"Wouldn't It Be Great to Win This Thing 32-0?"
Americans go into the 1963 Ryder Cup Full of Confidence
There is still time to sign up for the inaugural meeting of The Tour Backspin Show Book Club that meets TONIGHT (9/21) 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.
Congratulations to Sahith Theegala on winning the Fortinent Championship at Silverado Resort in Napa, CA. Your intrepid editor was on the grounds of Silverado during Sunday’s final round. It’s really cool how close you can get to the action, especially at an event that is not an elevated event.
I watched Ryder Cuppers Justin Thomas and Max Homa up close. Thomas as he three-putted the par-3 second hole and Homa as he played a flop shot off a lie on rock hard ground and thin, brown grass. Homa hit that full-swing flop shot to 15-feet and then snuck the putt into the side-door for a fantastic up-and-down.
The friends and family of Theegala were on the grounds in force and could be heard from distant points on the course starting on the first hole. Pretty fun to see.
While it was cool being so close to the action, being on the grounds is not the best way to actually watch a golf tournament. You need television to keep up with all the action going on during a final round. I left pretty early for the drive back to Oakland to watch the finish on television.
I was in Oakland for the inaugural Lucious Bateman Foundation fundraiser, and the opening of the Lucious Bateman Museum at Corica Park in Alameda. I’ve written about Bateman, who taught the finer points of the game to young boys, at the Airways Fairways driving range in Oakland. Among his pupils were Tony Lema, Don Whitt, Dick and John Lotz, and others who made their way to the PGA TOUR or as PGA professionals. Before the color clause was removed from the PGA bylaws, Bateman could never join the PGA because he was black. The new Bateman Museum is located at the driving range at Corica Park Golf Course in Alameda, CA.
I want to thank all the premium subscribers to Tour Backspin who help fund coverage like this from the road.
This seems to be getting to be a regular thing, but we have another story about an unruly fan trying to affect the outcome of a tournament because he has a wager on it. This time it happened on the DP World Tour. Read about it HERE from Golf Magazine.
Good luck to the Stacy Lewis and the U.S. Team in the Solheim Cup this weekend.
Since the PGA TOUR is off this week, we’re starting our Ryder Cup coverage with the matches held at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, GA. Even with five rookies, the U.S. team was heavily favored, and even though the British team were competitive in the morning rounds of the first two days, they were no match against the overwhelming talent of the U.S. squad. Scroll down to learn more.
Next week we will cover the first Ryder Cup Matches from a European team. Both this week’s story and next week’s story share the absence of a very famous Ryder Cup player and captain. Learn more in next week’s Bonus Story.
Best wishes for a quick recovery for Gary Woodland.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, 57% of respondents planned on watching the PGA TOUR on TV because they were “starved for PGA TOUR golf” while 43% of respondents could not fit in any golf amongst the football and baseball they would be watching.
In this week’s Tour Backspin Poll, we ask what your reaction is to Sergio Garcia’s last-ditch plea to the DP World Tour to get on Team Europe for the Ryder Cup. Garcia offered to pay £700,000 in assorted fines, but being a member of the DP TOUR is a requirement for being on the team and he resigned from the DP World TOUR to join LIV Golf, so his plea was turned down. Plus, he’s 17th in the LIV standings and hasn’t had a top 15 in a major in like over six years. So, give us your reaction.
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Clip You Might Have Missed
How to hit a shot from under a boundary fence by Sahith Theegala
We will continue with our special content for the Ryder Cup next week, be sure to check it out.
Dow Finsterwald and his totally natural looking red shirt from Munsingwear are featured in this week’s Vintage Ad.
Get on the dance floor! It’s the hits of 1963 in this week’s Tour Backspin playlist. Listen HERE.
The powerful swing and famous finish of Arnold Palmer is featured in this week’s Swing Like a Pro feature. Scroll down to view.
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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 Mike Kemppainen who correctly identified hole #11 (regular routing) at Silverado Resort, in Napa, CA in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? Mike 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?
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.
It’s Tonight! 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.
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We’re playing Ryder Cup Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
British Team No Match For Loaded American Team
It’s the second week of October 1963 and it’s Ryder Cup week with the matches being played on the beautifully manicured grounds at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, GA. This was the 15th edition of the Ryder Cup and the team from Great Britain* had never won a match on American soil. The fact that the American team played a longer schedule, for far more money, than the British team, provided a level of experience that made the Americans the favorite to retain the cup.
But this was going to be a different Ryder Cup. Four-ball, known as best-ball in the U.S., was added to the competition resulting in an increase of the available points from 24 to 32. The new schedule for play had eight foursome, or alternate shot, matches on Friday, eight four-ball matches on Saturday, and 16 singles matches on Sunday.
The teams arrived on Sunday, October 6th, and began preparations for the matches. The team from Great Britain consisted of Peter Alliss, Neil Coles, Tom Haliburton, Brian Huggett, Bernard Hunt, Geoffrey Hunt, Christy O’Conner, Sr., Dave Thomas, Harry Weetman, and George Will. They were led by non-playing captain, John Fallon.
The American team featured Arnold Palmer, Tony Lema, Billy Casper, Jr., Dow Finsterwald, Johnny Pott, Julius Boros, Bob Goalby, Gene Littler, Billy Maxwell, and Dave Ragan. The players elected Arnold Palmer as the playing captain.
“It’s better to pace yourself. I know what our people can do now, and they know what they need.”
The Brits hit the ground running on Sunday as they played 27 holes of practice. They continued to play 27 holes a day and by Thursday, Palmer, for one, thought they were overdoing it.
“You can’t keep going day after day with no break without feeling it,” Palmer said to reporters. “It’s better to pace yourself. I know what our people can do now, and they know what they need.”
While the team from Great Britain were logging a lot of holes, the Americans were experimenting with different shots and a variety of alternate shot partnerships to give Palmer the best chance at pairing players.
“The British ball is a handicap. It sinks deeper into the Bermuda rough here, while our ball sits on top of the rough.”
One decision that would contribute to the results was the decision by the British team to play the smaller ball used in tournaments run by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. The players felt they did not have enough time to become accustomed to the larger American ball. While the smaller ball went further and was easy to hit off the manicured fairways at East Lake, it was another story when hitting from the Bermuda rough.
“Around the greens,” Billy Casper explained, “the British ball is a handicap. It sinks deeper into the Bermuda rough here, while our ball sits on top of the rough. They just can’t control their chipping as well as we can, and their ball is harder to putt, too.”
“This team of ours is unbeatable.”
It was well understood that the American team was the odds-on favorite to retain the Cup. Palmer oozed confidence at the beginning of the week when he spoke with the press
“This team of ours is unbeatable,” he declared.
He also addressed his team and said, “Fellows, wouldn’t it be great to win this thing 32 to 0?”
“I’d say it was about a 60-40 thing and you’d have to put the 60 the Yanks.”
Even Peter Alliss thought the American team should be favored to win.
“I’d say it was about a 60-40 thing and you’d have to put the 60 on the Yanks,” he speculated.
Once the matches began on Friday it started with the shocking loss of Palmer, and his partner, Johnny Pott, in a foursomes match against Brian Huggett and George Will. The Brits won 3 &2 that contributed to a tie after the morning matches. Casper and Ragan beat Alliss and O’Conner, 1-up, Littler and Finsterwald halved with Thomas and Weetman, and Lema and Boros halved with Coles and Hunt. This would be as close as the team from Great Britian would get to beating the team from America.
In the Friday afternoon foursomes, the Americans put the pedal to metal and stormed to a 6 to 2 lead. Palmer teamed with Casper in the afternoon, and they won handily, 5 and 4, over the team of Huggett and Will. The rest of the American squad followed suit as they swept the afternoon matches.
In Saturday’s four-ball morning matches the Americans won 2 ½ to 1 ½ with Palmer teaming with Finsterwald to win a point against the team of Huggett and Thomas. The beating continued in the afternoon four-ball matches with the American team winning 3 ½ to ½ increasing their lead to 12 to 4.
In Sunday’s singles matches, the Americans lost the morning session by a score of 4 ½ to 3 ½ and began the afternoon session leading 15 ½ to 8 ½. In the afternoon the Americans won every match except the one between Alliss and Lema that was halved. The final score was 23 to 9 proving the pregame prognostications of an American blowout victory were correct.
In addition to Palmer playing great, going 4-2-0 while also carrying the mantle of captain, other American players deserving credit for playing well that week included Tony Lema who posted a 3-0-2 record, as did Gene Littler. Billy Maxwell went 4-0-0, while Billy Casper went 4-0-1, and Finsterwald went 4-1-1. Finsterwald and Casper led the Americans with 4 ½ points while Lema, Littler, Maxwell and Palmer all contributed 4 points to the winning total.
Brian Huggett led the team from Great Britain with 2 ½ points while Alliss, Coles, and Hunt all had 2 points.
The lopsided history of the American team winning, along with the challenges of playing the small ball in Bermuda grass, and the overwhelming experience of the American team stacked the deck against an undermanned British team at East Lake.
*In 1973 the official title of the British team was changed from “Great Britain” to “Great Britain and Ireland.” In 1979 the name was again changed as players from continental Europe were included and is now known as “Team Europe.”
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Bonus Story
How seriously did the players take the 1963 Ryder Cup? Quite seriously. As a band played the “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Save The Queen,” Tony Lema later admitted to a large case of the nerves, and he could tell he was not alone as he looked at the other players.
“Money is nice,” Lema told Oscar Farley of the United Press International. “But while maybe some folks might think I’m waving the flag, this is a tremendous honor to all of us and we intend to play harder than ever in our lives.”
The American team came into the matches with a cumulative $459,386 in winnings for the year. Palmer thought that despite the nerves that his players would feel playing for country, they would be able to handle the pressure.
“When you’re accustomed to stroking home thirty-footers for the kind of loot we play for, playing for a big silver cup makes it a pleasant holiday,” Palmer told the press.
Lema felt confident because of his teammates saying, “You can’t quite put your finger on it, but it’s a wonderful feeling to have fellows like Palmer and Boros on your side backing you up, instead of running at you like they do the rest of the year.”
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Ryder Cup Trivia
What was the largest margin of victory for the United States team, and what year did that occur? What was the largest margin of victory for the team from Great Britain (or GBI, or Europe), and what year did that occur?
Scroll down to for answer
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The powerful and unique finish of Arnold Palmer (Photo: Leonard Kamsler, Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Blind Shot
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Here’s just one of the reasons that Geno Bonnalie is one of my favorite caddies on the PGA TOUR. Learn more HERE from Golf Magazine.
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?
Tour wives model their fashions. Clockwise from left: (photo: Golf Digest)
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
The U.S. Team won the 1967 Ryder Cup by 15 points in 1967. The European Team won the 2004 and the 2006 cup by 9 points.
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Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
Those guys in the “Blind Shot” feature are golf writers. C’mon on man.
That red hand tinting of the shirts in this week’s vintage ad are quite striking against the rest of the photo being black and white. And did you see the price of those shirts? Dow’s shirt is listed at $6.95 while his caddie’s is $3.50. $3.50!
I also love Dow’s high-wasted pants look.
Ya think that Sergio Garcia will still pay his fine to the DP World Tour? Other players who resigned to join LIV Golf have paid their fines.
You gotta admire the swagger of the 1963 U.S. Ryder Cup team.