An Encounter with Carl Spackler Himself - At one of the tournaments in the early 1990's, my dad and I were following one of our favorite players Peter Jacobsen around the back nine. When we reached #16, we stopped by the green to watch Peter plunk his tee shot into the greenside bunker short of the green. If you have ever attended a golf tournament in person, you know that it is common practice to mumble things to people in the crowd standing around you, whether you are cracking a joke or giving information to your fellow fans. As we watched Peter size up his shot, my Dad made a comment to the guy next to him. "Looks like a pretty tough shot". The stranger muttered back "not for these guys, eh?" My dad then elbowed me in the ribs and muttered something in my ear. I asked him to repeat himself. "It's Bill Murray" he whispered. I still couldn't hear him so I shrugged it off. "It's BILL MURRAY" he said in my ear with a whisper. "Don't make a big deal out of it, but he's standing right here" he murmured as he tilted his head in Bill's direction. I took a peek and standing next to my dad in a grubby sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head and sweat stained baseball cap, was the one and only Bill Murray! I am sure that Murray was trying to blend in with the crowd so he wouldn't be recognized, but he actually looked like Carl Spackler, his character from golf movie classic Caddyshack. My dad and I are both huge Caddyshack fans (not to mention Saturday Night Live, Stripes, Meatballs, etc.) and we were both surprised and thrilled to see him. Jacobsen hit his shot and finished up with a bogey on the hole. As he walked off the green, he saw Murray in the crowd and walked over to us. He put his arm around Bill and turned toward the TV tower. Here we were standing shoulder to shoulder with Bill Murray and Peter Jacobsen and the CBS TV cameras were zooming in on us. To this day, I still have no idea if we actually made it on TV, but it was quite memorable moment.
Chunky Chip by John Daly - John Daly is one of the most polarizing players on the PGA Tour. Either you love him or you hate him. Either way, he is always an interesting character and is usually fun to watch. One year, my dad and I were parked behind the 4th green and John Daly's tee shot came to rest about 15 feet from where we were sitting. The 4th at Riviera is a difficult 230 yard par-3. Big John came shuffling up the mouth of the green and set up shop right in front of us. He was smoking a cigarette, which is something you rarely see on today's tour. He was facing a slick chip shot, severely downhill with a lot of break in it. The ball was in fairly deep rough and he had about 40 feet to the hole with about 10 feet of rough to carry. He reached in his bag for the lob wedge and got ready to hit the shot. He tossed the cigarette to the base of his bag, took a few practice swipes and settled in for the shot. John took the club back slowly. As it approached the ball, something very surprising happened. He stuck the club in the ground about 3 inches behind the ball, causing it to move a grand total of about twelve inches. Everyone in the gallery has done it before - many times. But to see John Daly do it was a bit odd. John is known for his temper, and those of us standing around were a bit tense as we waited for his reaction. He didn't take much time for his third shot, and he pitched it onto the green about 15 feet from the hole. He snapped up his cigarette and his putter and proceeded to miss the putt, resulting in a double-bogey. When he returned to his bag we were close enough to him to hear him tell his caddy "I hate this fucking hole" and he slinked off to the next tee. We got a good chuckle out of that.
Ted Tryba Goes Low - In 1999, my dad and I went to the Saturday round with two other cronies - Garry Pallister (my college roommate, golf nut, and good buddy) and Ken Hasler (a colleague of my dad's for many years and a close family friend). I believe this was Garry's first trip to Riviera, so we decided to break off from the old geezers and take a tour of the entire 18-hole track. As we wandered around, we started noticing that a phenomenon was taking place. People were talking about a player that was absolutely on fire and lighting up Riviera's back nine. The player's name was Ted Tryba, a journeyman who had one PGA Tour victory under his belt at the time. We approached one of the old-fashioned style score boards to see what the fuss was all about. Tryba had a string of birdies and an eagle on the board and only had a few holes to play. Holy cow! He had a chance at the course record - a 62, held by Larry Mize, Fred Couples, and Kenny Perry. We hustled off to find him and Tryba did not disappoint. We followed him for a few holes and he kept the birdie string alive. As we reached the difficult 18th hole, he was 11-under par on the par 71 course. One more birdie, and he would shoot a 59! Tryba hit his second shot over the green and left himself a difficult chip to go below 60. Would we witness only the fourth sub-60 round in the history of the PGA Tour? We could almost see Tryba shaking as he went to hit his chip. It never came close, stopping 15-feet from the hole. He made a bogey to settle for a 61, but what an incredible round of golf! Tryba made nine birdies, an eagle, and one lone bogey at the last. He ended the day two strokes ahead of Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, and Davis Love III for the tournament. On Sunday, Els shot a 68 to take the title, and Tryba would wind up tied for second with Tiger thanks to a final round 72.
Coming Home to Valencia CC - In 1998, Riviera was scheduled to host the U.S. Senior Open and did not want to hold two major tournaments at the course that year. The PGA Tour decided to hold the event at Valencia Country Club, 40 miles north of the Riv in my home town of Santa Clarita. I also used to work at Valencia CC when I was a young golfer. As a volunteer, I used to forecaddy, help out the marshals, and run errands for the pro in exchange for free golf and range balls during the week. I spent virtually an entire summer playing here every day, so I knew the track intimately. I was very eager to see how the big boys were going to handle "my" course. Valencia CC is a beautiful and difficult layout. It was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and features tree lined fairways, tough par-3's, and fast and tiered greens. Water comes into play on nine of the holes. This would be the first time I had ever gone to the tournament for more than one day. I went to the Thursday round by myself. It had been several years since I had been there last and I had a great time walking the entire track. I remember a few things from that day, including bumping into David Ledbetter and watching Payne Stewart (R.I.P. Payne) for the last time. On Sunday, my dad and I went with the same Ken that I mentioned earlier. What we witnessed that day was actually something that would prove to be very historic.
PGA Tour veteran Billy Mayfair had been on fire all week. He fired a 65 in the first round to jump out to an early lead. I watched Billy play a few holes that day and he was putting amazingly well using a funky putting technique that was more of a pop than a stroke. He also seemed to be cutting across the ball on purpose with one of those odd long necked face balanced Ping putters from back in the day. It was U-G-L-Y but it sure looked pretty on the scorecard. Tiger Woods was also in the field and he made his presence felt by shooting a 65 on Saturday to move one shot behind Mayfair at the end of the third round. On Sunday, it was basically a two man race. Stephen Ames, Payne Stewart, and John Daly played well, but in the end it came down to a Mayfair versus Woods finale. The crowd seemed to be very heavily in favor of Tiger. We tended to root for the underdog over the years and we were heavily pulling for Billy to hang on. It was quite a contrast in styles. Mayfair looked like an old shaggy billy goat out there compared to the golden child and PGA Tour poster boy, but he showed that he had plenty of guts and also plenty of game. Tiger wound up making birdie on three of the last four holes to take a one stroke lead. A charge like that from Tiger has mentally defeated many of the game's great players, but Mayfair hung in there and answered with a birdie of his own on the final hole to send the tournament into sudden death. The playoff began at 18 and Tiger pumped his tee shot on the par-5 near the trees and driving range fence that line the right side of the hole. Billy hit a smooth drive down the center and his second shot was a lay up to about 85 yards from the flag. Woods was forced to punch out and set himself up for a wedge shot into the green for his third. He wound up wedging his Nike One ball to about 25 feet - a mediocre effort. Mayfair then spun his third shot close, nearly holing it and stopping within 6 feet to put the pressure on Tiger. Woods would miss his birdie putt and set the stage for Mayfair to take the win . Quirky putting stroke and all, Billy drained it to take home his fourth career PGA Tour victory. To this day, this is the only time Tiger has ever lost in an official PGA Tour event playoff. He is 11-1, and we were there to witness his only defeat. Mayfair would go on to win again in 1998 at the Buick Open and proved his mettle by defeating testicular cancer in 2006.
Poor Olin Browne - When you go to a PGA Tour event, you expect to see the very best of the best. Not only do the players all have the ability to hit great shots, they do it with amazing consistency. However, once in awhile, you will catch one of the pros really stinking it up. One year at the end of a long day, my dad and I were making the trek back to the shuttle busses. There were still players on the course, and as we walked up the right side of #9, we stopped to watch Olin Browne, who had found the fairway bunker nearby. There weren't many people around, literally just a few of us. Hole #9 is a long par-4 that plays uphill to a tight green. Browne had a long way to go to reach the green, maybe 200 yards, and he had pulled a rescue club or a fairway wood for the shot. He took a very hard swing at the ball and cold topped it. The ball rolled through the bunker and popped out into the rough, traveling a grand total of about 30 yards. Browne then proceeded to compound matters by going after a pin that was tucked behind the two deep bunkers fronting the right side of the green. His third shot came up woefully short and found a sandy landing. We kept walking and watching, as the hole was basically on the same path as our way out. When we reached the bunker, we had a front row seat again. Trying to salvage bogey, Browne attempted to hit his bunker shot in a way that would barely clear the lip of the bunker and settle close to the pin that was tucked behind it. Unfortunately, he hit the lip and the ball rolled back down, virtually in its own divot. For his fifth shot, he did it again. At this point, he paused, stepped out of the bunker and went to his bag to regroup. He saw us standing there. We were feeling somewhat sympathetic, but also enjoying the show. He said something to us. To paraphrase him - "Sorry guys, I really suck, this is embarrassing. It's been a long day." As I recall we offered him words of encouragement and he stepped back into the bunker. He blasted the next shot (his 6th) well over the lip and left himself with a very long and undulating putt. Shots 7 and 8 were putts and he walked away with a quadruple bogey. Olin Browne was no hack. He played on the PGA Tour for over 20 years and has made over $9 million in official earnings. We just happened to catch him at his worst on that given day.
The next blog entry will contain a few more of my favorite Nissan Open stories: Freddy's Alley, Chasing Kevin Burton, Rooting for the Underdog, and more.
If you are interested in purchasing tickets for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in 2011, (Feb, 15-20) I would recommend buying them from the American Golf Foundation. 20% of proceeds go back to local golf charities. Although I no longer work for American Golf, I can personally vouch for the people who run their foundation, and they work very hard to do good things for local charities.
https://www.americangolf.com/northerntrust
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