U.S. Open Not Always Decorous
When hard-drinking Fred Herd won the 1898 U.S. Open with rounds of 84-85-75-84, the U.S. Golf Association asked him to put up security for the trophy to prevent him from hocking it.
Nowadays, the trophy brings with it great riches - enough to set up drinks for the house for many years - and the Open has evolved into one of the most severely dignified sporting events in the land, a tournament that rewards not the swashbuckle of a John Daly but the prissy precision of a Lee Janzen, and no spitting or scratching allowed.
It is as a national championship in a gentleman’s and lady’s game should be, as correct as a coronation ceremony. It is played to lusty music by a symphony orchestra, with lots of bass. Its champions stand on a high hill, and we kneel before them as if they were kings.
For all the fabulous, though, there has been foolery and foozle. As we enter the week of the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, let us not forget:
Ed “Porky” Oliver, trying to beat a developing rainstorm, teed off for the afternoon round on the final day of the 1940 Open while Joe Dey, the official starter, was in the clubhouse having lunch. Oliver tied Gene Sarazen and Lawson Little for the title but was disqualified for starting his round too early.
Sam Snead, bless his heart, is the only great American player who never won the U.S. Open. He could have won it in 1939 with a 6 on the par-5 final hole at the Spring Mill course of the Philadelphia Country Club but scored an 8. The next year, he was one shot back going into the final round but posted an 81.
“This blowup was so big,” he said years later, “pieces of me were still coming down a week later.”
At the St. Louis Country Club in 1947, the Slammer sunk an 18-foot birdie putt on the last hole to tie Lew Worsham and set up an 18-hole playoff the following day. He missed a 3-1/2-foot putt on the final hole of the playoff to lose 70-69 to Worsham.
In 1949, he was tied for the lead with two holes to play but bogeyed the 17th. He finished second again at Oakmont in 1953 but was six strokes behind Ben Hogan.
Asked if he had been tense in the final round at Oakmont, Sam drawled, “I was so tight you couldn’t’ve drove flax seed down my throat with a knot maul.”
When he was 56, Snead finished ninth in the Open and when he was 61, he made the cut. He played 40 Opens, was second four times, third once, fifth twice and in the top ten five other times. He won three Masters, three PGA Championships and a British Open title, but never a U.S. Open.
In 1957 at Inverness in Toledo, a 17-year-old kid named Jack Nicklaus made his U.S. Open debut and shot 80-80.
In 1938, Ray Ainsley kept trying to play out of a creek on the 16th at Cherry Hills and wound up with a 19, the highest single hole score ever in a major championship.
In the 1931 Open, Billy Burke smoked 32 cigars over the 144 holes, claiming the smoke helped him determine which way the wind was blowing. He won.
In 1992 at Pebble Beach, Gil Morgan was 12 under par for the tournament after the seventh hole of the third round and was leading by seven shots but he played the next seven holes 9 over, led by one at day’s end and shot 81 the next day.
In 1967 at Baltusrol, a stranger showed up at the front gate on Monday carrying his golf bag. When a USGA official questioned him, the fellow said he had been given a ticket for a practice round and he was there to practice. Told the practice days were for competitors only, the fellow just walked away.
Something different, funny, weird will happen this week. And something great. Book it.
U.S. OPEN On TV Thursday, Friday: 8 a.m. on ESPN; noon on NBC; 2 p.m. on ESPN; 4:30 p.m. on ESPN. Saturday, Sunday: NBC has the weekend coverage.