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Phil Rodgers, Pro Golfer
January 14, 1963
Posted: Tuesday November 03, 1998 10:33 AM
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Phil Bath |
He
was the boy wonder of the PGA Tour, a rugged blond with a
round face and a buzz haircut who looked as if he could win
every week. "I've never seen a player with more innate
ability," said PGA champion Paul Runyan at the time.
Added Tour stalwart Bob
Goalby, "He's got confidence you can't believe." When
the 24-year-old phenom walked past, fans would call out,
"Hi,
Jack."
Indeed, Phil
Rodgers was frequently mistaken for Jack Nicklaus. The two
resembled each other, joined the Tour in the same year
(1962), and liked to eat. The distinction between them was
that, Goalby said, "Rodgers has more shots." The
victory tally 35 years later:
Nicklaus, 18 majors;
Rodgers,
0.
"I've never thought I did my job as well
as I could have or should have," says Rodgers, 60, who
finished his PGA career with five Tour wins (three in his
first two years) and now lives in San Diego with his wife,
Karen. "If anything, I probably ran from it. Of
course, I never would have been in
Nicklaus's category. When I started out, he was the only
player I didn't think I could
beat."
For good reason. At the 1960 U.S. Amateur in
St. Louis, Nicklaus clobbered Rodgers
6 and 5. "Worst whipping I've had in my life," Rodgers
says. But Rodgers had some game, too. His remarkable touch
around the greens overshadowed his all-around excellence.
In fact, his only flaw may have been his bravado. In the
1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont, he
hit his ball into a spruce, refused to take a drop, flailed
at the tree four times to dislodge the ball and took an
eight. Rodgers, who'd already won twice on the Tour, missed
a playoff with Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer by two shots. The
Golden Bear won
the Open for his first Tour title and, as it turned out, the
edge over Rodgers for rookie of the
year.
Rodgers's biggest impact on golf has come through
teaching—he coaches several touring pros—and
indeed through Nicklaus, whose short game he helped to
revive in the '80s. In the winter Rodgers teaches in
Florida, and in the summer and fall he and Karen
pack up the RV for fly-fishing trips to Idaho and Montana. As
for getting lost in Nicklaus's wake, Rodgers knows he's in
good company. "He had the discipline and the fortitude
I never had," Rodgers says. "That's why he's the
best player who ever
lived."
—Cameron
Morfit
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