“To Hell With Everything; Let’s Go For It”
John Cook outlasts Johnny Miller in six hole playoff to win the 1983 Canadian Open
Welcome back, Backspinners! Climb aboard the Tour Backspin journey through the past as we go back to 1983 and the Canadian Open won by John Cook. Learn how Jack Nicklaus finished one stroke out of the playoff between Cook and Johnny Miller. Nicklaus finished runner-up in this event five times and never captured this national championship.
We had another playoff on the PGA TOUR at The Memorial Tournament, Jack’s tournament. It was an exciting finish with a crowded leaderboard. We’ve got a recap of the action. (below the paywall).
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Larry,
How’s your golf game? I really enjoy reading your posts. Thank you so much for the note and the swag.
Dave W.
PS- nice video of the grounds crew. Almost “30 for 30” worthy. ESPN should be calling soon.
Dave won a prize pack for his entry in the Major Madness contest when his pick, Ludvig Åberg, beat my pick of Scottie Scheffler. And by the way, my game is crap right now, thanks for asking.
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What is your opinion about rolling back equipment and distance in golf? Is it different when it comes to just the professional tours and elite amateur events? Weigh in and give us your opinion in the Tour Backspin Poll.
The What Hole Is It? this week is super easy. Scroll down to view, enter your answer, and if you’re correct, you may win credit in the Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
This week’s Vintage Ad is from 1983 and features a great beauty shot of a persimmon wood and forged iron. Scroll down to view (below the paywall).
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We’re one week away from the U.S. Open! Get your pick entered into the Major Madness contest before the first tee shot is hit. I’ve got my pick in, and if your pick beats him, you win a prize. If your pick wins the tournament, you win an even bigger prize. Get your pick in before the start of the U.S. Open on June 18th. My pick? Scottie Scheffler.
The Tour Backspin Poll
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, we asked if you were going to watch the Women’s U.S. Open. If you did, you saw some great golf action and history being made by Nelly Korda. There were 50% of respondents who said they would watch both the women, and the PGA TOUR, and this option is quite easy with a West Coast venue. While there was 20% who responded that they would watch the women, there were 30% who said they didn’t plan on watching the Women’s U. S. Open.
While doing some research for next week’s U. S. Open story, I viewed a YouTube video final round broadcast from the 1986 tournament. A player was identified and the announcer informed the viewers that he was hitting an 8-iron from 150-yards. Quite relatable, right? I then watched some golf from The Memorial Tournament and was informed that a player was hitting a shot from 190-yards. The club he used? A 9-iron. It got me thinking that we really do need to address the equipment issue in a substantial way. The tricky part is do you rollback distance for everybody, or just the elite players on the professional tours and high level amateur events. Let us know what you think in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
With New Glasses, Cook Wins Canadian Open
Rick Frasier of The Toronto Star, in his Thursday, July 28th column under the “At The Open” catchall moniker for the paper’s coverage of the Canadian Open, wrote about the challenges in getting a strong field for the event. The national open was being played at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, a 7,055-yard, par 71 course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
The biggest challenges in securing a strong field concerned its place on the calendar and a prize purse that hadn’t been increased in three years. The purse totaled $450,000, with the winner receiving $63,000, which wasn’t bad for a regular tour event but was not commensurate with a national championship. It’s place on the calendar fell two weeks after the Open Championship, and one week prior to the PGA Championship.
“And we also have the great Jack Nicklaus.”
The field featured just two of the top ten players on the official money-winning list, Calvin Peete, who was third, and Fuzzy Zoeller, who was seventh on the list. The others in the top ten, Hal Sutton, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw, Gil Morgan, Tom Kite, Seve Ballesteros, and Ray Floyd, all decided to take the week off and prepare for the PGA Championship.
But there were some crowd favorites in the field, which L. Edmond Ricard, the chairman of Imperial Tobacco Ltd., the presenting sponsor of the Canadian Open, was thrilled to point out to Frasier.
“I’d prefer to look at the guys who are here,” he said. “Since we took over in 1971, the only champions missing are Gay Brewer, Bobby Nichols, and Jerry Pate. We have three-time winner Lee Trevino, two-time winners Tom Weiskopf, Bruce Lietzke, and Bob Gilder, and Peter Oosterhuis. And we also have the great Jack Nicklaus.”
Nicklaus was looking to win his first Canadian Open, a national title that had eluded him, on a course he designed.
Gary Player was also in the field, as was his son, Wayne, who turned pro six months earlier. The father and son joined Jack Nicklaus and his son, Steve, who was Jack’s caddie for the week, for a practice round on Wednesday.
Johnny Miller and Greg Norman were also in the field. Miller was playing his first tournament since having gall bladder surgery after the U.S. Open in June.
But it was one of the newest members of the Tour who made the biggest splash in the first round on Thursday. Ralph Landrum, a club pro at the World of Golf in Florence, KY, failed in five attempts to qualify for the Tour via Q-School. But he qualified for the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June, where he finished 8th and won $10,711. He Monday qualified for the Georgia-Pacific Atlanta Golf Classic back in May, where he won $2,720.
His finish in the U.S. Open earned him a spot in the next event, the Western Open, where he missed the cut. He also missed the cut in the Greater Milwaukee Open after he Monday qualified for that event. He qualified the next week for the Miller High Life Quad-Cities Open and won $3,685. The next week, he got into the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic, where he finished 5th and won $13,300. That gave him a total of $30,416, and the rule on the PGA TOUR at that time was that a player who won over $30,000 automatically qualified as a member of the tour. No longer required to Monday qualify, all he had to do to get into a Tour field was pay the $300 entry fee.
His first tournament as a member of the PGA TOUR was the Canadian Open, and he took full advantage of the opportunity by shooting a first-round 65, a six-under round that tied him for the lead with Vance Hefner. Barry Jaekel was one stroke back at 66, while Greg Norman and Mike Holland were another stroke back.
John Cook, David Graham, Bob Murphy, and David Ogrin were all tied at 68. Lee Trevino was down the leaderboard, tied with Tom Weiskopf, at 71. Nicklaus came in with a 73, while Gary Player shot a 74, beating his son Wayne by two shots.
“This is a tough course where not too many will shoot 66s today.”
Fuzzy Zoeller, who hadn’t played the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey in the previous five years, came into Oakville suffering from back pain. He attributed his five-year absence to the length of the course, which he felt didn’t suit him, and his frail back.
“It’s really difficult for me because of the length and my back problems,” he explained to the press, including Ian MacLaine of The Standard out of St. Catharines in Ontario.
Zoeller resorted to pain medication and a back corset to help relieve the soreness in his back. This made his second round 66, under stormy conditions, a surprise to both him and the press. His six-under-par two-round total of 136 gave him a two-stroke lead in the championship.
“This is a tough course where not too many will shoot 66s today,” he told reporters after his round. “Anything around par will be good shooting.”
Tom Purtzer was alone in second place after duplicating Zoeller’s 66, as did Craig Stadler who improved his score from the first round by nine strokes and was at 141. The cutline came at 147, and 80 players made the cut. There were 23 players who were under par, including Jack Nicklaus, who was also at 141.
“I never had people cheering for me like they did out there today. I liked it.”
Defending champion Bruce Litzke fired a second-round 67 to keep his title defense alive and was in a tie for third place with a total of 139. The others at 139 included Bob Murphy, John Cook, David Ogrin, David Graham, and Peter Ooosterhuis. Greg Norman was in a group of players at 140, tied with the first-round co-leader Landrum, while the other first-round co-leader, Heafner was at 141.
The brand-new PGA TOUR member, Landrum, bounced back from his second-round 75 with a fantastic 67 for a three-round total of 207 and a one-stroke lead going into the final round.
“When someone tells you you’re not expected to win, it sometimes spurs you on,” Landrum said to Fraser of The Toronto Star. “I never had people cheering for me like they did out there today. I liked it.”
John Cook was coming off a five-week rest after he hurt his elbow and wrist at the Memphis Classic. He was also sporting a new pair of glasses.
“My new glasses are for muscle strain, not to correct vision,” he explained earlier in the week. “They help a lot with my depth perception.”
After his third-round 70 and a total of 209, Cook was optimistic going into the final round.
“If I can shoot 66, I’ll win the tournament.”
“I tend to play difficult courses well,” Cook said to Fraser. “This is a tough course but maybe with a few breaks tomorrow …”
Fuzzy Zoeller struggled to a 74 and was at 210. Purtzer duplicated Cook’s 70 for a total of 208. Lietzke’s title defense was still alive after he too, shot a 70 in the third round. Greg Norman lurked at 210, tied with four others, including Johnny Miller and David Graham. In all, there were 12 golfers within four shots of Landrum. It promised to be an exciting final round at Jack’s place.
Jack Nicklaus woke up on Sunday morning and told his son, Steve, who was also his caddie, “If I can shoot 66, I’ll win the tournament.”
Ralph Landrum kept his lead through the front nine on Sunday until Johnny Miller caught him on the 10th hole with a birdie while he made bogey at the same hole. The back nine finish then turned into one of the most exciting great battles anyone could remember.
On the 14th hole, Cook looked at the leaderboard and saw that he was tied with Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. Instead of being intimidated, he told himself, “To hell with everything; let’s go for it.”
Landrum fought his way back into a share of the lead with a birdie at the par-5 13th hole that put him into a tie with Miller and Frank Conner. A bogey at the 16th dropped him back out of the lead while Miller and Cook both made birdies at the 15th and joined Nicklaus for the lead, who birdied the 14th hole.
The three players were still tied when Nicklaus, playing in front of Miller and Cook, arrived at the final hole. He then hit his worst drive of the day, and the result forced him to lay up with his second shot at the 500-yard, par 5, which featured a pond protecting the front of the green.
“I hit a bad drive,” Nicklaus said after the round. “I can’t understand it. I thought I hit it all right. Maybe my swing got a bit short.”
He put his approach shot to about eight feet from the hole, and both he and his son carefully read the birdie putt that he felt he needed if he were to have any chance of winning the tournament.
“We felt it was straight, with maybe a little break right,” Nicklaus explained to reporters. “But, I couldn’t bring myself to hit it straight. I pulled it.”
After making par for a round of 67, one stroke higher than his breakfast goal, all he could do was stand by and watch Miller and Cook finish. Both Cook and Miller made birdies at the final hole and killed any chance that Nicklaus had. It was his fifth time as runner-up in the Canadian Open, a national championship that he desperately wanted to win.
“If you keep knocking on the door, someone has to let you in.”
Andy Bean tied the course record with a 62 to finish one shot behind Nicklaus at 278, tied with Graham and Landrum. Bean’s fast finish made the penalty that he incurred on Saturday that much more disappointing, as the penalty kept him out of the playoff with Miller and Cook. (See Bonus Story).
Ralph Landrum finished with a round of 71 for a 279 total and won $14,566. He would go on to win $46,808 for the year.
In the playoff, Cook had chances to put Miller away at both the 16th and 17th holes, the fourth and fifth holes of the playoff, but his birdie putts lipped out. His caddie told him to keep plugging along, saying, “If you keep knocking on the door, someone has to let you in.”
As well as he played in the playoff, he hit his worst shot at the 18th hole, the sixth hole of the playoff. He sent his drive into a fairway bunker and had to lay up on his second shot. Miller hooked his second shot onto an embankment. Cook hit his third shot to eight feet from the cup, and then Miller chipped his shot into the bunker in front of the green and hit his fourth shot to two feet. That left it up to Cook, facing his eight-footer for birdie.
Cook then stroked his birdie putt into the hole for his second PGA TOUR title.
“I couldn’t hit better shots than I did in the playoff,” Cook said afterward. “This has to be the highlight of my career. I got a great kick out of winning the Crosby, and I got a kick out of winning the U.S. Amateur. It has to be quite an honor to win this one.”
While disappointed at losing the playoff, Miller was upbeat.
“I’ve accomplished everything I could have wanted to do here, because my doctor told me I shouldn’t even be playing,” he said after the playoff, referring to his gall bladder operation. “Cook played super. He was composed, and I give him all the credit.”
It was quite the finish to a tournament that began the week with the press, fans, and tournament organizers extremely concerned about the strength of the field. Despite not having many of the top-ten money winners, the fans in Toronto were treated to one of the more entertaining Canadian Opens in history.
Here’s what I’ve written about the Canadian Open in the past:
“Weiskopf Finds Redemption at Canadian Open” (2022) Finds the cure for the disappointment of finishing second in the Masters.
“Nichols Wins a National Championship” (2023) Bobby Nichols won the 1974 Canadian Open and played his way into the World Series of Golf at Firestone Country Club where he was the head pro.
“Nicklaus and Glen Abbey Affected by Bacterial “Bugs” ” (2024) Nicklaus experiences stomach discomfort while trying to win the one major national championship that eluded him.
“Littler Sneaks In To Win Canadian Open” (2025) The $100,000 purse for the Canadian Open Attracts the Biggest Names.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Ryan Ross poses with the Herbert C. Leeds Memorial Trophy awarded to the annual WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest winner (for a year). If you know the hole Ryan is featured holding the trophy, email me at: larry@tourbackspin.com and I’ll send you a bottle of the Tour Backspin 19th Hole Hot Sauce if you’re correct.
Herbert C. Leeds Memorial Trophy Winners:
2021 Rob Noble
2022 Owen McClain
2023 Bruce Effisimo
2024 Doug Posten
2025 Ryan Ross
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Congratulations to Mathew Campbell for winning the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest last week. Matt beat seven other correct answers in the blind drawing. The correct answer was the 12th hole at Muirfield Village in Dublin, OH. We’re adding $10 to Bruce’s discount code in The Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
Using a discount code requires a few steps to complete. If you’re having trouble, email me at larry@tourbackspin.com and I’ll send you step-by-step instructions. Next up, new additions to the Tour Backspin Golf Shop including our new diner coffee cup, and wall art. Check out the Tour Backspin Golf Shop HERE. It’s the only place you can order the famous Tour Backspin 19th Hole Hot Sauce.
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Bonus Story
Andy Bean Misses Playoff Because of Rule Infraction
Andy Bean was having some fun with the fans around the putting green at Glen Abbey on Wednesday at the Canadian Open. As he lined up a downhill 15-foot putt, a fan shouted out to him.
“I got a dollar says you don’t make it,” the fan said.
“You’re on, brother,” Bean replied.
He missed the putt.
“Let’s make it double or nothing,” Bean suggested.
He missed the putt again. And again, and again, each time the bet doubled. This went on and on until Bean finally made the putt on his 16th attempt. Both Bean and the fan admitted that the bet was all in good fun, and neither took it seriously.
But a misstep on the greens in the third round was serious and cost Bean a place in the playoff on Sunday with John Cook and Johnny Miller.
Bean put a new putter in play for the third round, and at the 15th hole of that round, Bean used the grip end of the putter to tap in a two-inch putt for par on the par 3. He went on to post a 75.
“I feel like a dumb ass.”
Bean was unaware of Rule 19.1 that states that the ball must be “fairly struck with the head of the club and must not be pushed, scraped, or spooned.” Clyde Mangum, deputy commissioner of tour operations for the PGA, saw the shot on television while sitting at home in Jacksonville, FL, and phoned Glen Abbey to inform Carlton “Slugger” White of the rule infraction.
Bean was met at the scorer’s tent and was informed that he’d incurred a two-stroke penalty, changing his 75 to a 77. He then equaled the course record with a 62 on Sunday for a total of 279, missing a spot in the playoff against Miller and Cook by two shots.
“I feel like a dumb ass,” Bean said after his round on Sunday, blaming ignorance of the rule. “I don’t know why I did it. I wasn’t clowning around. I’ve never done it before, and I’ll never do it again.”
Bean, winless since the 1982 Doral Open, won $14,566 at the Canadian Open, but that was far less than the $76,500 that John Cook won after defeating Johnny Miller in a six-hole playoff.
“If there was anything good about the incident, it was that my father didn’t see it,” Bean told reporters. “He was fixing a flooded washer at home. But I’m sure he’ll have some choice things to say when I get home to Florida. I guess now that it’s over, I can laugh about what I did. But it was one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made.”
Tour Backspin Quiz | Three Headlines and a Lie
Three of these headlines from 1983 are real and one is faker than that guest’s handicap at the member-guest tournament. Can you spot the odd one out?
Indians President Real Hatchet Man
They’re Bugging Bats To Help The Blind
Democrats Refuse to Debate Before Primary
Brett Home Free
Scroll down for answer.
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
MY OPEN TABS
The great Gabby Herzig of The Athletic writes about how Nelly Korda battled both her swing and her mind to win the Women’s U. S. Open. [BTW, I used a gift link so you can read that article for free. If you want to reward me for helping you bypass paywalls, feel free to become a paid subscriber to this newsletter.]
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer
We made up the one about the Democrats not debating.
SOON TO BE A DOCUMENTARY FILM!
What’s Below The Paywall
The Memorial Tournament Wrap-up
Tour Backspin Golf Club Bonus Story (“Players Send Video Get Well Card to Jack Newton”)
Tony Lema documentary movie update
Tour Backspin Golf Club Blind Shot
Vintage Ad
Join the Tour Backspin Golf Club to read more.
