Gary Player's Fresh Air Leads to DQ ⛳
Thursday, June 10, 2021 Sign Up
Okay, you're going to have to stick with us here as we work our way through the DNA to come up with this week's flashback. The PGA Tour is playing something called the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. This tournament was necessitated due to the travel restrictions to Canada due to Covid. This week was scheduled to be the Canadian Open. The Palmetto has no history while the Canadian Open is the 4th oldest national championship, so there is plenty of history to draw from there. Therefore, we're dialing the Backspin Machine to the 1962 Canadian Open. This tournament fell on a brutal stretch of the schedule as it followed the PGA Championship (won by Gary Player) and was just two weeks removed from The Open Championship (won by Arnold Palmer). Both players were in the Canadian Open field.
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Be sure to check out the special features we'll be running next week for the U.S. Open. Spoiler alert: it won't all be history. We give you a taste in the "Eagle" feature below.
This week's vintage ad features Bobby Nichols sharing the scene with a wild turkey to sell a shirt with a penguin logo.
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Gary Player Whiffs and Then Signs Incorrect Scorecard
Gary Player pushed his second shot into the woods on the 10th hole at Le Club Laval-Sur-Le-Lac in Montreal, Quebec in the 1962 Canadian Open. His playing partner, Ken Venturi, watched as Player made his way into the woods. Player found his ball lodged in the lower branches of a tree.
After weighing his options, Player decided to extract the ball from the limbs with a left-handed swing. The result was not what he was looking for.
"I tried to push it out of the tree left-handed, but all I did was move it a few inches," Player explained. "My next shot didn't move it much more and on my fifth shot I got it out on the fairway."
As Player made his way out of the woods he told Venturi, who was keeping Player's card, that he had a "fresh air" meaning that he had whiffed.
"This is an amazing thing, I'm normally one of the most careful scorers on the circuit," he told reporters. "I remember telling my marker, Ken Venturi, after I got out of the woods that I had 'fresh air' and was lying four."
Wait, what? Let's count the strokes according to Player: his second shot went into the woods, he tried to hit his third shot left-handed moving it only a few inches (the whiff), his fourth shot "didn't move it much more" and he finally got his ball back on the fairway with his fifth shot. He then informed Venturi that he had whiffed and lay four (when actually he lay five).
After Player was able to get down in two more shots Venturi recorded a six as Player's score. Upon completion of the round, this incorrect lower score is what Player signed for meaning he signed for a lower score than he actually shot. The rules are clear on this point; sign for a lower score than you shot, you're disqualified, sign for a higher score than what you actually shot, that becomes your official score.
It wasn't until later that night when Player was discussing his round with Bruce Devlin that Player realized his mistake. You can almost see him recounting his score before coming to the realization that he signed an incorrect scorecard. He notified tournament officials of his mistake and they had no choice but to disqualify Player.
Player had won the PGA Championship the week prior to the Canadian Open and his three-month-old son was undergoing a hernia operation in Montreal the week of the Canadian Open. No wonder that he was a bit distracted.
Gary Player can't decide between black or white at The Open Championship. Tip Anderson is on Arnold Palmer's Bag in the background.
As the Canadian Open played out, Ted Kroll edged Charles Sifford, who newspapers invariably referred to as "negro champion" which is quite jarring to today's ears. Sifford entered the back nine in the final round with a 3-stroke lead but while he began making bogies, Kroll began making birdies. Sifford managed to birdie the final hole for an even par round for the day and a four day total of 280. Kroll, in the group behind Sifford, also birdied the final hole for a 2-under round of 70 for the day and a total of 278. It was the first win in six years for 42-year-old Purple Heart recipient Kroll.
Check out the bonus story on the Canadian Open below.
1962 was the year of the Twist. These songs were playing on that little jukebox attached to the wall of the booth at the burger joint. Listen on Spotify.
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Larry Baush
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Eagle | Birdie | Par
We give you some recommendations to check out around the web.
Eagle: We're going to tease our U.S. Open special coverage with some photos of the sectional qualifying held at the Meadow Springs Country Club in Richland, WA. Click HERE to view.
Birdie: Marcus Armitage is a content king on social media (think practice putting in the nude). Watch his emotional interview after winning the Porsche European Open and then watch him baby talk his dog on a Zoom call. Watch HERE.
Par: More great stories from "The Longest Day In Golf" also known as the U.S. Open sectional qualifying. And yes, you should look at the photo gallery in the Eagle section first. Read more HERE.
Bonus Fact(s)
Jack Nicklaus never won a Canadian Open title, widely considered to be the only prestigious tournament that escaped him. He finished second seven times with the last runner-up finish in 1985.
In 1961 Jacky Cupid beat his brother, Buster, by five strokes to take the Canadian Open title. Buster tied for second with Dow Finsterwald and Bobby Nichols.
Jacky Cupid, winner of the 1961 Canadian Open.