Over the past few weeks we’ve been inside the ropes with Johnny Pott, an important cog on the 1967 American Ryder Cup team that prevailed over Great Britain and Ireland by a still-record 15-point margin of victory. Last week Pott recalled the efforts to recruit the iconic Ben Hogan as the team captain, the first practice session on Ryder Cup Tuesday that included the buzzing of Champions Golf Club by Arnold Palmer’s plane, and the team meeting that included a wide-open dress code, a pairing of similar style players, and Hogan’s demand that he not captain a losing team.
As Johnny Pott recalled during our conversation several weeks ago, the Wednesday and Thursday practice rounds were uneventful. However, the social scene was all pervasive as there were nightly banquets for the team members and assorted dignitaries, including Britain’s Lord Derby. The GB&I team was given cowboy hats by the members of the Houston Golf Association. There was a tour of NASA headquarters where Pott met Alan Shepard, one of NASA’s original seven Mercury Seven astronauts. Shepard and Pott would develop a nice friendship from that point onward. Four years later Shepard would walk on the moon. There also was a tip of the golfing cap to the Ryder Cup’s past with an exhibition match that included members of the first American team, including Johnny Farrell, Al Watrous, Joe Turnesa and Wild Bill Melhorn.
The only real controversial moment occurred Thursday evening prior to the start of the matches. At the formal banquet that night, Dai Rees introduced the individual members of the British team. When it was Ben Hogan’s turn to speak, he kept it short and sweet, simply describing Team USA as “the 10 best golfers in the world.” Hogan’s comment ruffled some feathers on both sides of the Atlantic, and yet when the dust would finally settle on Sunday evening, his words would prove to be more fact than idle boast.
The 1967 Ryder Cup Matches were contested at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The course was only eight years old and was co-founded by three-time Masters champion Jimmy Demaret along with Jackie Burke Jr. Burke Jr. won the Masters and the PGA Championship. Two years later Champions would host the United States Open won by Orville Moody. It has also hosted four PGA Tour Championships as well as the United States Amateur.
Friday morning finally rolled around and the golf course was shrouded in fog. The festivities started with the raising of the flags. As Pott recalls, the University of Houston band could be heard marching down the first fairway playing God Save the Queen and the Star Spangled Banner. Suddenly all the contestants on the first tee could see the band coming toward them from out of the sea of fog. Pott stated that he has always been choked up by the introductory ceremony and such was again the case in 1967.
As Hogan had earlier told his team, three-time major champion Julius Boros would hit the initial tee shot. Hogan surmised that Boros wouldn’t feel the pressure. The first day’s matches were alternate shot and Boros partnered up with another three-time major winner in Billy Casper. Regardless of Hogan’s confidence in his first pairing, they ended up tied with the GB&I team of Brian Huggett and George Will. The fourth pairing on Friday morning was the long-hitting duo of Johnny Pott and Bobby Nichols. Pott and Nichols were two of the tour’s longest drivers and Pott mentioned that the bunkering at Champions was obsolete from the perspective of the power pair. The fairway sand traps were set up at approximately 240 yards from the tee and both golfers consistently hit safe tee shots of 270 yards, missing all the trouble. Pott and Nichols romped to a 6-and-5 victory (six holes up with five holes to play) to give the American team a one-point lead after the morning session.
That afternoon Pott and Nichols returned to the four spot to take on two future Hall of Famers in Peter Alliss, known nowadays as the ever-popular BBC golf commentator, and Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Sr. Pott and Nichols prevailed again, winning their match on the 17th green by a 2-and-1 margin. After day one, the United States had a safe three-point lead.
Saturday’s two sets of better ball matches determined the outcome of the ’67 Cup Matches. That morning, all four American pairings won their matches. Pott and Nichols defeated Bernard Hunt and Neil Coles by a 1-up margin. That afternoon Pott was rested. Hogan made sure to rest every one of his golfers to avoid the possibility of the three-day, six-match burnout. Team USA won three matches that afternoon and tied the other one to take a rock-solid 10 point-lead into the final day of individual matches. For all intents and purposes, the matches were over.
Nowadays, the final day of the Ryder Cup features 12 vs. 12 individual matches. Back in 1967, there were two sets of individual matches and they featured eight golfers vs. eight golfers. The Sunday matches were delayed because of heavy fog, and in an effort to get the matches concluded prior to sunset, the pairings went off both the first and 10th tees. Pott sat out the morning singles and that afternoon he returned to the lineup to win his individual match over George Will by a 3-and-1 margin. When the final match concluded that afternoon, the tally was Team USA with 23½ points beating GB&I with 8½ points. At that time that was the greatest margin of victory in Ryder Cup history. After all these years, it is still the largest win in the history of the Cup. Arnold Palmer finished the week with a 5-0 mark, Gardner Dickinson also went 5-0, Johnny Pott finished 4-0, and Bobby Nichols and Billy Casper both registered 4-0-1 records. Only Gene Littler had a sub-.500 mark at 2-3.
The Ryder Cup concluded that Sunday afternoon with the awarding of Samuel Ryder’s Cup to American captain Ben Hogan. His “10 best golfers in the world” had made sure that he wasn’t “the losing captain.” The Baylor University band handled the final ceremony music.
It was 50 years ago that the American Ryder Cup team prevailed over Great Britain and Ireland by the greatest margin of victory in match history. A hearty thank you goes out to three-time Ryder Cupper Johnny Pott for allowing us inside the ropes to experience one of the cup’s greatest moments from the American perspective. Even today, it was a most memorable Cup.
