Japan's Francis Ouimet Moment
Japan wins the 1957 Canada Cup and unleashes a nationwide golf boom
Congratulations to Tom Kim for winning the Shriners Children’s Open on the PGA TOUR. Kim successfully defended his title by making four birdies over his final ten holes. This is Kim’s third win on the PGA TOUR and he’s only 21. He beat Adam Hadwin by one shot. Hadwin sunk a 25-foot putt that broke a fiveway deadlock where everyone would have won $511,140 winning himself an extra $404,460. He won’t be getting any Christmas cards from Alex Noren, Taylor Pendrith, Eric Cole, or J.T. Poston, the four other players he was tied with.
By the way, if you don’t follow Adam Hedwin’s wife on Twitter/X, you’re missing out.
Also, big props to Lexi Thompson who came so close to being the first LPGA player to make a PGA TOUR cut since 1945 when Babe Didrikson Zaharias made the 36-hole cut at the Los Angeles Open. She missed the 54-hole hole cut after a Saturday 81. Thompson missed the cut at the Shriners by three after a pair of late bogeys.
The golf world lost a couple of giants this week. RIP Andy Bean, 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR who passed away from complications of double-lung replacement surgery at the age of 70.
RIP Ivor Robson, the longtime starter with a distinctive voice at The Open Championship for 40 years. He was famous for never leaving the starter’s hut until the last player had teed off, not even for bathroom breaks. Ivor was 83 years old.
Heartbreaking.
Do you get nervous when you’re being watched on the golf course?
The PGA TOUR is outside of Tokyo in Chiba, Japan for the Zozo Championship. This tournament started in 2019, so we went waaaay back into history, to 1957 for our story this week. Have you ever wondered how Japan became so golf crazy? We tell you how the Canada Cup in 1957, won by the home country set off a golf boom. Scroll down to read.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, 67% love the idea of Tiger Woods being the next Ryder Cup captain, while 33% thinks he has too much other stuff going on.
In LIV Golf news, it’s that time of the year for relegation for players who have landed in the dreaded “Drop Zone” due to poor performance. Five players landed in that zone, but two of them are team captains, Lee Westwood of the Majesticks GC, and Martin Kaymer of the Cleeks, and they are exempt from relegation.
The four players who became the first players to be relegated are Jediah Morgan of the Ripper GC, HyFlyers GC’s James Piot, Chase Koepka of the Smash GC and Iron Heads GC’s Sihwan Kim. These four players will have the chance to play their way back onto a team later this year in the Promotions tournament, but there are only three spots available so at least one player will be relegated off of the tour.
In other LIV Golf news, the tour lost in its bid to gain OWGR points for their events meaning players from that tour will have to open qualify, or otherwise be exempt, if they are to play in the majors in 2024.
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Stunning Victory by the Home Team Launches Golf Boom
The industrialist John Jay Hopkins, founder and president of General Dynamics, understood that the game of golf transcended international borders. To this end, he set up an association, the International Golf Association and a golf tournament that would feature two-man teams from countries spanning the globe. He knew the history of Francis Quimet’s win in the 1913 U.S. Open and how a homegrown underdog success can ignite a golf boom and was hoping to provide such an opportunity. In 1953 he christened his new international golf tournament the Canada Cup and donated the trophy.
The 1953 tournament was a 36-hole affair before becoming a 72-hole tournament in 1954. Those first couple of years were a struggle for the tournament which was played in Montreal. The fact that an American team did not figure in the outcome the first two years was perhaps a reason the tournament struggled. In 1955, Fred Corcoran took over as tournament director and began the work of establishing the event as a premier international event.
After the American team of Ed Furgol and Chick Harbert won the 1955 tournament, and then the team of Ben Hogan and Sam Snead captured the cup in 1956, the tournament enjoyed a much higher profile. The level of excitement rose when it was announced that the 1957 event would be held at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in the rolling farm country of Saitama Prefecture with the Chichibu Mountains rising in the distance. Being just 25 miles outside of downtown Tokyo, the club enjoyed a strong membership of 2,000 which required two 18-hole courses to accommodate them. The West Course would be used for the Canada Cup, and it measured 6,895 yards and had a par of 72.
The United States sent the powerful team of Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret to the 1957 event, and they had something to prove on the international stage since the Ryder Cup was won by the team from Great Britain just weeks before. It was the first time the Americans lost the Ryder Cup since the 1933 event and Snead and Demaret were looking for redemption.
The Americans knew it would not be a cakewalk in the Canada Cup as there were at least a half-dozen teams capable of winning the cup. Peter Thomson and Bruce Crampton formed a formable team from Australia, as did Gary Player and Harold Henning from South Africa. The English team of Peter Alliss and Ken Bousfield and the Canadian team of Stan Leonard and Al Balding could not be counted out, either.
Like other courses in Japan, Kasumigaseki featured two greens on every hole. One green was seeded with Rye grass while the other was Korai grass.
The excitement of the Japanese fans was palatable, and they were particularly interested in the American players. When Snead and Demaret played the neighboring Tokyo Country Club with a group of Japanese businessmen on the Tuesday before the start of the event, fans on the grounds at Kasumigaseki, who paid 600 yen (about 60¢ at the time) for practice round tickets, almost started a riot. They were mollified when the pair of Americans were persuaded to play 9 holes at Kasumigaseki.
Like other courses in Japan, Kasumigaseki featured two greens on every hole. One green was seeded with Rye grass while the other was Korai grass. The Rye greens would be used in the cold season while the Korai would be used in warmer months. The Korai greens, which resembled Bermuda greens, would be used during the Canada Cup. These greens would prove to be a mystery to many players as they tried to figure out the grain and speed. The Korai grass was about three times as wiry and had more tufts than Bermuda greens. Herbert Warren Wind, writing in Sports Illustrated described the grain that “grows hectically in every direction, like the extra-rough beard featured in shaving commercials.”
In the first round, Snead and Demaret had no problem with the greens and enjoyed a five-stroke lead. Snead led the individual portion of the tournament as he set a competitive course record with a 67 while Demaret carded a 69. The surprise of the first round was the second-place team from Japan featuring Torakichi Nakamura, a 42-year-old teaching pro, and Koichi Ono who was introduced to the game as a caddie in Manchuria. Nakamura shot a 68, the second-best score of the day, while Ono shot a 73. The team from South Africa was two strokes back of the Japanese while the Australians, Canadians, and English were tied at 145, another two shots back.
The ease that the Americans handled the tricky Korai greens in the first round disappeared in the second round where they couldn’t buy a putt, especially Snead. In stark contrast, the Japanese team putted extremely well and surged into the lead. Ono holed three putts over 20 feet on the front nine and Nakamura had five one-putt greens on the back nine.
Nakamura shot another 68 while Ono added a 70 and the Japanese held a two-stroke lead over the Americans as Snead shot a 74 and Demaret a 71 for a 271. The team from South Africa was pushing the Americans, just two shots behind at 283, while the Australians were at 284. The Brits and the team from Wales were at 286.
Nakamura led the individual competition with 136—four strokes better than the quartet of Demaret, Peter Thomson, David Thomas of Wales, and Peter Alliss. Snead was at 141.
The putting magic of the Japanese team continued in Saturday’s third round as Nakamura equaled Snead’s opening round, course record, 67. Ono added a 68 and the Japanese team sat at 414 while Nakamura held the individual lead at 203. The weather was occasionally raining, and stiff winds buffeted the course. Both Snead and Demaret were again experiencing difficulties on the greens, and both shot 71s putting the team at 423, nine shots behind the Japanese. The Welsh team was another five strokes back at 428.
“This kind of golf would have won a tournament anywhere. It wasn’t a fluke. This is a legitimate championship golf course and there can be no alibis—the Japanese just played better golf.”
Under slate-grey skies, a crowd of 14,000 swarmed Kasumigaseki for the final round and they were giddy with the anticipation of a stunning home country victory. As excited as they were, the crowds were described in press accounts as extremely courteous.
Nakamura continued his march to hero status amongst his countrymen with a final round of 71 for a total of 274 while Ono contributed a final round 72 for a total of 283. The team score of 557 for Japan was seven shots better than the second-place American team while Nakamura’s 274 was seven shots better than Snead who was tied for second with Thomas of Wales, and Gary Player, who closed with a 68.
Snead lavished praise on the team from Japan saying, “This kind of golf would have won a tournament anywhere. It wasn’t a fluke. This is a legitimate championship golf course and there can be no alibis—the Japanese just played better golf.”
Player was very impressed with the team from Japan telling writer Bill Fields for an article on the International Golf Federation website in 2021, “What a wonderful victory for Japan. One can never deny the victory of Japan and the impact it had on the game in that country.”
“It’s just like Francis Ouimet’s National Open victory over Britain’s Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at Brookline in 1913. It should be a great thing for golf in Japan.”
The victory by the Japanese team was so unexpected, and so thrilling to the sports fans in the country, that it led to a Francis Ouimet moment. The resulting golf boom in Japan was not unlike the golf boom enjoyed in the U.S. after the 1913 U.S. Open won by Ouimet.
“It’s just like Francis Ouimet’s National Open victory over Britain’s Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at Brookline in 1913,” said Frank Pace, president of the sponsoring International Golf Association. “It should be a great thing for golf in Japan.”
It was a victory that would have warmed the heart of John Jay Hopkins, who passed in May of 1957, five months prior to the playing of the Canada Cup in Japan.
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Bonus Story
Despite the stunning victory of the home country Japanese team of Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono in the 1957 Canada Cup, Herbert Warren Wind wrote in Sports Illustrated that the real stars of the event were the caddies at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.
“The real stars of the show from the player’s point of view were the Japanese girl caddies—no question about this,” Wind wrote in Sports Illustrated.
Wind was amazed that these young women, whom he described as “uniformly small” were as strong as a horse. The women hoisted the colossal golf bags of the pros up onto their shoulders “with no apparent effort” and then scampered down the fairway.
The American team of Snead and Demaret were astonished at the women’s ability to gauge distances and were able to club them after watching only a few shots.
“They carry these big bags around as if they were purses,” Snead said. “They never seem to get tired and they’re always pleasant. Why, back home, I’ve got big husky guys who act like they’re dying. They puff and pant and plop down on the ground every chance they get.”
The women wore uniforms of navy blue golf caps, vivid red jackets with the name of the country lettered in white on the back and the name of the player displayed on the front, navy slacks, red socks and white sneakers.
Each group also had a fifth woman who carried over her shoulder a small canvas bag filled with a mixture of topsoil, grass seed, and fertilizer. She would repair any divots made by the players and she also smoothed out the bunkers with a rake after a player played a shot out.
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Japanese Golf Trivia
What course is known as “The Pebble Beach of Japan”?
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What is Hip?
Skirts, sleeveless blouses, and windbreakers . . . PLUS, a pipe. So 1950s.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
The Kawana Hotel Golf Course - The Oshima Course, 75 miles south of Tokyo, is known as “The Pebble Beach of Japan.” The course was designed by Mitsuaki Otani in 1928 and is situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
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Final Thoughts
Was there anything you couldn’t get from Sears?
Those caddies were really small in stature.
I don’t think that was the first time those dogs went for a walk on the golf course.
What does a player who has been relagated from the LIV Tour do now?
Fascinating, particularly the part about the Japanese women caddies. I had no idea.
I love all of the references to 1957 :-)