Viva Mexico
Victor Regalato becomes second Mexican to win on the PGA TOUR
Another busy weekend of sports on television. Did you get a chance to watch the highest ranked player in the field (Séamus Power #48) take home the Butterfield Bermuda Championship? Or the 4 Aces capture the LIV Golf team title?
This week, the PGA TOUR plays the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayacoba, another tournament on the fall schedule without much history. We’ll tap into the fact that it is being played in Mexico to highlight how Victor Regalato won the 1974 Pleasant Valley Classic to become the second Mexican-born player to win on the PGA Tour. Scroll down to read.
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Victor Regalato Stares Down Tom Weiskopf to Win at Pleasant Valley
Victor Regalato
It is a hot and muggy day, August 4th, 1974, in the final round at Pleasant Valley Country Club where the Pleasant Valley Classic is being played. It is late in the afternoon and the leader board is changing constantly with some players backtracking while one player, Victor Regalato, was going low and charging up the leader board. Regalato, a Monday qualifier, was looking to become the second Mexican-born player to win on the PGA TOUR.
Big name players bounced in and out of the lead during the hectic final round on a course that was demanding with narrow fairways and thick, treacherous rough. Dave Hill matched the course record in the second round to capture the lead, by two-strokes, a lead he retained through the third round, despite a balky putter.
Tom Weiskopf scrambled through the third round to shoot a 71 and was two shots off Hill’s lead, tied with Jim Wickers who matched the best round of the day, a 68. Regalato finished the third round with a 69, three shots behind Hill.
“He was awful nervous. I thought I could take him on the last three holes.”
In Sunday’s final round, Hill started with two bogeys and wouldn’t factor into the mix as he went on to shoot a 75. Wickers also fell from contention with a 76. Weiskopf couldn’t get much going until the final nine holes when he was able to apply some pressure on Regalato who had sunk a 20-foot putt on the 15th hole for a birdie and sole possession of the lead.
On the 17th tee the pressure was intense on Regalato, and Weiskopf knew it.
“He was awful nervous,” Weiskopf said after the round. “I thought I could take him on the last three holes.”
When Regalato pulled his tee shot left, into the rough and under a birch tree, he faced a downhill lie with a shot over water. Most of the overflow gallery of 32,210 expected Weiskopf to grab the lead.
“At a course like Pleasant Valley, where the fairways are narrow and the rough very heavy, the great and proven players usually win,” Weiskopf told reporters.
“That shot was a real gamble and at first, I thought about just punching out instead of trying to go over the water.”
Weiskopf was the first to play his second shot hit his shot on the par-5 17th hole leaving himself a simple chip shot for his third shot. Regalato surveyed his lie and “all that water in front of me” and considered laying up short of the danger.
“That shot was a real gamble and at first, I thought about just punching out instead of trying to go over the water,” Regalato admitted after his round. But once again I thought, win or lose—I’ve at least got to try to do my best, so I did.”
Boy, did he. Regalato hit a 7-iron over the water and left himself with an easy chip shot. Neither player hit very good chip shots and Weiskopf would be putting for his birdie first, from 20-feet. Weiskopf drained the putt putting the pressure on Regalato who faced a 10-foot birdie putt. Regalato answered the challenge by making his putt and with another birdie on the 18th hole, he became the second player from Mexico to win on the PGA TOUR (Cesar Sanudo was the first Mexican to win on the PGA Tour in 1970 at the Azalea Open). After the putt dropped, Regalato did what Alex Costello of the Lowell Sun described as a “Mexican hat dance” in celebration. The victory meant that the days of travelling from one Monday qualifier to next were a thing of the past for Regalato.
Victor Regalato and his caddie celebrate after clinching 1974 Pleasant Valley Classic with a birdie at the final hole (Photo: AP Wirephoto)
The pressures of Monday qualifying could wear a man down. Scroll down to read our Bonus Story.
We’re celebrating Victor Regalato’s win with Victorioso, our playlist this week that features songs from Mexico. Listen to Victorioso HERE.
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WHAT HOLE IS IT?
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Three Headlines and a Lie
Which one of these headlines is faker than your buddy’s sandbagging handicap?
“It’s All Not S**** and Giggles”: Harold Varner Offers LIV Golf Warning
Donald Trump Says PGA TOUR is Dead, “Destroyed Itself” and Will Beg LIV Golf to Merge
A Washington Post Reporter Goes To Saudi Araba and LIVS to Tell About It
Dustin Johnson Makes LIV Golf Captains and Media Laugh After “Butthole” Comment
Answer below
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Bonus Story
Victory Regalato may have faced a pressure packed finish in the 1974 Pleasant Valley Classic, but it was nothing like the pressure he felt every week to Monday qualify just to get into the fields of the TOUR’s events. Winning the Pleasant Valley Classic relieved Regalato of the pressure as the win gave him a one-year exemption from qualifying.
“I just don’t believe that I won’t have to jump around the country for those Monday morning qualifying rounds,” Regalato said after winning. “You know those qualifiers have to be the hardest rounds of golf in the world, and there’s always more pressure in them than in the main event. At least you have a chance for some money if you play in the real tournament, but if you miss in the qualifying round, you go back home empty-handed and do the same thing again next Monday. I’d begun to lose count of all the rounds of golf I’d play on Mondays—but I sure won’t miss them.”
In addition to the exemption from Monday qualifying, Regalato won $40,000 (“That’s half a million pesos,” Regalato said). With his victory, he also won entry into the next week’s PGA Championship and the 1975 Masters tournament.
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Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Trump didn’t say that about the PGA TOUR—yet.
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