Two Week Rest Just What Knudson Needs
The "shaggy-haired" Canadian wins the Kaiser International without a hint of back pain
Don’t miss the inaugural meeting of The Tour Backspin Show Book Club on Sept. 21st at 5 pm (PDT). At this FREE event, we will be virtually discussing my book, Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema (available on Amazon). Register HERE.
The PGA TOUR is back with the Fortinet Championship at the Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, CA. This is the kick off of the FedEx Cup Fall, and while this tournament usually started a new season, this year is different.
With fewer players qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs this year, it means that 55 fewer players secured their TOUR card for next year. Their performance over the next two months will determine their playing status for 2024.
Still, there are some players in the field who have secured their cards for 2024 including Max Homa, Sahith Theegala, Andrew Putnam, Cam Davis, and Brendan Todd. Players looking to improve their status include Joel Dahman (#84 in FedExCup standings), Justin Suh (#81), and Justin Thomas (#71) who will be tuning up his game for the Ryder Cup.
It should be fun to tune in to watch the players tackle Silverado which is short, yet features tight, hard to hit, fairways and small greens.
We turn back to the 1972 Kaiser International Open played at Silverado Resort and Spa. A lot of players were trying to make their year by playing in this one. George Knudson needed to ensure he would be in the top 60 money winners to secure his card.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, 58% of respondents found nothing wrong with the “good-good” concession at the Walker Cup saying, “you gotta love match play” while 42% of respondents hated it saying, “what the heck?”
In this week’s Tour Backspin Poll, let us know about your plans for watching sports this weekend
Tour Backspin Poll
Clip You Might Have Missed
Rory McIlroy on target.
We’ll have some special content for the Ryder Cup next week, be sure to check it out.
Speaking about the Ryder Cup, did you see this? Seems that Vice Captain Stewart Cink doesn’t miss a leg day at the gym.
I would pay to watch this.
We have a video in the Swing Like a Pro feature this week, so we highlight an ad that has Lee Trevino’s swing sequence in this week’s Vintage Ad.
The Tour Backspin Spotify playlist is as cool as George Knudson’s hair. Listen HERE.
George Knudson was one of the best ball strikers on the TOUR. His swing, on video, is highlighted this week in the Swing Like a Pro feature. Scroll down to view.
Get the Tour Backspin Newsletter delivered to your email inbox for FREE.
We’ve got a great list of guests for the second season of The Tour Backspin Show. We have unlocked the kick-off to Season 2 with an episode on the Jan Craig Headcover Company. We have upcoming episodes featuring Al Geiberger taking us through his 59 at the 1979 Memphis Open, an interview with Lee Trevino, we check in with Frank Beard and Chuck Courtney. We’ll also be talking to legendary instructor Jim McLean and Skagit Golf and Country Club pro Craig Welty about Carl Welty. You don’t want to miss that one.
Listen to The Tour Backspin Show podcast on Substack with the above links, or on Spotify, 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.
Congratulations to Bruce Effisimo who correctly identified hole #5 at Shady Oaks Country Club, in Fort Worth, TX in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? Bruce was the only correct answer and we have a prize pack in the mail to him. 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!
The Tour Backspin Show Book Club is brand-new and will give you an opportunity to discuss some of the best books about golf with some of the most talented writers in the genre. These virtual book club meetings will be conducted via Zoom and will allow you to join the discussion with the author about how they came to write their book and what challenges they faced during the process. These meetings are free, but you have to register for each meeting.
Save the Date! The first meeting of The Tour Backspin Show Book Club will meet on Thursday, Sept. 21st at 5 pm (PST) via Zoom. We’re going to start off with an easy one, as I will host the first meeting and we will discuss my book on Tony Lema, Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema. I will discuss what went into the writing of the book and I would love to hear your Tony Lema stories. Click on the “Register Now” and I look forward to seeing you on the 21st.
Register, for free, at tourbackspin.com through the below link.
We’re playing Clubhouse Corner 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
Knudson Finds New Relaxed Attitude in Napa
It’s a beautiful mid-October day in California wine country for the start of the 1972 Kaiser International Open at the Silverado Country Club in Napa. Slumping Arnold Palmer, winless for the past 15 months, turned back the clock with a first round of 66 that featured seven birdies against just one bogey. He grabbed a share of the lead with Canadian George Knudson.
With just four tournaments remaining on the 1972 schedule after the Kaiser, many players were in the field to solidify their standing on the money list. With the top 60 finishers getting exemptions into the tournaments on the 1973 schedule, there were players entered trying to secure their cards. Others, like the leading money winner Jack Nicklaus, were looking to improve their standing, or make history. Nicklaus, winner of six titles and $280,000 so far for the year, was looking to become the first player to top $300,000 in tour history.
“It wasn’t that I had given up being a perfectionist. It was that I had been finally able to enjoy the competition.”
Knudson was currently in 58th place on the money list and was fighting to keep his card. He had not won a title since the 1970 Robinson Classic and had been plagued by a sore back for most of the 1972 season. But he also had a new outlook that week in Napa. Always hyper-focused and tightly wound, he decided to try to play more relaxed.
“The Kaiser had been the first time I let go to any degree,” he said later. “I had been so locked into what I was doing prior to that. It wasn’t that I had given up being a perfectionist. It was that I had been finally able to enjoy the competition.”
Knudson played the first two rounds with Jack Nicklaus, who observed the change in Knudson’s demeanor and told him, “Nobody is going to beat you.”
But in the second round, it looked like the putting performance being put on by Palmer was going to allow him to run away with the tournament. Under warm and sunny skies, he shot a five-under-par round of 67 and a two-shot lead.
“I can’t remember when I putted that well,” the 43-year-old Palmer told reporters after his round. He needed only 11 putts on the back nine with an old putter he dug out of his workshop back in Latrobe, PA. He closed his round with a charge featuring six birdies over the last seven holes.
Knudson couldn’t keep pace with Palmer, but he was able to fashion a 69 and sat in second place. The Vietnam War veteran, Bud Allin, sat in third place, three shots back of Palmer. The defending champion, Billy Casper, had been fighting a slump since his victory in Napa, sat another stroke back at 137.
“That kind of gave me a lift and after that, I felt it might be my day.”
Casper continued to play well in the third round where he missed only one green on his way to shooting his second straight 67 for a three-round total of 206. It wasn’t enough to keep up with Knudson, though. Knudson had seven birdies and only one bogey on his way to shooting a 66 and held a five-stroke lead over Casper. Knudson told reporters that he had an idea he was going to play well on the very first hole.
“I saved a par on that hole, and I came out of a bunker to do it,” Knudson told reporters. “That kind of gave me a lift and after that, I felt it might be my day.”
“I’ve had 19 birdies now and that’s pretty good putting. I only hope I can keep it up in the final round.”
Knudson, a notoriously bad putter, was pleased with how he handled the flatstick on Silverado’s greens.
“I’m not complaining,” Knudson said from behind his rose-colored sunglasses. “I’ve had 19 birdies now and that’s pretty good putting. I only hope I can keep it up in the final round.”
Palmer’s putter, however, was letting him down as he shot a 75.
“I couldn’t get it going on the front side,” Palmer related to reporters sadly. “And then on the backside, I missed some pretty easy putts. If you want to win, you have to make them all.”
Bud Allin shot a 71 to fall six strokes off the lead while Hale Irwin shot a 65 to leap up the leaderboard to 208, seven strokes off the lead. Irwin was a former defensive back on the University of Colorado football team, was more concerned about the Buffs and their game with the University of Oklahoma. He hung around the pressroom so that he could watch and root on his alma mater.
“How sweet it is.”
Sunday’s final round was played under cool and cloudy skies. Bobby Nichols, who started the day nine strokes off the lead, streaked to a 64, and Irwin continued to have a hot hand shooting a 66, but neither would be good enough to catch Knudson. He shot a front-runner, two-under-par 70 to coast home the winner by three shots.
“How sweet it is,” Knudson chortled after his round. “Now, I’m gonna play one week and then go home for two months. And I just might win at Sahara.”
His new relaxed outlook was helping build confidence, but he knew his back would limit how much he could play.
“I’ve been having some back problems. This will give me a chance to get some rest, take some treatments, do the proper exercises, and maybe get it in perfect shape for next year,” he said.
Nicklaus finished at 281 winning $3,900 and would have to wait until he won the final event of the season, the Walt Disney World Open, to crack the $300,000 earnings level, the first player in tour history to accomplish that feat.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Threads
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
The 1972 Kaiser International Open marked a return to the PGA TOUR for Gene Littler following surgery for cancer. Littler had a malignant tumor, the result of melanoma, removed from the lymph glands under his left arm earlier in the year.
Doctors had to cut through and remove most of the large golf muscles on his left side. They told Littler he may never play golf again.
“In those days, that diagnosis was like a death sentence,” said his son, Curt Littler, after Littler’s death in 2019. “My dad was 42 at the time. He was able to live a whole other life after that.”
Littler opened the Kaiser with a solid 71, five strokes off the leading pace set by Palmer and Knudson.
“I played reasonably well,” the former U.S. Open champion said. “It could have been better, but I’ve played worse when I was well and healthy.”
Littler added a 72 in the second round and made the cut but finished well down the leaderboard. A little more than a year later he won the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Golf Classic. In 1975 he won three times; at the Crosby, the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, and the rich Westchester Classic. He won again in 1977 at the Houston Open.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Are you on the leader board?
Tour Backspin Quiz | Clubhouse Corner
What clubhouse is this located in?
Scroll down to for answer
Dollar Flight Club is offering their Lifetime Membership for $129 (usually $1,690) for the next 24 hours. Lifetime Members get up to 90% off all flights for life! Fly roundtrip to Paris from $320, Hawaii from $197, and more. Get 93% off lifetime or try for free now.
Swing Like a Pro
The pure and natural swing of George Knudson, one of the finest strikers of the ball on the PGA TOUR.
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Rory McIlroy proves, once again, why he is so authentically popular. See it HERE from the DP World Tour.
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?
1972 fashions in blue (photo: Golf Digest)
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
That’s Ben Hogan’s table in the men’s grill at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, TX. (Photo: Larry Baush)
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.
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
How excited do you think Hale Irwin is about University of Colorado football this season?
How cool is that table setup at Shady Oaks?