Phew! Well, t here t hey are. Inspirational reading perhaps but, sadly, not so helpful to me on the course at the time. After flailing ineffectually several times and getting nowhere, I took a leaf out of the Winona Ryder playbook. I looked around to make sure no-one was watching, then stealthily put the ball into my bag and walked away.
Paul Azinger, 18th hole, 1993 Ryder Cup …and a few of the worst The worst bunker shots? Well, apart from my own regular disasters, there are only too many examples of spectacular meltdowns. Any duffer can hit bad bunker shots, so it’s perhaps only fair to focus on three major moments when very good players did very, very bad things. Top of the list is, of course, Tsuneyuki “Tommy” Nakajima. I say “of course” because Nakajima is in fact an excellent player, one of the finest golfers Japan has ever produced. Having posted top-10 finishes in all four majors, his consistent play continues even now having racked up three Japan Senior Opens and a Senior PGA title between 2006 and 2008. Even more impressive was his victory at the regular Japan PGA Championship just two years ago at the age of 52 with Sergio Garcia in the field. I also say “of course”, because Tommy is infamous for taking a very, very bad nine at the 17th at St Andrews (the dreaded Road Hole) when contending in the third round of the Open Championship in 1978. Having played a great “safety” shot by not risking landing on the road beyond the green, whilst avoiding the notorious bunker and having a chance for a three, he then managed to somehow put his birdie attempt into
26
HK Golfer・Jan/Feb 2009
the bunker. The culprit was a swale guarding the pin which gathers up less than perfectly hit shots. His first attempt escaped from the bunker, up the swale…and back down into the trap once more. He failed to get out twice more before blasting out beyond the hole and two putts later was signing for a quintuple bogey. The press immediately christened the bunker “The Sands of Nakajima”, after the 1949 movie “Sands of Iwo Jima”.
a minor miracle on the 17th, Duval went into the Road Hole bunker on the fly with his approach. Four shots later – including a sloppy back-handed effort that almost hit him – he escaped and putted out for a ghastly snowman – 8 – that took him from second place to eleventh. Interestingly, the R&A has since lowered the face of the Road Hole bunker by approximately eight inches since Duval’s one-man excavation project. Finally, when Thomas Bjorn blew a three shot lead with four holes to play at the 2003 Open at Royal St. Georges (won by Ben Curtis), people may recall that he bogeyed the 15th after being in a fairway bunker. They almost certainly remember that he took three to get out of the greenside bunker on the 16th for a double bogey. He also bogeyed 17 and finally missed David Duval, a five-foot putt on the last that 17th hole, would have forced a playoff. 2000 British Open What fewer people recall is that he did astonishingly well Twenty-two years later another to lead the tournament at all. In the opening round, Bjorn had a run-in with outstanding talent, albeit with less long-term consistency, came a cropper a pot bunker on the 17th where he left in the same tournament, on the same the ball in a bunker for what he said hole, in the same bunker. In the 2000 later was the first time in ten years. He Open, David Duval was the closest then hit the sand with his club, incurring thing to a threat to a rampant Tiger a two-stroke penalty and eventually Woods who was replacing Duval as the walked away with a quadruple bogey world’s number one player. Going for 8.—Mak Lok-lin
www.hkga.com
Byron Nelson’s 1937 Masters HK Golfer delves into the archives to remember the heroic achievements of the legendary Texan
B
yron Nelson has a strong claim to being the greatest golfer who ever lived. Even in this Tigerdominated era, his record from 1945 looks unbeatable. In what was a curtailed season, “Lord” Byron won 18 PGA events – including 11 in a row – and finished second on 11 occasions. One of those wins, it should be noted, was the USPGA Championship, which was the only major to be played that year. His scoring average for the season was a mind-boggling 68.33, a record that stood until only nine years ago when Tiger – who else? – had the chutzpa to beat it on his way to winning three majors and nine regular PGA events in 2000. But perhaps more tellingly, Nelson’s final round stroke average was a miserly 67.45 – and, even more incredibly, his average margin of victory was over seven strokes. But it was his first major win, at the Masters in 1937, that he remembered most fondly. After firing a “perfect” 66 in the first round – Nelson hit every green in regulation and would later describe it as the best of his career – the softly spoken Nelson entered the final day some way back of fellow Texan Ralph Guldahl. A very fine player in his own right, Guldahl would go on to win three majors, including the US Open the very next year when, amongst other things, he became the last major champion to wear a necktie on the course. Trailing Guldahl by three shots after the long par-4 11th on that final day, Nelson proceeded to complete the next two holes in only five strokes. A neat 6-iron at the famous par-3 12th (“Golden Bell”) set up a birdie, which was then followed by a majestic 3-wood that cleared Rae’s Creek at the par-5 13th (“Azalea”). Twenty feet from the pin in two, Nelson, knowing Guldahl was struggling, then chipped in for a an eagle three – which gave him the lead and effectively sealed his maiden major win. “Was I rewarded for my ‘courage’? I don’t know about that,” said Nelson referring to the second shot on the 13th many years later. “But I was blessed to chip in for eagle, and just like that, I was up on Ralph. I made par on number 14, three-putted for par on the 15th, where he www.hkga.com
birdied. We both made pars the rest of the way, and I won by two strokes with 32 for the back nine. I shot 70, Ralph 76. For the first time in my career, I felt my game could handle pressure situations.” From 1944 to 1946 Nelson played in 75 events and finished outside the top-10 only once. Retiring at the peak of his career in 1946, at the age of 34, he won a total of 54 PGA tournaments and five major championships. Nelson died in September 2006, but his legend remains.
Augusta National/Getty Images
a 3-iron. Although he didn’t win the USPGA that year (Rich Beem had the temerity to hold him off), his shot deserves its place among modern golf’s best.
Lord Byron, Augusta National, 1946
HK Golfer・Jan/Feb 2009
27