U.S. Team Marches Through The Fog
Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer win the fog shortened 1963 Canada Cup
Since the golf event in the Olympics is so new, we went on the hunt for something that shares some sort of DNA with the competition that will be held at Le Golf National this week—and we found it! Join us on our journey through the past as we take you inside the ropes at the 1963 Canada Open (later known as the World Cup) played just outside Paris, France. The event was won by the team from the United States, and Jack Nicklaus brought home the individual title. There was quite the royalty on hand to observe the action that week in France. Scroll down to learn more.
We’ve written about the 1957 Canada Cup won by Torakichi Nakamura, in his home country providing Japan with a Francis Ouimet moment HERE, and the 1969 event, won by the United States team of Orville Moody and Lee Trevino with Trevino taking the individual title HERE.
We have some exciting news about the progress being made on the documentary movie based on my book about Tony Lema. We’ll be updating the news in upcoming editions of Tour Backspin. We now have a website that features a trailer. Check it out by clicking on the clip below.
It’s that time of the season where you’re so busy that you may only see PGA TOUR action as you glance up at the television while enjoying a cold beverage after your round. We’ve got your back, though, as we wrap-up the 3M Open at the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, MN where Jhonattan Vegas enjoyed a comeback win after an almost seven-year drought. Scroll down to read and view the Clips You Might Have Missed.
Let us know who you think will win the gold at the Olympic Golf event in the Tour Backspin Poll, and this week’s Music Clip features Roy Orbison performing “In Dreams” live in 1963. Scroll down to listen. We highlight the putting stroke of Jack Nicklaus in this week’s Swing Like a Pro feature. You should be able to figure out the WHAT HOLE IS IT? Presented by Rota Golf this week and then you may just win a golf swag prize pack (we’ve got new swag!). Rota Golf has a cool way to map out your bucket list journey of playing the top 100 courses in the U.S. We’ve got some links for you in the Check it Out section and an ad that shows Arnold Palmer’s charisma in this week’s Vintage Ad. Scroll down to view.
The latest episode of The Tour Backspin Show has dropped on YouTube for all subscribers. Our annual paid subscribers have had access to this podcast that features Lee Trevino receiving the Legacy Award from the Robert Trent Jones Society, and discussing his illustrious career. Early access to The Tour Backspin Show is one of the benefits of being a paid subscriber to Tour Backspin. Feel free to share this with your golf buddies.
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In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll we learned that major championships carry more weight than total wins when it comes to the Player of the Year Award, according to Tour Backspin readers. We asked who should win the award, Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schaufflele. There were 60% of respondents who thought Schaufflele should win the award because of his two majors won this year, while 40% thought Scheffler’s six victories (so far!) should win the award.
This week we ask you who ya got in the Olympics golf?
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Do you know what happened today in golf history? Or which famous golfer has a birthday today? Me, neither. But I do know where to go to find out. Check out the Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. Host Michael Duranko celebrates birthdays, milestones, and other accomplishments that occurred on this day in golf history. Listen HERE.
We’re playing Canada Cup Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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Enjoy!
Larry Baush
French Fans and Royalty Flock to Watch Palmer and Nicklaus in Canada Cup
It is Saturday, August 3rd, 1963, and Sidney L. James, chairman of the executive committee of the International Golf Association, has just announced to the press the team that would represent the United States in the upcoming Canada Cup matches to be held in Paris in late October. By tradition, the host country selected the U.S. team from a list of six players submitted by the PGA of America.
James announced to the press that France had chosen Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to represent the U.S. in the 72-hole stroke play event to be conducted over a brand-new course, the Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, on October 24th through the October 27th.
“There are two championships I want to win that I haven’t. This is one of them. The other is the PGA.”
This would be Palmer’s third appearance in the international competition, while it would be the first appearance for Jack Nicklaus who turned pro in 1961. The Canada Cup offered up a team trophy as well as the International Trophy that was awarded to the low individual. The International Trophy was one of the few titles that had eluded Arnold Palmer.
“There are two championships I want to win that I haven’t,” Palmer said to reporters. “This is one of them. The other is the PGA.”
The Canada Cup was founded by the Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins in 1953, and after Fred Corcoran was named tournament director in 1955 the tournament was elevated to one of golf’s most prestigious international events. The competition featured two-man teams and in 1963 there were 33 teams entered.
They would be competing over the Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche course located 30 minutes outside of Paris, and just a short hike from the Palace of Versailles in a lovely region of France known as Ile-de-France. The land was the farm of Louis XIV and up until 1958 it was still producing cabbages and potatoes before being converted into a golf course. The clubhouse was a huge U-shaped barn building of rough stone mellowed by the elements spanning centuries and covered in ivy.
The course measured 6,821-yards and played to a par of 72. France did not have a great golfing legacy. Only one French player, Arnaud Massy, had won the British Open and he did it in 1907. The French team in 1963, Jean Garaialde and Jean-Claude Harismendy, both Basques, a region that produced most of France’s golf pros, were hardly known. The most famous French golfer was a woman; Brigitte Varangot, a 23-year-old who won the British Women’s Amateur in September. There were only 15,000 golfers in a country that had a population of 46 million, and fully a third of those golfers were women. The country did not feature even one public golf course.
“I have been an admirer of Palmer for years. I often bet on him to win.”
So how would this country that knew little about professional golf get fans excited for this international competition? Fred Corcoran turned to his most celebrated friends—European royalty. The first royal appearance at the event was the former King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and now known as the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII, who arrived on Monday. Prince Michel de Bourbon-Parme, the president of the club, expected the former King Leopold, of Belgium and, Prince Ruspoli of Italy to also attend the event. Even Richard Nixon was expected to arrive to watch the matches.
“I have been an admirer of Palmer for years,” the Duke of Windsor declared on Tuesday upon the arrival of Palmer at the course. “I often bet on him to win.”
Palmer breezed around the front nine of the new course in three-under-par with an eagle on the 474-yard, par-5, 7th hole. He was pleasantly surprised with the shape of his shoulder which bothered him the week before at the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.
“Last week, just before the Las Vegas tournament, I couldn’t raise my left arm above my shoulders,” Palmer related to reporters. “I thought surely, I’d have to quit for a while. Then I got a shot of cortisone. The pain is completely gone.”
In addition to the duke, there were just 300 spectators who watched Palmer’s practice round. Included in that number were three Americans who were attending having won the honor in a contest.
“If they are saying Jack and I have a lock on both titles, they are dead wrong.”
Nicklaus arrived the next day and complimented the course, as Palmer did, after his practice round. The team from the United States were heavy favorites to win the team event and both Palmer and Nicklaus were the favorites to win the International Trophy given to the individual champions. Other players in the event included Gary Player of South Africa, Al Balding of Canada, Christy O’Conner of Ireland, Bruce Devlin and Bruce Crampton of Australia, Roberto de Vincenzo of Argentina, and Sebastián Miguel and Ramón Sota of Spain.
Palmer wasn’t giving much weight to the predictions made by the oddsmakers saying, “If they are saying Jack and I have a lock on both titles, they are dead wrong. Anything can happen in this game and when you get a strongly matched field like this one, I don’t see how you can pick out any team or individual as a favorite.”
The team of Palmer and Nicklaus was scheduled to tee off at 12:10 pm playing with the French team of Jean Garaialde and Jean-Claude Harismendy.
The syndicated sports columnist, Red Smith, was in France to cover the event and, as part of his first-round coverage told the story of how Prince Michel de Bourbon-Parme, president of Saint-Nom, honored an ancient French custom of delivering 10 dozen eggs to a convent in nearby Versailles to ensure good weather for the tournament. When the French are planning an outdoor event, the standard offering is one dozen eggs to the weather gods. The prince needed four good days of weather, so he laid it on thick with his offering. It didn’t go so well.
A heavy fog engulfed the course, and the beautiful green course was shrouded in gray, and it was wet enough to make the turf soggy. The fog was accompanied by a bone-chilling breeze, but temperatures eased upward as the day wore on. Luckily, the rain waited until the round was complete before it began to fall in earnest.
The largest gallery that golf in France had ever attracted, 5,000 fans, mostly followed Palmer and Nicklaus. The inexperienced fans contributed to a long, 5½ hour round as they were slow to exit the tees and greens after play had been completed, and completely ignored players in the group in front, and behind, the Americans. They also were fond of taking pictures with the resulting clicking of the cameras in the middle of a golf swing annoying players, including Palmer. Many players’ nerves were left raw, and they vented to the press after the round.
“I never spent a more miserable afternoon.”
“It’s bloody impossible and pardon my French,” England’s Bernhard Hunt, who played in front of the Americans, said. “The marshals were non-existent, and the crowd ran all around us trying to see Palmer and Nicklaus.”
“I never spent a more miserable afternoon,” his partner, Neil Coles said.
Sebastián Miguel of Spain toured the course in a six-under, 66 and held a one-shot lead over Nicklaus. Nicklaus began his round with an eagle and was four-under-par after five holes. Palmer came in with a 69 and trailed Al Balding, who equaled Nicklaus’ 67. Gary Player, and Christy O’Conner both had a 68.
The U.S. team was tied with the team from Canada for the lead in the team portion of the event. Spain was tied at 138, two shots off the lead, with the team from South Africa, Gary Player and Retief Waltman.
Under hazy, grey skies, the crowd on Friday fell off to just 3,000 fans, but they all brought their cameras, and it was obvious that the clicking of the shutterbugs was bothering Palmer. He stepped away from several shots to admonish the fans or give them a withering look.
“It’s terrible,” Palmer said. "They keep clicking when you’re over the ball. It’s getting so that when I bend over the ball, I keep waiting for the click. If it doesn’t come, I get jarred anyway—like waiting for the second shoe to fall.”
Palmer got it going pretty good on the front nine with consecutive birdies on the 6th, 7th, and 8th holes, and went four-under with another birdie at the 12th hole. His putting stroke deserted him after that, though. He three-putted the 15th hole and he finished with a two-under 70.
“The texture of the greens changed. With the sun coming out after the cold, misty morning, the greens became harder to read.”
Nicklaus started his round with an eagle for the second day in a row, but his touch around the green went south on him and he recorded three bogeys on the front nine. He birdied the 10th and 13th holes before he too, three-putted the 15th hole missing from three-feet. It was the first time in the tournament that both Americans bogeyed the same hole. Nicklaus recorded an even-par round of 72 and was tied with Palmer at 139, one shot behind the new leaders, Gary Player and Al Balding. Tied at 139 with the Americans was Sebastián Miquel, who had a 73 in the second-round, his teammate Ramón Sota, who fired a 67, and Retief Waltman of South Africa who shot a 69.
The team from South Africa held a one-stroke lead in the team event over the team from Canada consisting of Balding and Stan Leonard, the team from Spain, and the U.S. team who were all at 278.
Palmer had a theory as to why the putting was so difficult in the second round saying, “The texture of the greens changed. With the sun coming out after the cold, misty morning, the greens became harder to read.”
Gary Player missed a 12-inch putt at the final green.
“The shortest putt I’ve ever blown,” he declared after his round.
Sota had the shot of the day nearly making an albatross at the 12th hole where he had a tap-in for his eagle.
The crowds were back for Saturday’s round setting a new French record with 10,000 in attendance. The duke and King Leopold were a part of that record setting crowd as they were still in attendance.
After a lackluster 35 on the front nine, Nicklaus turned it on playing the back nine in just 31 strokes to record a 66 for a total of 205 and was tied for the lead with Gary Player who had a 67. Player missed a nine-foot putt at the final hole that would have given him the lead.
“We knew what we had to do. We got the word at the 18th tee. We knew we both needed birdies.”
Nicklaus recorded three straight birdies beginning at the 12th hole where he saved his birdie after a bunker shot on the par-5. He then sank putts on the next two holes that he himself estimated to be 30 feet. He also added birdies at the 17th and 18th holes.
Palmer also birdied the 18th hole to record an up-and-down round of 72. The two birdies at the final hole by the American team moved them into a tie with the team from Spain at 416. Soto shot a 68 and was at 207 in the individual competition, while Miguel was another two shots back at 209, tied with Crampton. Palmer was at 211 tied with Bruce Devlin, who shot 71, and the pair from Canada, Stan Leonard who had a 71, and Al Balding, who recorded a 73 in the third round.
The Spanish team finished about 20 minutes before the American team reached the 18th hole and it appeared that they would be the leaders. The American team had other ideas, though.
“We knew what we had to do,” Nicklaus said after the birdie-birdie finish he and Palmer manufactured. “We got the word at the 18th tee. We knew we both needed birdies.”
Thick fog rolled in on Sunday and completely shrouded the course making it impossible to play the final round and it was postponed until Monday. While the fog persistently hung around on Monday, it did lift enough, after a lengthy delay, to allow the players to tee off. Because many of the players had commitments in Australia, tournament director Fred Corcoran ruled that the final round be reduced to nine holes. He also ruled that all teams would have to complete their rounds for the 63-hole tournament to become official.
Nicklaus birdied six of the final nine holes to record a total of 237 and finished in first-place, five shots better than the runners-up, Gary Player and Sebastián Miguel.
The team from the United States finished with a score of 482 to capture the team title over the team from Spain who had a 485 total.
Some of the teams were just teeing off as Nicklaus and Palmer finished their rounds. As stipulated by Corcoran, these teams would need to finish the nine holes to make the event official, and there was some question as to whether they would be able to do so.
Howard Clark, president of the International Golf Association, said that caddies would be spread out over the fairways to locate shots, and automobile headlights would be used, as well as all other available resources needed to ensure that the final groups would be able to finish their round.
All groups were able to complete the abbreviated nine-hole final round and both the individual title won by Nicklaus, and the team title won by the U.S. team, were official. This marked the fourth straight win in the Canada Cup for the U.S. Team.
BONUS STORY
The former King Edward VIII was quite a fan of golf, as well as being a close friend of Fred Corcoran. Corcoran was Tony Lema’s business manager and was with Lema when he won the 1964 Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews.
After capturing the Claret Jug, Lema, Corcoran, and a few friends headed to Paris to celebrate. When the duke heard that Corcoran and Lema were in Paris he sent an invitation for them to pay him a visit at his residence at 4 rue du Champ d’Entrainement on the Nevilly-sur-Seine side of the Bois de Boulogne.
Corcoran, Lema, and the duke smoked cigarettes and drank champagne as they visited for about an hour. The duke presented Lema with a long white cigarette holder as a memento of the visit.
Lema called the duke “one of the most gracious and charming men I’ve ever met.”
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PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | 3M Open
Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela ended a seven-year drought, coming back from injury, with a birdie on the final hole to capture the 3M Open at the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, MN. Vegas had to two-putt from 99 feet for his birdie on the 72nd hole. He beat rookie Max Greyserman, who also birdied the last hole, by one stroke. Greyserman took a huge gamble on his approach shot at the final hole, a shot he had to hook over the water to reach the par-5 in two, and then he two-putted for his birdie.
Late on the back nine, there was a logjam of four players tied for the lead at 15-under-par including Vegas, Greyserman, Matt Kucher, and Maverick McNealy. Kucher and McNealy finished in a tie for third-place.
Greyserman spoke about the gamble on the final hole saying, ““At that point in the tournament you've just got to go for it, so I just went for it. Yeah, that's a conversation, you know, because as a rookie you want to get as many points as possible. Sometimes you're thinking about second or third place, not just the win. I hit that in the water, I make bogey or something and all of a sudden I'm coughing up 100, 200 FedEx Cup points, a lot of money, stuff like that. At the end of the day we play to win, right, so that was the kind of the conversation.”
You’ve got to love that kind of thinking coming from a rookie.
Vegas was playing on a major medical extension that was coming to an end so the victory came just in the nick of time. He had surgery on his right elbow in 2022 and then underwent surgery on his right shoulder, a result of coming back too soon from the elbow surgery.
“You know, it hasn't been easy, that's for sure,” Vegas said. “It's been a lot of grinding, a lot of dealing with injuries, a lot of headaches, but these are the moments that you get up every day and you work hard, you do all the right things because nothing feels better than this.”
Great to see such a good guy come back from adversity to capture his fourth PGA TOUR title.
Read a recap of the tournament from the PGA TOUR HERE.
See the top ten shots of the week from the PGA TOUR HERE.
Clips You Might Have Missed
It’s about family.
Love watching eagles.
Is this the way to warm-up for a possible playoff? Not judging.
Nice touch!
Ouch!
Is this some kind of record for the lowest ranked winner of a USGA championship?
Yikes!
LIV Golf sure looks fun.
Tour Backspin Quiz | Canada Cup Trivia
Did Arnold Palmer ever win the individual title at the Canada Cup (or World Cup as the event was known from 1967 to 1992)?
Scroll down for answer
Swing Like a Pro
The legendary putting stroke of Jack Nicklaus.
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Ryan Harrington at Golf Digest gives you everything you need to know about golf in the Olympics.
Tour Backspin Music Clip
Roy Orbison performs “In Dreams” live in 1963.
We Got Mail
My son and I could not believe the pic of Tiger’s leg [Tour Backspin 7/25/2024]. It’s amazing he’s even playing at all.
I’ll always root for him and I think he has one more left in him at Augusta. Never count him out.
As always, appreciate the content you put out.
Bill B. via email
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This biography of Tony Lema is one of the best golf books out there. Great research and writing. Highly recommended!
Bill via Instagram
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.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Arnold Palmer won the International Trophy, given to the individual winner, at the 1967 World Cup. This was the first year the event was known as the World Cup after a name change from the Canada Cup. He beat Jack Nicklaus and Bob Charles by five strokes. He and Nicklaus won the team event over the team from New Zealand consisting of Bob Charles and Walter Godfrey.
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Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
You can really see how foggy it was at the 1963 Canada Cup from those pictures in the feature story.
Arnold Palmer was just so cool as evidenced in this week’s Vintage Ad.
Have you ever missed a putt as short as the one Paul Broadhurst missed?
Went on my annual golf buddies trip, and this year we went to Gearhart Golf Links and it was so much fun. I will be writing a course review for paid subscribers of Tour Backspin in the next week. I know I said that last week, so I’m covering my bases by saying it’s coming soon. Remember what I said about it being a busy time of the year? Upgrade for special articles, videos, movie updates, and other fun stuff.