Tiger Conquers the Windy City

A lot of water has tumbled over the dam since Tiger Woods first tasted national and even international fame in 1997. His ups and downs, both professional and personal, have been well documented. While we don’t yet know what the consequences of yesterday’s serious auto accident will be, it seems like a good time to review a pleasant memory—Tiger's first professional appearance in the Chicago area.

 

TIGER WOODS HEADS TOWARD THE 18th GREEN AT COG HILL.

When Woods arrived at Cog Hill in Lemont for the 1997 Western Open, he was the biggest phenomenon not only in golf, but in all of sports. The 21-year-old prodigy was ten weeks removed from his astonishing triumph at the Masters—in which he’d become the youngest champion and recorded the lowest score (270 for the 72 holes) in tournament history, while enjoying the widest margin of victory (12 strokes) in any major tournament since 1870.

Woods’s presence swelled attendance at the Western to 199,955, breaking the old tournament record by 30,000. There were 156 players in the field, but the spectators seemed intent on watching only one. “I feel for the guys who play in front of me and behind me,” said Woods. “Their concentration sometimes is interrupted. As I always tell people, you’ve got to understand that not only myself but other players are out here on tour, and we’re actually trying to make a living here.”

 On Thursday, July 3, Woods shot a five-under-par 67 to trail his playing partner Mark O’Meara by a stroke after one round. On Friday, Woods’s 72 and O’Meara’s 73 were the worst scores among the leaders; they ended the second round tied with four others for seventh place—four strokes behind Justin Leonard, who had carded a 64 to go nine under par for the tournament.

O’Meara continued to slide on Saturday, shooting a 75 to drop out of contention. But Woods climbed back up the leader board. His 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th gave him 68 for the day and 207 for the tournament. It also triggered a deafening roar from the gallery. “Yeah, the people were going crazy,” Woods said. “It was kind of wild, especially since it’s late afternoon, and it’s kind of warm and they’ve been sipping.”

Woods was now tied with Leonard and Loren Roberts for the lead at nine under par. A crowd of 49,462 turned out for the final round on Sunday, erasing the single-day attendance record that had been established Saturday.

Sunday’s spectators saw just what they had come hoping to see—eventually. There was a touch of doubt early on: Woods shot even par for the first five holes, while Roberts carded two birdies to take the lead. On the sixth, a challenging 213-yard par three, Woods placed a four-iron within 12 feet of the cup and knocked it down for birdie. Roberts began to implode; he lost three strokes to Woods on the next four holes and gave up the lead for good.

Woods bogeyed the par-four 10th hole to fall back into a tie with Leonard and Frank Nobilo. Thereafter he put on a clinic. On the par-three 12th, he sank a birdie putt from 25 feet out. On the 14th, another par three, his tee shot landed a mere foot from the cup, and he made birdie. He added another birdie on the par-five 15th for good measure. 

As Woods strode up the 18th fairway with victory securely in his grasp, hundreds of spectators broke through the ropes on either side and fell in behind him, their Pied Piper, and marched to the green en masse. “I really didn’t see them,” Woods claimed, “because I’m facing forward. I definitely heard them, but when I got up to the green, I was just looking at my putt.”

After Woods putted out, he hurled his ball into the gallery. His 34 on the front nine and 34 on the back gave him 68 and a four-day total of 275 (13 under par). Leonard managed a 72 to finish tied for third. Nobilo shot 70 to end up second, three strokes behind Woods.

Woods’s win was his sixth in less than eleven months since his graduation from the amateur ranks. He ended 1997 as the first golfer ever to earn more than $2 million in a single year. There was no telling how many more victories or dollars lay before him. “If I play my normal game,” he said, in a monumental understatement, “I should be able to win out here on tour.”

 

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Chicagoland U.S. Opens

JIM FURYK

     Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland tore up the course at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, this past weekend to take the 2011 U.S. Open championship in fine style. The 22-year-old McIlroy shot under 70 for all four rounds, finished eight shots ahead of the runner-up, and set tournament records for the most strokes under par (16) and lowest total score (268).
     The previous record for lowest total score was 272, established by Jack Nicklaus in 1980 and equaled by Lee Janzen in 1993, Tiger Woods in 2000, and Jim Furyk in 2003--at Olympia Fields Country Club. The 2003 Open was the 13th played in the Chicago area, and the most recent to date.
     Some of the 13 have been more memorable than others. The 1975 Open at Medinah was decided by an 18-hole playoff on the fifth day, in which Lou Graham outlasted John Mahaffey. But what makes that year's Open famous, or infamous, is that Lee Trevino was struck by lightning while on the course. Always a jokester, Trevino said afterwards that he would know what to do the next time. "If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning," he said, "hold up your 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."

Chicagoland U.S. Opens:

1897
Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton
Champion: Joe Lloyd
Score: (unknown)

1900
Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton
Champion: Harry Vardon
Score: 313

1904
Glen View Club, Golf
Champion: Willie Anderson
Score: 303

1906
Onwentsia Club, Lake Forest
Champion: Alex Smith
Score: 295

1911
Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton
Champion: John McDermott
Score: 307

1914
Midlothian Country Club, Midlothian
Champion: Walter Hagen
Score: 290

1922
Skokie Country Club, Glencoe
Champion: Gene Sarazen
Score: 288

1928
Olympia Fields Country Club, Olympia Fields
Champion: Johnny Farrell
Score: 294

1933
North Shore Country Club, Glenview
Champion: Johnny Goodman
Score: 287 (1 under par)

1949
Medinah Country Club (Course No. 3), Medinah
Champion: Cary Middlecoff
Score: 286 (2 over par)

1975
Medinah Country Club (Course No. 3), Medinah
Champion: Lou Graham
Score: 287 (3 over par)

1990
Medinah Country Club (Course No. 3), Medinah
Champion: Hale Irwin
Score: 280 (8 under par)

2003
Olympia Fields Country Club (North Course), Olympia Fields
Champion: Jim Furyk
Score: 272 (8 under par)

Once and Future Kings

ARNOLD PALMER

     The man who had dominated professional golf for the past five years and the man who would dominate the game for the next two decades were already well acquainted when they met in the 1963 Western Open at Beverly Country Club on the South Side. When Arnold Palmer won the 1960 U.S. Open, Jack Nicklaus had been runner-up; in Nicklaus’s 1962 Open win, he had defeated Palmer in a playoff.
     The 33-year-old Palmer had won seven major championships. Though he was 10 years younger, Nicklaus had already won five majors, including the Masters three months before and the PGA just a week before the Western.
     Nicklaus was poised to surpass Palmer as the best player in the world, but not yet as the most popular. At every tournament Palmer was trailed by huge and demonstrative galleries, known collectively as “Arnie’s Army.” The crowds at Beverly were no exception; they politely applauded such luminaries as Nicklaus, Sam Snead, and Julius Boros, but they reserved their most effusive responses for Palmer. When Palmer four-putted the 15th green in the first round, it seemed to knock the wind out of every member of his army.
     They were breathing easier within the ranks when Palmer shot 67 in the third round to surge into a tie for the lead. Arnie capped his sensational back nine of 31 by sinking a 20-foot putt to birdie the mammoth 596-yard 18th. Nicklaus’s 71 left him seven strokes behind.
     Sunday belonged to Nicklaus. “I thought I might have a good chance,” he said, “if I did a 65 today.” He didn’t—but his 66 was the best round of the tournament, punctuated by a six-foot birdie putt on 18 that drew him even with Boros at four-under 280 for the 72 holes. Palmer struggled to a 73 for the day, giving him 280 for the tournament as well.
     For the first time in the Western’s 60-year history, three players had tied for the championship. Palmer, Nicklaus, and Boros came back on Monday to settle the issue in an 18-hole playoff.
     Much to the delight of his army, Palmer required only 33 strokes to complete the front nine, while Boros and Nicklaus took 36 and 37, respectively. But things tightened up on the back nine. After 15 holes, Palmer and Boros were deadlocked at two-under 57, with Nicklaus at even-par 59. On 16, Nicklaus missed a chance for birdie from six feet out, and the three players went to 17 with the status quo intact.
     The 17th hole was a nasty 210-yard par three with a sloping green shielded by an array of bunkers. It had separated the contenders from the pretenders all weekend, and it proved decisive in the playoff as well. Boros’s tee shot landed in the rough behind the green, Palmer’s in a bunker in front. Nicklaus struck a near-perfect shot that plopped onto the green, then rolled to within five feet of the cup.
     Boros’s chip from the rough and Palmer’s blast from the sand each ended up 35 to 40 feet from the hole. Both putted to within three feet. Now it was Nicklaus’s turn to putt. If he made it, he would go to 18 no worse than tied for the lead. But he went for it too aggressively, and the ball skittered past the hole.
     Palmer made his next putt. Boros missed, and Nicklaus missed again. They went to 18 with Palmer leading Boros by one and Nicklaus by two. Nicklaus banged his third shot over the green and into the crowd; he took a bogey six. Boros missed his birdie try from 10 feet out, and Palmer tapped in for par to claim the championship.
     The win placed Palmer’s earnings for the year at $96,955—a new record. It also gave him a bit of revenge for his playoff losses to Nicklaus and Boros, respectively, in the previous two U.S. Opens. Nicklaus, of course, would be heard from again.

Reprinted from Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports
(c) 2009, 2010 by Christopher Tabbert

Tiger's Back

Tiger Woods—whose career to date has featured 14 major championships, 71 PGA Tour victories in all, and one hugely embarrassing scandal—announced yesterday that he will return to competitive golf at the Masters on April 8. Woods has had a soft spot for Augusta National since winning his first major there, in spectacular fashion, in 1997. Later the same year, Woods won the Western Open before record crowds at Cog Hill. Woods's Western experience is described below. He was just a kid then, and (perhaps more than most of us) he is a lot older now.

     When Tiger Woods arrived at Cog Hill in Lemont for the 1997 Western Open, he was the biggest phenomenon not only in golf, but in all of sports. The 21-year-old prodigy was 10 weeks removed from his astonishing triumph in the Masters—in which he’d become the youngest champion and recorded the lowest score (270 for the 72 holes) in tournament history, while enjoying the widest margin of victory (12 strokes) in any major tournament since 1870.
     Tiger’s presence swelled attendance at the Western to 199,955, breaking the old tournament record by 30,000. There were 156 players in the field, but the spectators seemed intent on watching only one. “I feel for the guys who play in front of me and behind me,” said Woods. “Their concentration sometimes is interrupted. As I always tell people, you’ve got to understand that not only myself but other players are out here on tour, and we’re actually trying to make a living here.”
     On Thursday, July 3, Woods shot a five-under-par 67 to trail his playing partner Mark O’Meara by a stroke after one round. On Friday, Woods’s 72 and O’Meara’s 73 were the worst scores among the leaders. They ended the second round tied with four others for seventh place, four strokes behind Justin Leonard, who had carded a 64 to go nine under par for the tournament.
     O’Meara continued to slide on Saturday, shooting a 75 to drop out of contention. But Woods climbed back up the leader board. His 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th gave him 68 for the day and 207 for the tournament. It also triggered a deafening roar from the gallery. “Yeah, the people were going crazy,” Woods said. “It was kind of wild, especially since it’s late afternoon, and it’s kind of warm and they’ve been sipping.”
     Woods was now tied with Leonard and Loren Roberts for the lead at nine under par. A crowd of 49,462 turned out for the final round on Sunday, erasing the single-day attendance record that had been established Saturday.
     Sunday’s spectators saw just what they had come hoping to see—eventually. There was a touch of doubt early on: Woods shot even par for the first five holes, while Roberts carded two birdies to take the lead. On the sixth, a challenging 213-yard par three, Woods placed a four-iron within 12 feet of the cup and knocked it down for birdie. Roberts began to implode; he lost three strokes to Woods on the next four holes and gave up the lead for good.
     Woods bogeyed the par-four 10th hole to fall back into a tie with Leonard and Frank Nobilo. Thereafter he put on a clinic. On the par-three 12th, he sank a birdie putt from 25 feet out. On the 14th, another par three, his tee shot landed a mere foot from the cup, and he made birdie. Woods added another birdie on the par-five 15th for good measure. As he strode up the 18th fairway with victory securely in his grasp, hundreds of spectators broke through the ropes on either side and fell in behind him, their Pied Piper, and marched to the green en masse. “I really didn’t see them,” Woods claimed, “because I’m facing forward. I definitely heard them, but when I got up to the green, I was just looking at my putt.”
     After Woods putted out, he hurled his ball into the gallery. His 34 on the front nine and 34 on the back gave him 68 and a four-day total of 275 (13 under par). Leonard managed a 72 to finish tied for third. Nobilo shot 70 to end up second, three strokes behind Woods.
     Woods’s win was his sixth in less than 11 months since his graduation from the amateur ranks. He ended 1997 as the first golfer ever to earn more than $2 million in a single year. There was no telling how many more victories or dollars lay before him. “If I play my normal game,” he said, in a monumental understatement, “I should be able to win out here on tour.”

Reprinted from Heydays: Great Stories in Chicago Sports
(c)2009, 2010 by Christopher Tabbert