Wild Week in Memphis
How a victory that seemed to be clinched was almost blown
The Olympics are over and it is back to the grind on the PGA Tour with a stop in Memphis for the FedEx St. Jude Open. This tournament started as the Memphis Open then became the Memphis Open Invitational, then the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic before going through a number of corporate iterations. We’re going back to the 1977 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic for this week’s story. It was a wild week.
Congratulations to Kyle Cronk, a member of the Washington Golf Facebook group, the winner in the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest from last week. Kyle correctly identified #4 at Yellowstone Club and then beat out two other correct answers in the random draw. The updated WHII leader board is displayed below and congratulations to Rob Noble for getting through the first 18 holes.
Sam Snead stars in this week's vintage ad from 1964. Scroll down to view.
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Six Shot Lead Disappears In Weird and Wild Week
It was going to be a wild week in Memphis from start to finish. A hole-in-one in the pro-am kicked off the wackiness in the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, a tee shot by Bruce Fleisher in the first round ended up in a spectator’s trousers (just a mere six inches below the waistband) and a grass fire in one of the parking lots on Friday destroyed five vehicles. Then there was the six-stroke lead on Friday that evaporated on Sunday.
At 12:32 on Friday, Al Geiberger teed off the 10th hole at the extremely baked out Colonial Country Club for the second round of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic. He was playing with his good friend Dave Stockton and Jerry McGee. The condition of the course was so bare and tight that players were allowed to clean and place their ball to get a halfway decent lie. Temperatures were near 100 degrees with the kind of humidity you only find in the South. Even with the baked-out conditions, Colonial challenged the pros with it’s prodigous 7,193 yards.
Geiberger made what he called a “routine 40-foot putt” for birdie on his first hole. He added another birdie on his third hole, a par-3 and another on his sixth hole, also a par-3. He then finished his front nine with three straight birdies giving him four birdies in a row.
He was just getting going as he made the turn. He pitched in from 30-yards on the 1st hole (his tenth hole) for an eagle three and followed that up with birdies on the next two holes. He played seven holes in 8-under-par and the Friday crowd swarmed to his group to watch the remarkable round.
After a birdie on the 7th hole (his 16th) it occured to Geiberger that he had a chance to shoot a 59 breaking the 60 barrier for the lowest score recorded on the PGA Tour. Seven players had posted scores of 60 on tour and three of those were shot on the Brackenridge Park course in San Antonio, a course notorious for the low scores it produced.
Geiberger noticed the large crowd of spectators that had formed after his birdie on his 16th hole.
“It was good to see them out there,” he said, “But is was also frightening, too. I kept telling myself, ‘Oh my God, they’re all watching me.” He made par on his 16th hole.
A birdie on his 17th hole set him up to become the first player on the PGA Tour to shoot a 59 with another final birdie on his final hole. With his adrenaline pumping he smashed his drive down the fairway.
“The crowd was pumped up and so was I,” Geiberger admitted. “When you’re pumped up, you can hit the ball harder.”
He hit a 9-iron to eight feet and the crowd, estimated to be 10,000, could hardly contain themselves. He lined up his putt and then stroked it confidently into the hole as the crowd erupted.
“If you took me out there now and told me I needed to birdie the last hole for 59, I probably make a six,” Geiberger admitted to reporters. “But as it developed, I wasn’t really scared.”
How do you follow up such a fantastic round that produced a six-stroke lead?
“I had to forget the 59 and get back to reality,” Geiberger told reporters.
His six-stroke lead was cut in half after he shot a 72 on Saturday and on Sunday he actually lost the lead to Gary Player trailing him by two strokes after nine holes.
“Then something happened out there,” he related. “I got back on my game. All of a sudden things started going my way.”
He made up four strokes on Player in two holes and was then able to hold off Player and Jerry McGee, who birdied the last hole to tie for second and earn him a spot on the Ryder Cup team. It was the 11th victory on tour for Geiberger, an 18-year veteran.
Al Geiberger displays his scorecard recording the first 59 shot on the PGA Tour. (Photo: Sports Illustrated)
Check out the bonus story on the famous hole-in-one that week in Memphis.
Punk, disco and rock. It's 1977. Listen on Spotify.
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Bonus Story
Former President Gerald Ford pulled a five-iron from his bag for his tee shot on the 157-yard par 3 fifth hole at Colonial Country Club. An avid 18 handicapper, he was playing in the pro-am that proceeded the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic in 1977. This was the sixth pro-am event of the season that he played in. He was playing with Ben Crenshaw.
Ford hit his five iron shot and the ball landed about 10 feet in front of the pin and then trickled into the hole for a hole-in-one. Ford walked to the green with his hand in the air, index finger raised and addressed the crowd of about 700 spectators.
"Did it look good all the way?"
The crowd responded back, "Yes! Yes!"
It was Ford's first hole-in-one.
Guess the Clubhouse Answer: Diablo Country Club, Diablo, CA. USA
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