Jack & Sam

CLEVELAND - August 13, 1973

I made a quick trip to Cleveland in 1973 yesterday to catch the final round of golf’s last major championship of the season.

Jack Nicklaus led the PGA Championship by 1 shot to start the day over relative unknowns Don Iverson and Mason Rudolph. Another unknown Dennis Lyons was lurking 1 more shot behind.

Needless to say Nicklaus felt confident going into the final round and unabashedly said so. “I’ve been there before,” Nicklaus was quoted after Saturday’s round in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Reporter Paul Ritter noted that Nicklaus was, “grinning slyly and loving it.”

Nicklaus went on to say, “I’ve been there before and I think I know how to win from that point.”

Such is the confidence of the game’s greatest player, perhaps the greatest-of-all-time, when he leads a major after 3 rounds.

But this is no ordinary major. This is the opportunity that Nicklaus has been aiming for his entire life. Since he was a little boy, Jack Nicklaus had a vision of besting Bobby Jones record of 13 major titles.

Now, counting his 2 U.S. Amateur victories, Jack Nicklaus was tied with Jones at 13 going into yesterday’s final round.

Sam Snead, who at 61 years old, had fired 3 consecutive par 71s, was back in a tie for 9th place just 5 shots off Nicklaus’ lead. But Snead had no visions of winning the tournament. He told the New York Times after Saturday’s round, “It’s a one man tournament now.”

Snead was right.

John Seaburn, writing in the Akron Beacon Journal, summed up Sunday’s performance by Nicklaus with this opening line, “With an absoluteness that can not be denied, Jack Nicklaus rules the game of golf… there is no big 4 or even big 3, there is only Jack, the Golden Bear, the 1 time Columbus teen-ager who has gone on to re-write the record book.”

Nicklaus coolly went out yesterday and dominated. He fired a 69 while the challengers all fell back early. Rudolph shot a 73, Iverson a 74 and Lyons a 75.

Nicklaus was a winner by 4 shots even though he bogeyed the last hole.

With the victory, Jack Nicklaus now has 14 major titles in his career. 1 more than Bobby Jones. Nicklaus told the Akron Beacon Journal, “I was much more determined coming in here for this tournament than I can remember being for any of the past 13 major titles.”

The only asterisk on the record might be that Nicklaus needed until age 32 to reach the mark, while Jones captured his 13th major by the age of 28 in 1930, after which time he retired from competitive golf, only playing in his own tournament, the Masters, when he founded it in 1934, never finishing higher that 13th.

7 shots behind Nicklaus for the title, in a tie for 9th place was 61 year old Sam Snead, a man who played several years in the Masters against Bobby Jones in the 1930s. Snead shot his 4th consecutive even par 71.

Snead’s top 10 finish was the 47th of his career in major tournaments. This keeps Sam Snead at the top of the all-time list for top 10 finishes in major tournaments as of this writing in 1973. None of the newspaper accounts of the time noted this about Snead.

POSTSCRIPT from The Sports Time Traveler™

Jack Nicklaus remains the all-time leader in major championship victories with 18 professional majors and 20 including his 2 U.S. Amateur titles.

Jack passed Sam Snead for the most top 10s in majors, finished his career with an unbelievable 73.

However, Sam Snead won more PGA tournaments than Nicklaus, and Snead remains to this day tied for the most PGA tournament victories all-time at 82 with Tiger Woods.

In 1988, I had an opportunity to meet Sam Snead and actually receive a 5 minute lesson from him. A few weeks later I hit my 2nd hole-in-one. Needless to say this was the highlight of all my years playing golf.