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Player hurdles challenges to win second Masters title
By Robert Eubanks
Chronicle Sports Editor
Augusta, Ga., Monday, April 15, 1974 -- The 38th Masters had a foreign and yet familiar touch Sunday afternoon.
Foreigners have challenged in this, one of the world's four major tournaments, but only South African Gary Jim Player ever had literally walked off with a Green Coat.
Classy, little Gary Jim Player did it again.
Player, the 1961 champion who was back on Augusta soil after a year's absence due to major surgery, withstood challenge after challenge with a solid 70.
The 5-6, 160-pound knight of Johannesburg fought off the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Dave Stockton, Hale Irwin, Jim Colbert and Bobby Nichols on a warm, windy Easter Sunday afternoon.
He finally claimed the prize with a 278 total.
His two shot triumph, clinched when he lofted a nine-iron shot within four inches of the flag for a birdie on 17, gave him a $35,000 check and made him golf's sixth official million dollar winner. Player now has a total of $1,040,390, joining the ranks of Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino and Australian Bruce Crampton.
It was his seventh major tournament victory. It put him nearer to winning the four major tournaments at least twice (he has won the British Open three times, the PGA twice and the U.S. Open once). And it made him the only man with a chance of winning all four in a single year.
Player set a Masters record for the longest time between his victories - 13 years.
Another bit of foreign flavor was added to the day when England's Maurice Bembridge, just an inch taller than Player, equaled the course record set by Lloyd Mangrum and later tied Nicklaus. His 30 on the back side also matched the record established by Ben Hogan. Weiskopf, the British Open champion who was tied for the lead until he put a shot into the water on 16, and Stockton, the premier putter and scrambler who had led the second and third rounds, tied for second at 280. Weiskopf had a final-round 70 and Stockton 73.
Colbert, who scored an eagle two on the final hole, Nicklaus and Irwin were a stroke back at 281. Colbert had a 73, Irwin 71 and Nicklaus 69. Nicklaus twice surged into contention, once with an eagle on 13 and again with a brilliant recovery for a birdie from the water's edge on 15, but ruined both efforts with bogeys.
Bobby Nichols and Phil Rodgers, each with 73, finished at 282.
Player ironically threatened to miss his tee time for the second time during the week. His car wouldn't start Sunday morning but a fan passing by gave him a lift to the Augusta National.
Any delay could be catastrophic, in light of the notoriously heavy traffic on Washington Road. Friday, his car had a flat tire and he jogged over a half-mile to the course.
Gary was helped into the Green Coat by 1973 champion Tommy Aaron and said, ``I never seem to get one that fits.''
Tradition has it the Green Coat is kept at the Augusta National, except for the obviously needed alterations. But ironically, Player apparently is the only champion to have one at his home.
``I have the Green Coat hanging in my closet at home. It was a slightly different set of circumstances. I didn't even ask them. If they want it back, they will have a helluva long way to travel to get it back,'' he laughed.
Bembridge was tied at 283 with Hubert Green, who had a final 71.
Four-time champion Palmer, who didn't have a bogey in his round, put together his best Masters score since 1962 - a 67. He ended at 284. U.S. Open champion Johnny Miller, the No. 2 pre-tournament choice, had a 70 for 285.
Player, winner of 96 international titles, bolted into contention with a sparkling six-under-par 66 in Saturday's third round and started the last 18 holes just one back of Stockton.
He caught the front-running Californian with a birdie two on the sixth hole and took the lead alone on the ninth, pitching to about 10 feet and holing the putt for the birdie. Player bogeyed the long, difficult 10th, had to sink an eight-foot putt for par on the 11th and opened the gates with his bogey on the 12th. He missed the green and lipped out a six-foot putt.
It was about that time that Nicklaus made his presence felt.
He needed only an iron shot to reach the green on the par five 13th and ran in the long putt for an eagle that sent him leaping into the air in joy, his putter held aloft and visions of a record fifth Masters crown in his eyes.
``Suddenly, it was a brand new tournament,'' he said.
That put him eight under par and, at that moment, just one shot out of the lead.
But he bogeyed the next hole, three-putting from off the green. When he missed the five-foot second shot, he dropped the putter and slumped over, his hands hanging straight down and his blond mane covering his face.
He still had a chance with the par 5 15th coming up.
But his second shot - he was trying to reach the green in two - spun back to the edge of the pond that guards the green.
Jack went in after it, standing knee-deep in the water, and played what he called ``a semi-explosion shot'' some three inches from the cup for a birdie.
But he bunkered his tee shot on the par three 16th, came out poorly and bogeyed. That did it for him.
Player, about that time, put his second shot over the green on the 13th and chipped back to six feet and dropped the putt for birdie.
He missed a four-foot birdie putt on the 15th that would have given him some breathing room against the drive of Weiskopf.
Tom birdied both the back-nine par-fives to gain a share of the top spot, then dropped back when his tee shot failed to clear the water on the 16th. He stood in tight-lipped anger for a moment before taking his drop, pitching on and one-putting for the bogey that dropped him back.
``That knocked me out of it,'' he said.
He had chances on both the final holes, but the putts wouldn't drop.
Then there was the scrambler Stockton, only one stroke behind after a two-putt birdie on the 13th. He saved par with a good chip on the 14th, missed a chance at the 15th and fell two strokes back with one hole to go when Player clinched it with his eye-popping approach sot on the 17th. He gestured to the gallery as he walked up the fairway, attempting to find out how close he'd hit it.
First he held his hands some five of six feet apart, Then three. The two. The some six inches.
That was the distance. He tapped it in and had it all but won.
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