Littler Sneaks In To Win Canadian Open
The $100,000 purse for the Canadian Open Attracts the Biggest Names
The Tour Backspin journey through the past dials in 1965 at the Canadian Open where many players came into the week with various illnesses and injuries. But with the Canadian beverage company, Seagrams, injecting cash that rose the total purse to $100,000, there weren’t any pros who were going to pass up a possible huge payday. Scroll down to learn how the quietest man in the field was able to slay the biggest names in golf.
Scottie Scheffler continues to dominate the tour, even without his ‘A’ game winning the Memorial at Murfield Village. Scroll down for my take on the week in the PGA TOUR Wrap-Up. We found some of the best posts on social media and you can check them out in the Clips I Loved.
PAST TOUR BACKSPIN ARTICLES AND PODCASTS ON THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
Lee Trevino stacks up national titles like firewood in 1971 adding the Canadian Open.
Tom Weiskopf holds off Jack Nicklaus to win the 1975 Canadian Open.
Who reads Tour Backspin? Our subscription list features current and former players on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour, Class ‘A’ PGA of America professionals, Korn Ferry players, golf course architects, private club general managers, public golf course managers, golf journalists, and golf sickos just like you. We just broke the 900 subscribers threshold! Thank you for reading. If you have any ideas, or suggestions, for the newsletter, please email me at larry@tourbackspin.com.
We try to provide a great deal of content for our free subscribers, as well as a little something extra for our Premium Subscribers. This week’s Bonus Story (below the paywall) is so good that I think it is worth the $36 per year Premium Subscription price all by itself. I’m so sure of this that if you upgrade to read it and you don’t agree with me, I will refund your $36. Take the plunge and check it out. You will be supporting our work and helping to keep this newsletter sustainable.
Enjoy the golf from The Canadian Open this week.
With the U.S. Open coming up next week, it’s not too early to ask, “Who Ya Got?” Let us know in this week’s The Tour Backspin Poll. This week’s Vintage Ad from 1965 (below the paywall) features Gary Player and his Shakespeare fiberglass shafts. Scroll down to view.
We’ve got some great content coming up on The Tour Backspin Show YouTube channel. Subscribe, for free, to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
The Tour Backspin Poll
After Rickie Fowler worked his way into contention at the Charles Schwab Challenge in the third round, he shot a Sunday 74 that dropped him 13 places. We asked you if you thought Fowler would ever win again on the PGA TOUR. This was before he failed to qualify for the U.S. Open on Monday. There were 69% of respondents who felt he would win again while only 21% felt that he wouldn’t win again because it was in his head now.
Let’s get ready for the U.S. Open and play “Who Ya Got?” in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
We’re playing Canadian Open Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to take the challenge. Give us your best guess in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? and if you get it correct you may win prizes from the Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
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
Gene Littler Holds Off Nicklaus
The Canadian Open, held the third week of July in 1965, operated under a different schedule than other events on the PGA TOUR. Due to the Lord’s Day blue laws of Ontario, sporting events were not allowed to be conducted on Sundays. The Canadian Open’s first round was played on Wednesday, July 14th and would conclude on Saturday, July 17th.
With the week getting started earlier than usual, there were many stories of travel challenges that were met by various players. One group of players who shouldn’t have been challenged by the condensed schedule were those who were required to Monday qualify to get into the field. Even so, Rocky Thompson still had trouble getting to the course on time for his scheduled tee time.
Thompson flew into Toronto on Sunday night, and on Monday he was driven to Mississaugua Country Club in Mississaugua, Ontario, the host club of the Canadian Open. Trouble was, the qualifying event was taking place at Markland Wood Golf Club in Etobicoke, Ontario, about five miles away from Mississaugua. Thompson was rushed over to Markland arriving just minutes before he was to tee off. It didn’t seem to bother Thompson as he led all qualifiers with a round of 67, four-under-par.
In the qualifier, there were 137 players vying for 45 spots and there were seven players who shot 74 and were in a playoff for the last three available spots. Pete Hildrop of Mount Hope, ON, Billy Emmons from Weathersfield, CT, and Marvin Fitts of Tuscaloosa, Al, secured the final spots after the six-hole playoff.
While the qualifiers were toiling at Markland, the marquee players were at Mississaugua for the pro-am festivities. Charlie Coody brought in the winning team in the pro-am and he also tied for low pro honors with a 68. Howie Johnson and Miller Barber matched Coody’s round on the 6,828-yard, par 70 Mississaugua layout. The yardage had been increased from 6,420 yards while the par had been reduced by two with the conversion of two par fives, the 4th and 13th holes, into par fours. Both Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema criticized officials for the changes.
A particularly challenging hole was the 12th, a long par 4 that required a second shot that had to carry the Credit River that protected the green. The hole was known as “Big Chief.”
Palmer and Lema were not the only big names playing in the Canadian Open. Seagrams, Canada’s multinational beverage company, stepped up with the funds to increase the purse of the Canadian Open to $100,000, with the first-place prize of $20,000, so every big name in the game was in town to try get a share of the riches.
The popularity of professional golf at this time led to higher purses as there was about 25% more prize money available in 1965 then there was in 1964, and the Canadian Open wanted to remain one of the major national championships on the schedule. The Canadian Open in 1964 featured a purse of $50,000 so the infusion of cash by Seagrams represented a real step up in 1965. The Canadian Open was one of nine tournaments to offer a $100,000 purse and was only outpaced by five other PGA TOUR stops: the Philadelphia Golf Classic ($125,000), the U.S. Open ($125,000), the Cleveland Open ($135,000), the PGA Championship ($150,000), and the Carling World Open ($150,000).
With so much money up for grabs, many players who might have taken the week off to nurse some minor injuries, made the trip to Ontario to compete for their fair share of the purse. Gary Player withdrew from The Open Championship the week before the Canadian Open, after he injured himself while doing exercises in the bathtub. But he showed up at the Canadian Open saying that his neck felt better. Jack Nicklaus was wearing a lift in his right shoe to offset a vertebrae problem, and the lift caused the formation of a blister.
Tony Lema arrived and complained to reporters that he was feeling fatigue, both mentally and physically, after his fourth-place finish at The Open Championship. Bruce Devlin was suffering from a sore left shoulder, and had just recovered from a bout with a throat infection at The Open Championship. He was also bothered by varicose veins that he planned to have operated on in the fall.
On the eve of the Wednesday’s opening round, George Knudson, the pride of Canadian golf, was awarded the Canadian Golf Press Association Trophy. It was the first awarding of the prize that would go annually to the golfer, professional or amateur, male, or female, voted the most outstanding golfer of the year. Knudson was fresh off a vacation with his wife and family on Georgian Bay in Ontario and was fired up to win the Canadian Open and put himself in the running to become the first repeat winner of the CGPA Trophy.
A crowd estimated between 8,000 and 10,000 showed up for Wednesday’s first round under threatening skies and a brief shower in the afternoon. Joe Campbell, a 29-year-old blonde pro from Perdido Bay, FL, took the first-round lead with a 66. Campbell only needed 29 putts during his round, but he also needed six cigars.
Campbell hadn’t even seen the course until Wednesday’s first round and relied on notes on the course from fellow player Sonny Methvin to navigate his way around Mississaugua. Those must have been great notes as Campbell birdied five of the last 11 holes.
Mason Rudolph was in second place with a 67 that included a bogey at the final hole after overshooting the green and failing to get up and down for his par. The large group of players at 68 included Montreal’s Al Johnston, Charlie Sifford, Bruce Devlin, Al Geiberger, and his good friend Dave Stockton. Nicklaus came in with a 69, tied with another large group of players and George Knudson came in with a 70, as did Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema. Palmer put a new driver into play just before the tournament started and expressed satisfaction with his driving in the first round.
Also in the large group at 70 was Gene Littler whose last win came at the 1962 Thunderbird Classic.
“Truthfully, I didn’t even feel like playing here.”
The list of injured golfers grew during Thursday’s second round, a round played under sunny skies and witnessed by over 15,000 fans. Lema suffered back pain and withdrew after eight holes. Fellow bay area pro Steve Opperman pulled out with an illness and Howie Johnson of Palm Springs, CA, also withdrew because of illness.
Bruce Devlin put his physical ailments aside to secure four birdies on the front nine and then coasted home with nine straight pars for a 66 and a two-round total of 134 and a one-shot lead over Jack Nicklaus who also shot a 66.
Devlin told reporters, including Ted Blackman of The Gazette out of Montreal, that he seriously considered not playing in the Canadian Open. He was administered penicillin and spent five days in bed with the throat infection at The Open Championship.
“Truthfully, I didn’t even feel like playing here,” Devlin said.
On the back nine, where most of the players made more birdies than they did on the front nine, Devlin made pars.
“I played good for 12 holes,” he said. “Then I started to scramble.”
Despite the 66 that Nicklaus shot, a round that led Palmer to conclude that Nicklaus was returning to his Masters form, Nicklaus was not very upbeat.
“I’m not really playing that well, but then you’re seldom satisfied,” Nicklaus told reporters. “I know I’m never satisfied.”
Palmer came in with a 69 despite three three-putt greens and was five shots behind Devlin, tied with Knudson who came in with a 69.
“I could have played better but I’m happy here,” Knudson said after adding his name to the list of injured players complaining about a sore hand. “It could have been worse, too.
Gene Littler, the quiet man from San Diego, CA, came in with a 69 and sat at 138, four shots off Devlin’s pace. Gary Player added a 68 to his first round 74 to get within eight shots of the lead and proclaimed, “My neck is just fine.” He also professed satisfaction with the fiberglass shafted irons from Shakespeare that he had put in play for 1965.
“The worst playing of golf I’ve ever done in my life.”
The cut came at 146 and Sam Snead missed by one shot. Chi Chi Rodriguez, Johnny Pott, and Jerry Barber also missed the cut by one shot.
Bruce Devlin struggled to a one-over 71 in the third round for a three-day total of 205 that was good enough for a two-stroke lead over Palmer (68), Gene Littler (69), Nicklaus (72), and Mason Rudolph (69).
Devlin did not present the confidence level of a leader saying his play in the third round was, “the worst playing of golf I’ve ever done in my life. I started hitting like an old woman, and I don’t deserve to be leading.”
Player came in with a 67 but he informed reporters that the pain in his neck had returned but added that it didn’t affect his golf swing. He was now just four shots off Devlin’s lead. Player finished his round as rain began to fall, and the precipitation turned into a heavy downfall before becoming a drizzle and made for muggy conditions.
“I played somewhere between terrible and worse than terrible. I just blew the whole bit.”
Knudson’s dream of winning the Canadian Open came to an inglorious end with a third-round 77. His round included two double bogeys and a triple bogey. On the difficult 18th hole, he hit his second shot into a ravine resulting in a triple bogey seven.
“But the Canadian Open is over for me,” Knudson declared to reporters including Paul Rimstead, sportswriter for The Toronto Star. “I played somewhere between terrible and worse than terrible. I just blew the whole bit.”
The list of sick or injured players continued to grow on Friday. On the 6th hole, Mason Rudolph told Jack Nicklaus that he was unsure he would be able to finish due to a sore neck muscle. Wearing a heavy sweater in the muggy weather, he struggled, but managed to make three birdies. Bob Rosburg withdrew after shooting a 77 citing an aggravated neck as the cause.
Players near the top of the leaderboard after the second round dropped back with Joe Campbell recording a 73 for a 209, and Dave Stockton adding a 72 for a 210 total.
The quietest player in the field, Gene Littler, let his golf game speak volumes for him in Saturday’s final round. While Devlin stumbled out of the gate with bogeys on the first three holes, Littler, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus, who were all tied for second place at the beginning of the round, all made pars.
Littler then thrilled the Canadian Open record crowd of over 20,000 as he began making birdies including three on the front nine as he turned with a two-under 33, and he was even with Nicklaus at the top of the leaderboard at five-under.
“But I lost my chance on the 17th when I hit that real bad chip shot.”
Palmer fell off the pace with a double bogey and a bogey on successive holes on the front nine and would not be a factor on his way to a 76 and a total of 283.
Littler put the pedal to the metal with birdies at the 11th and 12th holes while Nicklaus bogeyed the 13th to drop three shots behind. But Nicklaus wasn’t dead yet as he mounted a charge with birdies on the 14th and 16th holes to narrow Littler’s lead to just one shot with two holes to play.
“But I lost my chance on the 17th when I hit that real bad chip shot,” Nicklaus admitted to reporters after his round. He was referring to a flubbed chip shot after nearly driving the 17th green. Instead of an easy birdie, he had to settle for a par after missing the 15-foot birdie putt.
“I figured if I could birdie 17 it would make 18 a little tough for Gene,” Nicklaus went on. “That was the turning point.”
“I haven’t had a good week of putting in several years until this week.”
Needing only a par to win, Littler finished in style with a birdie sinking a five-foot putt on the final green for a one-shot victory over Nicklaus. Littler finished with a 66, for a four-round total of 273 while Nicklaus came in with a 67 and a total of 274.
Littler singled out putting as the key to his victory telling Dick Bacon of the UPI, “I changed my stroke a couple of weeks ago in St. Paul. I shortened the backswing and used more follow through. I haven’t had a good week of putting in several years until this week. I think I three-putted once, but I don’t remember where it was.”
In the final round, Littler only needed 28 putts and one-putted eight times.
Littler took home the $20,000 first place check while Nicklaus won $12,000 for second place. Joe Campbell bounced back with a final round 69 to capture a tie for third place with Rod Funseth, Randy Glover, Mason Rudolph, and Homero Blancas. They all won $4,760.
In a week where players were just as likely to end up on the sick or injured list as they were to win the event, it was the quietest player in the field who navigated Mississaugua Country Club to the winner’s circle in one of the richest events on the tour, a national championship, at the Canadian Open.
Coming Next Week: Andy North turns a cakewalk into a nail biter in the 1978 U.S. Open
Tour Backspin is a reader-supported publication. To receive premium content including early release of The Tour Backspin Show, please consider upgrading to a premium subscription for just $36 per year. Premium subscribers help fund the research I do, and in return, they get exclusive access to special articles and early access to our YouTube channel.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Congratulations to Alan Wrzesien for winning the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest last week. Alan beat three other correct answers of #11 at Muirfield Village in the random drawing. We’re adding more to the gift discount code to The Tour Backspin Golf Shop to Alan’s total as he is a multiple winner. 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. Winners can combine multiple 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.
We understand if a premium subscription isn’t in the budget, 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. Paid subscribers help fund the work we do here at Tour Backspin.
Work continues on the Tony Lema documentary. Here’s a clip of the interview we did with Bruce Devlin. (clicking on link will open this post on the web, scroll down to video player).
Click on image to view on the web.
You can now support the induction of Tony Lema into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Sign the online petition HERE.
Tour Backspin Quiz | Canadian Open Trivia
Who was the only amateur to win the Canadian Open? What year did he win it?
Scroll down for answer
Clips I Loved
I’ll confess that I’ve resorted to this from time to time. I go with the left hand, though.
Yikes!
More from Jordan Spieth.
Just a caddie doing caddie things.
This made me tired.
How excited are you about this?
Or this?
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | The Memorial Tournament
Scottie Scheffler continues on a roll as he won his third title on the PGA TOUR this year adding The Memorial Tournament to his list. He defended his title at The Memorial, only the second player in addition to Tiger Woods to do so. He also won for the ninth straight time when holding a 54-hole lead.
It was also obvious that the host of the tournament, Jack Nicklaus, is a Scheffler fan.
"Well, you did it again," Nicklaus told Scheffler while walking off the 18th green.
Scheffler won despite not having his ‘A’ game hitting only four of his first ten greens in regulation. He bogeyed the 10th hole, his only bogey in his last 40 holes, and he held a one-shot lead over Ben Griffin.
Scheffler birdied the 11th hole while Griffin bogeyed, and then secured par on the next two holes while Griffin bogeyed both and the lead was four shots.
"Only one bogey around this place is pretty good," Scheffler said. "I hit a lot of fairways. I definitely wasn't in the rough very much. I think I hit it in the rough off of 10, but outside of that, I don't think I was really in the rough at all. Around this place, that's going to be key."
Griffin made it close with an eagle on the par-5 15th hole and a birdie at the 16th hole, that pulled him to within two of Scheffler, but Scheffler secured routine pars on the 17th and 18th holes. Griffin double bogeyed the 17th hole and finished with a par on the 18th for a solo second place finish.
Read more from espn.com HERE.
Here are the final round highlights:
Tour Backspin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. We try to make as much of our content available for free subscribers as we can, but it is the paid subscribers who help make this newsletter sustainable. Please consider upgrading.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Doug Sanders won the Canadian Open in 1956 as an amateur, the only amateur to win the Canadian Open
What’s behind the paywall:
Bonus Story (So funny it is worth the price of an annual Tour Backspin Premium Subscription. If you upgrade and don’t agree, I’ll refund your $36. Upgrade HERE.)
Blind Shot (This one will make you laugh, too.)
My Open Tabs
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tour Backspin to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.