Irwin Benefits From Graham's Double Bogey
Irwin wins the Memorial Tournament despite not holding a lead until the 72nd hole.
Join us on our journey through the past this week where we go back to the 1983 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, OH. Jack Nicklaus brought this tournament into being in 1976 and honors famous golfers from the past. In 1983 the honoree was Francis Ouimet while this year’s honorees will be Juli Inkster, Tom Weiskopf, and journalist Doug Ferguson. Scroll down to see how it played out, and how Hale Irwin won.
One of the first Tour Backspin feature articles we ever wrote was the one we did on the first Memorial Tournament won by Roger Maltbie in 1976. Maltbie beat Hale Irwin in a playoff after a very fortunate bounce. You should check it out. We also wrote about the 1978 Memorial won by Jim Simons, and the 1980 tournament won by David Graham.
There was an embarassment of riches this past weekend as far as watching golf on television. There was carnage at the U.S. Women’s Open before Yuka Saso won her second open. Then there was the heartwarming victory by Robert MacIntyre, with his father on his bag as his caddie, at the Canadian Open. Scroll down for a tournament wrap-up, a few thoughts from me, and the Clips You Might Have Missed
We want to hear from you in the Tour Backspin Poll, and this week’s Music Clip goes back to 1983 with an outtake from the Talking Heads movie “Stop Making Sense” live performance. Watch Hale Irwin’s driver swing in this week’s Swing Like a Pro and we bring you another tip from Tony Lema. Take a shot at this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? Presented by Rota Golf and you may just win a golf swag prize pack. Rota Golf has a cool way to map out your bucket list journey of playing the top 100 courses in the U.S. We’ve got some links for you in the Check it Out section and a very stylish Vintage Ad from 1983. Scroll down to view.
We understand if you can’t pay for a premium subscription 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.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll we asked if you planned on watching the U.S. Women’s Open. There were a lot of you, 80%, who said they would watch and that they loved the style of play, while 20% planned to be too interested in watching the Canadian Open to tune in.
How long do you take to warm-up before your round of golf? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
Tour Backspin Poll
Do you know what happened today in golf history? Or which famous golfer has a birthday today? Me, neither. But I do know where to go to find out. Check out the Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. Host Michael Duranko celebrates birthdays, milestones, and other accomplishments that occurred on this day in golf history. Listen HERE.
We’re playing Memorial Tournament Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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
Hale Irwin’s Steady Under Par Play Captures The Memorial
A group of dignitaries gathered around a large birthday cake on the putting green at Muirfield Village on Tuesday, May 24th, 1983. It was the week of Jack Nicklaus’ tournament, the Memorial Tournament, on the course Nicklaus designed, Muirfield Village, a par 72, 7,116-yard challenge.
A celebration of Bob Hope’s 80th birthday (that actually fell on May 29th) was in full swing with former President Gerald R. Ford, Jack Nicklaus, defending Memorial champion Ray Floyd, former Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes, former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes, and actor Sean Connery in attendance.
After Rhodes led the large crowd in a rendition of “Happy Birthday,” Hope addressed the crowd.
“I’m going to shoot my age if I have to live to 115,” Hope quipped.
Hope had played in all eight of the pro-ams since the first Memorial Tournament in 1976. Later, during his pro-am round, the crowd gave a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” as Hope exited the 10th green.
“The new grass we have will keep the grass from dying.”
In the pro-am, Tom Purtzer, Brad Bryant, and J.C. Snead took low pro honors with rounds of 68s, while the team led by Andy Bean won with a score of 52. The team of Raymond Floyd, Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, Clark Johnson, and Richard Chapdelaine came in with a score of 59.
Excitement was in the air for the start of the tournament and the host pro, Jim Gerring, assured reporters that the problems that Muirfield encountered the year before with a disease that affected the greens had been solved.
“The new grass we have will keep the grass from dying,” he said. “What it does is stop the disease that’s in this area.”
The disease is C-15 Decline where bacteria clog the vascular tissue in the grass blocking off water and nutrients causing the plants to die.
With the course in good shape and fingers crossed for good weather, it was time to get play started. Ben Crenshaw experienced his worst year in a decade on the PGA TOUR with only two top-10 finishes and didn’t come close to winning a tournament in 1982. In fact, he hadn’t won a tournament since the 1980. A change in attitude coming into the 1983 season rejuvenated Crenshaw and he broke his victory drought at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic the first week of May.
He continued his good play in the first round of the Memorial as he started his round with a birdie. A bogey at the second hole gave that stroke back before he reeled off birdies at the 6th, 7th, 11th, 12th, and 13th holes to put together his best round at the difficult Muirfield Village course. His five-under-par 67 gave him a share of the lead with Lanny Wadkins, who like Crenshaw, had six birdies and a lone bogey in his round.
“That’s certainly my best start here,” Crenshaw told Bucky Albers of the Dayton, Ohio The Journal Herald. “I’m very pleased with that.”
Andy Bean opened with a 69, tied with Gary Koch and Jim Nelford. Peter Jacobsen, Payne Stewart, Tom Weiskopf, Gary Hallberg, Vance Heffner, John Fought, and Lu-Ling Huan were all knotted at 70. Hale Irwin shot a 71 and was tied with eight other players including Johnny Miller. Nicklaus struggled to a 76.
Andy Bean had been struggling all year, so much so, that after shooting a pair of 76s to miss the cut at the Masters in April, he fired his caddie and hired Wayne Beck who was jobless due to the shoulder injury of Jerry Pate, his regular pro. The move seemed to help as Bean finished in a tie at the Sea Pines Heritage the week following the Masters, but the success was short-lived. Putting poorly, Bean fell to 38th place in the Byron Nelson Golf Classic, missed the cut at Houston the next week, and finished in 42nd place at the Colonial National Invitational before taking a week off prior to the Memorial. Not only that, but his driver broke in Dallas.
Beck showed up at Bean’s house in Haines City, FL, on the Sunday before the Memorial and the two would travel to Dublin, OH together. Beck brought along a putter that he thought Bean might like. It was the same model, a Spalding HBA, that Bean had been using but it was two inches shorter.
“The putter felt good the first putt I hit with it,” Bean related to reporters after using the putter, and a new driver, to shoot a second round five-under-par 67 for a total of 136 to take the 36-hole lead. “It felt solid. That’s an awful good feeling after two months of not making anything.
Bean used the new putter and driver to card 11 birdies on a day where the sunny warm weather and soft greens resulted in perfect scoring conditions.
“That’s a career record for me. I was steady as Tom Kite.”
Crenshaw fired 71 and was two strokes behind Bean while Wadkins had to scramble for a 72. Wadkins played the front nine in three-over-par but made four straight birdies on the back nine.
Crenshaw, known as a scattershot player, had an uncharacteristic round for him as he parred 15 consecutive holes after starting with a bogey and two birdies.
“That’s a career record for me,” he said after his round. “I was steady as Tom Kite.”
David Graham added a second-round 67 and was at 139, tied with Jacobsen and Wadkins. Hale Irwin added a second straight 71 and was six off the lead. Nicklaus looked in danger of missing the cut after going one-over on the front nine, but he got it together on the back nine and made the cut by a margin of three shots. Arnold Palmer shot an 81 and missed the cut.
Thirty players broke par in the second-round while 14 others matched par.
In the soggy third round plagued by a heavy drizzle, Graham and Bean arrived at the 18th tied for the lead at three-under-par. Bean drove his ball into a fairway bunker that resulted in a lie where he had to stand outside the bunker and bend over to hit his shot. The resulting shot flew right of the green and sent the gallery scurrying leaving him with a tricky chip shot.
At this point, the CBS coverage of the tournament ended so the network could cover the NBA playoffs. Viewers missed Bean’s chip that ran well past the flagstick down to the front of the green. From there, he three-putted for a double bogey. Graham’s par at the final hole gave him a 69 and a two-stroke lead at 208.
“If there was a turning point in the third round, that was it.”
Bean was tied with Scott Hoch at 210 while Peter Jacobsen and Crenshaw were tied at 211. Hale Irwin kept his steady play going with a 70 and was at 212 tied with Calvin Peete, John Fought, Jack Renner, and Tom Watson.
Graham, who won in Houston two weeks prior to the Memorial, had five birdies and two bogeys in the third round, but it was his hard-fought par five at the 15th hole that was the key to his round.
“If there was a turning point in the third round, that was it,” he said to reporters.
He hit his tee shot deep into the woods forcing him to chip out to the fairway. His third shot went over the green and he chipped back and made the par-saving putt.
The weather forecast for Sunday’s final round did not look promising with showers predicted. To accommodate CBS and attempting to build in a cushion should there be a rain-delay, players started at both the first and 10th tees. CBS was scheduled to broadcast the final holes from 1:00 to 3:30 pm before switching to the third game of the NBA Finals between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers.
“At the start, I was playing well, and they were falling back. I felt as if everything was going my way.”
Teeing off early, Tom Weiskopf set a new course and tournament record with a round of 65. Hale Irwin got off to a good start that put him right in the thick of contention.
“I felt I would have to shoot a 67 to win,” Hale Irwin later said about his fourth round. “At the start, I was playing well, and they were falling back. I felt as if everything was going my way.”
Then, as Irwin made his way to the 12th tee, the rain started and then the sirens sounded indicating a rain delay and Irwin felt his confidence start to ebb.
“I felt the momentum building prior to the suspension of play,” he said. "I was headed to the 12th tee when the sirens blew. After that, I never had the same feeling. The last seven holes, I felt I was hanging on.”
And hang on, he did. He came to the par-3 16th hole at six-under par while Graham, playing two groups behind him, was sitting at eight-under. Irwin missed the green but then chipped in from 25 feet for his birdie.
Graham met disaster at the same hole a short time later. His approach shot flew the green and his pitch shot went into a bunker. He exploded out of the bunker past the hole and then two-putted for a double-bogey five.
“I completely misplayed the hole,” Graham admitted after his round. “I hit the wrong club. In three previous rounds, I had hit a 5-iron once and a 6-iron twice, all into the wind. This time I hit a 4-iron conservatively 15 yards too far. The whole day centered on that hole, and I misplayed it.”
Irwin finished with a 69, his fourth straight sub-par round, for a total of 281, and then watched how the other players finished.
Crenshaw was making one last rally when he birdied the 16th hole, but it fizzled out when he bogeyed the next hole. He finished with a 71 that put him at 282, tied with Graham who finished with a 74. When the smoke cleared, Irwin was the winner despite not owning the lead until Graham’s double bogey on the 16th hole.
Andy Bean, with his new putter and driver, shot two 74s on the weekend and finished at 284 winning $15,200. With his 15th tour victory, Irwin won $72,000 while Graham and Crenshaw took home $35,200 each.
With his steady play, Irwin climbed the leaderboard without attracting much attention and it was the misplaying of the 16th hole by Graham that opened the door that Irwin strolled through to capture the title. The win qualified Irwin for the World Series of Golf coming up in August at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, OH.
It was also a redemptive win for Irwin who lost, in a playoff, to Roger Maltbie in the first Memorial Tournament in 1976. On the third hole of the playoff, Maltbie’s wayward shot caromed off a rebar stake, that held up the gallery rope, onto the green. Maltbie went on to win the playoff on the next hole.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Threads.
BONUS STORY
The Memorial Tournament features two great traditions—the famous milkshakes, and an annual induction ceremony that honors past greats in the game. The first inductee in 1976 was Bobby Jones, a hero of Jack Nicklaus. He was followed by the induction of Walter Hagen in 1977, Francis Ouimet in ’78, Gene Sarazen in ’79, and Byron Nelson in ’80.
At the conclusion of the 1983 Memorial, it was announced that Sam Snead would be the inductee in 1984. Jack Nicklaus himself was inducted in 2000, one year after the induction of Ben Hogan.
Tony Lema was inducted in 2017 in a class that included Greg Norman, Ken Venturi, and Harvie Ward.
This year’s inductees are Juli Inkster, Tom Weiskopf and Doug Ferguson.
What Hole is It? powered by Rota Golf. Doesn’t your bucket list journey deserve one of these?
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Are you on the leader board?
Congratulations to Mike Kemppainen who correctly identified #18 at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest. Mike beat out five other correct answers in the random drawing. We’re sending a prize pack to Mike. Submit your answer for this week and get yourself into the race for the Herbert C. Leeds Trophy, our new perpetual trophy for the annual winner.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | Canadian Open
Robert MacIntyre was homesick so he placed a call to Oban, Scotland, to his father. He had just missed the cut in the Charles Schwab Challenge and had parted ways with his fourth caddie in 18 months.
“How would you like to come to Canada and caddie for me at the RBC Canadian Open?” MacIntyre asked his father, Dougie.
Despite his duties as the greenkeeper at Glencruitten Golf Club, Dougie answered the call from his son taking a flight to Toronto the next morning and then the father and son team went on to win at Hamilton Golf and Country Club. MacIntyre finished one stroke better than Ben Griffin and became the first player to win with his father on the bag since Heath Slocum in the 2005 Sanderson Farms Championship when he had his father, Hack, on the bag.
Read the tournament recap by Adam Schupak of Golfweek USA Today HERE.
Clips You Might Have Missed
Gary Woodland with his second eagle of the round.
Eagle in the third round for Rory.
Wild Sunday for C.T. Pan and his four caddies.
What a celebration.
Let’s not forget about mom. Can’t beat this FaceTime call.
Charley Hull might be the funniest golfer in the game.
Something from the DP World Tour. Wait for it.
Somebody looks ready.
Tour Backspin Quiz | Canadian Open Trivia
How long did it take Jack Nicklaus to win his own Memorial Tournament?
Scroll down for answer
Swing Like a Pro
Hale Irwin, driver swing viewed down the line.
Audio excerpts from the book Champagne Tony’s Golf Tips by Tony Lema with Bud Harvey.
(Click on player and scroll down when page opens)
And never go all-out on a wedge shot. If you have to power a wedge shot, you've got the wrong club in your hands. The wedge is rarely pressed beyond 50 percent of its potential length.
*AI generated voice
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Josh Sens reveals the results of a golf etiquette survey conducted by Golf.com. Read and learn.
Tour Backspin Music Clip
Two songs that were outtakes from the Stop Making Sense movie by the Talking Heads, 1983.
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.
CLOSE COVER BEFORE STRIKING
WHAT IS HIP?
Payne Stewart made knickers hip in 1983. (Photos: Golf Digest / Image: Tour Backspin)
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Jack Nicklaus won the second Memorial Tournament in 1977 beating Hubert Green by two shots in a Monday finish caused by weather conditions.
Thank you for reading this far, I know your time is valuable and choosing to spend some of it on what I’ve created is gratifying. If you want to help support the work we’re doing, please consider upgrading. It’s just $36 a year and you’ll be helping to tell the stories from one of golf’s golden ages.
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
Is there a better golf name than Heath Slocum’s dad’s name? I mean Hack? C’mon.
During the era that this newsletter covers, nearly all the players smoked. Today, you light one up and become a cult hero.
Pretty wild how CBS had to juggle the Memorial Tournament and the NBA Finals on the same Sunday back in 1983.
Could have left Greg Norman out of the class of ‘17 Memorial honorees and had the perfect Bay Area class with Lema, Venturi, and Ward.