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JUNE 2010 • CALIFORNIA GOLF NEWS 17
a 1-under 71 and also looked likely to
win the tournament.
Nobody gave the steady Kite
much of a chance considering the
type of closing scores the top play-
ers were recording. Consider Gil
Morgan, who led after each of the
first three rounds, shooting a disas-
trous 81 to finish in 13th place. Ray
Floyd, the 1986 Open champion also
recorded a closing round 81, while
Mark Brooks, who briefly held the
lead in the final round, fired an 84.
It would take a heroic effort on the
1992 U.S. Open produced winds in
excess of 40 miles an hour and had
the leaders in a constant nosedive.
So fierce were the winds during the
final round that Jack Nicklaus, who
was working as a TV announcer
for the tournament, congratulated a
young Colin Montgomerie who shot
the low round of the day (2-under 70)
and was the leader in the clubhouse
when the heavy winds began coming
off the coast. Montgomerie would
end up in third, when Jeff Sluman,
playing in the fierce winds, recorded
his entire practice sessions working
on chips and pitch shots around the
greens, and when he arrived at his
17-hole predicament he was unusu-
ally confident.
Practice sessions aside, Watson
was also playing the final holes
extraordinarily well for the champi-
onship. On Thursday, Watson was
three-over par through 14 before
birdies on 3 of the final 4 holes
landed him at even par. Then again
on Friday, Watson was three-over
after 15 before 3 consecutive bird-
ies kept him within striking distance.
Realizing that his scrambling tech-
nique was a doomed plan, Watson
hit the range after Friday’s round
and sorted out his erratic swing. His
Saturday 4-under 68 landed him in
the final pairing with Bill Rogers and
on a collision course with destiny.
Nicklaus, who was playing a few
groups ahead of Watson, made a
determined effort for his fifth U.S.
Open title and had to like his chances
upon seeing Watson’s 2-iron bury in
the greenside rough. But the 17th
at Pebble Beach that was so kind to
Nicklaus 10 years earlier was equally
giving to Watson as it struck the
flagstick and plopped in the hole
for a birdie. Watson’s mini victory
lap carried over to the 18th, which
he also birdied, winning his first
and only U.S. Open by two shots.
Later, playing partner Bill Rogers
claimed Watson couldn’t get that
shot close with hundred attempts,
which Nicklaus famously corrected
“a thousand times.”
1992: Strong winds lift
Kite to the Championship
While headline writers around the
world relished the chance to pen
the words that would describe Tom
Kite’s windy victory at the third U.S.
Open at Pebble Beach, the most fit-
ting would probably be “Survival.”
The final round conditions at the
Nicklaus’ “What, no snake?” com-
ment at the start of the final round
in reference to Trevino pulling out a
rubber snake on the first playoff hole
at the previous year’s championship.
The casual mood helped Nicklaus
claim a 3-shot lead going into the
turn until a disastrous double bogey
on the 10th and another bogey on
the par-3 12th brought the field back
into contention.
A birdie at the 14th increased
his lead back up to three when he
arrived at the famous par-3 17th.
Playing dead into the wind, Nicklaus
chose a 1-iron into the wind and hit
what would soon become one of the
most famous in U.S. Open history.
Hitting the flag and coming to rest
two inches from the hole for a tap-in
birdie allowed Nicklaus to walk the
eighteenth knowing he had just cap-
tured his 13th major championship.
The victory made Nicklaus the
first player to win the U.S. Amateur
and U.S. Open on the same course,
which has yet to be repeated.
1982: Watson and the
shot of a lifetime
Without question, the shot most
remembered at any of the four previ-
ous U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach was
Watson’s birdie chip-in at the par-3
17th that led to a two-shot victory
over Jack Nicklaus. Responding to
his caddy, the late Bruce Edwards
who instructed him to “Get it close,”
Watson pronounced “I’m not going
to get it close; I’m going to make it.”
Watching the shot even today, you
have to wonder how Watson was so
confident. A downhill chip tangled
in the thick rough that required a
gouging stroke to lift the ball clear
is hardly a shot-calling moment. But
Watson, who even though was the
four-time PGA Tour Player of the
Year, was admittedly in poor form
entering the championship. So dis-
gusted with his swing, Watson spent
Who’s Next?
The fifTh U.S. Open ChampiOn aT pebble beaCh will be in greaT COmpany
The shot heard around
the world: Tom Watson
chipped in on the 17th, and
that propelled him to vic-
tory in the 1982 U.S. Open.
PHOTO BY JOHN KELLY/GETTY IMAGES
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