The Tournament Scene
We
turn now to the glamorous side of the game—tournament golf—past, present and
future.
The past
has spoken for itself in many ways and has been well chronicled by the greatest
of golf historians in many fine volumes.
So, I have decided to focus most of the attention in this part of the Handbook
to the immediate past—1970—and the future of tournament golf in this
country and around the world. Our tour
is unique in major professional sports in that it operate virtually year
around, starting the first full week of January last year and winding up in the
Bahamas on December 13th.
Counting our satellite program of concurrent second tournaments during
quite a few of the weeks and the three-event Caribbean circuit, we played in
1970 for almost $6.5 million, a far cry from 1955, my first full season, when
the prize money totaled “only” $930,000.
Of particular significance to me about 1970 is the way the
titles were spread around. On the PGA
tour, with satellites, 48 tournaments were played and 41 different pros were
winners. I don’t know a better way to
prove what we older tournament players have been saying for quite a few
years—that we have so many more top flight golfers on the tour today than we
had just a decade or so ago. Only Bill
Casper, the Masters champion, had a big season in the title department, winning
the Masters and three other tournaments.
Four others—Lee Trevino, Frank Beard, Dick Lotz and Bruce Devlin—each
won a pair of individual titles, while Jack Nicklaus won at Dallas and with me in the PGA National
Four-Ball. I had to settle for that victory
in 1970, which was a disappointing year for me.
However, I came close often enough and id well enough financially on the
tour to have hope for more success in 1971 and future years.
What most
American golf fans don’t realize is that tournament golf is spreading
fast
through practically all parts of the world.
Besides the long existent British tour, there are growing circuits in
Europe, South Africa, the
Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Tournament golf is stirring to
life in South
America, which produced that amazing international star, Roberto de
Vicenzo; Sweden and other parts of Africa. At this time, it appears
certain that a
prestigious European Masters will be on the schedule in 1972. Others
are trying to bring out the talking
stage a plan for a world golf tour outside the United States.
The cast of
players is becoming more and more international each year. Except for occasional wins by such foreigners
as Bobby Lock, de Vicenzo and Peter Thomson, and Canadians Stan Leonard and Al
Balding, victory on the U.S. tour was the property of our own golfers until
Gary Player and Bruce Crampton began the influx of players from abroad who knew
that they could only gain real fame and fortune from the game by playing
full-time in this country.
By the same
token, many of our leading players have seen the advantages and enjoyed the
chance of playing in foreign tournaments.
Particularly those of us who feel that we can help the game and
ourselves at the same time by competing abroad try to play a few tournaments
every year beyond our borders. The PGA’s
Tournament Players Division made a move late last year to encourage this by
making the last four months of the year virtually free of restrictions on U.S. pros who
want to play overseas in the fall.
Finally,
let me point out that, along with the aforementioned feats of Casper, Lee Trevino and Nicklaus had splendid
years and Dave Stockton joined the ranks of the winners of major titles with
his PGA Championship. Trevino was both
the leading money-winner on the U.S.
tour and the Vardon Trophy king with his 70.642 stroke average, while Jack
captured his second British Open championship, the World Match Play title and
the World Series of Golf along with his two U.S. victories.
And, to
reflect back to the international vein, Tony Jacklin of England truly
established himself as one of the best in the game when he added the U.S. Open
so convincingly at Hazeltine to his 1969 British Open title.