1974 US Open - The Massacre at Wingfoot

[Music] 1974 open is going to be one that we'll see fast greens a golf course that's in very good condition and I think really one of the interesting opens of all time I think wingf foot's golf course that I've played the open arm in the last few times this is the hardest golf course I've run across in the US Open it could be as high as 290 with the winter here I think you're going to find exactly uh what the usj had hoped for and the proper ingredients for an Open Championship but Wingfoot served up a recipe never before seen by The Game's greatest players blessed with ideal weather conducive to Championship conditions The Perfect Storm ensued it was as if the entire field of 149 players were dead men walking an uncomfortable anxiety pervaded the grounds they talk about hard fast greens well we had them in 1974 Wing foot was every bit of that I'd have to say it was probably the toughest test of golf that I'd ever seen the rough was too high the greens were too hard you had to be lucky or a magician to get the ball close enough to par the home why happened to be uh Johnny Miller 63 in previous year in the final round for the es open to say we're not going to have that happen again the 63 the lowest round in open history 26-year-old Johnny Miller is the new National Champion my name is Sandy Tatum in 1974 I was a member of the executive committee that had the ultimate responsibility for the setup of the Open golf course Johnny Miller's performance at Oakmont in 1973 was one of the Premier performances of all time in respect of the setup in 1974 there was a prevailing view that the severity of it was largely a consequence of our reaction to Johnny Miller shooting that 63 a year before and I can attest without any ifs ends or butts that that was not a valid concern regardless of why or how the fuse had been lit and the players were turning disastrous expectations into reality including the events so-called poster boy himself by the end of round one Tatum's setup had produced an average score of nearly 78 without a single player breaking par and those were just the numbers the anger and frustration seen on the course with was largely taken out on the man deemed to have caused it all after the first round the media approached me in a state of mind that indicated that we had done something that was out of bounds with regard to the setup of the golf course the way in which the questions were put stimulated me to Simply respond to them that we're not trying to humiliate the best players in the world we're simply trying to identify who they are one 53 13 over par made the cut among the missing Lee trino Billy Casper and Tony jacn when you walked into the locker room people were dumbfounded there was a few glasses of Suds dranked in that locker room that week I watched all these score signs go by and there were 21 over and 25 over and 34 over and this is just after 27 holes the golf course was just a monster I I was really frustrated cuz I couldn't figure out how I could play much better than I played then I just went out in the car and screamed I really just screamed and and just trying to get rid of my frustrations you see attitude attitude is a very important thing you have the choice that day it can either be negative it can be positive it's not Jack's year to win his fourth open most of the players were engaged in combat with us and with the golf course they really thoughtful was understand that everybody's playing the same Golf Course everybody is incurring the same test those were the players that prevailed the others failed after three rounds the few left clinging to that Hardline philosophy included then 44 year-old Arnold Palmer 10 years removed from his last major victory a 24-year-old Tom Watson hungry to make his first win a major and a 29-year-old with just two wins who was ready to show the world his entire golfing soul I was addressing the monster you know Mr monster you're a good guy I like you let's get along and and I'm not going to be able to to tear you apart so don't tear me apart okay you know I just kind of made a packed with the course if you wish Little David and Goliath but Goliath won this one with one round to go Tom Watson leads is just one shot behind and Arnold Palmer Trails by three play in the last round of the US Open with lead I hurt was pounding Watson three putts to fifth I didn't look at Tom's one shot lead is insurmountable by any means whoever was in the lead the one shot's virtually nothing while Palmer's hopes faded from a bky putter the young Watson was getting caught up in the magnitude of the moment in the final group with Irwin who was himself discovering the fledgling formula that would become the Cornerstone of his entire career wait then pounce irn will be happy if it stops near the hole a momentous bird hail irn takes the lead for the first time it was now my event to win or my event to lose hail simply played it as he needed to play it and didn't fight it but simply analyzed it and performed in a way that made it such a very very impressive performance on his part back out on The Fairway to the leader with point is seven over right on the flag here at the home Hall when you take a player game to task that's not embarrassing that's testing the waters to see who can swim and who can't there it is the champion and there goes the ball that week halin was the the best player on that golf [Music] course I never really did have any doubt about the fact that we had set up that Golf Course properly I don't think the players really have the right to say what a setup is our job is to play them but Sandy Tatum said there really applies to golf it's the examination paper that's what you got to accept if you don't set up a golf course like that then a guy can hit it all over the place and still win the golf tournament so you didn't identify the best player that week today more than three decades later it's still Legend how a man firm in his convictions on hallowed golfing ground took on the game's best and refused to Blink I'm perfectly satisfied that we did what we set out to do and we created what amounted pretty close to being an ultimate test for the best players in the [Music] world

Channel: HynoDesignsClassic

Views: 167,980

Keywords: Golf, US, Open, Chamionship, Hardest, Test, in, Major, Hale, Irwin, Tom, Watson

Id: 25DCh7sz4bY

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 31 2012