Rookie Uses Positive Self-Talk To Win First Title

Chuck Courtney convinced himself he was a great putter and then went out and proved he was.

Jul 27, 2023

The PGA TOUR was at the Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood) in Truckee, CA, for the Barracuda Championship, played under the Stableford point system. Akshay Bhatia won with a par on the first playoff hole.

But, of course, most golf fan’s attention were focused on The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. While the Barracuda provided an exciting finish with a playoff, The Open Championship was a display of dominance by Brian Harmon. With a first round 67 and second round 65, Harmon slept on a five-stroke lead both Friday and Saturday nights. After a bit of a shaky start on Sunday, he was rock solid and won by six shots.

The buzz after he walked away with the title was how “boring” this Open was. Would that opinion have changed if Rory, Jon, or Scottie had done the same thing? I doubt people would have found that boring. Harmon was great in his post-round presser and will be a worthy Open champion.

Those 60% of respondents in the Tour Backspin Poll who picked the field walked away with the (virtual) money. Rory received 20% of the voting, as did Scottie Scheffler. Nobody liked the chances of Jon Rahm or Cameron Smith.

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This week the PGA TOUR is in Blaine, MN, for the 3M Open. We are two events away from the start of the FedEx Playoffs and players will be trying to earn their way in, or improve their position. The 3M dates back to 2019, but the PGA TOUR in Minnesota goes all the way back to 1930. The 1960s were a particularly ripe time for the tournament and we focus in on 1964 when journeyman Chuck Cortney won the event. The next year, the St. Paul Open purse increased from $65,000 to $100,000, in part due to a television contract.

I love writing about the journeymen of the PGA TOUR as much as I love writing about the biggest stars at the biggest events. The journeymen help us fulfill our mission of telling these stories so that they will not be forgotten. Thank you for you support in pursuing this mission.

Check out the style of a 1964 Acushnet glove in this week’s Vintage Ad. Scroll down to see.

It’s 1964 and the British invasion is coming. Check out all the hits from ‘64 in this week’s playlist. Listen HERE.

Ken Venturi worked with Byron Nelson at the San Francisco Country Club when Tony Lema was an assistant there. Venturi would often take Lema to the range and repeat the lesson he’d just received from Nelson as a way of memorizing it. Check out the results in this week’s Swing Like a Pro. Scroll down to view.

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Courtney Blazes To Victory on the Back of a Hot Putter

Chuck Courtney (photo: Chuck Courtney Golf)

Chuck Courtney turned pro in 1963 and headed out on the PGA TOUR in January of 1964. Born in Minnesota, but raised in San Diego, he was a three-time All-American at San Diego State University (second team in 1960 and 1961, first team in 1962).

He finished in a tie for fifth early in the season at the Palm Springs Golf Classic just a few weeks after joining the tour. Since then, his results had not lived up to his hot start. In the eight weeks leading up to the St. Paul Open at the Keller Golf Course in St. Paul, MN, he had missed six cuts and won only $1,000. Yet he was undeterred and optimistic arriving in St. Paul. He felt he had been playing well, but his putter was holding him back. He convinced himself he was a good putter and things would turn around in St. Paul.

“That might have been a 63 or 64 on the old course.”

The Keller Golf Course was a perennial venue on the PGA TOUR and the pros feasted on the easy conditions posting many low scores. In 1964, the course had been lengthened and the fairways had been heavily watered to slow them down. Still, there were 54 players who either equaled, or broke, par in the first round. Jay Hebert of Lafayette, LA, and John Cook of Minnetonka, MN, opened with five under par 65s.

Hebert had two eagles in his round and said, “That might have been a 63 or 64 on the old course.”

Chuck Courtney opened with a 68 as did George Archer, Julius Boros and Rod Funseth. The reigning PGA Champion, Bobby Nichols, opened with a 67. Charles Sifford opened with a 70.

“After you’ve used a putter for a while it doesn’t look so good. They get old and dingy. I like them new and shiny.”

George Archer, riding a very hot putter, surged to the lead in the second round shooting a 67 putting him one shot in front of his fellow Californian, Dick Lotz, who added a 66 to his first round 70. John Cook was tied with Lotz after a second-round 71.

Archer used only 29 putts and credited a new goose-necked putter for his success on the greens.

“After you’ve used a putter for a while it doesn’t look so good,” he explained. “They get old and dingy. I like them new and shiny.”

Courtney added a second-round 72 and quietly sat at 140, five-strokes off Archer’s lead.

With a steady one-under-par round of 70, Archer continued to lead after the third round with a total of 205. He held a one-stroke lead over his fellow rookie, and Californian, Courtney, and a former Minnesotan, Howie Johnson, now playing out of Palm Springs.

It was a crowded leader board with seven pros bunched at 207, while Charlie Sifford sat at 208. Lotz and Cook both shot 73s and slipped down the leader board at 209.

Archer was the leading money winner among the rookies on tour while Courtney was second. Courtney, using an Acushnet Bull’s Eye putter, only needed 25 putts in a scrambling round that saw him hit only 12 greens while Archer played a very steady round.

Courtney’s positive self-talk, especially concerning his putting, worked for him in the second round and continued to pay dividends in the windy final round. He had critical, must-make, par putts ranging from four to seven feet, on the ninth, tenth and eleventh greens and made each one and then on the twelfth hole, rolled in a tricky downhill, sidewinding five-footer for birdie. He also drained putts at the thirteenth and fourteenth holes.

“When I saw that ball sail up close to the pin, I could have hung a sign on it. I knew I was going to win.”

He had separated himself from a scrambled leader board, but it was at the fifteenth hole that he put the tournament away. Leading by three shots, he hit a four-wood at the 220-yard, par 3, that ended up 10-inches from the hole. He finished the fourth round with a total of 272, winning the title by three strokes.

“When I saw that ball go up there and stick, I knew I only had to hold on to the club the rest of the way in order to win,” he said after his round. “I was battling with several others at that point, but when I saw that ball sail up close to the pin, I could have hung a sign on it. I knew I was going to win.”

At the 18th hole, a par-5, Courtney put his approach shot just short of the green. He saw on the leader board that he had a big lead and he recently told Tour Backspin, “It was obvious that unless I fell dead, I was going to win.”

He chipped up onto the green and then marked his ball, moving the marker a putter head length to get it out of the line of his playing partner, Frank Beard. When it came to his turn to putt, he did not immediately move his marker back to its original position. Joe Carr, among others, then shouted out to remind him to move his marker back, which he did.

“I would have putted out, and been penalized two strokes,” Courtney admitted. “Or else disqualified for signing a wrong score card.”

He moved his marker back and finished the hole, without falling over dead, and won the tournament.

Charlie Sifford shot a 68 and a 67 on the weekend to move up into a tie for second place with Jack McGowan and Rod Funseth with each winning $4,433. Five players finished in a tie for fifth, including Julius Boros, Bobby Nichols and Bruce Devlin winning $2,560 each. George Archer fell victim of the wind and pressure in the final round shooting a 74 finishing seven shots behind Courtney.

Courtney’s determination in having a positive mental attitude was the tool he needed to move into the winner’s circle at the St. Paul Open, his first win on the PGA TOUR. It was worth $11,500 helping him achieve a successful rookie year on the tour. Courtney would go on to play the tour for more than a decade racking up another win at the Tallahassee Open in 1969, and more than two dozen top-10 finishes before becoming the head professional at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.

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Bonus Story

Tony Lema had a good tournament at the 1961 St. Paul Open. He didn’t have many good tournaments in 1961 so after a third round 66 and final round 71 resulting in a tie for 15th place, he was in a mood to celebrate.

He and a group of other pros were scheduled to catch a train later in the evening to the next tour stop, the Canadian Open. They had some time to celebrate and Lema rounded up some of the girls from the tournament hospitality room and soon the drinks were flowing.

Somebody came up with the bright idea of hitting golf balls out of a large window in the hotel room. Soon golf balls were flying out the window and raining down upon Market Street.

That must have been some group that got onto that train later that evening.

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Tour Backspin Quiz | 1964 PGA TOUR Trivia

Who were the winners of the money leader, PGA Player of the Year, and Scoring Leader (Vardon Trophy) in 1964?

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Smooth and fluid swing of Ken Venturi in 1965 (photo: Golf Digest)

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Tales From The Tour

At the 1965 PGA Championship at Laurel Canyon in Ligonier, PA, Chuck Courtney was paired with Tony Lema and they were playing behind the group that included Arnold Palmer. Palmer was playing in his backyard and Lema was a huge star after winning The Open Championship the year prior. There were huge crowds following both groups.

On the 8th hole (17th hole for Courtney’s group that started on the 10th hole), Courtney’s drive struck a spectator in the head.

“I walked up there and there’s this guy laying on the ground, bleeding,” Courtney told Tour Backspin. “I was halfway in shock. I thought I had really hurt him bad. But, the show must go on. The ambulance came and they hauled this guy away. I’m just hoping the guy isn’t going to die.

On the last hole, we had to wait on the tee, we had a long wait. I’m standing at the back of the ropes talking to somebody and I feel somebody pull on my shirt and I turn around and there’s this guy with a great big bandage on. He says, ‘Mr. Courtney, Mr. Courtney, I’m the guy you hit and I’m okay.”

What a relief for Courtney even though he missed the cut.

Is there cheating in professional golf? Here is the story of an egregious example. Read it at Golf Magazine HERE.

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.

Buy "Uncorked" On Amazon

What is Hip?

The pleated vs flat-front debate was on in 1964.

Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:

Jack Nicklaus won the money title with $113,285 in winnings. Ken Venturi, on the strength of his comeback and win at the U.S. Open, won the PGA Player of the Year. Arnold Palmer won the Vardon Trophy.

If you’re enjoying the free version of Tour Backspin, I hope you would consider upgrading to a paid subscription ($5 per month, or $36 per year). Your support helps us with the research, writing, travel, and the other work required to make this newsletter sustainable. I understand that not everyone can or wants to buy a paid subscription. I’m happy to have you here either way. I’m glad you feel that the stories of these players from one of golf’s “Golden Ages” are important to document before it is too late. Thanks for reading.