there were three players with a valid chance to win the U.S. Open, and they represented golf”s past in Ben Hogan, its present in Arnold Palmer, and its future with Jack Nicklaus. Palmer would birdie the 11th hole and then par out from there. As he tapped in a 2-footer for par on the 18th, he would post a 65 for a 4-under-par aggregate of 280 and then have to sit and wait.
Nicklaus, the reigning U.S. Amateur champ and a student at Ohio State, would start to suffer from shoddy putting over the inward nine. His gallery included OSU football coach Woody Hayes, but Nicklaus just couldn”t run down Palmer. He missed a short birdie putt on the 17th hole and bogeyed the 18th hole. He carded a 71 and finished at 2-under-par. His 282 total was the lowest 72-hole score ever recorded by an amateur in Open history. In the end, he would end up finishing solo second.
Boros, Finsterwald, Harrison, Knoll and Souchak would tie for third a 1-under-par 283. Souchak, who had been at 7-under-par through 36 holes and looked like a runaway winner, had shot 73 and 75 on Saturday. One short back in a tie for ninth were Barber and Cherry. Tied alongside them was Hogan, who had his last best chance to win the National Open with just two holes to go. Tied with Palmer at 4-under-par, Hogan tried to drop his 50-yard wedge near the flag that was perched precariously close to the water on the par-5 17th hole. His ball came up inches short and rolled back into the water. He made bogey. He closed with a very flustered triple-bogey when all he had needed was a par-par finish over the last two holes to tie Palmer.
Yet the best last chance wasn”t meant to be for Hogan. Palmer won his third career major. To the public watching this all play out a home, this was great theatre as the game”s top star had shot an unheard of 65 to jump over 14 top-notch linksters. The legend of Arnold Palmer was born. More importantly, the game of golf found itself on the front page of the sports section, was on television throughout American, and became the talk of a sports-crazed public. Golf was entertaining, golf was cool, golf was popular and its star was the equal of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas and Bill Russell.
Of course, we”re talking about 50 years ago. The television was black and white and the coverage was over the final four holes. The first-place check was good for $14,400. The two amateurs in the top 10, Nicklaus and Cherry, didn”t win anything. General Eisenhower was still president, there was no Super Bowl, blacks couldn”t vote in a number of states, and most women were stay-at-home moms.
It was a very different world. And yet it marked the beginning of golf”s modern era. Everything that happens at Pebble Beach from the day-long coverage to the multi-million dollar purse is directly attributable to 50 years ago when golf”s past, its present and its future all converged on the final nine of the 1960 U.S. Open and made the sporting public take notice of the greatness of the game, its drama and all that it had to offer.
