Encoring a great Player

The return of the US PGA championship to Oakland Hills, a course steeped in history near Detroit, provides a timely reminder of the achievements of Gary Player.

It was at Oakland Hills, a course described as a monster by Ben Hogan when he won the US Open there in 1951, that Player won his second PGA title in stirring fashion in 1972.

Player had a knack of producing something special in a clutch and as the authors of the World Atlas of Golf put it “every great champion has had the capacity to make a telling stroke in the heart of a crisis, but few more so than Gary Player.”

He produced a stunning 4-wood shot at 14th at Carnoustie in 1968 to set up an eagle on his way to his second victory in the British Open and a pinpoint 9-iron to Augusta’s 17th (his 71st hole) in 1974 for a tap-in birdie which clinched his second Masters.

In 1972 Player was pursuing his second US PGA title at Oakland Hills and with three holes to play he was level with Jim Jamieson who was on the 18th.

The 16th curves sharply to the right around a long lake with the green set so close to it that any approach has to cross the water.

Weeping willows at the water’s edge on the fairway side masked the green, encouraging a drive away to the left to open the green.

Player however sliced his drive but was fortunate to find his ball in an area which had been trampled by spectators – giving him a better lie than might have been the case given the normal rough conditions of a US Major, but he faced a shot of some 145 meters with the trees and the water between him and the flag.

In those days it was a big carry for a 9-iron but Player felt he needed the loft to clear the trees. A shooting stick left under the trees helped him pinpoint his line and he went for what was a do-or-die shot – as a watery grave for the ball could have resulted in a five or six which would have taken him out of the running.

But Player struck the ball perfectly to four foot and down went the putt, just as Jamieson was missing a putt on the 18th to give South Africa’s Little Maestro the insurance he needed as he strode to what was his sixth major.

Ironically for the PGA, which starts on Thursday, Gary’s willows will no longer be there – the trees having been cleared away to provide a cleaner sight-line to the green during recent renovations.

Hogan’s victory in the US Open provided Oakland Hills with something of a mythical status when, after he had played one of the purest final rounds in a major ever, he said of Robert Trent Jones’s beefed up re-design: “I’m glad that I brought this course, this monster, to its knees.”

Interestingly Hogan had been dueling with Bobby Locke, who finished third.

Another southern African to feature in the chronicles of Oakland Hills is Denis Watson for it was there, in the US Open of 1985, that he committed an error that probably still haunts him.

At the 8th hole in the first round Watson’s putt stopped on the rim of the hole and he waited 25 seconds before it toppled in; so contravening the rules of golf and incurring a two-shot penalty for unduly delaying play. At the end of the week the title went to Andy North – a winner by one stroke over Watson.

Even more poignant was the tale of TC Chen in the same championship. Bidding to become the first Asian player to win a major championship he held a four-stroke lead with 14 holes to play when he committed his now-famous double hit while trying to extricate his ball from a heavy collar of rough. Chen went on to make an eight at the hole, bogeyed each of the next three holes, and his final round 77 left him a single shot adrift of North.

Oakland Hills’ first head professional was the legendary Walter Hagen – a man who would be instrumental in the formation of the PGA of America and the “emancipation” of professional players.

In 1916 Rodman Wanamaker, a sportsman of much renown and the heir to a New York City department store empire, summoned some friends, including prominent golfing types like Francis Ouimet, AW Tillinghast and Hagen himself, to a luncheon meeting.

He thought it was high time to form a national organisation to promote professional golfers, who at the time were treated as little more than hired help.

Wanamaker vowed to change that and the meeting resulted in formation of The PGA of America. He suggested a professional-only tournament, put up $2 500 of his own money for the prize fund, and ordered a silver cup – the one which to this day carries his name.

An interesting fact about the PGA is that it not only draws the most representative field in golf but it is also the major most likely to be won by an outsider. In the 89 previous PGA Championships, 31 former champions claimed the Wanamaker Trophy as their only major – names such as Jeff Sluman, David Toms, Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem, Mark Brooks, Steve Elkington, Wayne Grady, Bob Tway and Jerry Barber.