It”s the weekend of the final major golf championship of the year. The 36-hole cut has been finalized at the PGA at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, site of three past U.S. Opens and now three PGA Championships. By Sunday evening, one member of the star-studded field will have his name engraved on the Wannamaker Trophy and will have earned a place in the golf history books as a winner of a grand slam event.
How he does it is another thing. When all is said and done, it could be a runaway win, it could be a real nail-biter to the end, or the PGA champ could even be determined in a three-hole playoff. Although it happens so seldom, we could also see someone rise to the occasion, put together a brilliant final round and jump over a slew of fellow contestants to take home the hardware. That last scenario is very similar to what Phil Mickelson did last month during the final round of the British Open. However, that possibility is a very big if because it happens so infrequently.
Since the end of World War II, there have been only a handful of brilliant final rounds resulting in a grand slam victory. The ability to go low coupled with the pressure and setup of a major championship venue makes it all seem more improbable than likely. In fact, during the past 70 years, it”s probably happened only perhaps 10 times.
The 1951 United States Open was staged at Oakland Hills just outside of Detroit. The USGA brought in a new, young golf course architect named Robert Trent Jones to make the layout U.S. Open ready. Jones did his part by lengthening the already difficult course as well as adding hundreds of bunkers to the original Donald Ross design. The south course at Oakland Hills was dubbed “The Monster” and it definitely played like one.
After three rounds of play, South African Bobby Locke and Texan Jimmy Demaret were tied atop the leader board at 8-over-par. Defending champ Ben Hogan was two strokes back. The low score of the tournament after 54 holes was an even-par 70 by Demaret. Yet in the final round, Hogan forever etched his place in golf history by shooting a 3-under-par 67 to jump over a bevy of golfers and win by two strokes over Clayton Heafner. It was Hogan”s second consecutive Open title and he told the assembled press afterward, “I”m glad I brought this Monster to its knees.”
After three rounds of the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills near Denver, two-time Masters champ Arnold Palmer was mired in 15th place. He told Pittsburgh Press columnist Bob Drum that he thought a final-round 65 might just be enough to pull off an Open win. Drum told Palmer he had zero chance of winning and Palmer strode to the first tee, angry with Drum for his lack of verbal support.
Palmer proceeded to drive the downhill 340-yard first hole, made a two-putt birdie and was off and running. He chipped in for birdie at the second, barely missed an eagle putt at the third and added three more birdies on the front nine. He bogeyed the eighth, birdied the 11th and made seven consecutive pars down the stretch. Palmer shot a 6-under-par 65, the lowest round at that time in National Open history. Along the way, he jumper over a star-studded leader board that included Mike Souchak, Jerry Barber, Dow Finsterwald, Jack Fleck, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, current Lake County resident Johnny Pott, amateur golfer and popular singer Don Cherry, and college golfer Jack Nicklaus. Palmer started final-round play at 2-over-par, shot 30-35, and won his sole U.S. Open title.
In 1973, I recall watching the television coverage of the U.S. Open at Oakmont in Pittsburgh from the pro shop at Beverly Country Club. With two hours of final-round coverage, viewers realized early on that for all intents and purposes, the tournament was already over.
Four golfers were tied for the lead at 3-under-par through 54 holes. They were Jerry Heard, John Schlee, Arnold Palmer and Julius Boros. Tom Weiskopf was one back, the trio of Lee Trevino, Bob Charles and Jim Colbert were two back, and Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were lurking four shots out. San Francisco resident and one of the game”s new young guns, Johnny Miller, was in 13th place, six strokes off the pace. He started his Sunday round on fire, making birdies on the first four holes. After a bogey at the eighth, he ran off four more birdies in a five-hole stretch. Miller added a final birdie on the 15th, turned in his scorecard with a stunning total of 8-under-par 63, and waited while the rest of the field went backward. Nicklaus shot 68, but it was too little, too late. The rest of the leaders all shot in the 70s. Miller hit all 18 greens in regulation. Five of his birdies were putts inside 6 feet.
There have been other great rounds in the more recent era, similar to the exploits of Hogan in 1951, Palmer in 1960 and Miller in 1973. For those golfers involved, they were career-defining moments.
In 1978, Gary Player birdied seven of the last 10 holes to shoot 64 and win the Masters. It was his ninth and final major win. As noted earlier this summer, Australian David Graham hit every green at Merion and shot 67 to win the 1981 U.S. Open. In 1986, Jack Nicklaus put an exclamation point on his long career, winning his 18th major title at the Masters as a 46-year-old. Nicklaus shot 65 on the final day and carded a 6-under-par 30 during the inward nine. In 1988, Seve Ballesteros didn”t hit very many greens or fairways, chipped and putted like he was possessed, and won the British Open on a Monday morning at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, shooting a final-round 65 to beat Nick Price. The usually snake-bitten Greg Norman, a runner-up in all four majors, won the 1993 British Open at a windswept Royal St. George and shot a dynamic 64 to pass Nick Faldo among others while garnering his second major title.
This Sunday will mark the conclusion of the year”s final major, the PGA Championship. There will be an eventual winner, but if he can do it like Phil Mickelson did last month at the British Open, he will join names such as Hogan, Palmer, Player, Nicklaus and Ballesteros in golf”s history books, forever remembered for shooting a great final round in a major when no one else could.
