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Despite the existence of the PGA TOUR wrap-around season, for most golf fans, the TOUR season starts this week at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui, HI. Thankfully the wrap-around season will be going the way of the balata ball for the 2024 season.
The Tournament of Champions began in 1953 and was played in late April in Las Vegas where players let their hair down just two weeks after the Masters. It was where Arnold Palmer taught Jack Nicklaus how to play craps and the $10,000 first-place prize was paid in silver dollars. In 1969 it was moved to La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, CA, while retaining the late April spot on the schedule. In 1986 it was moved to the opening week of the PGA TOUR schedule and in 1999 it was relocated to Maui.
We turn back the clock to 1974 when Johnny Miller continued his hot hand winning his fifth tournament of the year, on his way to a total of eight PGA victories, being named Player of the Year and capturing the money title. He also had a bone to pick with the PGA TOUR Policy Board. Scroll down to learn more.
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Johnny Miller is Hot on the Golf Course and Hot at the PGA
It is Saturday, April 27th, 1974, and the MONY Tournament of Champions is in the third round at the La Costa Country Club. Johnny Miller is hot and wants to get something off his chest. He is upset with the PGA policy board.
“There are too many tournaments where I am not allowed to bring my own caddie,” he fumed. “And that’s not fair — in fact, I think it unconstitutional.”
Miller added a third round 67 to his second round 69 that helped offset his opening round 75. Bob Charles was the leader at 209 after shooting a third-round 67 to add to his 70 first-round and 71 second-round scores. Vietnam vet Buddy Allin was alone in second place at 210 and Miller was tied with John Mahaffey and Hubert Green at 211. Jack Nicklaus was lurking, poised to pounce, at 212.
“A good caddie can help a player and a poor one can hurt him. Naturally, I want a guy I can trust and depend on.”
Miller was not about to let the caddie issue go. Most of the top tier pros had their own caddies that they used at most tour stops. But in the major tournaments, the invitationals and a few others, the caddies were assigned by draw.
“I pay my caddie good money, so why shouldn’t I be allowed to use him in every tournament?” Miller asked. “A good caddie can help a player and a poor one can hurt him. Naturally, I want a guy I can trust and depend on.”
Miller was very close to his caddie, Andy Martinez.
“He’s a friend of mine and he’s very knowledgeable,” Miller said. "I don’t have to educate him. He knows the game, gets my yardages and, in general, makes my life more pleasurable.”
Miller and Martinez would popularize the idea of having the caddie squat down behind the player while they putted to help with alignment. The practice was later outlawed in the Rules of Golf.
“But we’re so unorganized I can’t believe it.”
Miller did not think it would be that difficult to change the rule concerning caddies, if only the players would unite.
“But we’re so unorganized I can’t believe it,” the young Californian stated. “If we had an important meeting, I bet not ten guys would show up. But if you polled them individually, everyone would vote to have his own caddie.”
He even thought that Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were being “too wishy-washy” on the subject. He believed that if they took a stand, the policy would be quickly changed.
Miller put his feelings about the caddie policy aside as he took aim at the lead in Sunday’s final round that was played in front of a sun-baked crowd of 17,200. Miller began turning the momentum his way on the 551-yard par-5 ninth hole when he answered Allin’s hole out from the fringe of the green by sinking his own 15-foot putt. Had he missed, he would have fallen five strokes behind Allin.
At the tenth hole, Miller made a birdie while Allin made a bogey, and the lead was down to two shots. Miller felt very confident coming down the stretch because of the amazing year he was having. He had won three tournaments in a row starting with the Bing Crosby Pro-Am followed by the Phoenix Open and the Tucson Open. He added the Heritage Classic to the list in March.
He relied on that confidence as he prepared to hit his tee shot on the final hole. John Mahaffey was playing in the group in front of Miller and Allin and all three were tied as Mahaffey played the final hole. Mahaffey suffered a bogey and then Allin placed his second shot into a greenside bunker. He was unable to get up-and-down for his par.
“But when you have $152,000 already at this time of the year, it makes things easier.”
Miller missed the green but chipped up to within five feet and sunk the “straight uphill” putt for the victory and the $40,000 first place check.
“In a situation like this two or three years ago,” Miller explained, “you’d have seen a different finish by Johnny Miller. But when you have $152,000 already at this time of the year, it makes things easier.”
At least as easy as it could be despite not having your friend and caddie on the bag.
The Tournament of Champions is a “no-cut” event and all players get paid. That came in handy for one player in 1974. Scroll down to read the Bonus Story this week.
We’ve got 18 songs from 1974 for golfers in this week’s playlist. Listen HERE.
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Larry Baush
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Bonus Story
Sam Adams started playing golf left-handed before he realized his mistake. He was a natural right-hander, but he continued to play left-handed even after he realized he was approaching the game backwards.
The 23-year-old from Boone, NC, had the accent and good-naturedness of a happy Southerner. In September of 1973, he surprised himself, and the golf world, in the Quad Cities Open with back-to-back 64s in the second and third rounds. In the final round Dave Stockton and Bob Goalby were taking a run at him, but he was able to hold them off by birdieing two of the last three holes and won by three strokes.
“All of a sudden, I was part of the tour,” he said at the 1974 Tournament of Champions. “Once you become a tournament winner you get paired with other tournament winners, and I guess I wasn’t prepared for it. It’s been exciting to play with Nicklaus and Palmer, but I’ve found myself trying to hide and stay out of their way instead of trying to play golf. That’s been part of my problem.”
His problem was that after the Quad Cities victory, he couldn’t make a cut. Well, he made one cut in his last 13 tries. One. At the Sea Pines Heritage Classic in March. That earned him $325 and when added to the $1,200 given to all players who had earned an invitation to the Masters, it represented all the money he had earned coming into the Tournament of Champions, an event that did not have a cut. He was guaranteed to pick up a check for $3,000 if he was just able to finish.
He started with a 77 and finished with a 77 and managed to squeeze a 72 and a 73 in between. That score was good enough to beat just one other player in the field—Lee Trevino.
After his first round, reporters asked him about being a righty who played lefty.
“I can play right-handed,” he said, “but not as well. That’s kind of funny, isn’t it? I’m not real sure I can play left-handed at the moment.”
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Tour Backspin Quiz |Tournament of Champions Trivia
Who lost an 18-hole playoff in the Masters to Jack Nicklaus and then two weeks later lost an 18-hole playoff in the Tournament of Champions to Arnold Palmer? For extra credit, what year did this happen?
Answer below
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Summer fashions from 1974
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Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Gay Brewer lost an 18-hole playoff to Jack Nicklaus at the 1966 Masters and then two weeks later, lost an 18-hole playoff in the Tournament of Champions as Arnold Palmer successfully defended his title.