Better Than $500 and Plane Fare Home
Gene Littler overcomes low expectations in the 1971 Colonial National Invitiational
What a great PGA Championship! As a golf historian, it’s always fun to watch history being made. There was something for everyone from the Phil Mickelson and LIV Golf controversy to a wild weekend that featured, at least for one round, Tiger Woods, to a great comeback and a massive 72nd hole meltdown. Congratulations Justin Thomas, who never shared the lead in the final round until 30 minutes after he signed his scorecard.
This week the TOUR is in Fort Worth, TX, for the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club. This tournament has been known as the Colonial National Invitational and has been played since 1946 when it was won by Ben Hogan. It is one of only five invitational events on the TOUR schedule (Genesis Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, and the Memorial are the other four). We’re backspinning to 1971 when Gene Littler came from behind to capture the red plaid blazer.
Whether you’re a Dave Hill fan or you just like to hear about his crazy meltdowns on the TOUR, be sure to read our Bonus Story on how he played in the 1972 Colonial. It’s located under the trivia answer below. We have two (!) Bonus Story entries this week.
Don’t miss our interview with Al Geiberger and Dave Stockton on The Tour Backspin Show podcast. The two talk major championships, the CBS Golf Classic, Spaulding golf equipment and the par 3 tournament at the Masters. Find out why they may have been the reason that the USGA instituted the one ball rule. Listen HERE or on Spotify or Apple Podcast
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“I Never Thought of Winning”
Gene Littler with the 1971 Colonial Invitational trophy (Photo: AP Wirephoto)
It’s late afternoon, Saturday, May 22nd, 1971, and Gene Littler just double bogeyed the 11th hole at Colonial Country Club in the third round of the Colonial National Invitational. He was now six over par and “would’ve taken $500 and plane fare back home” at that time. Littler’s tune changed however, on the 18th hole where he smashed a 7-iron 165-yards into the cup for an eagle. He posted a 74 for the day, and a three-round total of 214, well off the lead. He was behind 11 other players. He was looking for a good score in Sunday’s final round that would result in a good check. How’d he do in that final round? Let’s backspin to find out.
Colonial National was playing tougher than normal with winds, gusting and swirling, playing havoc with the scores. 51-year-old Julius Boros, the current National Seniors Champion, calmly navigated Colonial, and the winds, to capture the third-round lead at 209. His three-under round of 67 was the best round of the day by four strokes.
Dave Stockton was one stroke back at 210, while Larry Ziegler, Fred Marti and Homero Blancas, the defending champion, were at 211. Gene Littler sat at 214, five strokes off the lead. Lee Trevino, who started the overcast and rain-threatening day just two strokes off the lead, blew to a big fat 75 and sat at 213.
The winds continued to whip across Colonial in Sunday’s final round and Littler got off to a poor start in his round by three-putting the first green. He made the turn in 37, two-over-par. Still determined to make a good check, Littler headed to the back nine.
He got things going on the 13th hole where he hit his 6-iron approach to within seven-feet of the hole and then stroked the birdie putt in. At the 15th, he made a 35-footer for another birdie.
“I didn’t even look at a leader board on 14,” Littler said after his round. “I got a birdie at 15 and I thought I might finish fourth or fifth, maybe. I never even thought about winning.”
By this time the tournament had boiled down to a fight between Boros, George Knudson, Homero Blancas, Dave Stockton, Bert Yancy and Littler. The difficulty of Colonial, along with the tricky winds, gobbled up, one by one, all the challengers save for Littler and Yancy.
Littler hit his approach to the 16th green to eight feet and rolled in the putt to snatch the lead by one. He bounced his tee shot on the 18th hole off a tree and then left his 4-wood approach short of the green. He was able to chip up to within eight feet and again made the clutch putt. He then signed his scorecard for a 69 and a four-round total of 283, three-over-par, and waited for the charges of Boros, Knudson, Blancas and Yancy who were playing several holes behind him. A charge never materialized. Dave Stockton shot himself out of contention with a final round 77.
Boros faded in the final round on his way to a 76, but he still had a chance as a birdie at the last hole would tie Littler. He bogeyed. Blancas ended his defense of the title with a double bogey on the final hole and recorded a 75, for a four-round total of 286, three off the lead. Knudson bogeyed the final hole for a 73 and a four-round total of 285, the same total as Boros. Fred Marti shot a final round 74 and rounded out the group at 285.
Bert Yancy was able to secure a birdie at the last hole, but it only affected the second-place results as he finished at 284.
“That was a big one,” Yancy said of his 35-foot birdie putt at the final hole, “about a $6,000 putt.”
Littler’s three-over-par total was the highest winning score on the PGA TOUR since 1963. It was the 24th PGA title for Littler and pushed his earnings for the year to more than $80,000. Not a bad week for a guy who would have been happy with $500 and plane fare back home on Saturday.
Julius Boros during the second round of the 1971 Colonial National Invitational. (photo: UPI Telephoto)
We’ve got two Bonus Stories for you this week. Be sure to check them out.
We’ve got the Best of 1971 | Vol. 2 on this week’s playlist. Listen HERE.
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Larry Baush
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Tour Backspin Quiz | PGA Championship Trivia
The Colonial has a nice and unique tradition called the Champions Choice invitation. Former champions select two deserving players, who otherwise wouldn’t be eligible, to receive an invitation to compete. Five of these recipients have gone on to win the tournament, but only one player won the event the year he was selected. Can you name him?
Answer below
Bonus Story
Gene Littler visited the press room after his victory in the 1971 Colonial National Invitational. The soft-spoken Californian was dressed in his usual muted colors except for the red plaid blazer awarded to Colonial champions. He sat in a comfortable chair and sipped on a glass of champagne while discussing his round with reporters. He modestly explained why he always plays well at Colonial.
“It’s a golf course I like,” Littler explained in his high-pitched voice. “The premium really isn’t on length. It’s definitely a placement golf course. This is a place that is really frustrating if you don’t hit the ball well. Every hole is a potential bogey or worse.”
Littler first answered the questions of the writers and then spoke to an avalanche of microphones thrust at him by the radio newsman. He was polite with each one and it was an orderly affair.
In the locker room, Lee Trevino, dressed in black knit flair bottom pants, an expensive-looking black and white shirt and genuine, white alligator cowboy boots, held court. He entertained an audience that included admirers and tournament officials.
“It took a year to find the skin for them,” Trevino boasted. He was also wearing mod green sunglasses despite being in a dimly lit locker room.
He was totally at ease entertaining this crowd.
“It’s natural,” Trevino said of his comedy. “I don’t think you could make it up. I think Bob Hope is the same.”
Trevino was the same way on the course. When his playing partner, Phil Rodgers sank a long putt on the 18th hole on Sunday, Trevino grabbed the ball out of the cup and threw it into an adjacent pond. The crowd roared with laughter. Trevino then sank a long putt of his own. He made a big production of retrieving the ball and giving it to Rodgers as a replacement for the one he tossed in the lake. The crowd roared with laughter.
Bonus Story 2
Dave Hill’s head was about to explode during the second round of the 1971 Colonial National Invitational. The broiling sun beat down on him as he topped his tee shot off the 18th tee. He was 16 over par and had decided to make things easy on his caddy by only using a 9-iron to play the last few holes of his round.
He hit his topped drive with the 9-iron into a bunker and when he saw the brutal lie, he reached down and grabbed his ball, tossed it out of the bunker nicely, to tap-in range, and then used his 9-iron to make the putt.
“I didn’t throw [the ball],” Hill explained later. “I had a nice touch on it actually—it finished about two feet from the hole.”
Hill maintained that he DQ’d himself while the record shows he was DQ’d for signing an incorrect scorecard.
He was fined by the PGA TOUR for conduct unbecoming a professional player and placed on probation. He answered by suing the TOUR for antitrust. The suit was eventually dropped and the probation lifted.
(h/t to Will Knights of The Fried Egg)
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Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Dave Stockton won the Colonial National Invitational in 1967, the same year he was awarded a Champion’s Choice invitation. Others to win the tournament, just not in the year that they were awarded the Champion’s Choice, include Al Geiberger (did we mention we have a great interview with both Al Geiberger and Dave Stockton on The Tour Backspin Show podcast? Find it on Substack, Spotify and Apple Podcast), Tom Weiskopf, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Mark O’Meara, Paul Azinger, Davis Love III, and Jordan Speith. This year’s recepients of the coveted Champion’s Choice invitations are Stephan Jaeger and Min Woo Lee.
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