$20,000 Inside Floyd's Bag
Raymond Floyd has unique request for his agent
We’re flipping the script on the Tour Backspin journey through the past this week as the Bonus Story is just too good to not lead with it. Scroll down to learn more about the small bag that Raymond Floyd had with $20,000 in it, and the unique request he made to his agent. We’re celebrating The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday by going back to 1982 when Floyd won. Up to that point, he’d never played well at Muirfield Village. You can find the tik tok of that week down below the pay wall where the Bonus Story usually resides.
Ben Griffin went from “PGA TOUR champion, but it was a team event” to just “PGA TOUR champion” after winning the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, TX. This tournament was first played in 1946 and now offers one of the most unique prizes on tour. Not just a jacket, not a pair of boots, but something you can drive on down the road. Scroll down to see what else he won and for my take on the week in the PGA TOUR Wrap-Up. We grazed in the muddy meadow known as social media so you wouldn’t have to, so check out the Clips I Loved.
PAST TOUR BACKSPIN ARTICLES AND PODCASTS ON THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
Jim Simmons rides a hot putter to win the 1978 Memorial Tournament.
David Graham wins a low-scoring shoot out at the 1980 Memorial Tournament.
Who reads Tour Backspin? Our subscription list features current and former players on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour, Class ‘A’ PGA of America professionals, Korn Ferry players, golf course architects, private club general managers, public golf course managers, golf journalists, and golf sickos just like you. It all adds up to 890 subscribers and we are so thankful for each one. Thank you for reading. If you have any ideas, or suggestions, for the newsletter, please email me at larry@tourbackspin.com.
We try to provide a great deal of content for our free subscribers, as well as a little something extra for our Premium Subscribers. You can upgrade and become a Premium Subscriber for just $36 per year and you will be supporting our work and helping to keep this newsletter sustainable.
Enjoy the golf from The Memorial Tournament this week, the 50th anniversary of the event. Celebrate with a milk shake.
Ricky Fowler started the Charles Schwab Challenge with rounds of 70, 64, and 67 to get into contention only to shoot a 74 in Sunday’s final round and plummeted 13 spots to a T16 finish. We’d like to hear from you about whether or not you think Fowler can win again on the PGA TOUR. Let us know your opinion in this week’s The Tour Backspin Poll. This week’s Vintage Ad from 1982 (below the paywall) features the Spaulding TPM putters that promises us that it will “make balls disappear.” Scroll down to view.
We’ve got some great content coming up on The Tour Backspin Show YouTube channel. Subscribe, for free, to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
The Tour Backspin Poll
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler had drivers that failed testing of the face in the PGA Championship. The PGA TOUR only tests about 1/3 of the field each week, and doesn’t release any information about who has failed the test leading some who follow professional golf to jump to the conclusion that a failed test represents an effort to cheat. Faces become too thin after a prolonged period of hitting the same spot so a failed test is nothing more than measuring the wear on a driver that has been in play for awhile. Also, why test just 1/3 of the field? We presented these questions to you in last week’s Tour Backspin Poll. There were 90% of respondents who thought that the testing needs to be adjusted to testing all players in the field, 10% thought that the system needs to be more transparent, and nobody thought the testing is fine just the way it is.
Ricky Fowler worked his way into contention at the Charles Schwab Challenge last week only to finish with a 74 that dropped him 13 places to a T16 finish. Do you think Ricky will ever win on the PGA TOUR again? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
We’re playing Who is This Guy? in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to take the challenge. Give us your best guess in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? and if you get it correct you may win prizes from the Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
Did you miss a previous newsletter? You can view it HERE. Help us grow Tour Backspin! Please forward this email to a friend. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? You can sign up HERE.
Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
Floyd is Leading Money Winner. On Tuesdays.
Raymond Floyd won a lot of money on the PGA TOUR. His career earnings on the main tour were about $5.1 million and he added another $4 million on the Champions Tour. What turns the head, though, is the money he won on Tuesdays.
“Okay, we play for a few dollars sometimes on Tuesdays.”
While most players had a wager on Tuesday practice rounds, Floyd’s money games differed in both format and the amount wagered. Floyd had earned the reputation amongst his fellow touring pros as the Tour’s toughest man on Tuesdays.
“Okay, we play for a few dollars sometimes on Tuesdays,” Floyd admitted to Dwayne Netland, Senior Editor for Golf Digest for the November 1982 article. “Not every week. Whenever the right people are there.”
Floyd considered Lanny Wadkins, Jim Colbert, Dave Eichelberger, George Burns, Lon Hinkle, and Lee Trevino, as “the right people” when it came to the Tuesday’s games.
“If I don’t play for money on Tuesdays, I prefer to go out alone.”
The usual Tuesday game, when “the right people” were around, was a four-ball game, combined with an individual game against his two opponents, and with his four-ball partner. The stakes were a $25 Nassau with open pressing meaning that any player can press anyone at any time. It is not hard to see how this adds up and at the end of a round it was commonplace that $600, or more, could change hands.
“The guy playing best that day comes out ahead,” Floyd explained. “He can’t lean on his partner. I like it because it gives me something to concentrate on and puts me in a competitive mood. If I don’t play for money on Tuesdays, I prefer to go out alone.”
“He’s just as tough on Tuesdays as he is with a lead on Sunday.”
Floyd won so many of these Tuesday matches that an informal executive committee of “the right people” barred him from the games at least three times before later reinstating him.
“We enjoy his company,” Wadkins told Netland. “But he does have a little edge on most of us. Raymond happens to be a terrific pressure player. He’s just as tough on Tuesdays as he is with a lead on Sunday.”
Floyd is well known for his money games including the famous story of him playing an unknown Lee Trevino in a high stakes game underwritten, on Floyd’s part, by the legendary gambler Titanic Thompson. They played for $1,000 per round and Trevino beat Floyd in the first round despite a 66 shot by Floyd. The next day, Floyd shot a 65 and again lost, this time by two shots. Thompson had had enough and left town, but Floyd put up $2,000 of his own money for the third day. He eagled the final hole to beat Trevino by one. When Trevino asked about another match, Floyd said “Adios” and left town feeling fortunate to break even.
“But make sure they don’t commission it. This is gambling winnings.”
Floyd won so much money during the Tuesday games that he didn’t know what to do with it. Hughes Norton, in his great book Rainmaker co-written with George Peper, tells the story of when he was the IMG agent assigned to Floyd. One day, in 1972, Floyd approached Norton in the locker room at an event with a small bag and a serious look on his face.
“Take this back to the office,” Floyd said handing the bag to Norton. “But make sure they don’t commission it. This is gambling winnings.”
“How much is in here?” Norton asked.
“Twenty thousand, cash,” Floyd replied.
In today’s dollars, the bag contained the equivalent of $150,000. Not a bad for money won before a tournament even started.
Coming Next Week: Gene Littler wins the 1965 Canadian Open over Jack Nicklaus
Tour Backspin is a reader-supported publication. To receive premium content including early release of The Tour Backspin Show, please consider upgrading to a premium subscription for just $36 per year. Premium subscribers help fund the research I do, and in return, they get exclusive access to special articles and early access to our YouTube channel.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Congratulations to Glenn Blue for winning the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest last week. Glenn beat three other correct answers in the random drawing. We’re adding more to the gift discount code to The Tour Backspin Golf Shop to Glenn’s total as he is a multiple winner. We are sending discount codes to the winners of WHAT HOLE IS IT? in 2025 so that they can choose their prize from the offerings in The Tour Backspin Golf Shop, including the Tour Backspin 19th Hole Hot Sauce. Winners can combine multiple discount codes to use on a single order, and the codes never expire. When the code is redeemed, the prize will be sent with free shipping, so getting your prize will not cost you anything. Check out The Tour Backspin Golf Shop HERE.
We understand if a premium subscription isn’t in the budget, and we’re happy to have you here however you’ve arrived. You can sign up for a free subscription so you’ll never miss the newsletter. It will arrive in your inbox every Thursday. Paid subscribers help fund the work we do here at Tour Backspin.
Work continues on the Tony Lema documentary. Here’s a clip of the interview we did with Bruce Devlin. (clicking on link will open this post on the web, scroll down to video player).
Click on image to view on the web.
You can now support the induction of Tony Lema into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Sign the online petition HERE.
Tour Backspin Quiz | Who Is This Guy? Trivia
What is this guy’s stage name, his real name, and where did he come from?
Scroll down for answer
Clips I Loved
Ace alert from one of our favorite players.
Bar tab alert!
Brilliant.
This is how you celebrate.
Tasty balls you got there in that box.
He actually said this to me in person.
Bryson being Bryson.
Viktor Hovland on the trend towards longer par 3s.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | Charles Schwab Challenge
Ben Griffin’s career stats gained some weight last week, but also lost a lot of weight. Back in April, he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event, with his partner Andrew Novak. Last week, Griffin won the individual event, the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, TX. So, his career stats lost a lot of weight in the ‘but’ as he will no longer be referred to as “a PGA TOUR champion . . . but it was a team event.” Now he will be referred to as “a mulitiple winner on the PGA TOUR.”
He’s having quite the hot streak and has officially entered his name into the Ryder Cup team conversation with his victory in Fort Worth. He started the final round with an eagle at the opening hole and followed with a birdie at the 2nd and looked like he was going to cruise to the title.
Then he bogeyed both the 6th and the 7th holes, made the turn at one-under, and added bogeys at the 13th and 16th holes. Matti Schmid made things interesting after making the turn at one-over and then bogeyed the 11th, 13th, 14th, and 17th holes. He birdied the 12th and 16th holes and then he chipped in from the deep rough at the 18th to post a final round 72 and a total of 269 forcing Griffin to par the last hole to win.
After watching Schmid hole his chip shot, Griffin was faced with a tricky chip where he had to stand in a bunker and grip down on the club. He hit his chip to four feet from the pin and then made the putt for a gutsy win.
“First of all, it was like whack-a-mole hitting that third shot,” Griffin said. “In my head, I was thinking Matti might probably make that. Fortunately, I had that 4-footer. I felt pretty good over it. Just left edge and trust it.”
Read more from pgatour.com HERE.
Here are the final round highlights:
Tour Backspin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. We try to make as much of our content available for free subscribers as we can, but it is the paid subscribers who help make this newsletter sustainable. Please consider upgrading.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
That is Rollin Stewart who found Jesus and left his ranch in Cle Ellum, WA, where his life revolved around sex and drugs, to devote his life to spreading the word of the Bible. He found the best way to do this was to make sure he was captured in the crowd during the broadcast of a PGA TOUR event. His stage name was “Rock-n-Rollin” and Frank Chirkinian, the producer for the CBS golf coverage, threatened to fire any cameraman who captured Stewart in a shot of the crowd.
What’s behind the paywall:
Bonus Story (The tik tok of the 1982 Memorial Tournament won by Ray Floyd)
Blind Shot
My Open Tabs
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tour Backspin to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.