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

ARMCHAIR GOLF Roundtable: Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson

(Editor’s note: In honor of Sam Snead, whose longtime golf home was The Greenbrier, site of this week’s Greenbrier Classic, I bring you the following from the ARMCHAIR GOLF archives.)

These are real quotes and comments. The questions are made up. Welcome to the ARMCHAIR GOLF roundtable.

At the roundtable:
Sam Snead – 82 PGA Tour wins, 7 majors
Ben Hogan – 64 PGA Tour wins, 9 majors
Byron Nelson – 52 PGA Tour wins, 5 majors

Q: Gentlemen, welcome. Ben, let’s start with you. After all the rounds and practice sessions, tell us something you have learned about this game.

BEN HOGAN: Golf is not a game of good shots. It’s a game of bad shots.

Q: Byron, how about you? What about the game comes to mind?

BYRON NELSON: Golf is a lot like life. When you make a decision, stick with it.

Q: Sam?

SAM SNEAD: Playing golf is like eating.

Q: Eating?

SAM SNEAD: It’s something that has to come naturally.

Q: Ben, it didn’t come naturally for you. You constantly worked at your game.

BEN HOGAN: Very few times in my life I laid off two to three days. It seemed like it took me a month to three months to get back those three days when I took a rest. It’s a tough situation. I had to practice all the time.

Q: Byron, were you a natural like Sam or did you have to work hard on your swing?

SAM SNEAD: When I swing at a golf ball right, my mind is blank and my body is loose as a goose.

Q: Uh, thanks, Sam. Byron, any swing secret?

BYRON NELSON: Swing the club as though you were driving 60 miles an hour on the freeway. Not too fast, but not deathly slow. Once in a while, if the risk isn’t great, you can push your swing to 70, but never go faster than that.

Q: Ben, it’s well known that putting was not your favorite part of the game.

BEN HOGAN: There shouldn’t be any cups, just flagsticks. And then the man who hit the most fairways and greens and got the closest to the pins would be the tournament winner.

Q: Sam, are you with Ben on this?

SAM SNEAD: I shot a wild elephant in Africa thirty yards from me, and it didn’t hit the ground until it was right at my feet. I wasn’t a bit scared. But a four-foot putt scares me to death.

Q: How about you, Byron?

BYRON NELSON: Putting affects the nerves more than anything. I would actually get nauseated over three-footers.

Q: You all had humble beginnings. Talk about that.

SAM SNEAD: People think growing up in the hills was a handicap I had to overcome. In a lot of ways it gave me an advantage that has lasted me to this day. Just like with that stick, I’d have to overcompensate for just about everything.

Q: Anybody else?

LEE TREVINO: My family was so poor they couldn’t afford any kids. The lady next door had me.

Q: Lee? I didn’t see you come in. Any final thoughts, gentlemen?

SAM SNEAD: The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so I could afford to hunt and fish.

BYRON NELSON: I tried to give my best to golf.

BEN HOGAN: Don’t ever get old.

LEE TREVINO: The older I get, the better I used to be!

Q: Thanks to all of you.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Source: The Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations, published by Skyhorse Publishing.)

Doug ‘About Time’ Ford Enters World Golf Hall of Fame

DOUG FORD, 88, FINALLY HAS a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame. And not a moment too soon. When told last year by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem he was one of six 2011 inductees, Ford replied, “About time.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

Monday night was the big night. Friend and 1968 Masters champion Bob Goalby presented Ford during the induction ceremony at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida. Also enshrined were Ernie Els, Jock Hutchison, Jumbo Ozaki, the late CBS-TV pioneer Frank Chirkinian and former President George H.W. Bush.

Ford had been on the ballot before—and passed over. He expressed doubt about ever getting in and wondered why his record didn’t sway voters.

“I’ll put my record up against just about anyone’s in the Hall,” Ford told GolfChannel.com’s Randall Mell after being turned away in 2009. “I think I have a hell of a record. I don’t know what they’re looking for. I don’t know what the knock on me is, but I’m just not that enthused about it anymore. If they don’t appreciate what I’ve done, I can’t do anything about it.”

Let’s look at Ford’s record. Nineteen PGA Tour wins. Two majors: the 1957 Masters, beating Sam Snead by three shots, and the 1955 PGA Championship, beating Cary Middlecoff in the final (when the PGA was a match-play event). Also four Ryder Cup teams.

Awfully good, isn’t it?

Ford played in the era of Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Cary Middlecoff, Arnold Palmer, Julius Boros, Tommy Bolt, Gene Littler and others. All winners and tough competitors. It was back in the day when you sometimes needed to win or finish high just to make enough money to get to the next event, as Bolt told me before he died.

There were already several players in the Hall who were elected with fewer wins or majors (or both) than Ford: Tom Kite (18 wins, one major), Tommy Bolt (15 wins, one major), Bob Charles (18 wins, one major), Gene Littler (29 wins, one major) and Chi Chi Rodriguez (eight wins, no majors).

“It’s a travesty Doug’s not in,” Goalby said in recent years. “Evidently, he alienated some people.”

Probably so. Ford was known for his feisty personality. It’s part of what made him a great player. But now ruffled feathers don’t matter. The feisty Ford is in, a deserving and long overdue selection.

−The Armchair Golfer

Drop Dead Gorgeous Golf Swings

JAIME DIAZ OF GOLF DIGEST pens a “My Five” series that ranks golf topics such as “Greatest Masters Performances,” “Best PGA Tour Courses,” “Golf’s Greatest Athletes” and “Best Match Players.” His most recent “My Five” edition caught my eye: “Golf’s Prettiest Swings.”

What players, past and present, possess the prettiest swings on the planet? (My apologies for the excessive alliteration.) Here’s Diaz’s list:

1. Sam Snead
No argument here. Snead would make everyone’s list. As quoted by Diaz, John Schlee summed it up: “Watching Sam Snead practice hitting golf balls is like watching a fish practice swimming.”

2. Al Geiberger
Mr. 59 focused on tempo.

3. Jerry Pate
1976 U.S. Open winner whose career was cut short by shoulder problems.

4. Payne Stewart
Yes, a pretty golf swing, but I’m surprised to see Payne in the top 5.

5. Steve Elkington
An exquisite swing. Elkington’s original teacher said, “Steve has the ability to swing the club in an almost musical way.”

Who Else?

So that’s Diaz’s top-5 list of pretty swings. It got me thinking about others. Legendary golf teacher Bob Toski said that Geiberger had the best tall-man swing. Maybe. But another tall man, Tom Weiskopf, also had an enviable golf swing. If Weiskopf could have putted better, he would have won at least one Green Jacket. (He finished as runner-up at the Masters four times.) And how about “The Big Easy,” Ernie Els?

Gene Littler rates a mention. Adam Scott. Mickey Wright. Tom Purtzer. Old-timey, Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones Jr. And Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey. Wait—scratch that last one.

−The Armchair Golfer

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.)

New Mexico Golfer Wins Limited Edition Print of Ben Hogan

CHIP BECKNER OF ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, is the lucky winner of the drawing for the Steven Anthony Salerno limited edition print of Ben Hogan shown at right. The golf artist graciously offered to give away the print at ARMCHAIR GOLF to celebrate the introduction of his Arnold Palmer and Seve Ballesteros limited edition prints, which you can preview at his online gallery.

Chip will receive the Hogan print, numbered and signed by Steven, along with a Certificate of Authenticity. I asked Chip to share his thoughts on winning, Hogan and his golf habits:

Woohoo! I’m excited to win this beautiful and inspiring print. I’ll be proud to hang it over my dresser or in the living room where I can see it daily and be reminded of it’s message. Steven Anthony Salerno really captures the movement and spirit of the player and the game in an artful way.

Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson have always been larger than life figures to me. They were near the age of 50 when I was born, so they were already legends. I can remember men debating who was the best of the three. I take each on his own merits: Ben for his incredible drive and determination, Sam for his outstanding athleticism, and Byron, my favorite, for his winning streak and for being such a gentleman.

I played golf all through my teenage years and well into my twenties. But, career and a family put an end to time for golf. I took a hiatus for twenty-two years or so. Three years ago, I took the game back up and am really enjoying it. I belong to two men’s clubs and play in plenty of tournaments.

Thank you, Steven, for this awesome prize. I will cherish it.

And I’d like to thank all the readers who entered the drawing and regularly pass by this way. Keep coming back!

−The Armchair Golfer

Old-Time Tour Pro Dragged Putter Behind Car

By John Derr
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

AT THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP in Louisville, won by Jim Turnesa, the morning of the first round, I arrived at Big Springs Country Club in the car with Sam Snead. He parked in the first open parking space. As he got out he noticed the car parked beside him was the courtesy car assigned to Tommy Bolt, who arrived in the club parking lot at about the same time.

Snead said he’d have to move our car to another place, several rows over, because if Bolt lost, he would gun his speeding car when leaving the lot. Chances are he would spray gravel and rocks from the unpaved lot, on any cars parked near him, according to Snead. And he did.

At the same PGA championship at Big Springs when another one of the top players (I hesitate to name him, for I am not sure and he may still be around), I was standing in the parking lot when the caddy dropped the pro’s bag of clubs in the car trunk. The player opened the trunk, took out his putter and what looked like the belt from his trousers. He secured the belt around the putter shaft, then tied the putter, head down, on the bumper of his car and zoomed onto the street.

Sparks from the errant putter, as it bounced along, looked like a Fourth of July celebration. He raced down the road, after saying to no one in particular, “I guess that’ll take care of the little bastard.”

Sam and I were the only people within earshot, so I guess he was talking primarily to his putter, a farewell of sorts.

I wish I could positively recall the pro, but I wouldn’t want to pin it on the wrong man, though others may have done the same.

John Derr is an award-winning golf journalist who covered 62 Masters and the author of My Place at the Table. He lives in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Tom Watson Demonstrates Bobby Locke Putting Grip

SOUTH AFRICAN GOLF GREAT Bobby Locke was born on this day in 1917.* As Tom Watson says in the above video clip, many players thought Locke was the best putter of all time. Locke’s artistry on the greens helped him to become one of the greatest players of his day, winning the British Open four times from 1949 to 1957.

After playing exhibition matches with Locke in South Africa, Sam Snead suggested Locke come to America. Sam later said his fellow pros chided him because Locke was so proficient at collecting money from American tournament purses. Locke won 15 times on the PGA Tour and was victorious in nine South African Opens over a 20-year span. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977.

Watson offers a few more tips on the putting grip (including the reverse overlap grip), as well as pointers on putting setup. Then he sinks a slippery 30 footer. Bobby Locke would be proud.

−The Armchair Golfer

*Today in Golf History is a daily feature of USGA.org (United States Golf Association).

‘My Place at the Table’ by John Derr

I’M CONVINCED THAT JOHN DERR has more golf (and other) stories than any person I’ve encountered. The 92-year-old sports commentator has included many of them in a new volume titled My Place at the Table: Stories of Golf and Life. The introduction is penned by bestselling author James Dodson.

I came to know John through a mutual acquaintance a few years ago. Since then he has shared a handful of his memories with me. Beginning in 1935, John covered 62 Masters as a print and broadcast journalist, including the first 16 that were covered by CBS-TV.

(Photo: John Derr interviews Ben Hogan
for CBS Radio.)

In 2007, John won the prestigious Masters Major Achievement Award. I asked him at the time what it was like to cover the Masters in those earlier days.

“Exacting, frustrating, very rewarding,” John said. “I always felt fortunate to be there, seeing the play, and it was my pleasure to try to let others share my joy through my description. I was heard by many, but I always tried to put myself in the position of being a reporter for a shut-in who could not be there in person. I was telling him or her what was happening—that one person.

“My job was reporting it fairly and honestly, even though some of the golfers were especially good and close friends. As a reporter you must be neutral. You are no longer a cheering fan. Communications were critical in the early days, both for a writer and especially for a broadcaster early on. But we found a way to do it.”

When John said that some of the golfers were his friends, he was referring to men like Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. John walked every step with Hogan at Carnoustie in 1953 when the golf legend won the only British Open he ever entered. “John Derr is one of the few people I would trust to get the story right and report it as it happened,” Hogan said. Snead commented that Derr “could be counted on to get to the heart of the story.”

If you glance at the list of people John knew and covered through the years, it reads like a who’s who of the 20th century. John covered far more than golf. His reporting and life travels allowed him to cross paths with—ready?—Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Albert Einstein, Byron Nelson, Grace Kelly, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower, Joe DiMaggio, Billy Graham, Mahatma Gandhi, Babe Zaharias, Bing Crosby, Rocky Marciano, Edward Murrow, Jack Dempsey, Richard Nixon, Henry Ford and every important golfer from Jones to Woods not already mentioned.

I have to admit that it boggles my mind.

“Just color me lucky,” John writes in the prologue of My Place at the Table. His memory and pen are still agile. The 100 or so stories in the book are told with clarity and a kind of offhanded charm that make the reader feel like that “one person” who is privy to an amazing little tale.

Available from Pinehurst Shop

You can’t get this book anywhere, or at Amazon—at least not yet. My Place at the Table is available at the Old Sport Gallery & Bookshop in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where John resides and still enjoys a game of golf with friends. You can contact the shop at (910) 295-9775 or oldsport@nc.rr.com.

More info:
Derr’s New Book Is By Far His Best (The Pilot)

−The Armchair Golfer

Sam Snead: ‘No Man Scared Me on the Golf Course’

IT SEEMS ONLY RIGHT to mention Samuel Jackson Snead during the inaugural Greenbrier Classic because The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was Snead’s golfing playground. I half expected Sam to return to Earth to fill out the 156-man field after Steve Marino’s last-minute withdrawal on Thursday with back spasms.

There will never be another year in golf like 1912. That was the year Snead was born. And Byron Nelson. And Ben Hogan. Three of the greatest ever came along in the span of six months and between them won 197 times on the PGA Tour. Snead was the most productive winner but won two fewer majors than Hogan. Sam’s greatest disappointment in golf was never winning the U.S. Open. He came in second on four occasions.

The following Snead comments are from his 2002 My Shot feature in Golf Digest:

People always said I had a natural swing. They thought I wasn’t a hard worker. But when I was young, I’d play and practice all day, then practice more at night by my car’s headlights.

Could I have whipped Tiger Woods? Hell, yes. In my prime I could do anything with a golf ball I wanted. No man scared me on the golf course.

I detest the fact that I endorsed cigarettes years ago; I didn’t even smoke. Lucky Strikes, Viceroys, Chesterfields, Granger Pipe tobacco—I endorsed them all. At The Greenbrier they had those ads on the walls as decoration. I made them take them all down.

I have a reputation for being tight with money, and I guess it’s accurate. But I can’t help it. The biggest Christmas I had as a kid was when I found 15 cents and a pair of socks under my breakfast plate. Poverty will make you respect money.

When Ben Hogan died, I said it felt like I’d lost a brother. Some people didn’t understand that, because Ben and I never socialized and rarely talked. But we were like brothers, because we both made the other guy better.

Snead’s longevity was legendary. Sam won his first of 82 PGA Tour events in 1937 and his last in 1965. He was also pretty efficient on his home turf, winning the West Virginia Open 17 times, his first in 1936 and 17th in 1973, a span of 37 years. Wow.

Sam Snead at The Greenbrier: A historical photo gallery

−The Armchair Golfer

Oosthuizen Joins Venerable South African Open Champions

IT MUST BE SINKING in for Louis Oosthuizen. Not only is his name engraved on the Claret Jug along with golf’s greatest players, Louis has added himself to the esteemed list of Open champions from the Republic of South Africa.

They include Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Ernie Els and now the low-key, machine-like Oosthuizen.

(Photo: The great Bobby Locke.)

Between 1949 and 1957, Locke won four Open titles. Some of the old-time pros have told me that Locke was the greatest putter they ever saw. After playing exhibition matches with Locke, Sam Snead told the South African he ought to come to America. Sam said his peers ended up mad at him because Locke took Sam’s advice and not long after took home a lot of money from the States.

A nine-time major winner, Player won three Open Championships over a 15-year span. Gary could keep the ball low and was a short-game magician, including one of the greatest bunker players of all time.

Els won his Claret Jug in 2002 at Muirfield and couldn’t be prouder of Oosthuizen. Louis got a jump start in golf through Els’ foundation. Today Ernie wrote about the newest South African champion in his weekly diary:

I take great pleasure in congratulating Louis Oosthuizen on his fantastic victory. Honestly, it could not have happened to a better person. I played a practice round with him last Sunday and, typically for him, he didn’t give himself a chance. He is a quiet and unassuming guy, but he has shown everyone what a great champion he is.

In closing, Ernie added:

I’m so pleased for Louis and, as I said before, it couldn’t have happened to a better person. As Open Champion his life will change, but he won’t. He’s simply a wonderful kid and what he’s done will inspire so many young kids back home in South Africa.

As Mike of Ruthless Golf has been saying since springtime, here come the South Africans.

−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)