Johnny Miller Fights off Nicklaus Charge
Jack Nicklaus can't overtake Johnny Miller at the 1983 Honda Inverreray Classic
All aboard the Tour Backspin journey through the past as we time travel back to the 1983 Honda Inverrary Classic, a precursor to this week’s Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens on the PGA TOUR. The 1983 tournament featured a classic fourth round duel between Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus.
PAST TOUR BACKSPIN ARTICLES ON THE COGNIZANT CLASSIC
Bunky Henry wins the National Airlines Open in 1969 on a course that was “too young.”
Tom Weiskopf wins the first Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic in 1972.
Mark Calcavecchia goes from caddie to champion at the 1987 Honda Classic.
Enjoy the golf this week from Palm Beach Gardens.
With the PGA TOUR in Mexico for the Mexico Open, a non-signature event, we got an opportunity to watch players who are desperate to improve their standing on tour. You could feel the tension through the television screen. We’ve got some of the action in the Clips I Loved. I also give my take on the tournament in the PGA TOUR Wrap-Up.
Is the Aimpoint technique for reading putts slowing down the game? Do you use it? Let us know in this week’s The Tour Backspin Poll. We wade into the music of 1983 with Wang Chung doing “Dance Hall Days” live in this week’s Music Clip and the theatrical trailer for the 1983 film, “Flashdance” starring Jennifer Beals in the Tour Backspin Goes To The Movies.
Check out Johnny Miller’s swing in this week’s Swing Like a Pro. The Vintage Ad has an ad for the 1983 version of a launch monitor. Scroll down to view.
The latest episode of The Tour Backspin Show has dropped. Host Larry Baush (me!) talks with Bruce Devlin and Mike Gonzalez about their podcast Fore The Good Of The Game. It’s a video podcast and is available on Substack and YouTube. Please subscribe to The Tour Backspin Show on YouTube and help us reach the threshold of subscribers needed to qualify for revenue.
The Tour Backspin Poll
Another unanimous response to a poll question this year! There were 100% of respondents who said that they would not count the ace that Tommy Fleetwood made in a warm-up session on the simulator par 4 TGL hole as an official ace.
Let’s try to get a more even split in this week’s poll. Three polls with 100% agreement is getting old. So, let us know your feelings on Aimpoint, the putting method used by many pros and is currently being blamed for contributing to the slow play problem in golf. Tell us how you feel about Aimpoint in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
We’re playing Arnold Palmer Invitational trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to take the challenge.
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Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
Miller Delights In Beating Nicklaus
It is Tuesday, March 1st, the week of the Honda Inverrary Classic in 1983 and Deane Beman conducted a press conference at the site of a new golf course, still under construction in Coral Springs, FL. He is making an official announcement of a poorly kept secret.
The PGA TOUR was adding its third stadium facility on a piece of property purchased from the Westinghouse Communities Inc. that will be known as Tournament Players Club of Eagle Trace and the course will become home to the Honda Classic starting in 1984. The final Honda Inverrary Classic at the Inverrary Country Club in Lauderhills, where it had been the home of the tournament since 1972, was set to begin in two days.
“I think this adds to the over-all quality of the event,” PGA TOUR commissioner Deane Beaman said. “It makes it more attractive, there’s no doubt about it.”
“When we conceived the idea of stadium golf, it was so fans could see golf the way they see a baseball game or football game. Stadium golf is here to stay.”
High-rise condo buildings and a lack of parking space were the two main complaints about the Inverrary course that hosted one of the richest events on the tour. What started as the National Airlines Open had morphed to Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic, then to the American Motors Inverrary Classic before being rebranded as the Honda Inverrary Classic in 1982, an event won by Hale Irwin.
A natural stadium setting at Eagle Trace would allow spectators excellent vantage points to view the golf action.
“When we conceived the idea of stadium golf,” Beman explained at the press conference, “it was so fans could see golf the way they see a baseball game or football game. Stadium golf is here to stay.”
Tom Weiskopf won the first event held at Inverrary and would’ve loved to add the final event played there.
“First and last would be sweet,” Weiskopf said at Wednesday’s pro-am. “There just wasn’t this many condos around then. There was really nothing here—a lot of open space. Inverrary is a good golf course. I don’t know why they’re moving it. I just hope the other course is as good, if not better.”
“The greens are in such good shape, you could be looking at some staggering numbers. I mean real low.”
Fifty-one pros teed up in the pro-am including the defending champion Hale Irwin, Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd, and Johnny Miller. But it was JC Snead and Ed Sneed who took down low individual pro honors in Wednesday’s pro-am, not one of the bigger names in the game.
Tickets for the event were $8 for Wednesday through Friday rounds, and $15 for the weekend. Inverrary Country Club measured 7,129-yards and played to a par of 72. The event featured a $72,000 first-place check with the winner also receiving a new Honda automobile.
“The greens are in such good shape, you could be looking at some staggering numbers,” Fuzzy Zoeller predicted. “I mean real low.”
Payne Stewart led after shooting a first-round 65. Stewart had a string of wins on the Asian Tour and in opposite field events including the 1982 Quad-Cities Open (played opposite The Open Championship), the 1982 Magnolia Classic (played opposite of the Masters), the 1981 Indian Open on the Asian Tour and the 1981 Indonesian Open, also on the Asian Tour.
Mike Reid, who fellow pros nicknamed “Radar” due to his accuracy, was one stroke back of Stewart at 66. Peter Jacobsen and Floyd were at 67 while Gary Koch and Johnny Miller were at 68. Jack Nicklaus opened with a 72 while defending champion Irwin came in with a disappointing 73.
“It was a day when you had to shoot 68 or better if you’re going to do anything halfway decent,” Nicklaus said after his 72.
Stewart’s round included seven birdies and no bogeys. He was a curiosity to the assembled press with his trademark plus-four pants, argyle socks, and acupuncture needles.
“It deals with positive mental attitude,” Stewart explained to reporters about the treatments he received from Dr. F. T. H’Doubler in his hometown of Springfield, MO. “They stimulate the nerve endings and help control the thought process.”
“I could have played the back nine, conservatively guessing, in eight under.”
Although he did not have the tiny needles inserted in his earlobes this week due to the doctor being out of town, it didn’t seem to matter in the first round.
Floyd stumbled out of the gate with two bogeys in the first five holes but got his round going with a birdie at the 7th hole and another on the 9th hole. He then went on streak with birdies at the 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 17th holes. He barely missed making another birdie at the 18th hole.
“I could have played the back nine, conservatively guessing, in eight under,” he said after his round.
You could tell that Floyd’s confidence was soaring by his trademark stare and his strutting down the fairways like a peacock. It was a confidence that helped propel him to a three-stroke lead after another 67 in the second round. Stewart was alone in second-place after a 72, while Jim Nelford, with a second-round 66, Wayne Levi who shot a 67, and Hubert Green, who lit the course up with a 65, were tied at 138 with Mike Donald, Leonard Thompson, and David Edwards. Johnny Miller, with a second-round 73 was at 141, Hale Irwin was at 143 after a 70, and Nicklaus was at 144 after another 72.
“A lot of holes left. I still think I can win this golf tournament,” Stewart confidently told reporters including Larry Dorman, sportswriter for The Miami Herald, “Three shots? That’s no hill for a stepper.”
Winds measuring 30 miles per hour at times blew in a big change on the leader board in Saturday’s third round. The biggest change occurred at the top when Floyd skied to a 78 while Gary Koch went low with a 68. Koch passed eight players on the leader board while Floyd dropped to five shots behind the leader.
“I hope you can understand, 78 is very tough to talk about,” Floyd told the assembled press including Dorman of The Herald. “I played very badly, and I apologize.”
Wayne Levi had a respectable 70 and was one off the lead while Miller came in with a 68 and was tied with Dan Forsman another shot back at 209. Nicklaus fired a 70 and was at 214 tied with Seve Ballesteros, one stroke in front of Irwin who had a third-round 72.
“A whole bunch of guys can win this tournament.”
“It was a real good putting round,” Miller said after his round. “In the old days I might not have thought much about it, but it really looks good to me now.”
Miller’s last win had come at the 1982 Wickes-Andy Williams San Diego Open.
The stage was set for an exciting finish on Sunday which would be broadcast nationally by NBC.
“A whole bunch of guys can win this tournament,” Wayne Levi predicted.
Johnny Miller relied on his Bullseye putter to notch the victory on Sunday, but it didn’t come without some challenges including a charge by Jack Nicklaus. Koch collapsed in the final round on the same scale that Floyd collapsed in the third round. Koch struggled to a 77 after a front nine 41 put him out of the running for the title.
“I knew what he was doing on every hole. I could hear the cheering, and I was watching the scoreboards.”
Miller got to eight-under at the 4th hole and took the lead alone when Koch bogeyed the 6th hole to go seven-under. But Miller could hear the roars of the crowd up ahead on the course and knew exactly what was happening.
“I knew what he was doing on every hole,” Miller told reporters later about the charge being put on by Nicklaus. “I could hear the cheering, and I was watching the scoreboards.” He was also checking in regularly with Bob Goalby, the on-course reporter for NBC.
Nicklaus birdied the 13th hole about the same time that Miller was birdieing the 8th hole to go nine-under. Nicklaus then missed a 15-foot birdie at the 14th hole but canned a birdie putt at the 15th moving to seven-under. The gallery was two to three deep along the entire length of the 199-yard par 3 16th hole as Nicklaus arrived at the tee. His 4-iron tee shot bounced twice before ending up 12 feet behind the flag.
Nicklaus got over his putt but had to back off due to noise coming from an adjacent condo building. He stepped back into his putt, about to draw the putter back, when someone in the gallery shouted, “Shut up over there!” and he had to back off the putt again. When he finally made his stroke, he left the putt more than a foot short.
“It didn’t bother me,” Nicklaus insisted after his round, and if his play on the 17th hole was any indication, it didn’t. He hit his approach close and made the putt to go eight-under.
“I knew he hit it stoney there,” Miller informed reporters after his round.
Miller promptly bogeyed the 12th hole, his only bogey in his round, and his lead was now just one stroke.
“I was pretty sure the ball wasn’t going to break left, but I pulled the putt. Just missed it.”
Nicklaus hit a 5-iron approach to the final green from the rough and faced an eight-foot putt for another birdie.
“I couldn’t really decide what it was going to do,” Nicklaus admitted after the round. “I was pretty sure the ball wasn’t going to break left, but I pulled the putt. Just missed it.”
The finishing par gave Nicklaus a round of 66 and a four-day total of 280, and he could only watch to see how Miller would finish. Miller needed pars on the last four holes to win and played them in one-under. The drama was over when he birdied the 15th hole and got a good bounce off a tree on his tee shot at the final hole.
“It was really sweet beating Jack. It’s one thing to beat some of these younger guys, but when you beat Jack, on national TV, it just makes it that much more special.”
Nicklaus was sitting on a table in the locker room, sipping a soft drink, and glanced over his shoulder to a television screen displaying the final round action and saw Miller hit the 17th green in regulation.
“It’s history,” was all he could say.
One by one, all the other contenders faded during the tournament. Stewart finished tied for 10th, with Koch, and Floyd tied for 6th. But Miller got the motivation he needed knowing he was battling Nicklaus for the title and he was overjoyed to come out on top.
“It was really sweet beating Jack,” he said afterward. “It’s one thing to beat some of these younger guys, but when you beat Jack, on national TV, it just makes it that much more special.”
Yes, beating Jack on national TV, as well as engraving your name as the winner of the last Honda Classic played at Inverrary, makes it very special, indeed.
Coming Next Week: Julius Boros captures his second title of 1967 at age 47 holding off patented Palmer charge.
BONUS STORY
Calvin Peete was playing in the second round of the 1983 Honda Inverrary Classic in a group that also included Payne Stewart and Scott Simpson. The players made the turn after finishing up the front nine and made their way to the 10th tee. As Simpson and Stewart leaned on their drivers waiting for the group in front of them to clear the fairway, they looked around and noticed that Peete was nowhere to be found. It was soon apparent that Peete was gone.
“He didn’t tell us anything,” Stewart said to reporters after the round including Larry Dorman, a sportswriter for The Miami Herald. “I don’t know what Calvin’s reasons were for leaving. I’m assuming he wasn’t content with the way he was playing and decided not to play anymore.”
Dusty Murdoch, Peete’s agent, was as perplexed as anyone concerning the disappearance of Peete.
“Calvin Peete is the last person I know who would walk off the golf course without provocation,” he told Dorman.
Peete had two weeks to provide a letter from a physician attesting to an illness or injury, otherwise he would face a fine. The sudden withdrawal was more costly than a fine, though. Peete was leading the Seiko Grand Prix point competition that paid $150,000 first-place prize. With just a few weeks to go, Peete could not afford an event where he would not earn any points.
The guy who hassled me wasn’t exactly a complete stranger. It was about something out of my past, from years ago, for something I don’t want to go into, from like a previous life.”
By Sunday evening, Peete was explaining what happened in Friday’s round. Peete, who was black, had a verbal exchange with a spectator, who was white, as he walked off the 4th green, and then again at the 8th green. As he walked up the 9th hole, another exchange occurred, this one more heated.
“It wasn’t racial,” Peete said to reporters as he entered the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame banquet on Saturday night. “It was personal. The guy who hassled me wasn’t exactly a complete stranger. It was about something out of my past, from years ago, for something I don’t want to go into, from like a previous life. I let it get to me, but I’m over it now. I’ve made myself get over it.”
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WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Congratulations to Ryan Ross, for winning the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest last week by correctly identifying #5 at Mission Hills Country Club, Dinah Shore Tournament Course, in Rancho Mirage, CA. Ryan beat out three other correct answers in the drawing and we’ve got a gift discount code to The Tour Backspin Golf Shop coming his way. We are sending discount codes to the winners of WHAT HOLE IS IT? in 2025 so that they can choose their prize from the offerings in The Tour Backspin Golf Shop, including the Tour Backspin 19th Hole Hot Sauce. Multiple winners can combine their discount codes to use on a single order, and the codes never expire. When the code is redeemed, the prize will be sent with free shipping, so getting your prize will not cost you anything. Check out The Tour Backspin Golf Shop HERE.
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We told you about getting our hands on a treasure trove of film that we are cleaning up and digitizing for the Tony Lema documentary. Some great footage of Tony in action and even home movies. Below is from the television broadcast of the 1965 Carling World Open (clicking on link will open this post on the web, scroll down to video player).
Click on image to view on the web.
Hi Larry
Your book is amazing!! How did you get so much information? Great going!!!!
-Jay G.
Thanks, Jay! Research, research, research.
-Larry
You can now support the induction of Tony Lema into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Sign the online petition HERE.
Clips I Loved
Longest putt of the season.
Follow Brian Campbell after his win in Mexico.
Here’s to you, trees. Thanks!
What a shot.
Full Swing is back!
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | The Mexico Open at VidantaWorld
Even non-signature events on the PGA TOUR can be interesting when you buy into the aspirational dreams of the players. Young players who you may not know, courses you are unfamiliar with, and an air of desperation as players jockey for position on the FedEx Cup list keep things interesting. The Mexico Open had all three in spades.
The tournament eventually distilled down to two players, one a bomber, the other, not so much. Aldrich Potgieter is the bomber and he battled Brian Campbell, the shortest hitter on the circuit, to a playoff despite both shooting final round scores higher than the field scoring average of 69.66. Potgieter shot a final round 70 while Campbell carded a 71.
Both were visibly nervous on the first playoff hole, which they tied. They went back to play the 18th hole for the second time in the playoff when the Campbell hit what could be considered the deciding shot of the tournament off the tee. He blew his tee shot wide right, headed for out-of-bounds before it hit a tree and bounced in a high arc back towards the fairway.
Campbell was due for some payback from the golf gods. After turning pro and immediately earning his PGA TOUR card in 2015, he lost it in 2017 and returned to the Korn Ferry Tour. He then dealt with almost a decade of injuries before earning his card back by finishing inside the top 25 last year on the Korn Ferry Tour.
After his fortunate break, Campbell hit a 3-wood to 60-yards short of the green and then got up-and-down for the winning birdie.
“The ball shouldn’t have bounced back,” his caddie Cooper Wilson told the PGA Tour. “It did. He had the 3-wood off the dirt. Hit a 60-yard shot to however close and made it. To have a job for two more years and chase his dreams some more.
“To see him go from finishing 75th on the Korn Ferry Tour to keep his card, to last year — last year we had success but we also had failure. Like in Bogota last year, losing in a playoff. To have it all come full circle and to see his talent shine and to see our relationship build is really rewarding.”
Campbell earned a ticket to Augusta for the Masters with his win. And it was a win that underscores that even with the restructuring of the tour that tilts towards the star players, there are still opportunities for someone like Campbell to change everything for themselves with one dream week.
Both Campbell and Potgieter will be worth keeping an eye on.
Here are the highlights of the final round:
Tour Backspin Quiz | Mexican Open Trivia
Who won their first PGA TOUR victory at the 1974 Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic? What did he then do showing a philanthropic side?
Scroll down for answer
Swing Like a Pro
Johnny Miller plays the 72nd hole of the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont.
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Josh Sens at golf.com explains that the Soft Cap on your handicap is nothing to be ashamed of.
Tour Backspin Music Clip
Everybody Wang Chung tonight. “Dance Hall Days” released in 1983 and preformed live on the “Top of the Pops” in 1984
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Leonard Thompson won the first of his three PGA TOUR titles at the 1974 Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic and then donated $10,000 from his winning check of $52,000 to the Boys Clubs of America.
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
That Golf Trainer from Mitsubishi in this week’s Vintage Ad is wild. So 1980s.
I’m so excited that “Full Swing” is back.
Man, Rai came so close to that albatross in that clip from this week’s Clips I Loved.