Magee Loses Playoff and Captures the Lead

In a tournament that featured both a medal and match play component, Jerry Magee loses a playoff to get into the match play, but gains the lead in the medal play.

Mar 24, 2022

The PGA TOUR pays homage to March Madness by holding the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play event in Austin Texas. This match play event features 16 four-player groups that play matches on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the player with the best record from each group advancing. Confusing? Yes. But nothing compared to the match play event played on the tour in the early 1970s. Read on to learn more

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Jack Nicklaus Wins the U.S. Match Play Championship, Lou Graham wins L&M Open the Same Week at the Same Course

It’s late in the day, Friday, August 25, 1972, and Jerry Magee was involved in a three-way playoff with Don Bies and Paul Moran. Bies birdied the second playoff hole while the other two made par, yet Magee and Moran played on. On the fourth playoff hole, Magee recorded a bogey to Moran’s par. This vaulted Magee into the lead of the Liggett and Meyers Open at the Country Club of North Carolina course in Pinehurst, NC.

What the heck is going on? Let’s backspin to see.

Ever since the touring pros broke off from the PGA of America to form the Tournament Players Division of the PGA in 1969, they had been looking for a marquee major event. The PGA of America owned the rights to the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup, Augusta National owned the rights to the Masters, the USGA owned the rights to the U.S. Open and the R&A owned the rights to The Open Championship. The PGA TOUR needed to own the rights to a fifth major and went about creating one.

Their first attempt in 1971, was a match play event, sponsored by the tobacco conglomerate, Liggett and Myers, and was called the Liggett & Myers Open Match Play Championship. It featured a field of 64 players made up of winners from the 1970 tour, as well as the leading money winners from the current year.

As far as building a fifth major, things did not go according to plan. The format was not the traditional match play, instead it was “medal match play” resembling the Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf format. DeWhitt Weaver won the final match over Phil Rodgers by six strokes which did not make for great television. Match play has always presented challenges for television as there was no way to guarantee that top players would play in the biggest matches, or that the biggest matches would provide compelling action down the stretch during an era when only the final holes were broadcast.

Changes would be made for the tournament in 1972 and these changes included adding a 72-hole stroke-play championship to the match play component and changing the name. The match play tournament would now be known as the U.S. Professional Match Play Championship while the medal component would be known as the Liggett & Myers Open.

The match play brackets of 16 players would be made up of the top seven players based on a points system from the prior year, as well as the defending champion, DeWhitt Weaver. These players included Jack Nicklaus, winner of five tournaments during the current year including the Masters and the U.S. Open, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, George Archer, Miller Barber, and Frank Beard. The remaining eight spots would be decided in the first two rounds of the L&M Open where the top eight players on the leader board would move over to the match play competition.

After two rounds, Bob Barbarossa sat atop the leader board with an 8-under 136. Deane Beaman sat one stroke back while Lanny Wadkins stood another stroke back at 138. Babe Hiskey, Dave Stockton, and Leonard Thompson were tied at 140. Don Bies, Paul Moran, and Jerry McGee were tied at 141 and would play for the last two spots in the match play bracket while the loser would become the leader in the L&M Open. As depicted in this week’s opening, Don Bies and Paul Moran would secure a spot in the match play competition while Jerry McGee would enter the third round of the medal play competition as the leader, after losing a playoff.

Wow. Could a more confusing tournament format be constructed? Oh, wait, there’s the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play being played this week that could give the U.S. Professional Match Play a run at most confusing.

The players in the match play portion of the tournament were guaranteed $5,000 (more than the fourth-place finisher earned in the L&M Open) and had a shot at the winner’s share of $40,000. The winner of the L&M Open won $20,000. It was quickly apparent that the match play action would attract the most attention.

Matches were 18-holes with two matches played both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Jack Nicklaus defeated his good friend Deane Beaman, 1 up, while Lanny Wadkins defeated Miller Barber 2-and-1. Don Bies sent Arnold Palmer packing with a decisive 5-and-4 victory. Leonard Thompson won his match with Jerry Heard, 1 up. Lee Trevino defeated the defending champion, DeWitt Weaver 2-and-1 and Frank Beard prevailed over Paul Moran, 1 up. Babe Hiskey beat George Archer, 1 up while Dave Stockton defeated Bob Barbarossa on the 19th hole.

In the afternoon on Saturday, Nicklaus handled Lanny Wadkins 5-and-3.

“I don’t really know how to explain it,” Wadkins said after the match. “I’ve played the great players before—I’ve beat Palmer most times I’ve played him—but Jack is something else. You watch him hit great shot after great shot and you kind of forget about your own game. That’s bad, but that’s what I did. It’s just another week when Jack is in a tournament—Jack is gonna win.”

Bies took care of Thompson 2-and-1, Beard defeated Trevino, 2-and-1, and Hiskey took down Stockton, 3-and-1.

In the L&M Open, Jerry McGee, Larry Ziegler and David Graham were all tied at 212.

Sunday morning’s semi-final matches saw Nicklaus handle Bies easily winning 2-and-1 while Frank Beard defeated Hiskey 1 up. The final would pit a nervous Beard against Nicklaus.

“I’ve never felt tension like this before, and I’ve won 11 tournaments,” Beard admitted before the match. “It’s a different kind of feeling. It’s not the money or the title, it’s just your adversary is right there—as opposed to medal play when you’re trying to play yourself and par.”

The tension proved too much by the 15th hole where Beard made bogey and then another bogey on the 17th hole gave Nicklaus the title and the winner’s $40,000 check.

In the L&M Open, Lou Graham prevailed in a four-way sudden death playoff with David Graham (no relation), Larry Ziegler, and Hale Irwin. David Graham and Ziegler bogeyed the first hole to fall out of the playoff and it took another three holes before Lou Graham was able to defeat Irwin.

A playoff for the lesser L&M Open title was the perfect ending to a tournament that saw a golfer lose a playoff for one tournament while gaining the lead in another.

Jack Nicklaus at the U.S. Professional Match Play Championship. (photo: Sports Illustrated)

Check out the bonus fact below for more on the confusing week in Pinehurst.

The playlist this week is a new one, The Best of 1972 Volume 2. Listen HERE .

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Tour Backspin Quiz | Three 1972 Headlines and a Lie

Three of these headlines were true in 1972 while one of them is faker than that vanity handicap your buddy has.

Tampering Charged: Golfer Suspended

Nicklaus Zips Past $300,000 Mark

Nevil Captures Westchester Title

‘Mr. Lu’ Changes His Image

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Bonus Story

Jack Nicklaus was not particularly happy with the tournament format in Pinehurst the week of the U.S. Professional Match Play tournament. As stated, the Tournament Players Division of the PGA, known now as the PGA TOUR, was looking for a major tournament that they owned the rights to, and they hoped that this new tournament format would fit the bill. They set the tournament up with a television audience in mind. Eight players (top performers determined by a point system from the year prior in addition to the defending champion DeWitt Weaver) would be exempted into the match play while the other eight players would be the leaders from the first two rounds of the L&M Open.

“It can’t be a major tournament under this format,” Nicklaus explained after capturing the title. “We only have 16 players in the finals. It was set up to accommodate television. It can’t be a major tournament unless you have more players than that competing.”

The new complicated format was devised after all the big names were defeated in the maiden Match Play Championship in 1971. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Lee Trevino were all defeated while unknown DeWitt Weaver won the title. The 1972 event ensured that all the big names would be around for the weekend televised matches as all the matches occurred during the weekend. These well laid plans nearly went awry when unknown Richie Karl, winner of the Alaska Amateur, shot a first round 65 in the L&M threatening to qualify for the match play portion, before disappearing in the second round. Players played two 18-hole matches each day.

Despite that the week’s two tournaments were billed as pro golf’s first doubleheader, it was the match play event that got all the attention. To drive this point home, the television broadcast ended shortly after Nicklaus beat Frank Beard in the final, even before Lou Graham, Larry Ziegler, Hale Irwin, and David Graham began their four-man sudden death playoff.

The tournament was played under the same format in 1973 moving to MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary, NC with John Schroeder taking the title. The tournament was dropped from the 1974 schedule with the Westchester Classic taking the time slot, moving from an earlier week in August. The inaugural Tournament Players Championship was added to the schedule the week after the Westchester and this is the tournament that became the PGA TOUR’s closest thing to a major championship.