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Gary Player `sweats out' momentous Masters win
18th hole `Waterloo' for Arnie
Tradition falls; foreigner wins
By Johnny Hendrix
Chronicle Sports Editor
Augusta, Ga., Tuesday, April 11, 1961 -- Gary Player won the 1961 Masters Tournament Monday afternoon in one of those heart-tearing finishes which are typical of this golf classic.
Player, after shooting a 34-40-74 to total 280, watched defending champion Arnold Palmer take a double bogey on the 18th hole to lose after at one time having made up a total of seven shots on the leader. Palmer finished at 281.
The victory to Player was worth $20,000, a record payoff for the tournament. Palmer, who finished in a tie with Charley Coe at 281, won $12,000. Coe, a member of the Augusta National where the tournament is played, is an amateur.
Player, opening the round with a four-shot lead, birdied the first two holes. This meant that when Palmer walked to the first tee he was six shots behind against par, but when the Pennsylvania strong boy went to the 11th green, the scoreboard showed he was tied with Player, and when he finished the 12th hole, he was a shot in the lead.
Magnificent Efforts
It was a magnificent effort by Palmer, who wanted to be the first man to repeat as champion in the tournament. But Player, before he won, also suffered. The little 150-pound South African watched Palmer play the last three holes on television. Until Palmer's second shot at 18 caught the bunker on the right, he thought he was doomed to disappointment.
But then, Palmer bladed that shot out of the trap, putted 15 feet past the hole from out of the gallery and missed from there.
What probably will go overlooked by the masses, will be the great run made by Charley Coe, who missed an eagle putt at the 15th hole that could have given him a tie.
Coe played the final 18 holes in 69 strokes, two better than Palmer, who went out with a gritty 33 and parred every hole on the back nine until he reached 18.
This was a tournament which will cause much re-writing of the record book. Player is the first foreign entry ever to win. He shot the lowest score of any foreigner in history and won more money in this one than has ever been taken before.
Coe's finish set an amateur record for the tournament by two strokes. Previously, Frank Stranahan's finish at 283 in a tie for second had been the best.
Palmer also became the first defending champion ever to reach the 72nd hole of the tournament with a one-shot lead.
Finishing in a tie for fourth place were Tommy Bolt, who shot the day's lowest round - a 68 - and Don January. Each picked up $7,000. Next came Paul Harney, who shot 286 and won $4,800, while tied at 287 were Jack Milhaus, the amateur, and professionals Bill Collins, Jack Burke Jr. and Bill Casper. The pros in this group won $3,200 each. At even par 288 came amateur Robert Gardner and professionals Walter Burkemo, Doug Sanders and Ken Venturi. The professionals in this group drew $1,666 each. A score of 293 or better brought automatic qualification for next year's tournament. The top 24 automatically qualify for next year.
The tournament paid a record $99,500 to the professionals, which means it continues to be the biggest paying 72-hole tournament on the books. The guaranteed purse is only $20,000, which means that a bonus of more than four times the guarantee was paid out.
Player, who had admitted privately all week that he felt like he was destined to win the tournament, played near-perfect golf for the first nine holes.
He birdied the first hole with a 15-foot putt and made one less than two feet at the second hole after landing short on this par five on his second shot.
He matched par from there to the 10th hole, where his second shot carried to the back fringe. At this point, his trouble began. He chose to chip the ball and left it some six feet short. His putt for par hung above the hole for a bogey.
After chipping to within four feet at 11 for a par, he parred the 12th hole from the back fringe but then drew a double bogey at the 13th hole. He hit his drive out the end of the fairway on this dogleg par five and then hit a horrible second shot into Rae's Creek from there. After dropping out, he hit his next on the fringe and three-putted from 35 feet.
After a par at 14, he played short of the lake at 15, but had so much bite on his pitch shot that he sucked the ball back off the green. His chop was near perfect, less than two feet from the hole, but he missed that.
He two-putted for a par at 16, scrambled at 17 for a par after going over the green and made par four at the 18th hole out of the right bunker, sinking a five-footer.
5-3-4-4 Not To Be
When he finished the some 20,000 persons trampling the scarred-up greensward were certain Palmer had it in the bag. The defending champion had forged a stroke lead against par. All he needed was to finish 5-3-4-4 and he was the winner. He made the first three, almost holing a 30-footer for a birdie at 15 after playing short of the lake and barely missing a 10-footer after an absolutely masterful tee shot at 16.
But it was not to be.
His tee shot at the 18th hole landed to the right center of the fairway. The pin was tucked behind the left bunker. Palmer's lie was grassy and deep and he chose a seven iron. He bladed the ball slightly and it took one hop into the right bunker. It was half buried.
He studied the situation briefly and played the shot. The club failed to explode through the sand and skipped into the ball. It flew past the pin and into the crowd. From this point, Palmer chose a putter. He knocked the ball onto the green and 15 feet past the hole.
He missed it.
``That was the only shot I took any time on the 18th hole and by that time it was too late,'' he said.
When he sent his tee shot screaming into the sunlight off the first tee, Palmer had a monstrous job cut out for himself. And, in retrospect, it's somewhat amazing that he was actually to lead this tournament by a stroke going to the last tee.
He birdied the second hole out of the right bunker after hitting his tee shot into the woods. The trap shot was a spectacular thing that almost flew into the hole. He parred the third in two putts, hit another great trap shot at four for par and two-putted the fifth for par. His tee shot at six was headed dead into the cup when it stopped less than two feet away.
3 Behind, 9 To Go
He made that birdie, then after hitting his drive on seven into the trees on the left, played a low shot into the left bunker, exploded out and got his par there.
By this time, Player had turned the front nine in two under and against par. Palmer was still four strokes behind. He then birdied eight and started the back nine three behind.
Player bogeyed the 10th hole and before Palmer got his par on 11, had taken a double bogey at 13. At the treacherous 12th hole, where he has had trouble so often, Palmer played a five iron off the tee. It carried onto the bank back of the hole, but his lie was such that he used a putter. He ran the ball over rough, through a trap, across the fringe of the green and to within two feet of the hole. He made that par.
At 13, Palmer had a good drive, but a sidehill lie and chose a three wood. It carried the creek and stopped on the left front of the green. The pin was some 120 feet away and from there, he three-putted. By his own admission, this was the hole - not the double bogey on the 18th - that cost him the tournament.
Coe, who few people figured as a contender, played the front nine in 35 strokes. Against par, that left him four strokes behind Palmer and six behind Player when he started the back nine. After a par on No. 10 he bogeyed the 11th hole - as his second shot was on the fringe, and, after being allowed a drop because the ball was buried, he chipped short and missed the putt. He parred 12, but sank a six-footer at 14 for a birdie. Palmer was inside him here, but missed and took par. at 15, Coe hit a booming drive down the left side and an easy three wood second onto the par five green. The ball came to rest some 25 feet to the right of the cup. After Palmer's pitch and putt had rimmed the cup. Coe stroke his ball. It looked like it was into the cup for the eagle, but broke left right at the hole and missed by no more than an inch. This birdie left him one shot behind Player and two behind Palmer.
On 16 and 17, Coe had makable birdie putts. the first was 20 feet and fast-breaking. It missed the cup, but not by much. He did the same thing at 17, and at 18 he had an impossible borrow for his birdie. He played the ball four feet above the hole and had he struck it a little less firmly, it might have had a chance. It went less than two feet past.
Although he has won the British Open, this is the first major champion Player has claimed in the United States. He finished second to Tommy Bolt in the 1958 U.S. Open at Tulsa, has won three other tournaments and lost in three sudden death playoffs.
At this stage of the game he has won more money - $45,217.29 - than any man in the history of professional golf. He could very well eclipse Palmer's record of $80,968, which was a new record.
Palmer had won $44,257 after picking up $17,500 for first place here last year. The $12,000 he won for finishing second in this year's Masters gave him a total of $34,792.83 this year.
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