It All Started With An Ace
Butch Baird makes a hole-in-one in the final round to turbo-charge his way to Texas Open title
As the television executives watched a Rory McIlroy vs Scottie Scheffler final match turn into a Cameron Young vs Sam Burns final match, they must have been relieved that this would be the final year of match play on the PGA TOUR. For the golf fan, though, it was a great semi-final round that saw Burns defeat Scheffler and Young defeat McIlroy. While the final may have been anticlimactic, it did showcase the high level of excellence in Burns game.
Congratulations to Sam Burns for capturing the title, and to Cameron Young for the fine showing as he picked up his sixth career runner-up. He will break through any week to capture his first PGA TOUR title.
The story of the week could be the successful debut of the player-caddie duo of Young and Paul Tesori. Read more about the pair and why Tesori moved from Webb Simpson’s bag to Young’s in this article from golf.com HERE.
In our poll last week, 86% of you did not watch the LIV Golf event because, you know, March Madness, while 14% of you checked it out. Weigh in on your feelings about the match play tournament in this week’s poll.
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As we get enticingly close to the Masters, we have one more stop on the tour schedule. This week the PGA TOUR is in San Antonio for the Texas Open, an event that dates back to 1922. It has had many names and sponsors over the years, but since 2002 it has been known as the Valero Texas Open. It is a not a designated event, so the field only has two players who are inside the top 25 of the Official World Golf Ranking and one of those is Hideki Matsuyama, who WD from the Dell Technologies Match Play with an injury. It’s also a big sports weekend with the final four and baseball this weekend. I will be curious to see how much interest this tournament will generate one week before the sporting world’s attention will be focused on golf.
We’re going back to 1976 when Butch Baird used a hole-in-one to ignite a back nine charge that resulted in a sudden-death playoff. Scroll down to learn more about this very interesting week. We even had Butch himself give us some of his memories.
Be sure to check out our Masters content next week.
It’s a playlist from 1976 so we’ve got some disco, some easy stuff and some rock. Listen HERE. Can you believe that the car in this week’s vintage ad is being sold on gas mileage? Scroll down to see how much Jack Nicklaus likes this Pontiac.
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Larry Baush
Baird’s Back Nine Charge
It is Wednesday, October 15th, 1976, pro-am day at the Texas Open at the Woodlake Country Club in San Antonio and the city was getting excited. Seven of the top 20 players on the money list were entered with the season winding down. After the Texas Open, there were only three more tournaments remaining on the schedule. For such a late season event, the Texas Open featured a strong field.
Don January was the defending champion, and his was a comeback story as he retired from the tour for three years before coming back in 1975 at the age of 46.
“When I came back out, I gave myself a year to find out if I could make it back,” January explained to reporters on Wednesday.
That year was almost up when he won the Texas Open in 1975. He played well in 1976 winning the Tournament of Champions and seemed to be in contention every week. He was in the running for the Vardon Trophy, awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average, and accumulated $162,772 by the time he returned to defend his title, more than twice as much money as he’d ever won in a single year.
“The course is in great shape.”
Texans Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite were listed as favorites, along with January. Crenshaw needed a first or second place finish to overtake Jack Nicklaus, who was not playing in San Antonio, as the leading money winner.
The players raved about the condition of the Woodlake course which measured 7,038 yards.
“The course is in great shape,” January declared. “There is a little more rough out there this year, and the greens are slick.”
The weather report called for mostly mild and fair weather through the weekend with daytime highs in the upper 70s and low 80s. It was time to get this thing going.
“I started hitting the putts solid for the first time in a long time. I just can’t believe it.”
Tom Shaw, utilizing a new putting stroke, jumped out to the first-round lead with a 66. He held a one-stroke lead over Babe Hiskey, Peter Oosterhuis, and Frank Conner. Don January opened with a 71 while Miller Barber shot a 70 and Butch Baird shot a 68.
“This old friend, Jim Chenowith, a club pro in Las Vegas, followed me during a round at the Sahara,” Shaw explained to reporters after his round. “And then he told me, ‘Hey, you’re not putting like you used to.’ And he worked with me, changed my stance, moved my hands, everything. I started hitting the putts solid for the first time in a long time. I just can’t believe it.”
“Oh, that feels really good.”
Shaw wasn’t the only one trying something new on the greens. On Tuesday, Butch Baird was on the putting green. He’s missed the cut in his last few tournaments but while on the practice putting green he decided to try something different.
“Oh, that feels really good,” he thought to himself.
Friday’s weather went against the pre-tournament forecast as play was interrupted by intermittent rain showers for several hours before the round was postponed at 3:20 in the afternoon. That left 60 players who completed their rounds before play was suspended, while 59 players were out on the course and 24 players had not even teed off yet.
“This is the rule.”
Don Iverson, Bobby Cole of South Africa, and rookie John Harris, who all finished in the rain on Friday led once all the players finished their second rounds on Saturday. There was controversy over what was thought to be a decision by Jack Tuthill, tournament director, about the suspension of play. It was not his decision as a new rule was instituted for the 1976 season by Deane Beman, the commissioner of the PGA TOUR, that called for the suspension of play due to inclement weather with a continuance of play the following day.
“I didn’t have a decision to make,” Tuthill told the San Antonio Express-News as he opened the PGA Tour Rule Book to the appropriate page. “This is the rule. So now when a man plays, he can be sure that every shot is going to count sometime.”
“Those guys who played and finished on Friday morning had it at least three shots better. It’s just not right.”
The old rule stated that if one golfer’s round was washed out by the rain, then every golfer in the field had his round washed out as well. It was thought that the new rule would finish more tournaments on time. But that didn’t make it less controversial in San Antonio that week.
One of the most vocal critics was Miller Barber who said after he finished his second round on a cold and blustery Saturday having shot a 70, “I don’t think there is any equity in what we have done. Since we are going to play 36 holes on Sunday, I don’t understand why they just didn’t rain out Friday and start everyone over Saturday. Those guys who played and finished on Friday morning had it at least three shots better. It’s just not right.”
“Sure, it was unequal the way it turned out,” Tuthill admitted. “But golf can’t have equal conditions. The wind may blow differently in the morning than in the afternoon, for example.”
“Considering the weather, just about as good as I can play,” Barber said about his round.
Tom Shaw, one of the first-round leaders, fell victim to the weather finishing his second round on Saturday. He had parred his first two holes on Friday before the suspension of play and on Saturday he played the next 16 holes with seven bogeys and a double-bogey for a round of 80 and missed the cut.
Butch Baird added a second-round 70 and stood at 138, just two-shots off the lead, tied with Barber, Al Geiberger, and Bruce Lietzke. That change in his putting stroke was working fine for Baird.
“I had one of the best putting weeks I ever had.”
The players had little time to rest up before Sunday’s long day of 36 holes. In the morning round, Barber looked like he would walk away with the tournament shooting a 65 while both Baird and Lietzke shot 70s. Baird, who admitted that he wasn’t hitting the ball well, had his putting to thank for hanging in the tournament.
“I had one of the best putting weeks I ever had,” Baird said when Tour Backspin caught up with him.
The final round got real interesting, especially the final nine holes. Let’s let Baird explain it:
“I made a hole-in-one in the last round on number 12. At that time I was playing with Miller Barber and he was going to walk away with it. So, in the last round, I shot a 31 on the last nine. On the 18th hole, playing with him, we were actually even. I had about a 30-footer to make birdie on the par 5. He was within two-feet, or less. I holed mine and then he holed his.”
Baird hit a 4-iron to the par-3 12th hole with the ball landing about eight feet in front of the hole before it disappeared into the hole. He followed with a birdie two on the par-3 15th hole, added another birdie on the 17th hole, before sinking his birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force Barber into a sudden-death playoff.
“Whuppee!”
On the first playoff hole, Barber hit his approach to 15-feet while Baird hit his to 10-feet. Barber pushed his putt, and it missed the cup to the right. Baird, confident with his new putting stroke, rolled his putt into the cup for the win.
When reporters asked Baird to summarize his round he could only exclaim, “Whuppee!”
Baird won $25,000 while Barber won $14,250. Don January, in his defense of the title, shot a 283, 10 strokes behind Baird and Barber, and won $850, while Ben Crenshaw shot 285 winning $513. Jack Nicklaus would go on to win the money title while January did secure the Vardon Trophy for being the scoring leader for the year.
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Bonus Story
As Butch Baird and Miller Barber made their way from the 18th green to the first tee to begin their sudden-death playoff, Barber had a question for Baird.
“He asked me a question that I have never been asked before.” Baird related, “As we’re walking to number one he said, ‘Hey, Butch, do you have a new ball I could use?’ And I took a couple, three, more steps and I said, ‘No, I’ve used my last one.’ Well, I hadn’t and I don’t know why he asked me that. I really wanted to ask him about that at different intervals, but I never got the opportunity to ask him why you would ask for a new ball. Whether it’s a gamesmanship thing or some other thing. I’ll never know.”
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
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Tour Backspin Quiz |1976 PGA TOUR Trivia
The first Memorial Tournament was played in 1976. Who won?
Answer below
Check it Out
How do you think the players who get mic’d up during the television broadcast are liking it? Paul Azinger had some thoughts during coverage of the Dell Technolgies Match Play. Read more HERE.
Swing Like a Pro
Miller Barber in 1992 from the Carl Welty Collection.
Blind Shot
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Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Roger Maltbie won the inaugural Memorial Tournament defeating Hale Irwin in a four hole aggregate playoff. Maltbie and Irwin shot even par 288. Maltbie won $40,000.
Deja Vu | 1976
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Final Thoughts
How long before Sam Burns wins a major? Two weeks, or two months?
How long before Cameron Young breaks through for his first PGA TOUR win?
Did Miller Barber run out of new balls at the Texas Open, or was he just messing with Butch Baird?