Seattle Pro Wins First PGA TOUR Title
Don Bies rides a hot putter to win the Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open Event
What a fantastic U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. The leader board was packed with big names, the course required a full arsenal of shots, we saw a whiff, or two, and the champion, Wyndham Clark, provided a heartwarming storyline. We also had our hearts broken by Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler. Great stuff. It’s on to The Open Championship in four weeks for our next major championship fix.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, 56% of respondents should quit your jobs and go into golf betting because you correctly thought that the pros would eat up Los Angeles Country Club with a winning score below 276. The winning score was 270, 10-under. Too bad for the 44% of you that said the score would be over 276, don’t quit your day jobs.
What did you think of Los Angeles Country Club? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
Tour Backspin Poll
Clip You Might Have Missed
It was a big week! We’re giving you 10 clips you might have missed.
This week the PGA TOUR is in Cromwell, CT, for the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. This is the year’s final elevated event.
This tournament has been played since 1952. It was known for many years as the Insurance City Open before Sammy Davis Jr. added his name as host in 1973. Canon added their name in 1985, Sammy Davis Jr. was dropped in 1989, and it went back to Greater Hartford Open in 2003 and then, for three years, it was known as the Buick Championship. Finally, in 2007, it became the Travelers Championship. We’re turning back to the 1975 when Don Bies finally broke through for his first win on the PGA TOUR. Scroll down to read.
In 1975, you could have entered the National Open Long Drive Contest. Just fill out the coupon and send in your $10 entry fee in this week’s Vintage Ad. Scroll down to view.
The songs of 1975 fill this week’s Spotify playlist. They’ll drive you cuckoo. Listen HERE.
Johnny Miller’s “pop” putting stroke is featured in this week’s Swing Like a Pro. Scroll down to view.
Get the Tour Backspin Newsletter delivered to your email inbox for FREE.
Listen to The Tour Backspin Show podcast HERE or on Spotify, or on Amazon Music and Apple Podcast.
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.
We did not have a winner in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest. This was a Guest Post from Dave Stockton, Jr. and the featured hole was #18 at CDA National Reserve. Many thanks to Dave for the photo. Check out the 2023 leader board and scroll down for your chance to win in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? We’ve got some new prizes to hand out!
We’re playing Travelers Championship Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
Did you miss a previous newsletter? You can view it HERE. 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
Don Bies Outlasts Hubert Green in Playoff
It is Sunday, August 17th, 1975, and the final round of the Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open is underway at the Weathersfield Country Club under slightly overcast skies and a comfortable temperature of 73 degrees. Don Bies entered the final round with a one-stroke lead over Hubert Green. Bies opened the tournament with a 65 and followed up with rounds of 66 and 67 in the second and third rounds. Green fired an opening 66 and followed with rounds of 65 and 68.
Green’s wife, Judi, was home in California expecting the couple’s first child, which could be born at any moment. Green figured on Thursday that he could get a phone call during the tournament from Pasadena with the news of the birth, and said, “If she wants me there, I’ll go.”
If Green did decide to go, the sponsors of the tournament had already decided that they would fly him out to California and then fly him back so he would not miss the final round.
“I’ve been in contention, and I’ve played well. I just haven’t won. I’ve never felt like I’ve choked.”
Bies had been out on tour since 1967 when he finished seventh, as a club pro from Seattle Golf Club, in the PGA Championship at Columbine Country Club in Colorado. The high finish provided an exemption from qualifying for tour events for one year. With Seattle Golf Club undergoing a remodel that shut it down for a bit, Bies used his exemption to play in 16 tournaments and he earned his way into the top-60 money winners and that made him exempt from qualifying for another year. At that point, he quit his job and played the tour full-time in 1969.
Although he had won $300,000 since coming out on tour, he had yet to win a tournament. The inability to win a tournament didn’t seem to bother Bies.
“I’ve been in contention, and I’ve played well,” Bies told reporters. “I just haven’t won. I’ve never felt like I’ve choked.”
After the first round, Bies was one shot off the lead of Denny Meyer, who shot a 65, while Green was another shot back. The two were tied, at 131 after the second round and held a three-stroke lead over J.C. Snead, Lou Graham, and Larry Nelson. Bies grabbed the solo lead after a third-round 67 giving him a total of 198. Green was one-stroke back while Nelson and Snead were at 201.
“I hope I don’t embarrass him by saying this, but now I feel like I’m putting more like Jack Nicklaus.”
Green had made a change in his putting stance going from an unorthodox wide stance to a more conventional shoulder-width stance and the results were encouraging.
“I hope I don’t embarrass him by saying this, but now I feel like I’m putting more like Jack Nicklaus,” Green said to reporters about his new stance.
Bies also credited good putting for his low scores. But even though he held the lead after three rounds, Bies was not overly confident about winning.
“There’s a whole bunch of guys close enough to win,” he said after his round. “It’s gonna take a good round to win. There’s so many guys so close, nobody is gonna come staggering in with a par round and win. Somebody is gonna have to have a real good round, maybe something like a 66.”
On Sunday, Bies seemed to have a comfortable three-stroke lead over Green after 12 holes, but then his playing partner, J. C. Snead, exploded with four consecutive birdies. The final one, at the 16th hole, gave him a one-stroke lead over Bies, but Bies fought back with a birdie at the 17th that left the two tied.
Up ahead, in the penultimate group, Green and Nelson were still in the thick of things as they played the 18th hole. Nelson missed a 10-foot putt that would have tied him with Bies and Snead while Green made his 15-footer for a tying birdie and put pressure on the final group. Green shot a final round 68.
Snead had all kinds of trouble on the final hole as his second shot flew over the green and into the bleacher area. After getting a free drop, he hit his chip shot too hard and the ball ran 10-feet past the hole. He missed the putt and the bogey put him one shot behind Green.
“I thought I had it won.”
Bies faced an eight-foot putt after a superb approach shot. Sink it and he would have his first PGA TOUR title. He missed the putt and then tapped in for a 69. Bies hit all 18 greens in regulation during the final round. He and Green headed out to the 15th to start their sudden-death playoff.
Both players secured par on the first playoff hole, the 391-yard par four 15th, although Bies had to lean on his reliable putter once again as he faced a five footer to extend the playoff.
Green admitted to reporters later, “I thought I had it won.”
Bies had rammed his birdie putt five feet past the hole, He calmly stroked the putt into the hole.
“With all this excitement, maybe she’ll have twins.”
They then played the 584-yard, par 5, 16th hole. As they walked up the 16th fairway Green had a huge grin on his face and seemed to laugh as he chatted with Bies. Asked later what was so funny, Green said, “I was telling Don, this sudden-death playoff might loosen up my wife a little and maybe she’d have the baby. With all this excitement, maybe she’ll have twins.”
Green hit a one-iron that he pushed into the rough. He again used a one-iron for his second shot and pushed it again leaving him in the rough. Bies split the fairway with his drive and hit his second shot in the fairway leaving him with a seven-iron approach shot. He hit a great approach shot to within six feet of the hole.
Green later said about his nine-iron approach, “which I probably rushed because it’s pretty nerve-wracking out there.” He left the approach shot in a greenside bunker but dramatically got up and down, sinking a 12-foot putt for his par.
“They say that it’s a lot easier to win the second time.”
Bies now faced his six-footer to win. When Green climbed out of the bunker and saw how close Bies was, “I told my caddy that Don was going to make it.”
Once again, his hot putter came through as he made the putt and his long winless drought was over. He won a check for $40,000.
“They say that it’s a lot easier to win the second time,” a grinning Bies said to reporters. He was obviously delighted that he would finally have the opportunity to test that theory.
Green and his wife Judi welcomed a son, named Hubert Myatt Green, Jr., into the world the next day on August 18th.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube
Tour Backspin Playlist
Thanks for reading! Please let your family, friends and colleagues know they
can sign up for email delivery of this free newsletter through this link.
Bonus Story
Ras Allen, a little-known pro from Dallas, TX, scrapped together enough money from friends to enter the Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open in 1975. He had to hit up his friends because he had lost his sponsor.
“My sponsor gave up on me in June, right after the Atlanta Classic,” Allen admitted to reporters. “Since then, I haven’t had the money to be able to play on the tour. I had to get five of my friends to put up $600 so I could compete here. Even then, the only reason I could afford to come was because I was exempt since I finished in the top 25 last year.”
Allen had earned less than $100 for the year. But at Hartford a minor miracle occurred on the par-three 215-yard 17th hole at Wethersfield Country Club.
Allen chose a four-iron and then hit a beautiful shot that flew straight at the pin. The ball landed less than a foot in front of the pin, hit the pin, and then dropped into the hole.
“It was a heck of a drive,” Allen said. “When I saw it go in, I went crazy, my caddy went crazy, and everyone around me went crazy.”
The good news was that the shot earned him a 1975 450 SL Mercedes-Benz worth $18,500. Allen said that he would try to negotiate a cash settlement for the prize and that his share of the settlement, after paying back his backers, would keep him on tour for a while.
“This could change my whole life,” he said. “It’s great. I can’t believe it. It just goes to show you can never give up in this game. You never know when good things are going to happen.”
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Are you on the leader board?
Tour Backspin Quiz | Travelers Championship Trivia
The Travelers Championship has been played under many different names since 1956. Who has won the most times in the history of the tournament?
Scroll down to for answer
Swing Like a Pro
Johnny Miller “pop” putting stroke
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Check It Out
Tom Watson has some things to get off his chest. Read his open letter to the PGA Tour 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.
What is Hip?
Hubert Green is a player in our feature story this week. He liked to wear green pants and a white belt, too. Just like our fashion photo from 1975. (photo: Golf Digest)
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Billy Casper won the Travelers Championship four times (1963/Insurance City Open Invitational, 1965/Insurance City Open Invitational, 1968/Greater Hartford Open Invitational, and 1973/Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open).
If you’re not already a paid subscriber and you’re enjoyingTour Backspin, I hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription. 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.
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
Somebody get me on Los Angeles Country Club, please.
How about that finish that Sammy Davis, Jr. exhibits in his swing?
I would not bet against Rory in The Open Championship.
Welcome back Rickie Fowler.