Weiskopf Finds Redemption at Canadian Open

Finds the cure for the disappointment of finishing second in the Masters.

Jun 09, 2022

The PGA TOUR is in Toronto, ON, for the RBC Canadian Open at Royal St. George’s Golf and Country Club. This national championship dates back to 1904 and its list of champions includes almost every famous name in golf (see the Tour Backspin Quiz for one name that is surprisingly missing). We’re backspinning to 1975 when Tom Weiskopf put the bitter disappointment of a runner-up finish in that year’s Masters behind him.

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“This Kind of Takes Care of That, Especially Since I Beat Jack”

Tom Weiskopf tees off in the first round of the 1975 Canadian Open where he shot a course-record 65 (Photo: Reg Innell, Toronto Star)

It’s shortly before 3 pm on Thursday, July 25th, 1975, and Jack Nicklaus, who was six-under-par, was playing his 12th hole in the Canadian Open when he saw the clouds building up and heard thunder in the distance. Ever since June, when lightning struck Lee Trevino, Jerry Heard and Bobby Nichols at the Western Open, the PGA TOUR, and the players on the tour, were taking no chances and were evacuating the course whenever there was a chance of lightning in the area.

Nicklaus, who started on the 10th hole, was playing the third hole at the Royal Montreal Golf Club at Ile Bizard. Interestingly, Jerry Heard was playing alongside Nicklaus that day. In fact, all three players who were struck by lightning at the Western Open were in the Canadian Open field.

“Everybody in our group had hit their second shots to the green and we all had about 20 feet from the hole,” Nicklaus told reporters. “We could see the clouds building up and hear the thunder in the distance.

“We just tapped in those ‘little’ putts, just in the interest of speed, and sought shelter. They hadn’t called play at that time, but it was coming, and it could have lighting in it and we just didn’t want to get hit.”

So, what happened next? Was play suspended? How did Nicklaus, who had never won a Canadian Open, fare in the tournament? Let’s backspin to find out.

Doug J. Baille, a Montreal businessman and avid golf fan, owned a house abutting the fourth hole at the Royal Montreal Golf Club and was watching the action in the Canadian Open from the best seat in the house—his house. He noticed that Nicklaus was preoccupied with the sky.

“Nicklaus seemed to be looking for lightning,” Baille said. “He sniffed it out. They all took cover under a shelter, but I didn’t think it looked that safe, so I invited them in.”

Officials did declare a weather delay and brought all the players off the course.

While the other players in the group enjoyed the lemonade that Baille offered them, Nicklaus dozed on the couch. After just over a three-hour delay, players were allowed to return to the course to try and finish their rounds. The course, and the conditions, that they returned to were quite different from what they were prior to the weather delay. Strong winds and soggy greens made it difficult to decide on the correct club to hit and how hard to stroke putts.

“The wind got up,” Nicklaus related to reporters about the conditions after the delay. “A hole that should have been a drive and a six iron suddenly was a drive and a one iron.”

Nicklaus struggled playing the last six holes. He made four tough pars, bogeyed the 17th hole, and had to make a nine-foot putt for par at the final hole. Still, it all added up to a course-record tying 65, five-under-par and tied with Tom Weiskopf who played in the morning round thus avoiding all the weather drama.

Six players were tied for third at 67 including Gary Player, John Schlee, Pat Fitzsimmons, and David Graham.

In the second round, Gay Brewer, who had only won $7,114 on the tour for the year and sat at 124th on the money list, put together a round of 68, two-under-par and was tied at the top of the leader board with Nicklaus who shot a 71. Brewer’s round included an eagle and four birdies against four bogeys, and was quite the scrambling affair—two of the birdies came from holed bunker shots.

Tom Weiskopf shot a 74 in difficult conditions with winds gusting to 35 mph. He sat three strokes off the lead.

“It was not an easy day to play golf,” Nicklaus commented. “The 71 was a better round than the 65 yesterday.”

Ken Still had the round of the day shooting a 67 that vaulted him up the leader board into solo third place. David Graham shot a 71 and was two strokes off the lead.

In Saturday’s third round, Nicklaus led for much of the day, at one point by two strokes, over Gay Brewer. But on the 16th green, Nicklaus faced a four-foot par-saving putt.

“Just as I was getting ready to stroke the putt,” Nicklaus related to reporters after the round, “there was a big yell from the gallery around the (nearby) 17th green.”

Nicklaus backed off the putt, regrouped, but still missed the putt.

The gallery yell at the 17th green was the result of a Tom Weiskopf 18-foot putt for par that he rolled into the hole.

“That was a very big putt for me,” Weiskopf explained. “I couldn’t afford to get too far back, and I needed the par. Then I looked up and saw Jack miss that short one. It was a big swing for me.”

Weiskopf felt that swing was the key to his scrambling round of 68 that placed him just one stroke off the lead shared by Nicklaus, who shot a 70 and Gay Brewer who also shot a 70.

“I’m really surprised I could shoot a 70 and still be tied for the lead,” 48-year-old Gay Brewer said.

Nicklaus felt differently about his 70 saying, “A round of 70 today was not a bad round at all. It could have been a little bit better—I missed a couple of short putts on the back nine—but actually, it was a pretty solid round of golf.”

Weiskopf was back in contention for the first time since his bitterly disappointing runner-up finish in the Masters back in April. There, he and Johnny Miller finished one-shot back of Nicklaus in a dramatic finish.

“I thought I would get over that disappointment in maybe a couple of weeks, but I really didn’t,” he admitted at the Canadian Open. “That’s the reason I haven’t played a lot since then.”

The final round pairings had Weiskopf (207) playing in the final group with Brewer (206) and Gibby Gilbert (209). Nicklaus (206) played in the penultimate group. If pairings were done as they are on today’s tour, Weiskopf would have been paired in a twosome, with Nicklaus and the intimidation factor could have made a difference in the outcome.

Weiskopf played steadily and he, Brewer, and Nicklaus traded the lead back-and-forth throughout the round. Nicklaus took sole possession of the lead on the 15th hole where he sunk a seven-foot putt for birdie. He maintained his lead to the 18th tee.

Not knowing that Weiskopf was having trouble on the 16th hole and was on his way to a bogey, Nicklaus teed off at the 18th hole. He hooked his tee shot into the pond on the left side of the hole, took his drop, and then laced a 2-iron over 200 yards to the green and two putted for a bogey.

Weiskopf birdied the 17th hole sinking a 17-foot putt that put him at six-under-par, tied with Nicklaus. Weiskopf then made par at the 18th hole thanks to a deft chip shot that wound up just inches from the cup. Weiskopf and Nicklaus were headed to a sudden-death playoff.

Brewer could have made it a three-way playoff if he could have made a 45-foot birdie putt on the final hole, but he ran the putt about four-feet past the hole.

“I really gave it a run,” Brewer later said. Brewer’s last victory on tour occurred in the 1972 Canadian Open.

Weiskopf and Nicklaus headed out to the par-four 15th hole, the first hole in the playoff. After both players drove well, Nicklaus put his approach shot to within 10 feet, while Weiskopf put his approach shot to three feet of the hole.

Nicklaus putted first and missed his birdie putt. Weiskopf then stepped in and stroked in his birdie putt to capture the title and help bury the disappointment of his Masters finish.

“This kind of takes care of that,” Weiskopf said in reference to the disappointment experienced at Augusta, “especially since I beat Jack.”

A week that started with players rushing off the course to seek shelter from the storm, including lightning, ended with the redemptive victory for a player who needed to erase the memory of a disappointing loss.

Jack Nicklaus (l) and Tom Weiskopf (r) (photo: The Columbus Dispatch)

Jack Nicklaus was not a fan of sudden-death playoffs for national championships. Read about it in this week’s Bonus Story.

This week’s playlist is full of cuckoo hits from 1975. Listen HERE .

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Tour Backspin Quiz | Canadian Open Trivia

The Canadian Open is one national championship that Jack Nicklaus was never able to add to his resume. He did finish second in the tournament. How many times was he a runner-up in this tournament?

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Bonus Story

Jack Nicklaus was not a fan of the sudden-death playoff format when it came to national championships. He felt, strongly, that a tie in a national championship should be settled by an 18-hole playoff.

“I do not think to decide a national championship you should have a sudden-death playoff,” he stated after the final round at the 1975 Canadian Open where he lost a sudden-death playoff to Tom Weiskopf. “For a regular tournament, it’s fine, but for a national championship, it’s a little too much to accommodate television.”

The opinion seems quaint now as all the majors are determined by a playoff format that doesn’t include an 18 hole playoff.