Did PGA Identity Crisis Spawn ‘Glory’s Last Shot’?

WHEN DID THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP become known as “Glory’s Last Shot”? Did someone in Palm Beach Gardens come up with that, or maybe an ad agency?

It’s a serious question. I’ve been watching all four majors for many years and I can’t recall when I started hearing the PGA slogan. Now I hear it all the time. Too much, really.

I took to Google to investigate, a cursory research effort, I’ll admit. I didn’t come up with much. Within the first two pages of search results there are references to “Glory’s Last Shot” dating back to at least 2006. That’s as far as I looked.

A 2008 Associated Press story titled “Disrespected PGA Remains ‘Glory’s Last Shot’” touches on the issue.

“Ever since scrapping match play as its format 50 years ago, the PGA Championship has suffered an identity crisis,” reads the opening sentence.

Ah, yes. If you were picking majors the way you choose teams on a school playground, the PGA would be standing self-consciously against the chain-link fence while the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship were fought over. Those three don’t have nicknames or mottos. They don’t need them.

The Masters is associated with Augusta National and Bobby Jones. The U.S. Open is often thought of as the game’s toughest challenge. The Open Championship is the world’s oldest major and the only one played on a links course.

“And what does that make the PGA Championship?” asked the AP story.

“The other one,” Geoff Ogilvy answered with a grin.

Ogilvy was quick to add that it’s still some pretty good competition, which is a bit of an understatement. The PGA Championship often has the best field in golf. And the players certainly want their name on the Wanamaker Trophy, engraved alongside Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Any major is a career-defining or career-enhancing victory, including the PGA Championship, which went from match play to stroke play in 1958. Dow Finsterwald won that year, his only major. Bob Rosburg won the next year, his only major. Jay Hebert and Jerry Barber won the following two PGAs, their only majors.

So, yes, it’s an important major, even if it does have an identity crisis and is propped up with a slogan. I liked the PGA Championship long before it was tagged with “Glory’s Last Shot,” a phrase that I expect to hear too often this week.

−The Armchair Golfer

20 Major Champions Under Age of 25

GOLF.COM PUBLISHED A PHOTO GALLERY of “Notable Major Champions Under the Age of 25.” I’ve included their list below, but in a different order, from youngest to oldest. I’ve also added each player’s majors total. Plus I’ve included a handful of players (at bottom) Golf.com didn’t list.

(I’m not sure why they didn’t mention Ernie Els, who I believe won his first U.S. Open at the age of 24.)

(Photo: Morgan Pressel.)

Many of the retired players on the list went on to win five or more majors. So obviously it’s good to win early. Maybe you’ll win often. Tseng is the quickest to four. McIlroy has one and a world of potential. But there’s no guarantee you’ll win many or any after the first. Just ask Jerry Pate, who won his first and last major, the U.S. Open, at the tender age of 22.




Young Tom Morris, 17, 1868 British Open
Total majors: 4

Morgan Pressel, 18, 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship
Total majors: 1

Yani Tseng, 19, 2008 LPGA Championship
Total majors: 4

Francis Ouimet, 20, 1913 U.S. Open
Total majors: 3 (includes amateur titles)

Gene Sarazen, 20, 1922 U.S. Open
Total majors: 7

Bobby Jones, 21, 1923 U.S. Open
Total majors: 13 (includes amateur titles)

Nancy Lopez, 21, 1978 LPGA Championship
Total majors: 3

Tiger Woods, 21, 1997 Masters
Total majors: 14

Se Ri Pak, 21, 1998 LPGA Championship
Total majors: 5

Jack Nicklaus, 22, 1962 U.S. Open
Total majors: 18

Seve Ballesteros, 22, 1979 British Open
Total majors: 5

Rory McIlroy, 22, 2011 U.S. Open
Total majors: 1

Gary Player, 23, 1959 British Open
Total majors: 9

Brittany Lincicome, 23, 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship
Total majors: 1

Paula Creamer, 23, 2010 U.S. Women’s Open
Total majors: 1

Annika Sorenstam, 24, 1995 Women’s British Open
Total majors: 10

Others who won a major early: John McDermott (19), Jerry Pate (22), Johnny Goodman (23), Ernie Els (24). (Feel free to help with this list of others, which is probably incomplete.)

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

On My Golf Bucket List: Scotland and The Old Course

TODAY I WAS REMINDED OF my golf bucket list when my wife told me that her brother is heading to Ireland this August for a golf trip. A few years ago he went to Scotland. He brought me back a cap from Royal Troon. I still have it. I still long to go.

There are several things I’ve been able to cross off my golf bucket list. I’ve been to many golf tournaments and a handful of majors. In 2008 I finally made it to Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters. I was also fortunate to attend the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville.

What’s left?

I’ve always wanted to play Pebble Beach, as I mentioned not long ago. I don’t know if or when that will happen at this point. I’m no longer in the West Coast neighborhood and the green fees are five Benjamin Franklins. But here’s a big one: I want to attend The Open Championship. I also want to set foot on the Home of Golf, St. Andrews, the Old Course. It’s on my golf bucket list. I need to get there.

(Photo: The Road Hole at St. Andrews / courtesy of Melvyn Morrow)

I know golf in Scotland is like a pilgrimage. It’s something a golfer should do at least once in a lifetime, if at all possible. I could happily tour all of Scotland’s fabled links if I had enough time and money. But it seems to me that St. Andrews is the destination for those interested in a serious golfing holiday. After all, it’s where this crazy game began.

My dad went to Scotland and St. Andrews in the 1980s. He bought me a cap. As I mentioned, my brother-in-law went a few years ago. He bought me a cap.

I DON’T NEED ANY MORE CAPS.

I need to see the Road Hole with my own eyes. I need to walk across the Swilken Bridge toward the Valley of Sin. I need to hack my way out of one of those insane pot bunkers and play a Miguel Angel Jimenez carom shot. If you have played and watched golf much of your life like l have, then you’re nodding your head. This makes perfect sense to you.

I expect to accomplish this goal.

The Old Course isn’t always love at first sight. The great Bobby Jones was not impressed the first time he saw St. Andrews. Nor was Sam Snead. Scott Hoch called it “the biggest piece of mess I’ve ever seen.” A few years ago, a former tour and club pro told me, “I felt like Bobby Jones the first time he saw it. Thought it was a cow pasture.”

Yet, the Old Course won over Bobby Jones, and Bobby Jones won over the Scots, returning again and again and winning three Claret Jugs.

As for me, I’ll be glad if I can just go once. When I do, maybe I’ll buy someone a cap.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Brought to you by YourGolfTravel.com, the online destination for golf breaks uk.)

Q&A: Errie Ball Turns 100

TALKING TO ERRIE BALL is like stepping into a time machine. Ball, who recently turned 100, was befriended by Bobby Jones at the 1930 British Open, the year Jones completed the Grand Slam. The Wales native came to America at Jones’s urging and took an assistant job at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Jones later invited him to play in the first Masters in 1934. Ball is the only surviving player from that inaugural tournament at Augusta National.

(Photo: The first Masters, left to right: G. Sargent, Errie Ball, Charlie Yates, Bobby Jones. / Chicagolandgolf.com)

Errie Ball has seen and/or played with all the greats of the last 80 years, from Harry Vardon to Bobby Jones to Ben Hogan. I talked to Errie three years ago when he was only 97. He is a treasure. Following is an excerpt from our conversation.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: What was it like playing in that first Masters?

ERRIE BALL: The first Masters, they were having a lot of trouble getting it off to a good start. It was like a friendly deal. I didn’t feel too scared or nervous at all in the first one because it was more relaxed. Bob Jones made it that way. There was a lot of liquor floating around. Of course, in those days, I didn’t drink anyway. But it was more relaxing. When I played it again in 1957 it was a different story. It was really big time.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Bobby Jones was very instrumental in your coming to America and in your golf career.

ERRIE BALL: He was. I played in the British Open the year he won at Hoylake in England. Hoylake is my family’s course where they played, and they played Hoylake and my father played there. I played quite a bit at Hoylake. I think I played two British Opens on Hoylake. But the last time was about 1936.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Did you ever meet Harry Vardon?

ERRIE BALL: No. I saw him in the distance and watched him. My father was a good friend of Harry Vardon. He had a beautiful swing. I know that.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Some of the more recent golf stories that have been written like The Greatest Game Ever Played are helping people understand what a great champion he was. Most people barely know of Bobby Jones but Vardon was quite something.

ERRIE BALL: He was. It’s an entirely different game today compared to those days. They played all kinds of shots. There weren’t any 150-yard markers at all and they had to just play by sight.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Back in those early days, like you said, the pros made their own clubs. I think I read Ted Ray only carried seven or eight sticks on the golf course. So it wasn’t at all like it is now.

ERRIE BALL: You could take a five iron and play all kinds of shots with it. Go down the shaft, play the little chip shots, or shots into the wind. You could play several shots with it. It was called a mashie in those days.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: I read you were the youngest person to compete in the British Open. In 1926, I read you were either 15 or 16 years old when you played in the British Open. Is that true?

ERRIE BALL: I’m not sure about that myself. The press wrote it up that I was the youngest, but I really actually don’t remember that. I know I played in it as a boy. I must have been about 16 or 17, something like that.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Was that in the ’26 Open or 1930?

ERRIE BALL: 1930. I played one time in the 20s in the Open, because Hoylake was fairly close to where I lived, where my family lived anyway, so we’d go over there and play.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: The first British Open you played in was 1930?

ERRIE BALL: That’s the one I remember the most. That’s the one Jones played in on the way to his Grand Slam.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Are you still playing golf?

ERRIE BALL: I’ve had a couple of operations, double bypass, which has taken me off the golf course and I haven’t really played 18 holes in two years. But I’ve hit a lot of balls on the practice tee and still give a few lessons. I’m feeling a lot better now but I think I’ll probably start playing soon.

−The Armchair Golfer

Afternoon Tea With Gary Player

SINCE GARY PLAYER TURNED 75 on Monday, I thought I should share a story about the Hall of Famer and one of the Big Three along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

The problem is, I don’t have a Gary Player story. I haven’t met golf’s first globetrotter. I have seen him play on a few occasions. Author friend John Coyne had a terrific Player story, though. He told it to me when we attended the 2008 Masters and watched Player walk up one of Augusta’s fairways.

It’s 1969. You’re traveling through South Africa and decide to pick up the phone book and find the listing for Gary Player. There it is. You call and the South African golf great and five-time major winner (at that time) invites you over for tea. No kidding, that’s how it happened.

Here’s the story in John’s words:

I interviewed Gary years ago at his home in South Africa when I was visiting all the countries I hadn’t seen when I was with the Peace Corps. Gary invited me to his farm for tea one Sunday afternoon.

His father was there, a retired mine worker, as well as his step-mother. Gary’s wife was playing in a golf tournament. She, too, was a fine player, a South African women’s champ.

Gary had designed his ranch home so that each room was a collection of items he had picked up from around the world. For example, he had a Western Room full of saddles, horse gear, and wild west paintings from America. There was a Spanish Room, as well as an Asia Room.

In the doorways of his kids’ rooms he had a bar installed so that his boys (Vivienne and Gary have six children) could do one or two chin-ups entering and leaving their bedrooms. It is not for nothing that Gary is nicknamed Mr. Fitness. (He is also called the Black Knight for his history of always wearing black when playing tournaments.)

Gary was a poor kid who lost his mother when he was 8 or so, and started to play golf at 14 when his father took out a loan to buy him a set of golf clubs that he could play with. His father worked in the gold mines of South Africa. Gary had a brother who is a famous environmentalist.

Gary only finished secondary school and then turned pro. His father wrote a letter to Bobby Jones more than 50 years ago asking him to invite young Gary to the Masters, saying how great his son was, and it worked!

When I visited Gary back in 1969, he kept talking about the “winds of change” coming to South Africa as he led me around the farm and introduced me to his African workers, all of whom he knew by name. I was there, of course, during the apartheid years. It took over 20 years before apartheid finally ended in South Africa.

Player later said his views about apartheid began to change as he traveled the world. Nonetheless, many assumed that he supported the system. He had said so in his book in the mid 1960s.

At the 1969 PGA Championship in Dayton, Ohio, someone threw water in Player’s face. At the 1971 U.S. Open at Merion, he received death threats. That same year, Player invited Lee Elder to play in the South African PGA Championship in Johannesburg. It was the first integrated golf tournament in South Africa’s history.

In 2004, Charlie Sifford, the first black man inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, asked Player to handle the introduction. In his speech, Sifford called Player “my man forever.” A product of a racist system, it seems to me that Player had a genuine conversion.

Gary Player was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. He has 165 professional wins, including 24 PGA Tour victories and nine majors.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Images: Keith Allison/Flickr)

Cary Middlecoff, Golf’s Greatest Slow Player

I STOPPED BY THE World Golf Hall of Fame today. Not in St. Augustine, Florida, but at the website. I was looking up something and stumbled onto the page of Hall of Famer Cary Middlecoff. I know a fair amount about Middlecoff, nicknamed “Doc” because he was an actual dentist who ventured out on the PGA Tour. Fred Hawkins has told me stories about Middlecoff; they were pals on tour and socialized off the golf course.

Today I ran across a couple of stories I hadn’t heard or simply forgotten. I’ll get to them momentarily, but let me start with a bit of background. The first thing you need to know about Cary Middlecoff is that he was a great player. He never took a lesson and had a swing that made Bobby Jones swoon. “I’d give the world to have a swing like that,” Jones once said. Middlecoff won 40 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including three majors (two Masters and a U.S. Open). Those are Phil Mickelson numbers. Doc had six-win seasons in 1949, 1951 and 1955.

The second thing you need to know about Middlecoff is that he was a slow player. How slow? “Glacial” is the adjective the World Golf Hall of Fame uses. It fits.

When Doug Ford played Middlecoff in the 36-hole final of the 1955 PGA Championship, Doc lit a cigarette when he got to the green and didn’t putt until the entire cigarette was gone. “The gallery really got on him,” Ford said, “but you couldn’t rush Doc. I didn’t care.” The reason Ford didn’t care was because he sat in a chair while he waited. His son brought it along for the final against Middlecoff. Ford won.

At the 1957 U.S. Open, defending champion Middlecoff closed with a pair of 68s at Inverness to make up eight shots on Dick Mayer and force an 18-hole playoff. Guess what Mayer did. He brought a camping stool to the playoff. Maybe it didn’t bother Doc, but something did. He shot 79 to Mayer’s 72 and missed his opportunity to be one of only a handful of players to win back-to-back U.S. Opens.

Golf writer Dan Jenkins once joked that Doc had to quit the dentistry because no one could hold his mouth open that long. Middlecoff was even known to stop at the top of his backswing.

So I’m tagging Cary Middlecoff as golf’s greatest slow player. I know there have been other slow pokes. Jack Nicklaus could be a tortoise. But I feel comfortable with Middlecoff as my pick. In fact, Doc is probably holding up play in the afterlife as I write this.

−The Armchair Golfer

Book: ‘Mental Toughness Training for Golf’ by Dr. Rob Bell

“PLAY GOLF, NOT GOLF SWING.” That’s one of the nuggets from Mental Toughness Training for Golf, a book by Dr. Rob Bell, an Assistant Professor of Sport Psychology at Ball State University.

I haven’t read the book, but I wanted to let you know about it. It’s received good reviews from others, such as Golf Blogger, whose golf judgment I respect. He gave Dr. Bell’s book an “A.”

I happen to think we’re all mental cases. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Fundamentals and swing mechanics are fine, to a point, but it’s that five-inch space between the ears Bobby Jones emphasized that matters most. When your head is right, amazing things happen. When it’s wrong, a pretty swing is pretty useless. I’ve experienced it and seen it countless times.

The book’s subtitle (and also a book section) is Start Strong Finish Strong. Other book sections include the aforementioned Play Golf, Not Golf Swing; Challenge or Threat; The Five Paths to Confidence; and Mentally Tough Putting. I have the impression this book might be especially helpful for golf coaches at any level.

About Dr. Rob Bell

Dr. Rob Bell is an Assistant Professor of Sport Psychology at Ball State University. Dr. Bell is also a Sport Psychology coach and a certified consultant of AASP (Association of Applied Sport Psychology). He has PGA credentials as a Sport Psychology consultant and specializes in coaching the mental game with athletes at all levels.

Dr. Bell presents his research and applied experience at various conferences and clinics across the nation. His area of research includes examining solution-focused guided imagery for the yips in golf, and applied sport psychology interventions. He has been published in numerous academic journals, including Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Journal of Athletic Insight, Journal of Sport Behavior, and The Encyclopedia of Sports. He has also been noted in the New York Times, The Star Press, The National Psychologist, Knoxville News Sentinel, and Stack Magazine.

An avid golfer and part-time professional caddie, Dr. Bell has competed in marathons, triathlons, and Masters swimming competitions.

Dr. Rob Bell website
Mental Toughness Training for Golf at Amazon

−The Armchair Golfer

Celebrate America with Golf in National Parks

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, fellow Americans. I hope you’re having a safe and enjoyable Independence Day weekend. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns called the national parks America’s best idea in his PBS miniseries by the same name. Brought to my attention by Janeen Driscoll, formerly of the Pinehurst Resort, here’s another good idea: golf in national parks.

If you’re visiting a national park this summer, you might want to pack the golf clubs. Following are a handful of national parks that have one or more golf courses within their boundaries, some constructed nearly a century ago.

Anacostia National Park, District of Columbia
The Langston Golf Course is an 18-hole course that includes a driving range. More info

Yosemite National Park, California
The Yosemite Golf Course is a 9-holer that was built way back in 1918, five years before Bobby Jones won his first major. More info

Glacier National Park, Montana
Glacier Park Lodge Golf Course is also a 9-hole track that has the oldest grass greens in Montana. It was built in 1927 by the Great Northern Railway. More info

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
This is the place to play if you want to maximize yardage on your drives. The altitude at Rocky Mountain National Park ranges from 7,500 to 14,259 feet, and there are three public golf courses to choose from. One is a 9-hole executive course. More info

There are also a large number of golf courses within driving distance of America’s 392 national parks. And if there’s no room for golf clubs in the car because of too much luggage or camping equipment, you can often rent or borrow a set. I’ve been known to do that on occasion.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: bingpoint-uk/Flickr)

Free Drawing for ‘THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major’

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP IS returning to St. Andrews this year, which also happens to be the 150th anniversary of golf’s oldest major. I have a special treat for you: a free drawing for a 304-page photographic history of the ancient golf championship.

Titled THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major and published by Rizzoli, the book features black and white and color photographs from Getty Images. The rather sparse text is by Donald Steel, with a foreword by Arnold Palmer and afterword by Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A. This hardcover measures 12.3 x 9.4 x 1.4 inches and weighs 4.8 pounds. It’s hefty and gorgeous, a prized coffee table or sports den book for any armchair golf historian. (I love my review copy. I am not giving it up. The publisher is making another copy available for the drawing.)

Here are a couple of excerpts from the publisher’s news release:

THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major revisits the history of the fourteen legendary links courses along the spectacular British coastline on which The Open has been played, with a chapter dedicated to each course highlighting the famous moments of victory, defeat, partnership, competition, and tradition that have come to define them.

The book brings together the classic images of the sport’s icons—from early stars such as Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, and masters like Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, to the exceptional talents of today, Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington.

OK, I must add three names not mentioned in the above publisher copy: Harry Vardon, Peter Thomson and Tom Watson. Because those three remarkable champions won the Claret Jug 16 times. (Vardon, 6; Thomson, 5; and Watson, 5.)

WANT TO GET IN ON THIS?

How to enter this free drawing: Just email your name and mailing address to armchairgolfer@gmail.com. I’ll blind draw the winner in a couple of weeks during the championship. Good luck!

−The Armchair Golfer

Golf Digest’s 75 Best Rivalries

GOLF DIGEST HAS PUBLISHED “Best Rivalries in Golf,” the magazine’s top 75 ranking of the game’s most intense and enduring grudge matches. I can’t argue with Nicklaus vs. Palmer at No. 1 on the list. There was a nine-year stretch from 1958 to 1966 during which Arnold and Jack captured seven Masters. Actually, Nicklaus appears in at least five of the rivalries. Besides Arnie, Jack’s other listed rivals include Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Lee Trevino and Tom Weiskopf.

Sam Snead vs. Ben Hogan is a solid pick, as is Bobby Jones vs. Walter Hagen. I’m not buying Mickelson vs. Woods at No. 4. Tiger has had no true rival to this point. (Tiger vs. Field?) That’s bound to change. And perhaps soon.

The rankings are an interesting walk through golf history and include non-player rivalries that have impacted the game. Courses, issues, architects, countries, grasses, continents, swing coaches, college programs, magazines, baseball players, equipment and even years (1953 vs. 2000) are pitted against each other.

Take a look here.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Keith Allison/Flickr)

13 Things We Still Know After the Masters

The shot.

1. Augusta National produces the most excitement in golf. The risk-reward holes and resulting roars keep people tuning in to the Masters year after year to see who will win the Green Jacket. Often it’s in doubt until the 72nd hole.

2. Phil is going for it. That shot (above) off the pine straw through the trees over the water on 13? A Phil special. Bones was against it. Butch was against it. Millions of fans were probably trying to talk some sense to Phil through their TVs. “Lay up, Phil. Just lay up.” Phil’s NOT laying up. The 207-yard 6-iron was a gutsy and brilliant play that turned things in his favor.

3. Tiger will contend no matter what. Five months off, bailing-wire swing, Buddha bracelet—it does not matter. Tiger will find a way to be in contention, especially at Augusta. No one scores better on an off day than Tiger.

4. Lee Westwood is ready to win his first major. Unfortunately, for Lee, still ready.

5. Jack has more Green Jackets. Arnie has more fans. The dynamic duo of ceremonial starters, Arnie is still the beloved. Jack is the respected one. During the eight years from 1958 to 1966, Arnie and Jack won six Masters.

6. Some old-guy champion is going to climb onto the leaderboard. Tom Watson and Fred Couples, for example. Before them, Ben Crenshaw and Jack Nicklaus.

7. Billy Payne and Masters brass will say and do what they want. Leave it to Payne to make harsh comments about Tiger that others have thought but been reluctant to say. Don’t like it? Too bad. The Masters men speak their minds and run their club and golf tournament as they see fit.

8. The patrons will behave themselves. Or they will have their passes rescinded. Don’t even think about heckling Tiger or another player. You are in “church.”

9. CBS will use Masters vocabulary and reverent tones. At times their Masters-restrained commentary will sound just plain goofy.

10. Bobby Jones will be quoted ad nauseam. Bobby Jones this. Bobby Jones that. The five-and-a-half inch course quote will appear everywhere. I’ll be guilty of it.

11. Augusta is the Fountain of Youth for Fred Couples. Freddie will make the cut (he almost always does) and shoot a good score or two. He might even trick you, me and most of the golf world into thinking he can win it again.

12. Tiger is not a gracious loser. If he fails to win, he will not dress up and put lipstick on his bitter disappointment. He hates it, pure and simple. He will not smile. He will not congratulate the winner. It’s not in his DNA—or part of his therapy.

13. John Daly will be at the Masters. Outside the gates on Washington Road.

−The Armchair Golfer

Great Shots: Johnston’s Spade Mashie at 1929 U.S. Amateur

EVERYBODY WHO LOVES GOLF loves to hear about or see a great golf shot. There’s no video clip or YouTube for what I’m about to tell you. I wish there was. I read the anecdote last week in Michael Blaine’s fine book The King of Swings, the story of Johnny Goodman’s impressive career that culminated with Goodman winning the 1933 U.S. Open, the last amateur to do so. Then I read a longer account of the shot recently penned by the USGA’s Rand Jerris.

This little golf tale takes place in 1929, the year the stock market crashed and during an era in golf when the amateur was revered and the professional was often shunned. Some had lost interest in that last U.S. Amateur of the Roaring Twenties when the 19-year-old Goodman stunned the legendary Bobby Jones in their opening match at Pebble Beach. The colossal upset put Goodman on the map, although he lost his second match after lunch on the same day he defeated Jones.

Not to worry. What transpired later that week was one of the most dramatic moments in the championship’s history.

Harrison “Jimmy” Johnston arrived at Pebble’s 18th hole one down to Dr. Oscar Willing at the midpoint of their 36-hole final match. Johnston drove his ball safely onto the 18th fairway. The most difficult shot out of the way, he then blundered badly, hooking his second shot over the cliff and onto the beach. Johnston played a provisional ball and was ready to move on when his caddie came running through the gallery and informed him that his original ball might be playable on the beach.

(Photo courtesy of USGA Museum)

“I found my ball resting securely among the small pebbles below the seawall,” Johnston said. “When I took my stance to play the shot, a wave swished up behind me and buried my feet six inches in the water. But when the wave receded, the ball was still there!”

Before the next wave arrived, Johnston calmly struck his golf ball with a Spalding Kro-Flite spade mashie, the equivalent of a modern-day 7-iron. The ball cleared the seawall and landed on the edge of the 18th green. Johnston halved the par-5 hole and rallied in the afternoon round for a 4 and 3 victory to claim the U.S. Amateur title. He was later honored with a ticker-tape parade in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota.

−The Armchair Golfer

More:
USGA story and photos of Johnston’s Spalding Kro-Flite spade mashie