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When The Open Championship returns this July to the northwest coast of England, about an hour north of Liverpool, it’s hard not to remember the heroics of Arnold Palmer, who was at the peak of his powers, 65 years ago.
“I wanted this championship more than anything in my life,” he said upon winning. “But anything you want real bad is awfully hard to get.”
Americans had won The Open before Palmer’s title in 1961, most notably Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, who took seven titles collectively from 1922 to 1930. Gene Sarazen won in 1932, Sam Snead in 1946 and Ben Hogan in 1953. But Palmer’s victory popularized the significance of The Open as a major title.
Until Palmer came along, the top American players passed on The Open in those years of transatlantic ship crossings. Most reasoned that two weeks of travel and one week of golf were not worth the relatively measly purse offered by the tournament. Palmer himself echoed this sentiment in 1960 ahead of his debut at Scotland’s Old Course. "Our top golfers don't like to leave the rich American tour for an event which offers a fist prize of only about $3,500," he said.
Add in the fact that despite having won the Masters in 1958 and 1960 and the U.S. Open in 1960, Palmer had to qualify for the 1960 Open when he chased the third leg of what he dubbed the modern Grand Slam. He finished second, edged out by Kel Nagle, and when he returned in 1961, he had to qualify again. But Palmer’s presence at the British Open was prompted by Deacon Palmer. “My father made me realize how important it (the Open Championship) was,” Palmer would say. “He knew what Hagen and Jones had created by coming here and playing and that was big to him. He said to me, ‘If you’re going to become great, you have to become great in the world.’”
Undeterred, Palmer flew to England for the 1961 Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, hard by the Irish Sea. After easily qualifying with rounds of 71-68 – 139 over 36 holes on the Championship Course at Birkdale and at nearby Hillside GC, Palmer was among the 108 players that would play in the Championship proper.
On the surface it seemed that Royal Birkdale would not be suited to Palmer’s game what with the narrow fairways tucked behind dunes covered with wiry rough and thick bushes of willow scrub strewn around the layout. Palmer adjusted his game after the wind battered his shots during the qualifier. He often teed off with a 1-iron to keep the ball low and punched shots with his other irons. Esteemed British golf journalist Henry Longhurst described Palmer’s approach shots as "screeching waist-high bullets that somehow retained enough backspin to bite on the soft Birkdale greens.”
On Friday, July 14, torrential rains prevented the 36-hole final that day. Palmer said of the conditions, "What hadn't blown away before was washed away." The R&A postponed play until Saturday. None of it bothered Palmer, who declared to the members of the press, "If necessary, I'm prepared to play in a rowboat," and later noted, “I don't think I ever played in worse weather anywhere than the year I won at Royal Birkdale.”
The rain withdrew the next day, but a cold wind forced the gallery to dress "as if on a winter goose hunt," as Longhurst observed. Palmer surged in front with a 32 on the outward nine in the morning round. He faced a key shot on the 16th when he flew the green and his ball ended up in the scrub. Eyeing a small opening, Palmer displayed his go-for-broke flair and elected to pop the ball through a gap. "It could get through, but if it doesn't, it's the end of the game," he said. It did and the ball rolled to within 18 inches of the pin. His 69 gave him a one-stroke lead going into the afternoon round. He stretched it to as many as four, but Rees came on strong and closed to within one back.
When Palmer’s tee shot at the par-4 15th came to rest behind a blackberry bush, his lead suddenly was in doubt. Although the ball was barely off the fairway, it might as well have been a mile off line because of the deep stuff. Longhurst described the lie as in “the bottom of a small sandy bank, buried deep in some blackberry bushes.” The prudent play would have been to take his medicine and muscle a wedge sideways back to the fairway and a clear shot at the green and hope to salvage par.
His usual caddie in The Open, Tip Anderson, urged him to do just that. But Palmer had other ideas. He saw a shot that others could not see. Palmer switched from a 7- to a 6-iron and “whipped the club down and through the ball with such velocity that the shaft of the club was barely visible,” wrote Herbert Warren Wind, the longtime golf writer for The New Yorker.
The result was impeccable: The ball bore through the breeze and stopped 15 feet from the hole.
“I have never hit a ball so hard in all my life,” Palmer said later, after taking the first of his two Claret Jugs. "It's in my all-time top five shots, and maybe even lower."
Englishman Henry Cotton, a past Open winner, called it "one of the greatest shots ever," and a special plaque would later be installed to mark the spot of his heroics.
Reflecting on Plamer's victory all those years ago, Gary Player in a recent interview in May at the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club said, "I think that was the greatest golf Arnold ever played."
Victory cemented the British love affair with Palmer. They adopted him as one of their own, praising his charm and tact and marveling at his daring play, just as their American cousins had discovered that watching Palmer was a rare treat. Longhurst's assessment of Palmer at the time has been widely quoted. "He has no fancy airs and graces, he wears no fancy clothes, he makes no fancy speeches. He simply says and does exactly the right thing at the right time, and that is enough."
English writer John Hopkins later added this assessment: “There was only one Arnold Palmer and if one is saddened at that statement then consider how bereft golf would be if there had not been an Arnold Palmer at all.”
As Dave Anderson of the New York Times so eloquently put it, "When Palmer, then the world's best golfer, won it, every other American golfer with a sense of history knew he now had to win it too."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Arnold Palmer’s win at The Open Championship in 1961 at Royal Birkdale is the stuff of legend
Continue reading...
“I wanted this championship more than anything in my life,” he said upon winning. “But anything you want real bad is awfully hard to get.”
Americans had won The Open before Palmer’s title in 1961, most notably Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, who took seven titles collectively from 1922 to 1930. Gene Sarazen won in 1932, Sam Snead in 1946 and Ben Hogan in 1953. But Palmer’s victory popularized the significance of The Open as a major title.
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Until Palmer came along, the top American players passed on The Open in those years of transatlantic ship crossings. Most reasoned that two weeks of travel and one week of golf were not worth the relatively measly purse offered by the tournament. Palmer himself echoed this sentiment in 1960 ahead of his debut at Scotland’s Old Course. "Our top golfers don't like to leave the rich American tour for an event which offers a fist prize of only about $3,500," he said.
Add in the fact that despite having won the Masters in 1958 and 1960 and the U.S. Open in 1960, Palmer had to qualify for the 1960 Open when he chased the third leg of what he dubbed the modern Grand Slam. He finished second, edged out by Kel Nagle, and when he returned in 1961, he had to qualify again. But Palmer’s presence at the British Open was prompted by Deacon Palmer. “My father made me realize how important it (the Open Championship) was,” Palmer would say. “He knew what Hagen and Jones had created by coming here and playing and that was big to him. He said to me, ‘If you’re going to become great, you have to become great in the world.’”
Undeterred, Palmer flew to England for the 1961 Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, hard by the Irish Sea. After easily qualifying with rounds of 71-68 – 139 over 36 holes on the Championship Course at Birkdale and at nearby Hillside GC, Palmer was among the 108 players that would play in the Championship proper.
On the surface it seemed that Royal Birkdale would not be suited to Palmer’s game what with the narrow fairways tucked behind dunes covered with wiry rough and thick bushes of willow scrub strewn around the layout. Palmer adjusted his game after the wind battered his shots during the qualifier. He often teed off with a 1-iron to keep the ball low and punched shots with his other irons. Esteemed British golf journalist Henry Longhurst described Palmer’s approach shots as "screeching waist-high bullets that somehow retained enough backspin to bite on the soft Birkdale greens.”
You must be registered for see images attach
On Friday, July 14, torrential rains prevented the 36-hole final that day. Palmer said of the conditions, "What hadn't blown away before was washed away." The R&A postponed play until Saturday. None of it bothered Palmer, who declared to the members of the press, "If necessary, I'm prepared to play in a rowboat," and later noted, “I don't think I ever played in worse weather anywhere than the year I won at Royal Birkdale.”
The rain withdrew the next day, but a cold wind forced the gallery to dress "as if on a winter goose hunt," as Longhurst observed. Palmer surged in front with a 32 on the outward nine in the morning round. He faced a key shot on the 16th when he flew the green and his ball ended up in the scrub. Eyeing a small opening, Palmer displayed his go-for-broke flair and elected to pop the ball through a gap. "It could get through, but if it doesn't, it's the end of the game," he said. It did and the ball rolled to within 18 inches of the pin. His 69 gave him a one-stroke lead going into the afternoon round. He stretched it to as many as four, but Rees came on strong and closed to within one back.
When Palmer’s tee shot at the par-4 15th came to rest behind a blackberry bush, his lead suddenly was in doubt. Although the ball was barely off the fairway, it might as well have been a mile off line because of the deep stuff. Longhurst described the lie as in “the bottom of a small sandy bank, buried deep in some blackberry bushes.” The prudent play would have been to take his medicine and muscle a wedge sideways back to the fairway and a clear shot at the green and hope to salvage par.
His usual caddie in The Open, Tip Anderson, urged him to do just that. But Palmer had other ideas. He saw a shot that others could not see. Palmer switched from a 7- to a 6-iron and “whipped the club down and through the ball with such velocity that the shaft of the club was barely visible,” wrote Herbert Warren Wind, the longtime golf writer for The New Yorker.
The result was impeccable: The ball bore through the breeze and stopped 15 feet from the hole.
“I have never hit a ball so hard in all my life,” Palmer said later, after taking the first of his two Claret Jugs. "It's in my all-time top five shots, and maybe even lower."
Englishman Henry Cotton, a past Open winner, called it "one of the greatest shots ever," and a special plaque would later be installed to mark the spot of his heroics.
Reflecting on Plamer's victory all those years ago, Gary Player in a recent interview in May at the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club said, "I think that was the greatest golf Arnold ever played."
You must be registered for see images attach
Victory cemented the British love affair with Palmer. They adopted him as one of their own, praising his charm and tact and marveling at his daring play, just as their American cousins had discovered that watching Palmer was a rare treat. Longhurst's assessment of Palmer at the time has been widely quoted. "He has no fancy airs and graces, he wears no fancy clothes, he makes no fancy speeches. He simply says and does exactly the right thing at the right time, and that is enough."
English writer John Hopkins later added this assessment: “There was only one Arnold Palmer and if one is saddened at that statement then consider how bereft golf would be if there had not been an Arnold Palmer at all.”
As Dave Anderson of the New York Times so eloquently put it, "When Palmer, then the world's best golfer, won it, every other American golfer with a sense of history knew he now had to win it too."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Arnold Palmer’s win at The Open Championship in 1961 at Royal Birkdale is the stuff of legend
Continue reading...
