This Phenom named Jordan Spieth – Can anybody stop him?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
OK, I was wrong in my pick for the US Open.
I picked Phil Mickelson because I’m a sentimentalist and wanted him to win all 4 Majors before his career was over. However, I was thrilled to see Jordan win and keep the Grand Slam alive! Nobody has won all 4 Majors in a calendar year (Tiger did it but not all in a calendar year). Can Jordan do it? This win had created the same excitement that American Pharoah created when he had a chance and eventually won the Triple Crown. The ticket sales for the Open Championship will be through the roof, and I certainly wish I could be there to watch Jordan try to make history!
I do feel for Dustin Johnson, and I hope his Major Championship (or two) will come along soon. He certainly has the talent to do it!
My two fellow countrymen Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace, fell one shot short, and if not for an opening 77, Louis would have won this by a mile. But this is a 4 round tournament, and Jordan Spieth shot the lowest score, so he is the winner! Congrats to Jordan.
Here is a video of Jordan Spieth’s life after his Masters win brought to you by the PGA Tour.
A Beautiful Flyover of The Augusta National Golf Club!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
We sit at home on Sunday of Masters week, in our easy chairs, and drool at the beautiful venue that hosts the Master’s Tournament.
Augusta National was the vision of Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts, and the design genius of Alistair MacKenzie.
To get tickets and be able to walk is a golfer’s dream. To actually play, there is a golfer’s orgasm! And I have played there, trust me!
So here, PGA Golf Art.com gives us a spectacular fly-over video that allows us all to see the real beauty that is Augusta National!
This is Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters PGA golf tournament. This is the most magnificent golf course in the world. If you have not physically visited the course then I urgently urge you to make a trip to this years Masters Tournament. I have joked to my friends that the rough looks so perfect that it must have been hand washed, blown dry and brushed like a professional hair stylist! The original videos of each hole are on www.masters.com.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I was extremely fortunate to be invited to play Augusta National.
My host was the late Wayne Calloway, who was the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. One of the finest human beings I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Wayne never thought he would be invited to be a member of Augusta because Georgia is Coke country, and he led the rival company Pepsi. However, his stature in the business world made it a no-brainer for Wayne to be a member there, and the selection committee obviously knew that.
We stayed in the cabins alongside the 10th fairway and ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the clubhouse. I must say they have one of the finest wine cellars I have ever seen.
Each morning I would get up early just to walk around the ground close to the clubhouse, and there were already staff out picking up the leaves that had fallen during the night. The place is immaculate!
Augusta National is not a club where you apply for membership.
If you have to ask, you’re not welcome. That’s the basic membership policy at Augusta National Golf Club.
Members at Augusta National are usually wealthy, but a more distinction would be that holders of the green jacket are accomplished. Wealth alone doesn’t grant immediate access into one of golf’s most exclusive and secretive clubs. Details about the membership policies leak out from time to time, but for the most part, the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule is observed.
When USA Today published a comprehensive list of the members in 2002, it revealed the average age of an Augusta member to be in the early 70s. Notable members include Warren Buffett (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway), Bill Gates (chairman of Microsoft), Roger Goodell (Commissioner of the NFL), Lynn Swann (Hall-of-Fame wide receiver) and Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric).
Augusta announced in 2012 that Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore would become the first two female members in the history of the club. A third female member, Ginni Rometty, was admitted in 2014.
In the 2002 USA Today package, one Augusta member offered some inside information.
The club likes to keep its total number around 300 and fees range from $25,000-$50,000. That’s a bargain compared to rates at other private clubs, which can be well into the six figures. Augusta’s waiting list is about 300, populated by those nominated by current members. Members are allowed up to four guests, and as long as the member is on the property, his guests can play without him. The playing period is a lot less due to the club being closed from mid-May to mid-October for course renovations. A 2006 GOLF Magazine study revealed the average handicap of the club members was 13.2 according to then club president Hootie Johnson. A former Augusta caddie said the number is probably closer to 15.
The best piece of gossip from the Augusta caddie? One member took to walking his dog on the course in the morning, but was told he couldn’t do so because his dog was not a member. He resolved the issue by paying a guest fee for his dog.
So there you have it. A dog is more welcome at Augusta National than you are.
14 Records at the Masters – I did not know about #3.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Stats and records have always intrigued me, and I enjoy reading golf trivia.
So when Sean Zak put this compilation of Seve moments in honor of the 35th anniversary of Seve Ballesteros’s first Master’s victory for the European Tour, I had to post for my readers. I am sure Seve is walking Augusta’s fairways this week and pulling for his fellow countrymen Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and Sergio Garcia.
The Masters is the most sought-after championship in professional golf. The green jacket, to no surprise, is the greatest trophy. With just one event held at Augusta National each year since 1934 (except during World War II), the records for the Masters Tournament represent the best of golf history.
Most Appearances.
Gary Player – 52
Arnold Palmer – 50
Most Victories.
Jack Nicklaus – 6
Tiger Woods – 4
Arnold Palmer – 4
Best Career Scoring Average. (100+ rounds)
Fred Couples – 71.91
Jack Nicklaus – 71.98
Most Second Place Finishes.
Jack Nicklaus – 4
Ben Hogan – 4
Tom Weiskopf – 4
Greg Norman – 3
Tom Watson – 3
Johnny Miller – 3
Tom Kite – 3
Raymond Floyd – 3
Course Record. (4 rounds)
Tiger Woods – 270 (1997)
Jack Nicklaus – 271 (1965)
Course Record. (18 holes)
Greg Norman – 63 (1996)
Nick Price – 63 (1986)
Highest 18-Hole Score.
Charles Kunkle – 95 (1956)
Doug Ford – 94 (2000)
Doug Ford – 94 (1997)
Albatrosses.
Gene Sarazen (1935), Bruce Devlin (1967), Jeff Maggert (1994), Louis Oosthuizen (2012)
Youngest Winner.
Tiger Woods – 21 years, 3 months, 14 days
Seve Ballesteros – 23 years, 4 days
Oldest Winner.
Jack Nicklaus – 46 years, 2 months, 23 days
Youngest Competitor.
Guan Tianlang — 14 years, 4 months, 19 days
Largest Margin of Victory.
Tiger Woods – 12 (1997)
Best Amateur Score.
Charlie Coe – 281 (1961)
Worst Score On a Hole.
Tom Weiskopf – 13 (1980)
Tommy Nakajima – 13 (1978)
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson’s odds and expectations!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Going into the 2015 Masters Tournament we have some great storylines.
There is the entry of such superstars as Rory McIlroy, (World #1) Jordan Speith, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson (World #2) plus golfers in their twilight years like Tiger and Phil. And don’t count out players like Freddie Couples, (who has the best scoring average in history at the Masters) and Louis Oosthuizen, who is always a danger at Augusta. Can they pull off a miracle as Jack Nicklaus did in 1986 when everybody thought that Jack was through? Time will tell, but I can tell you this. I will be glued to my TV on Sunday afternoon. Please don’t call, I won’t pick up.
The Top 10 Greatest Shots in Augusta National’s History!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
When I see the Azalea’s blooming in my driveway, I know it is Masters Week!
The heralding of spring, the start of a new golf season, and the anticipation of either going to Augusta to watch the greatest golf tournament in the world or, like me, sitting at home on Sunday afternoon watching this great spectacle!
Azaleas mean Master’s Week!
Augusta National is a special place. At the beginning of every April, golfers and fans worldwide tune in to watch the best players in the world play one of the most challenging courses in the world. And with challenge comes some magical moments.
Here are some of the greatest Masters shots to date.
#1. Phil Mickelson – 13th Hole.
Phil Mickelson – 2010 With two pine trees, a creek, and 207 yards between him and the hole, Mickelson delivered a towering 6-iron off the pine needles through the trees to four feet. It was vintage Lefty and one of the gutsiest shots ever played. Phil missed the ensuing eagle putt, but the birdie propelled him to a 67 (his third of the tournament) and his third green jacket.
#2. Jack Nicklaus – 17th Hole.
Jack Nicklaus – 1986 Jack made a monumental back-nine charge, shooting a 30 that featured an eagle-birdie-birdie stretch on 15, 16, and 17. The round featured several clutch shots, but the tricky 12-footer he holed for birdie on 17 most resonates. After parring the 18th and carding a 65, Nicklaus watched as Tom Kite, Norman, and Seve Ballesteros faltered to give Jack his sixth green jacket.
The Top 10 Greatest Shots in Augusta National’s History!
#3. Gene Sarazen – 13th Hole.
Gene Sarazen – 1935 Sarazen’s historic hole-out for double eagle went a long way toward popularizing the Augusta National Invitational, aka The Masters. Sarazen was torn between hitting a 3-wood or a 4. He pulled the latter. The result was a blistering shot that flew some 235 yards, cleared a greenside pond, and dropped into the hole. The deuce tied Sarazen for the lead with Craig Wood, and he went on to win the only 36-hole playoff in Masters history.
#4. Bubba Watson – 10th Hole.
Bubba Watson – 2012 There’s likely no other player in the field who could have pulled off the shot Bubba hit on the way to victory in a playoff with Louis Oosthuizen. After a wayward drive on the downhill 10th found the trees right of the fairway, Bubba unleashed a huge hook with his pitching wedge that landed, spun, and settled 10 feet from the hole. Here’s how Bubba described it: “I hit my 52-degree, my gap wedge, hooked it about 40 yards, hit it about 15 feet off the ground until it got under the tree, and then it started rising — pretty easy.” Oosthuizen made a bogey, and Bubba went on the victory.
#5. Sandy Lyle – 18th Hole.
Sandy Lyle – 1988 Sandy Lyle’s path to the green jacket was secured with a masterful fairway bunker shot on the 18th hole Sunday. His 7-iron approach caught the slope behind the hole and trickled to within 10 feet. He rolled in the putt to make birdie and finish a stroke ahead of Mark Calcavecchia.
Bubba Watson’s Top 5 Masters Shots – Even his Caddie did not believe #1.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Bubba Watson reminds me of Seve Ballesteros. He has that masterful imagination that sets him apart from the rest of the pack.
Not only does he have this great imagination, but he has the ability to create those shots he sees in his head. Even his caddie is left gasping at some of the fantastic shots he has played at Augusta. Here is Ted Scott’s (Bubba’s Caddie) account of the top 5, as it appeared in GOLF Magazine.
A Tour caddie for 15 years and himself a scratch golfer, Ted Scott is hard to impress. So it speaks to Bubba Watson’s sublime shot-making skills that the two-time Master’s winner regularly makes his longtime looper’s jaw drop. Scott counts down the five most amazing Masters shots Bubba ever hit — and No. 1 isn’t what you think!
#5. 2014, Final Round, Par-5 15th
Shot: 181-yard 6-iron cut approach over water
“Last year everybody freaked out about this [choked-down 6-iron second] shot through trees and over water. The hard thing was hitting it far enough to carry the water. TV made it look super scary, but we had an angle to the trees to where even I could have hit it through. Could I have hit it over the pond? Doubtful. Bubba’s distance control — to hit a cut that starts low and lands on the back of the green, down the stretch on Sunday — was impressive. He made par, which is all you need with a three-stroke lead.”
#4. 2012, 2nd Round, par-4 7th
Shot: 161-yard 9-iron approach through trees
“Bubba’s tee shot ended up in the right rough. The pin was in that front-right bowl. Trees were in the way, so he couldn’t hit a big ol’ hook to get it on the green. I encouraged him to hit a low shot into the front bunker. He said, ‘What about that gap there?’ I look up at a 10-foot-wide circle way up in the trees about 50 yards away. Now, the farther away the gap, the smaller the target. And hitting it though there had him aiming right of the green, so if we don’t cut it, we’ve got nothing for the third shot. But I don’t argue with Bubba if he’s confident — it’s like telling Picasso he can’t paint a painting. He hit a 9-iron cut shot through the gap to about six feet from the pin, straight up the hill. Skillwise, it was amazing.”
It was a firm lie, ball above his feet, and he had an opening. He just had to hit it hard and hook it, but doing it in a playoff and winning makes it more special. I equate this shot to Tiger making that six-footer on No. 18 to get into a playoff with Bob May at Valhalla [in the 2000 PGA Championship]. It was the high-pressure circumstances, more than the pure skill, that made it amazing.”
20 Things you didn’t know about Augusta Week – #16 amazed me!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Every Golfer in the World looks forward to the first week in April and Augusta Week!
It has all the hype and drama of a Steven Spielberg Movie and the serenity and beauty of Princess Grace of Monaco! The final 9 on Sunday at the Masters has to be one of the most-watched events on TV! Here are 20 things you did not know about the tournament, just in time to impress your buddies on Sunday. Brought to you by Jamie Kennedy and Will Pearson writing for EuropeanTour.com
So much to see – So little time!
With little more than a week left before the 2015 Masters Tournament kicks off, europeantour.com uncovers some facts and figures about Augusta National and the year’s first Major that will amaze you.
1) There was once a Presidential hostage situation.
In 1983, then-United States President Ronald Reagan played Augusta National as a guest of his Secretary of State, George Schultz. An Augusta native, Charles Harris, interrupted their round by crashing his truck through the club’s gates, demanding to see the President. Harris then held hostages at gunpoint in the pro shop for two hours before US Secret Service agents eventually subdued him.
2) Caddies play free.
Each year, on the last day the course is open before closing for the summer, Augusta National’s caddies can play for free. All-day.
Caddies play for free on the last day of the season!
3) Augusta’s 19th hole.
When Alister MacKenzie originally created Augusta National, he included a short 19th hole, named ‘Double or Quits,’ designed to settle on-course wagers. At 90 yards long, it was the only hole not named after a tree or shrub and was used as the practice putting surface during the inaugural Master’s Tournament in 1934.
4) Amen Corner is not holes 11, 12, and 13.
This is a common misconception. Amen Corner is actually the approach to the 11th, all of the iconic, par three 12th, and the tee shot on the 13th.
Amen Corner.
20 Things you didn’t know about Augusta Week – #16 amazed me!
5) Affordable Augusta.
An original membership share at Augusta National cost $350. That equates to roughly $4,000 in today’s money.
6) The myth of the Champions Dinner.
While the previous year’s Masters winner does get to pick the menu for the famous Champions Dinner on the Tuesday night of tournament week, former champions don’t have to eat it. Players are free to order off the clubhouse menu, and many do. After Sandy Lyle won the Masters in 1988, he served haggis, leaving six-time winner Jack Nicklaus to reflect: “Oh, I hope he enjoys it.”
Master’s Dinner – Winner Decides.
7) Clifford Roberts.
After falling ill at the age of 83, Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts ended his life in 1977 on the slope next to Ike’s Pond on the par-three course, a spot he dearly loved.
8) The anti-Par Three Contest curse.
It’s common knowledge that no player has ever won the pre-tournament Par Three Contest and gone on to win the Masters proper. However, four players have won the nine-hole shoot-out and gone on to win a Major Championship that same year: Tom Watson (1982 US Open and The Open), Hubert Green (1985 US PGA), David Toms (2001 US PGA), and Louis Oosthuizen (2010 Open). Not all bad, then.
9) The Masters Long Drive Contest.
Before the Par Three Contest became an annual ritual in 1960, players at the Masters used to compete in a long drive competition and complete accuracy challenges and best-ball matches in the days before the event.
10) Beware the first-round leader.
In 78 editions of the Masters, just four players have gone wire-to-wire to win the Green Jacket (Craig Wood, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Raymond Floyd). There hasn’t been a wire-to-wire winner at Augusta in 38 years.
11) Unbelievable, Jeff!
There have been 24 holes in one in the fabled history of the Master’s Tournament. However, only one of those has come at the long par-three fourth hole. American Jeff Sluman achieved this rarest of Augusta aces on ‘Flowering Crab Apple’ in 1992, holing out with a four-iron from a distance of 213 yards.
20 Things you didn’t know about Augusta Week – #16 amazed me!
12) Better Ball.
If you take the best score on each hole over the course of Masters history, the scorecard would add up to 32, with just 16 shots needed on each nine. The highest eclectic score is 166.
13) Fantastic Four.
Of all the players who’ve played more than 30 rounds at the Masters, only four have a scoring average below par: Tiger Woods – 70.86, Phil Mickelson – 71.21, Fred Couples – 71.91, and Jack Nicklaus – 71.98.
14) Switching Nines.
Augusta National’s front and back nines were switched after the inaugural Masters in 1934. Yet, records show Alister MacKenzie had first conceived of the current configuration, then changed the plan before construction in 1931, possibly to have the 18th (the present ninth) finish near the ‘new’ clubhouse. The nines were reversed, to their present order, because the lowest parts of the course (today’s tenth to 12th holes) were susceptible to frost and drainage issues. Switching the nines allowed play to start earlier – and yes, for more drama as the round neared completion.
15) Alister MacKenzie never saw a Master’s.
Augusta’s original course designer Alister MacKenzie’s last visit to Augusta was in the summer of 1932. He died on January 6, 1934, three months before the first Masters.
16) No ads.
The Masters famously does not allow on-course advertising. When beer and soda trucks drive onto the property to fill concession stands, their side panels and logos are covered in Masters green tarp.
17) Masters Inflation.
The first nine winners of the Masters took home $1,500 each in prize money. In 2014, Bubba Watson won $1.62million for his troubles. That’s an increase of more than 100,000 percent in 81 years.
18) Bobby Jones’ Struggles.
Despite being credited with creating the Masters, Bobby Jones never finished in the top ten. He played 11 times with a best finish of 13th in his debut in 1934.
19) Barefoot Sam Snead.
Few players can match Sam Snead’s success at Augusta. In 44 appearances, Slammin’ Sammy notched three wins and 15 top-ten finishes. However, in 1942 the American wasn’t feeling comfortable with his game, so he played nine holes barefoot. He went on to finish seventh.
20) Breaking New Ground.
The Masters was the first golf tournament to host a 72-hole event spread over four days. It also pioneered the over/under par system.
80th Anniversary of ‘Shot Heard Around the World.’
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
In 1935, in just the second Masters ever, Gene Sarazen holed a 4-wood from 235 yards for an ‘albatross’ at the par-5 15th hole.
South Africans like myself, and golfers from every other continent outside the USA, refer to a score of 3-under par on a hole as an albatross. Because an eagle is a 2-under par, a ‘double eagle’ would be 4-under par, and Sarazen scored a 2 on the hole, not a hole-in-one.
For an article debunking the ‘double eagle’ term, Read this USA Today story
By whatever name, it’s one of the rarest shots in golf. There have been 3 other albatrosses at Augusta National . . . Bruce Devlin in 1967, Jeff Maggert in 1994, and Louis Oosthuizen in 2012. But Sarazen’s was the first, the most famous, and led to his winning the tournament.
The 1935 field was incredibly strong and included Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Paul Runyon, and many more legends of the game.
80th Anniversary of ‘Shot Heard Around the World.’
Sarazen put the Masters on the map!
It was called the “shot heard around the world.”
No, not the one at Concord’s Old North Bridge in 1775 that ignited the American Revolutionary War and launched a new country – this one happened in Augusta, Ga., in 1935, some 160 years later.
But to a golfer, this shot was almost as significant, as it vaulted the Masters Tournament into the big time.
This shot wasn’t taken with a musket, but by Gene Sarazen (pictured above receiving the winner’s check from the 1935 Masters) with his 4-wood – it was called a spoon then – from 235 yards on the 15th hole in the fourth round. It flew straight as any shot in Lexington and Concord and found the cup for the rarest one of all – a double eagle – a 2 on a par-5 hole!
By the time Sarazen reached the 1935 Masters, the second one played, he was already an established star.
Born Eugenio Saracini in Harrison, N.Y., in 1902, he later changed his name to Gene Sarazen because he felt it sounded like a golfer’s name, as opposed to his birth name that he thought better suited to an opera singer. Dropping out of school in the sixth grade, Sarazen caddied at the nearby Apawamis Club where he reportedly saw Harold Hilton – the winner of four British Amateurs and two British Opens – win the 1911 U.S. Amateur.
As a 20-year old he won the U.S. Open at Skokie in 1922, shooting a 68 in the final round, the first player to shoot under 70 to win.
He added the PGA Championship at Oakmont later that year. With great bravado he challenged golf’s supreme showman, Walter Hagen, to a 72-hole event for the “world championship,” and won. Repeating his victory in the PGA the next year, Sarazen won numerous tournaments in the ensuing years – his total eventually reaching 39 PGA Tour victories. In 1932, on the strength of his new-fangled invention, the sand wedge, he won the British Open at Sandwich, then the U.S. Open at Fresh Meadow, for a historic double in the world’s two major Open Championships. In 1933 he added a third PGA at Blue Mound in Wisconsin.
The 1935 Masters featured an incredibly strong field of 64. All four of the reigning U.S. national champions were entered – Olin Dutra, Open; Lawson Little, Amateur; Paul Runyon, PGA; and Charlie Yates, Intercollegiate (NCAA). There were also nine former National Open champs, including the sainted Bobby Jones, and two former British Open victors. It was quite a formidable field, fitting for what would ultimately become America’s most cherished golf tournament.
The fourth round started with Craig Wood leading at 209, on the strength of a 4-under 68 the previous day. Olin Dutra was second at 210, Henry Picard third on 211 and Gene Sarazen fourth with 212.
Dutra, with a 42 on the front, shot himself out of the tournament, despite a stellar 32 on the back, ultimately finishing third. Picard, paired with Wood, shot a 38 on the front en route to a 75 and fourth place.
Ultimately, only Sarazen stood to challenge Wood.
With a 39 on the front, Wood missed a 20-inch putt on the 10th for bogey. He then went on one of the great rallies of the tournament, making three birdies in a row – the 13th, 14th and 15th – before bogeying the 16th and, with a final flourish, birdied the 18th, to finish with a 73 and a 282 total.
Sarazen, paired with his pal and rival Walter Hagen, was playing an hour behind Wood. Even par on the ninth tee before making a bad bogey-5 for a 1-over-par 37 on the front, Sarazen was only one behind Wood at that point. On the 14th tee, Sarazen, two behind Wood now, hooked his drive into the rough leaving some 200 yards to the mounded, undulating uphill green. Hearing a distant roar from the area of the 18th green, word quickly reached the duo that Wood had birdied the final hole to extend his lead to three. Now Sarazen needed three birdies over the last five holes to simply tie Wood. Tough? Yes. Doable? Maybe.
O.B. Keeler, reporting in The American Golfer, related the needling byplay between the two friends:
Hagen: “Well Gene, that looks like it’s all over.”
Sarazen: “Oh, I don’t know. They might go in from anywhere.”
It is almost a cliché to say truer words may never have been spoken.
Sarazen proceeded to hit his first great 4-wood of the day as he ripped the ball out of the left rough, reaching the green, but ultimately leaving a putt of some 100 feet. Two putting for a par – the second one of some 6 feet – he came to the fateful 15th hole and his date with golf immortality.
Hitting a fine drive of some 265 yards to the right side of the 15th fairway, Sarazen had a full 4-wood of some 230 yards off a close, wet lie in cold, heavy air to a green fronted by water.
Jones, perhaps realizing the moment, decided to come down from the clubhouse to see if Sarazen could catch Wood, thinking he needed three birdies coming in to force a playoff. He reached Sarazen and Hagen just as a young Byron Nelson, playing the adjacent 17th hole, pushed his drive near where Sarazen’s ball had come to rest.
So, all four of those ultimately on golf’s Mount Olympus – the hallowed Jones, the flamboyant Hagen and the soon-to-be great Nelson, watched as Sarazen’s arrow-like 4-wood hit a foot before the green, “…bounded once – twice – and settled to a smooth roll, while the ripple of sound from the big gallery went sweeping into a crescendo – and then the tornado broke,” according to Keeler.
80th Anniversary of ‘Shot Heard Around the World.’
Eugenio Saracini, now the golfer Gene Sarazen, had made all three birdies with one swing of his now magical 4-wood.
In an almost anti-climatic 36-hole playoff the next day, Sarazen defeated Wood by five strokes, 144 to 149.
No less an authority than Grantland Rice, America’s first great sports writer and a founding member of Augusta National, called it “ … the most thrilling single golf shot ever played.”
Even now, with the passage of 75 Masters Tournaments, one can clearly say without equivocation or hyperbole that Rice’s simple assessment of Sarazen’s shot is as appropriate today as it was in 1935.
It may have been Jones’ reputation for sterling play and sportsmanship that leant credibility and panache to this new tournament, but it was Sarazen who indelibly put the Masters on the map for all time with his “shot heard ‘round the world.”
The “Top 25″ Viral Golf Videos – Here are #19 #20 and #21
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I remember to this day, Gary Player giving me a ball at Kensington Golf Club after he had holed out his second shot and the par 4 4th.
I kept that ball for years, and somewhere in my various moves throughout my life, it went missing. But the thrill of getting the ball from the great Gary Player was awesome! The look on this kid’s face after Rory McIlroy gives him a ball sums it all up! Here are Viral Golf Videos #20, 21, and 22. Come back tomorrow to see the next 3.
Rory makes a kid’s dayweek year!
And one last adorable kid. This time, it’s a fan at a tournament who can’t contain his excitement after Rory McIlroy gives him a golf ball.
20. Man falls through pro shop ceiling We never got many details on this incident, but it didn’t matter. A man fell through the ceiling of a pro shop, and everyone barely reacted. It’s clips like these that remind us how lucky we are to have YouTube in our lives.
21. The “Mini-Masters.” Yes, this video contains clips from the 2013 Masters, but it came out in 2014. It also makes us laugh out loud every time we watch it. The overlaying of actual highlights. The actual commentary by CBS’ announcers. The transposing of mini-golf elements on sacred Augusta National. Just brilliant.
#4. 2012, 2nd Round, par-4 7th
3) Augusta’s 19th hole.
20 Things you didn’t know about Augusta Week – #16 amazed me!
7) Clifford Roberts.
9) The Masters Long Drive Contest.
12) Better Ball.
