In honor of the US Open heading back to Brookline Mass., G Spot takes us for a ride with one of Brookline’s little legends…
Good Morning, I’m Austerity Jones. Today I’m with G Spot. G Spot, tell us please, you were around before the US Open was open. And you always talk about being around at the closing time, but how about before opening time?
G Spot: Well, it’s about god damned time I get to speak on this thing young lady. You and C Thomas have been talking for 5 weeks straight and you still aren’t funny. You two talking about inflation and clipping coffee coupons last week or whatever you were yakking about.
This week we have the US Open golf tournament held at the oldest country club in the United States called The Country Club outside of Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts. The Americans famously won the Ryder Cup over the Europeans in 1999 when Justin Leonard made an improbable putt on the 17th hole to secure the cup for the Americans.
The rich history of this golf club includes the famous 1913 win by US amateur and father of US amateur golf Francis Ouimet where he beat British champions Ted Ray and Harry Vardon at the club where he used to caddy as a child. Mark Frost wrote about this story in The greatest game ever played: A True Story. They made it into a movie with Shia Leboeuf, and it’s the story of Francis and how he and his 10-year-old precocious caddy Eddie Lowery overcome the pros and elitism by becoming the first American amateur to win the US Open. But that isn’t the story I want to tell you.
The story I want to tell you was told in whispers behind hushed doors of country clubs and around poker games being played late into the night. It was considered an urban legend. It’s the story of the greatest round of golf ever played.
Austerity: Oulala, this is rather assertive. Let’s hear it!
G Spot: Eddie Lowery had a car dealership in San Francisco. That’s right, the same Eddie Lowery that caddied as a 10-year-old for Francis Ouimet when he won the 1913 US Open at Brookline. That little 10-year-old Eddie Lowery became the most successful Lincoln dealer in the country and would go on to become a huge supporter of amateur golf and a member at super-exclusive resorts like Augusta National and Cypress Point in California, where our story takes place in 1956. Cypress Point is a golf course located near Pebble Beach on the Monterey peninsula where Bing Crosby was having his Clambake which was the predecessor of the Bob Hope Pro-Am Golf Classic, which is called something corporate today. It was basically the biggest Pro-Am tournament at the time and drew celebrities and all the top golfers to Pebble Beach region.
So Eddie was at the Clambake as he was friends with Bing Crosby and he had had a few drinks at a party and was bragging about his two employees at his dealership could beat any two golfers alive, amateur or professional and he was willing to make a big bet on it. Now he didn’t just have any two amateurs selling cars for him, but Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi. Harvie Ward had won the 1955 and 1956 US Amateur championships and is the only person to ever win the US, British, and Canadian Amateurs as well as an NCAA individual title, although on this day he was the only person that wouldn’t end up winning a US Open. Ken Venturi who would go on to take 2nd in the Masters golf tournament later that spring and in 1964 would win a US Open and be crowned PGA player of the year and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. He would go on to have a 35-year broadcasting career, but on this day he was just a fresh-faced kid of 24.
Eddie finally got someone to take him up on his bet, a wealthy individual named George Coleman accepted the wager and the match was to be played at Cypress Point at 10 am. The rules were the best ball, which means the better of the two player’s scores would be recorded as the score of the team on each hole. However, no one knew who would be playing the amateurs as all the pros were expected to play practice rounds over at Pebble Beach with the celebrities and amateurs.
At 10 am in front of 4-5 people besides the caddies, the players, and the bettors the match began. The amateurs’ opponents that day were Byron Nelson with 5 majors under his belt including 2 masters and an Us Open and the record for winning 11 straight tournaments, and Ben Hogan, a winner of 9 majors including all three he played in 1953. Legends of the game and tough as boot leather and they still rank #4 and #6 in all-time wins although they were probably #1 and #2 at the time with maybe Sam Snead in that mix I don’t know. Anyway, the match was on. When it was over, the two teams combined for 27 birdies and 1 eagle by Hogan. Their scores were a 63 and a course record by Ben Hogan, 65 for Nelson and Venturi, and a 67 for Ward who was hungover and played on two hours of sleep because the Clam bake was such a huge party in those days.
Eddie Lowery and his amateurs had lost, but it took two of the greatest golfers of all time to do it. When they finished their match, it was reported that 5,000 people were watching as word had spread around the Monterrey peninsula of the Match and everyone left watching the pros and headed to watch the match.
Harvey Ward moved to Pine Needles Resort in North Carolina and would go on to coach Payne Stewart who would win two US Opens including the US Open in 1999, winning by one shot over Phil Mickelson, competing this weekend at Brookline. Mickelson has never won the US Open but finished second a record six times. Payne competed and was part of the winning 1999 Ryder Cup team also here at Brookline, but tragically lost his life months later in an aircraft accident.
Payne’s father, who taught him the game, played in the 1955 US Open where Ben Hogan lost in a playoff.
Hogan and Nelson had never played together as partners – ever. Even though both grew up as caddies together in the same country club Glen Garden Country Club in Fort Worth Texas. In 1930, Dick Groat was hired to be head golf professional and he hired his brother Jack Groat to be an assistant pro where he became playing companions of both Hogan and Nelson. Now, who was Jack Groat? And why is he important? Well, he would one day go on to become the one and only teacher of Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer of all time. They became acquainted after Groat took the head golf pro job in Scioto Country Club, in Columbus Ohio, where in 1926 Bobby Jones won his second US Open and Jack Nicklaus’ father was in attendance.
Why is this important too? Because, Hogan, Nicklaus, and Bobby Jones are all tied with the most US Open wins of all time with 4 along with Willie Anderson -who is the only person to win 3 straight titles- only to reportedly die at 31 by drinking himself to death.
And Ken Venturi became a golf hall of Famer himself and was immortalized in the Kevin Costner movie Tin Cup where he was shown announcing the tournament with long-time golf announcer Jim Nantz. Jim Natz makes his home today at Pebble Beach.
Austerity: Was that story true G spot? That sounds impossible!
G Spot: There is no video and most of the spectators have already passed away, but Mark Frost wrote a book called The Match.
Austerity: Thank you very much dear G Spot Johnson for all that story. So, Mark Frost was the writer of both books we mentioned today and you should go check out his books as he is an excellent storyteller. He also co-created Twin Peaks with David Lynch. The early 90s thriller is often ranked as one of the greatest television series of all time, filmed in North Bend, Washington. We have put links to both books on our blog at cthomasprinter.com.
Insightfully yours,
G Spot Johnson
Also born on this date: King James I, Kathleen Turner, Moe Howard, Salman Rushdie, Phylicia Rashad, Paula Abdul, and the luckiest man on the face of the earth Lou Gehrig.