AS THE RAIN FELL this morning at the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn, I talked with 76-year-old Lee Elder, a four-time PGA Tour winner and the first African American to play in the Masters. I told Lee one of my earliest memories of watching golf on television was when he squared off against Jack Nicklaus in a sudden-death playoff at the American Golf Classic.
(If you are of a certain age, you may remember it. It was played at Firestone Country Club, the site of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Before the American Golf Classic, the Firestone event was called the Rubber City Open.)
I was a kid, it was 1968, and we had a portable black-and-white Zenith set with rabbit ears. Today, Lee reminded me about some of the details of that long-ago duel. He said what most people don’t remember was that the playoff included Frank Beard until Lee and Jack birdied 16 and Beard dropped out.
Who is Lee Elder? That’s what I wondered at the time. Everyone knew who Jack was. Jack was the man. It was Lee’s rookie season on the PGA Tour and he didn’t blink during his five-hole showdown with Nicklaus. Jack won. But Lee’s play made enough of an impression on me that I still remember it more than 40 years later.
Elder would wait six more years for his first PGA Tour win, the 1974 Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida. It put him into the Masters, finally breaking the color barrier at Augusta National. Lee was also the first black to play in the Ryder Cup when he qualified for the 1979 team.
And Beard, the forgotten man in that 1968 playoff, won the American Golf Classic two years later.
−The Armchair Golfer
Lee Elder, Jack Nicklaus and the American Golf Classic
The Good People of Conover
SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG. I’m just not into the Ryder Cup. Not yet. I’m sure I will be when it starts on Friday.
One big reason is because I’m in Conover, North Carolina, for the next two days for events related to the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn, this week’s Champions Tour stop. I’ve come here each of the last three years, renewing acquaintances with some old old pros and usually meeting a few more of the younger ones. Many of them are approachable and friendly. Fred Funk and Phil Blackmar come to mind.
And the people here in Conover (and the greater Hickory area)—the volunteers, tour officials and golf club staff—are terrific. There may be a rude person among them, but I have yet to meet him or her. Instead, it’s something like, “Hi, I met you last year. Let me know if there’s anything you need.” That’s nice to hear.
It feels good to this armchair golfer to escape the home office and drive down the mountain into North Carolina where it’s sunny and 10 degrees warmer. The leaves are turning and the muggy days of August are long gone. Friends are preparing for their apple-butter making weekends. Autumn, as you might have guessed, is my favorite season.
Tomorrow will be fun. I’ll catch up with a dozen or so legends. I expect to see Doug Ford and congratulate him on being a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee. The Ryder Cup and Friday seem far away at the moment.
−The Armchair Golfer
