(This is a special reminiscence, available nowhere but here at QuinHillyer.com. The entire piece is below.)
The Masters Championship fifty years ago this week may have been, all things considered, the greatest golf tournament ever played. Nothing less than a battle for absolute supremacy in the ancient sport, its riveting twists and turns provided better theatre than even Sophocles could have written.
The final round ended up as a three-way battle between the incomparable Jack Nicklaus, golden boy Johnny Miller, and Nicklaus’ longtime fellow Ohioan foil, Tom Weiskopf. The remarkable back story for the drama, though, had begun in earnest two years earlier, in 1973. And the surrounding cast included every then-active superstar golfer born after 1925, and even with a cameo from one, Sam Snead, born before World I War.
The situation was this: Nicklaus was bidding fair to be recognized as the greatest golfer of all time, but just as he laid claim to the title, multiple others wouldn’t let him rest easily atop the current heap.
By winning the 1973 PGA Tournament, the Golden Bear had moved past Walter Hagen for most professional major titles of all time (12) and past the Bear’s idol, Bobby Jones, for most total (including amateur) majors, with 14. It is arguable that in terms of public esteem, it was only with that PGA victory that Nicklaus finally had emerged from the shadow of the dashing Arnold Palmer, who hadn’t actually won a major since 1964 but whose popularity was unrivaled.
Yet even as the public finally crowned Nicklaus as golf’s emperor, four others already were reaching for his crown. Earlier that summer of 1973, Miller had vaulted past Palmer, Gary Player, Nicklaus, Weiskopf, and Lee Trevino with a record-breaking final-round 63 to win the U.S. Open – and he followed up with a second-place finish to Weiskopf in the 1973 British Open and an almost unimaginable 11 (!!) tour victories in 13 months in 1974 and early 1975.
Weiskopf’s Open Championship in turn was his eighth professional win in 25 months, followed up by the Canadian Open two weeks later and as runner-up, already for the third time, at the 1974 Masters won by Player.
Player in 1974 followed up the Masters win that same year with his third British Open title, after which (I remember this distinctly) he said he was now “the best golfer in the world,” and wanted to be appreciated as such. Trevino, though, also staked a claim, as his 1974 PGA victory (by a stroke over Nicklaus) was his fifth major in seven years, equaling Nicklaus’ output during those same seven years. Trevino followed with a win in Florida early in 1975, five weeks before the Masters.
Thus, entering the Masters there were Player and Trevino both on a roll and Miller in an otherworldly stratosphere, while Nicklaus had no majors (and “only” two regular wins) in 1974, thus raising questions as to whether he had indeed been overtaken. Four weeks before the 1975 Masters, though, he won a tourney, with Weiskopf second. Two weeks before the Masters, he won again, with Weiskopf second. Clearly he was rousing himself to defend his crown – but Weiskopf wouldn’t go away, winning in Greensboro the week before the Masters while the Bear took a week of rest.
And, just to remind everybody that even people in the mid-40s could still compete, Palmer – whose last win of any kind had been in early 1973, two years earlier – and Billy Casper, then with a formidable 50 career total victories, weren’t ready to leave the stage. Neither was the nearly 63-year-old Sam Snead, who remarkably had tied for third (behind Trevino and Nicklaus) at the most recent major, that 1974 PGA.
Into that rumble of superstars all at or hanging on to the peak of their powers, the 1975 Masters opened – and all of the stars but Miller and the defending champion Player were on the leader board after the first round. Perhaps never before or later has a major championship seen such a collection of epochal talent. Nicklaus was tied for second at -4. Palmer and Weiskopf were tied for fourth at -3. Casper was tied for seventh with up-and-comer Tom Watson, who had superlative talent but theretofore had been known for coughing up late-round leads.
And Snead and Trevino, not to be ignored, were tied for tenth at -1.
Then Nicklaus seemed to grab the tourney by the throat. A second round 67 vaulted him into a seemingly impregnable five-stroke lead over Palmer, Casper, and Watson. Trevino and Weiskopf each lurked one more stroke back – still technically in the hunt, but only if Nicklaus collapsed. Nicklaus, though, had proved a superlative front-runner in earlier Masters competitions, so that seemed unlikely.
The Golden Bear, though, had developed a bad habit. If he and Palmer were paired together on a weekend in a major tourney, they each strove so hard to outvie the other that they both lost their way. Well, Jack and Arnie were paired together Saturday, and the worst happened: Arnie shot 75 to fall virtually out of contention, while Jack stumbled to a 73 and spit up his lead. Suddenly Weiskopf, with a scorching 66, was in front at -9, with Jack at -8.
And Miller, who had seemed strangely listless for two rounds, outscorched even Weiskopf. Paired with Player, Miller charged up the leader board with a 65 to take third place at -5, a stroke ahead of a still-competitive Watson and two ahead of Casper. Trevino, with Palmer at -1, still technically was on the leader board, tied for seventh. And for spice, others in the top ten included Hubert Green, winner of four tourneys in 1974 and a future two-time major winner, and Bobby Nichols, a former PGA winner with 11 other titles.
Of the greats vying for supremacy, only Player failed to make any real noise.
In the Masters tradition at the time, the first- and third-place contestants – Weiskopf and Miller – would be in the final group, with second- and fourth-place Nicklaus and Watson, respectively, one group ahead. So here were Nicklaus and Weiskopf for the third time in five weeks battling it out, but not quite mano-y-mano. Here was Miller, he with his 11 wins in 13 months, seemingly so gifted that he was surely the future of golf. And playing with Nicklaus was the man who actually would become dominant, Watson, while 50-win Casper – who a month later added victory 51 in New Orleans – shared the stage as well.
Nicklaus began as badly as he had left off the day before: He bogeyed the first hole to fall two behind Weiskopf. Nicklaus recovered with two straight birdies, but Weiskopf answered with his own bird on the tricky third hole to keep his lead, as Miller and Watson both stayed steady.
Then, suddenly, Miller went into one of his famous flights of phenomenalism, with birdies on holes four, six, eight, and nine to pull within two strokes of Weiskopf, who also birdied the sixth, and Nicklaus, who kept on the pressure with birds on the fifth and ninth. And a still-game Watson birdied the seventh and ninth to keep at least somewhat within striking distance.
Then Nicklaus, on a four-hole par streak, led by one when both Weiskopf and Miller bogeyed the diabolical 11th hole. Miller birdied 13 to pull within two strokes. Nicklaus, who never seemed to be able to handle the 14th hole, bogeyed it, and right behind him Weiskopf birdied it after a brilliant approach shot to again re-take the lead.
For those counting, the lead that day already had gone from Weiskopf to tied-Nicklaus, back to Weiskopf, back to tied, then to Nicklaus, and then back to Weiskopf. This was see-see-saw-saw-see-saw stuff, except it was a see-saw also on a merry-go-round, almost dizzying to watch. And the best was yet to come.
All, by the way, occurred as 1974 U.S. Open winner Hale Irwin was vaulting up the leader board, from seemingly nowhere, with a record-tying 64 to move into fourth place with Nichols.
All three golfers – first Nicklaus, and then Weiskopf and Miller together – birdied hole 15, with Weiskopf holing a tough 15-footer to do so. Weiskopf led at -12, with Nicklaus at -11 and Miller at -10. Nicklaus hit an indifferent tee shot on the par-three 16th hole, 40 feet away from the hole which was on a ledge in the back-middle left of the green. Jack then watched as playing partner Watson drowned two balls in the drink for a quadruple bogey, hardly the sort of thing to watch if one wants steady nerves.
As Weiskopf and Miller watched from 190 yards away on the tee, Nicklaus crouched over his ball seemingly forever, in one of the trance-like states he sometimes entered before a big putt.
And then – as if by lightning bolt – Jack drilled the forty-foot, big-breaking putt into the center of the cup, raising his wand skyward as he all-but skipped off the green in triumph, leaving his caddy to retrieve ball from cup. That in turn left Weiskopf and Miller to handle their nerves as some of the loudest crowd-roars ever heard at Augusta National enveloped them. The Golden Bear again had tied for the lead.
Until Nicklaus’ birdie putt on the 71st hole 11 years later, that scene of a green-clad Nicklaus watching the putt drop was the single most iconic in televised Masters history.
Weiskopf, who grew up in Nicklaus’ shadow, two years behind Jack at Ohio State and so often edged by the Bear in professional duels, went from uber-confident after his 15th hole birdie to being seemingly stricken. His tee shot was weak, a full 100 feet away. His first putt caught the green’s famous slope and funneled some 18 feet below the hole, from where he missed and thus made a bogey to fall a stroke out of the lead.
Nicklaus then could have put the tourney away, but that wouldn’t have been good for the drama. He barely missed a 25-foot-birdie putt on 17, thus keeping Weiskopf and Miller in the hunt. And when Miller faced a 20-footer for birdie on the 17th a few minutes later, he made it, tying Weiskopf one stroke behind.
Nicklaus again could have put it away on 18, hitting two marvelous shots to 12 feet. Lining up his birdie attempt, he heard the crowd erupt at Miller’s birdie at 17 and backed away. HE then began his whole routine again, re-examining the putt from every angle, while watching the leader board to see if the roar was for a Weiskopf birdied for a tie, or instead for a Miller bird to pull within one. Finally seeing he latter and realizing he still maintained a lead, Nicklaus putted cautiously rather than boldly. His birdie attempt again missed, short and left by a hair, and both Miller and Weiskopf – the latter after an absolutely mammoth drive – hit sterling shots to the 18th green, each one putt away from a tie with Nicklaus to force a playoff.
Nicklaus peered over from a greenside tent as Miller went first, from 20 feet. Agonizingly close, it fell left at the very end, leaving him with a par, one stroke in arrears. Now it was all up to the star-crossed Weiskopf. Putting from almost the same angle as Miller had, he had seen Miller’s break off to the left, so he aimed a bit more right than Miller had. Weiskopf nudged his a bit hard, though, too hard to catch as much of the break. Grazing the hole on the high-right side, his putt slipped by, as did his hopes.
Runner-up at the Masters for the fourth time in seven years, Weiskopf would finish six more times in the top 5 of majors in the next four years, then begin the 1980 U.S. Open with a record-tying 63. Alas for him, though, Nicklaus – who else? – would come in later that day with his own 63 and go on to win while Weiskopf faded to 37th. Weiskopf would never win another major title, (although he would win a U.S. Senior Open 20 years later as Nicklaus, who finished second, watched and warmly applauded).
Miller would win only one more major.
Trevino and Player would each win only one more major. Palmer and Casper, both 45, would win no more majors.
But the victor Nicklaus, having once again beaten back all of his superstar challengers – and this time, all at once – would win another British Open, another U.S. Open, two more PGAs, and another Masters. His six professional majors after turning 35 – Palmer, Watson, Miller, Severiano Ballesteros, and Byron Nelson all would win none after that age – were as many majors (after 12 majors before age 35) as Trevino, Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson, Nelson, Ray Floyd, Irwin, or Casper would each win in their entire respective careers. He would win as many majors after turning 35 as Miller, Greg Norman, Weiskopf, and Fred Couples won in their careers, combined.
So many of the all-tie greats went into the 1975 Masters tournament with designs on golf’s mountaintop. In what ended as a three-way battle for the ages, Nicklaus emerged as undisputed champion, and then kept going while all the others fell by the wayside. If you can find one, watch a replay of that classic title bout. For sheer twists and improbable turns, you’ll never see another like it.
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