Casper is Golfer of The Year
Casper runs down Trevino in the final four holes of the Alcan Golfer of the Year tournament
Another great finish in the playoffs at the BMW Championship where Viktor Hovland put together a most amazing round that included a back-nine 28 to win going away. His historic 61 at Olympia Fields was not only his career low, it was also an Olympia Fields course record.
He only missed two fairways and two greens, had 10 birdies, and had 23 putts. Just a dominating round.
Watch Viktor Hovland the moment he became a winner of the BMW Championship.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, we are evenly split between respondents who like the 2024 PGA TOUR schedule and those who don’t.
In this week’s Tour Backspin Poll, let us know how you feel about spectators at a PGA TOUR event gambling on live-action to the point that they have become distracting to players. This happened in last week’s BMW Championship when a fan, possibly drunk, was chirping at Max Homa and Chris Kirk late in the third round. The fan shouted at Kirk to leave a putt short, and then loudly rooted for Homa to yank his birdie putt. The PGA TOUR has been leaning into gambling, just like other pro sports, for the last couple of years. But golf is a sport where a spectator can affect the outcome. And did I mention that this particular fan’s bet was for $3? So let us know how you feel about live-action betting at PGA TOUR events.
Tour Backspin Poll
Clip You Might Have Missed
A two-fer from Scottie Sheffler.
This week it’s the PGA TOUR Championship, where the top players on the FedEx points list are rewarded through a formula similar to the Gundersen Method in Nordic combine skiing. The leader on the FedEx Cup points list starts the tournament at 10-under-par, while the second-place player starts at -8, the third-place player starts at -7, fourth-place at -6, and fifth-place at -5. Players ranked at 6th through 10th start at -4, and players ranked at 11th through 15th start at -3, and so on down to places 26 to 30 who start at even par. So it’s sorta like a net tournament for PGA players.
Since the FedEx Cup concept doesn’t fit into our 1960s and 1970s window, we’re going back to 1969 when a tournament called the Alcan Golfer of the Year was in its third year of a four year run. This tournament also used a points system to award spots into a limited field, no-cut event. It was played on one of the most historic courses in the Pacific Northwest, Portland Golf Club. Scroll down to read how it played out.
I can’t even believe that someone thought this was a good idea. Scroll down to see a shocking Vintage Ad.
The tunes of 1969 are blasting at you in this week’s Tour Backspin Spotify playlist. Listen HERE.
Check out Billy Casper’s sweet, fluid swing in this week’s Swing Like a Pro. Scroll down to view.
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We’ve got a great list of guests for the second season of The Tour Backspin Show. We kick-off Season 2 with an episode on the Jan Craig Headcover Company today for paid subscribers (free subscribers will have access next week on August 31st). We have upcoming episodes featuring Al Geiberger taking us through his 59 at the 1979 Memphis Open, an interview with Lee Trevino and we check in with Frank Beard and Chuck Courtney.
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If you like golf history, check out the Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. Host Michael Duranko celebrates birthdays, milestones, and other accomplishments that occurred on the day in golf history. Listen HERE.
Congratulations to Doug Poston who correctly identified hole #12 (North) at Olympia Fields Country Club, in Olympia Fields, IL, in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? Doug beat out two other correct answers in the random drawing and we have a prize pack in the mail to David. Check out the 2023 leader board and scroll down for your chance to win in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? We’ve got some new prizes to hand out!
Save the Date! The first meeting of The Tour Backspin Show Book Club will meet on Thursday, Sept. 21st at 5 pm (PST) via Zoom.
To get things started, we will be discussing my book on Tony Lema, Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema (it was the easiest guest to book). The book is available on Amazon and if you are a member of Amazon Prime, you can download the Kindle version for free. If you upgrade from a free subscription of Tour Backspin to a premium subscription before Aug. 31st, we’ll send you an author signed copy of the book for free.
We will be featuring other authors and some of the best golf books ever written in future episodes of The Tour Backspin Show Book Club.
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We’re playing Portland Golf Club Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
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Larry Baush
Casper Birdies Final Four Holes to Become Alcan Golfer of the Year
It is Sunday, September 28th, 1969, at the Portland Golf Club, a 6,541-yard, par-72 course in Portland, OR. It is the final round of the Alcan Player of the Year tournament, a tournament that is only three years old. It was conceived of by a Montreal magazine publisher named Hilles Pickens and a Montreal radio personality named Doug Smith.
The idea was to use four tournaments in the United States, and four in Great Britain, with the leading scorers entering the Player of the Year Tournament. Pickens and Smith sold the idea to Aluminium Ltd. Of Canada, which at the time was changing its name to Alcan. Alcan thought a golf tournament, with the finest field and richest purse available, would be a great way to promote the new name.
The first iteration of the tournament was held at St. Andrews with a concurrent tournament, the Alcan International, featuring players from the European tour, in 1967. After being played at St. Andrews, and then at Royal Birkdale in 1968, the tournament was scheduled to be played in the U.S. and was added to the PGA TOUR schedule as an official event. The purse in 1969 was $275,000 making it the richest stop on the tour.
The qualifying events in 1969 included a series of tournaments that resulted in 13 players from the U.S. PGA TOUR, six from the United Kingdom, and one each representing Asia, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Canada. This stellar field arrived in Portland after nearly two weeks of steady rain which left the Portland Golf Club course soft and soggy.
The players opened the week’s festivities on Tuesday with The March of Golfers, a 120-year tradition of St. Andrews that was revived at the first Alcan Golfer of the Year tournament in 1967. The rain held off long enough for the 24 players, their caddies, and a small band, to march from a nearby school to the course.
The pro-am was played on Wednesday and Billy Casper shot a three-under 68. He loved playing the Portland Country Club where he had won two Portland Open titles. Gay Brewer won the Alcan in both of its first two years and was also considered a favorite in Portland.
Dan Sikes and Lou Graham were tied for the lead after the first round, a round that was interrupted for 30-minutes after a portion of the grandstand at the final hole collapsed sending eight people to the hospital with minor injuries. Sikes and Graham shot 69s while Billy Casper, and reigning U.S. Open champion Lee Trevino were one stroke back of the leaders. Frank Beard, the leading money winner on tour, was at 72, tied with Gay Brewer.
“Leslie and I colored in a coloring book.”
After Lee Trevino was joined by his wife and 4-year-old daughter in Portland late Thursday, he felt more relaxed and shot a 5-under 67 to grab the second-round lead. Trevino had been home for only 25 days during the year, and rarely had his family join him out on the road, felt rejuvenated after spending the evening with Claudia, his wife, and Leslie, his daughter.
“Leslie and I colored in a coloring book,” Trevino explained to reporters.
Then, Leslie asked the first question of her father in the press room saying, “Daddy, did you know you made a lot of birdies?”
Trevino enjoyed a one-stroke lead over Billy Casper and Bert Greene who both shot 68s after opening 70s. Gay Brewer, and Deane Beman, were another shot back.
Playing with Casper in the final group on Saturday, that started under cloudy skies before finally turning sunny in the afternoon, Trevino made birdie putts on the first, 10th and 12th holes to shoot a 69 for a three-round total of 10-under-par 206. Casper experienced putting problems and could do no better than a two-under 70 and sat two shots off Trevino’s lead.
“I really think I could have put the tournament out of reach if I sank some other putts.”
“I didn’t putt well,” Casper said after his round. “I missed only two greens, but I didn’t get it as close as I did in the first wo rounds.”
Trevino also thought he could have made more putts saying, “I really think I could have put the tournament out of reach if I sank some other putts. I missed some good ones.”
Putting the tournament out of reach would have saved him some heartbreak. In Sunday’s final round, Trevino took a six-stroke lead over Casper into the final three holes and looked destined to win. But so did Arnold Palmer when he took a five-stroke lead over Casper into the back nine at the 1966 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, only to have Casper catch him and then beat him in the 18-hole playoff the next day.
Trevino eagled the 15th hole to get his six-stroke lead over Casper and then bogeyed the 16th hole. He under-clubbed on the 163-yard, par-3, 17th hole and wound up in the bunker short of the green. It took him two swipes at the ball to get out and then he compounded his problems by three-putting for a triple bogey.
“I won’t believe it until I get the check in the mail.”
Meanwhile, Casper was on a birdie binge with four birdies on the final four holes giving him a 66, for a four-round total of 274, while Trevino finished at 275. Frank Beard finished another stroke back.
Casper couldn’t believe his good fortune and the combination of his birdie barrage and Trevino’s collapse.
“I won’t believe it until I get the check in the mail,” he said.
Casper won the first-place prize money of $55,000 and calculated that each of his four birdie putts in the final holes were worth $10,000 each. Trevino won $15,000 for his second-place finish and Frank Beard added $7,500 to his leading money winner totals. Beard would win the leading money winner title for the year with a total of $175,223. He won the second highest purse of the year when he won the Westchester Classic and he won third place in the highest purse of the year at the Alcan Golfer of the Year tournament.
The Alcan Golfer of the Year was played for one more year, in Ireland at Port Marnarnock which was won by Bruce Devlin, who won by seven-strokes over Bob Rosburg.
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Bonus Story
Kel Nagle sat at the bottom of the leader board with a total of 175 after the second round in the 1967 Alcan Golfer of the Year tournament in Portland, OR. He was a full 38-strokes behind the leader. Nagle had accidentally placed his nine-hole score of 35 on the scorecard in the space reserved for his ninth-hole score giving him a total of 66 strokes on the front nine. After shooting a back nine 37, he signed his card without correcting his mistake giving him a score of 105 for the round.
In the no-cut event, he did play in the third and fourth rounds.
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Portland Golf Club Trivia
What major event was saved after World War II and who was the man most responsible for saving the event?
Scroll down to for answer
Swing Like a Pro
The fluid swing of Billy Casper (photo: Leonard Kamsler | Getty Images)
Blind Shot
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Catch up on all the possibilities for the makeup of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Read it HERE from Golf Digest.
Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema tells the story of one of the tour’s biggest stars in the mid-1960s. A fascinating glimpse into the traveling caravan that was the PGA TOUR during an era where the fields were full of “Mad Men” era personalities. From a hardscrabble youth spent on the “wrong side of the tracks” in the Oakland suburb of San Leandro, to the temptations of Elko, Nevada, to the bright lights of the PGA TOUR, Uncorked tells a story of determination, redemption and, above all else, a love story that documents how Betty, Tony’s new wife, provided the direction and motivation for him to become a top star. Order on Amazon.
What is Hip?
(photo: Golf Digest)
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
The Ryder Cup was saved when after cancellations during World War II the 1947 event was in doubt of being played. Robert Hudson, a member at Portland Golf Club in Portland, OR, stepped up and not only made the course available for the matches, but he paid the travel expenses, including transportation, food, and lodging, for the visiting team from England and Great Britain. Learn more HERE.
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Final Thoughts
That course at Doral is now called Golden Palm, and I don’t think it is for men only anymore, even under the current ownership.
Did Ray Floyd have fancy curls, or what?