Players Enjoy Southern Hospitality in Hattiesburg
"Second Tour" rolls out the red carpet for players
The Ryder Cup was quite the disappointment for fans in the U.S. as Team U.S.A. were outplayed and outsmarted. The European Team made more shots, especially putts, and it was all over after the first day of matches built up an insurmountable lead for Team Europe.
That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a bit of spice to the proceedings with the Patrick Cantlay hat controversy, the bug that went around the American team causing stuffy noses, and the Joe LaCava versus Rory McIlroy brouhaha on the 18th green on Saturday.
The biggest star for Team U.S.A. was Max Homa who went 3-1-1 and overcame a brutal break on the last hole of his singles match against Matt Fitzpatrick. His clutch putt extended the matches.
Who is surprised by this?
Congratulations to Team Europe, well played. See ya at Bethpage.
The PGA TOUR returns to action this week in Jackson, MS, at the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson. This tournament was born as the Magnolia Classic, a “Second Tour” event played opposite the Masters, in 1968, and was played in Hattiesburg at the Hattiesburg Country Club. The community of Hattiesburg rolled out the red carpet, showing off their southern hospitality, to the players in the field.
We turn back to 1973 when journeyman pro Dwight Nevil held off Reeves McBee and Tom Watson to win the championship. Scroll down to learn more.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, 73% of respondents had the Euros while 27% had Team U.S.A. in the Ryder Cup.
When I was at the ribbon-cutting opening ceremony for the Lucious Bateman Museum at Corica Park Golf Club in Alameda, CA, I stood at the edge of a gaggle listening to Roger Maltbie. Roger had just completed a one-off return to NBC as the on-course reporter at the Fortinet Championship at Silverado.
Roger told how the brass at NBC Sports had to make a choice because of cost-cutting measures. The brass put the choice up to the producers of the golf broadcasts; they could send a full production crew, including camera operators, announcers, and support crew, to either The Open Championship, or the Ryder Cup, but not both.
They chose The Open Championship which meant that they would be sending only a skeleton crew to Rome for the Ryder Cup. At Napa, for the Fortinent, NBC experimented with having announcers and camera operators in Napa while the production crew remained in Connecticut. The resulting delay of sending the signal back-and-forth resulted in announcers talking over one another among other problems. Roger warned that the broadcast from Rome for the Ryder Cup was going to be a “sh*t show” and most of the critics agreed both during and after the broadcast.
These production problems, when added to the commercial load and the difficulty in navigating the changes between streaming and regular broadcast outlets, made for a challenging viewing situation.
In this week’s Tour Backspin Poll, let us know how you felt about the NBC broadcast of the Ryder Cup.
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In 1973 you could get a subscription for commemorative plates of famous golf holes designed by Robert Trent Jones. Gives me the idea of WHAT HOLE IS IT? commemorative plates. Check it out in this week’s Vintage Ad.
We’re continuing with our live music playlist. I remember setting up the cassette recorder to capture these live shows that were broadcast on the radio. This one is from the BBC and it features The Eagles. Thank you to pastdaily.com (click on the links or the album cover we created) HERE. Let us know if you liked this change in the comments section below.
We’re going old school in this week’s Swing Like a Pro. Scroll down to view.
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If you like golf history, check out the Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. Host Michael Duranko celebrates birthdays, milestones, and other accomplishments that occurred on the day in golf history. Listen HERE.
Congratulations to Sam Shelton who correctly identified hole #13 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia, Rome, Italy, in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? Sam beat out two other correct answers in the random drawing. We have a prize pack in the mail to Sam. Check out the 2023 leader board and scroll down for your chance to win in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Save The Date! The next meeting of the Tour Backspin Show Book Club will be on December 14th at 5:30 (PST). We will be talking with the author of The Age of Palmer, Patrick Hand. This is a great book right in the wheelhouse of the era we cover here at Tour Backspin. You can buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble and then join us to talk about it with Patrick on the 14th. Sign up HERE.
We’re playing Sanderson Farms Championship Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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Larry Baush
Dwight Nevil’s Record Setting Week in Hattiesburg
It is the first week of April 1973, and the elite players on the PGA TOUR are arriving in Augusta, GA, for the Masters Tournament. Approximately 525 miles southwest of Augusta, down I-20, the grinders, journeymen and dreamers on the PGA TOUR were arriving at the Hattiesburg Country Club for the Magnolia Classic. The Magnolia Classic was a “Second Tour” event where the money was official, but a win was unofficial.
The event was a big deal for the community of Hattiesburg which rolled out the red carpet for the players, including a crawfish dinner with live entertainment on the eve of the first round.
Dwight Nevil, a former Dallas fireman now playing out of Newburg, NY, came into Hattiesburg hot off a win at the Diamondhead Open, a two-day satellite event in Bay St. Louis where he won $2,000. In the first round in Hattiesburg, Nevil started steadily shooting a 36 on the front nine of the par-71 course. He then made birdies at the 11th, 13th, and 14th holes to shoot a three-under-par 68. This placed him in a tie for the lead with Ray Pace, the winner of the 1971 Magnolia Classic, hometown hero Bert Greene of Hattiesburg, and Tom Watson.
“But when I made that birdie at 17, I really got rolling.”
In Friday’s second-round, Nevil started on the back nine and had to work for pars on the first six holes, but then got hot.
“I had to scramble on those first six holes,” Nevile explained to reporters after his round. “But when I made that birdie at 17, I really got rolling.”
He began his round on the 10th tee, and after shooting a 34 on his first nine holes, he burned the front nine in just 29 strokes for a 63 which tied the competitive course record set by Jerry Abbott in the 1969 Magnolia Classic. Nevil enjoyed a four-shot lead over Rives McBee, who shot a 66, and five clear of the trio of Bert Greene, Mac McClendon.
Both Nevile and McBee played golf at North Texas State but were not teammates as McBee was a senior while Nevile was a freshman and at that time, freshmen were not eligible to play varsity sports. McBee was best known for shooting a 64 in the second round of the 1966 U.S. Open which held up as a U.S. Open single round scoring record until eclipsed by Johnny Miller’s final round 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open.
McBee had played in every Magnolia Classic and was now the head pro at Las Colina Country Club in Irvine, TX. He had a stipulation in his contract with the club that gave him a week off to play the Magnolia every year.
“It doesn’t take long to warm-up a Rolls Royce, does it?”
“I guess I’m hitting it as good as I ever have with my irons and I made some putts today,” McBee said after his round. He also said that he hadn’t had many opportunities to play during the year and that was met with skepticism from the gathering of reporters because he played so well.
McBee quickly retorted, “It doesn’t take long to warm-up a Rolls Royce, does it?”
Nevil’s 63 included eight pars, seven birdies, and an eagle, offset by just two bogeys. Nevil credited Buddy Allin with a mental tip concerning breaking the course down into six-hole sets.
“I concentrate on shooting six holes in one under par,” he explained. “When that six is gone, it’s gone. If I have shot worse than I wanted, I eliminate it from my mind, and start anew on the next six. If I have done better than the goal I have set, I also put that out of my mind. That way I can be more aggressive.”
Everybody had an eye on the weather on Friday evening as a downpour hit the course. Jack Sterling, a PGA official explained to the press that tee times for Saturday’s third round would be delayed by two hours. Instead of teeing off on the first tee only at 8:30, players would now tee from both the first and tenth tees starting at 10:12.
Nevil stumbled to a 71 in Saturday’s third round but was able to hold on to a share of the lead with Greene. Greene excited the hometown fans with a 66 for a three-round total of 202 and he and Nevil were three-shots ahead of Tom Watson. Reeves McBee fell back after a third-round 73 and was now six strokes behind the leaders.
Officials, again worried about the weather, moved the tee times for Sunday up and again employed both the first and tenth tees, to get the round in before rain moved in. All the worrying was for naught as Sunday dawned with clear and sunny skies which remained through the afternoon.
Nevil thought it would take a 67 to win the tournament and he set out to hit that target, but Greene had other ideas as he moved into the lead early in the round. Nevile, playing in the group in front of Greene, kept his cool and began laying down a string of birdies that the hometown hero could not match.
“But when I saw it on 16, I knew I could win if I just made pars.”
Tom Watson, who started the day three shots off the lead, charged his way into the discussion when he carded three birdies in the middle of his round. Nevil kept his head down, ignoring the leader boards around the course as he continued to make birdies with just one bogey blemish on his card, a three-putt on the 10th hole.
“I didn’t look at the leader board until the 16th hole,” he told reporters. “I just kept playing my game. But when I saw it on 16, I knew I could win if I just made pars.”
He then went to the 17th hole and made a birdie, and then he damn near made another at the 18th hole finishing like a champion winning by three strokes. His four-round total of 268 set a tournament scoring record eclipsing the previous record, held by Mac McClendon and Mike Morely, by one stroke.
Greene remained upbeat after his round saying, “I set my goal to shoot four straight rounds under par and I did it. I guess I just set my goal too low. But if you can’t win, second place is next best.”
Greene won a check for $3,900, while Nevil’s first place check totaled $7,000.
At the award ceremony, Nevil said, “I won $18,000 at Westchester (for a third-place finish in 1972) but it didn’t mean one-tenth as much as this win. This is a great tournament, and I don’t consider it a satellite. I hope I can come back next year. I’d like to tell the Masters “no” and come back to Hattiesburg.”
He wouldn’t have the chance to refuse a Masters invitation since the win at the Magnolia was unofficial. But the money was official, and he would return to Hattiesburg the next year and repeat as champion, the only player to defend their title at the Magnolia Classic.
Tour Backspin caught up with Nevil via email about what he remembers from that week. Here’s his response:
I played there several years, and the hospitality extended to us by the membership of the Hattiesburg Country Club was never topped by any other on tour. We, the tour players, were truly made to feel welcome.
As for the golf, my game matched up to the course since I grew up playing a tight golf course with small greens.
Almost all of the players not playing in the Masters played in Hattiesburg. It was great to have a place to play.
One of the best things about events in this era is the community involvement whether a top-tier event, or a second tour event, and Hattiesburg was a great example of rolling out the red carpet for the players.
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Bonus Story
The weather in Hattiesburg for the 1973 Magnolia Classic confused everyone from tour officials, to the players, and the fans. When temperatures fell well below expectations, some players were caught unprepared.
Bert Greene had to borrow a jacket from one of his many hometown friends following him. The jacket was several sizes too small, and he struggled to swing in it. It did provide some warmth, though.
Then he was caught off guard again on Sunday when warm sunshine unexpectedly broke through. His long sleeve shirt was proving to be too warm, and he had to take it off finishing his round in a plain white tee shirt.
The weather threw off spectators as well. With tee times moved up on Sunday to get the round in before the predicted rains, play was completed by 2:45. Some fans showed up to watch the finish only to discover that play had finished for the day and the pros were off to Pensacola, the next stop on the tour. Still, officials estimated Sunday’s crowd at 5,000.
Meanwhile, up in Augusta, the third round on Saturday was washed out by rain. The final round was played on Monday for the first time since 1961.
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Magnolia Classic Trivia
The Magnolia Classic has gone through many name changes since it started in 1968. It has also had quite a few years where the tournament was shortened, most often for weather conditions. One of those years was 1999. Why was this year shortened and what was the tournament known as?
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Go deep into the Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele Ryder Cup controversy. Learn more HERE from Golf Magazine.
Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema tells the story of one of the tour’s biggest stars in the mid-1960s. A fascinating glimpse into the traveling caravan that was the PGA TOUR during an era where the fields were full of “Mad Men” era personalities. From a hardscrabble youth spent on the “wrong side of the tracks” in the Oakland suburb of San Leandro, to the temptations of Elko, Nevada, to the bright lights of the PGA TOUR, Uncorked tells a story of determination, redemption and, above all else, a love story that documents how Betty, Tony’s new wife, provided the direction and motivation for him to become a top star. Order on Amazon.
What is Hip?
Those colors are so 1973. (photo: Golf Digest)
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
What started in 1968 as the Magnolia Classic became the Southern Farm Bureau Classic in 1999. That year, the tournament was won by Brian Henninger. The tournament was shortened to 54 holes when the PGA TOUR suspended all play on October 29th as a result of Payne Stewart’s funeral.
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