Whistler Golf Club

I was playing in a mini-tour event in 1973 in Valdosta, Georgia.,Dr Gill Morgan was entered and playing for experience against professionals to go on the PGA TOUR later that year. It was the last tournament in a series of tournaments for this mini-tour event. We came to the last hole of the tournament it was a par 5 and Gill was playing in the next to last group and I was in the last group, he was leading by 2 strokes over me, and made birdie on the last hole for a 3-stroke lead, I then hit my second shot and it went in the hole on the fly and stayed for a double eagle 2, that made the tournament end up in a tie. I said to Gill lets spilt first and second and leave, he said he would need to call his backers from Wewoka, Oklahoma to find out if that was ok with them, the main reason I wanted to be spilt was we had been there for several weeks, and I had made plans to meet my family in Orlando, FL. and go to Disney Land, they had a flight that landed at 8pm in Orlando that night after an hour or so Gill came back and said that they wanted him to play, the prize money was $4,000 for first and $2,000 for second I wasn’t going to give him the $2.000 difference so the tournament committee set the tee time at 12 noon the next day. It was now 4:30pm so I jumped in my car and headed to the airport in Orlando. Valdosta to Orlando is 195 miles and 3hours driving time. After I got my family and had something to eat, we went to the motel and went to bed it was about midnight, I got up the next morning at 7am and had breakfast and headed to Valdosta for my noon playoff, the first hole was also a par 5, I chipped in for an eagle 3 and won the playoff by 2 strokes and collected the $4,000 first prize, then headed back to Orlando.

In 1962 I was a rookie on the PGA Tour and playing in the Memphis Open. It got rained out one of the first 3 rounds so we played 36 holes on Sunday, my score got me paired with Jack Nicklaus. I had played with Jack several times in the past, we were close to the lead, so I was nervous and not driving the ball very well, I was hitting my driver in the heal or on the toe anything but solid and as Jack and I were walking down the 11th fairway Jack came over to me and said Jimmy you don’t hit your drives as far as you used to do you? I don’t think he was needling me because Jack didn’t do things like that, he just remembered how far my drives went in the past when I played with him.

I was playing in the Tucson Open at Tucson National in the early 60’s and after 36 holes Lee Trevino was leading the tournament and I was in 3rd place two shots behind him, so we were paired together on Saturday in the last group. When we teed off the temperature was around 80 degrees and we were in short sleeve shirts, when we got to the 15th hole a par 5, Lee was leading the tournament, and I was in second place one shot back, Lee had to lay up his second shot and it came to rest 70 yards short of the green, I hit my second shot 20 feet from the hole and Lee preceded to hit his 3rd shot 22 feet from the hole as we started to walk from the spot where Lee hit his 3rd shot we heard a rumble coming from behind us, as we looked back it was completely black skies heading toward us, by the time we reached the green it was snowing so hard that the tour blew the whistle to suspend play, the 15th green was the furriest point from the club house. The tournament sent a cart to pick up Lee and his caddie while me and my caddie had to walk to the club house in the snow and cold and it was really cold. The Tour policy back then was if one player didn’t have the opportunity to complete their round the whole round was canceled for everybody. So, since there were only 5 twosomes on the course the tour wanted to get the round in, after 45 minutes their came an announcement over the loudspeaker everybody back on the course, this time my caddie and I had a cart take us back to the 15th green. Trevino showed up with a navy-blue topcoat and putted his 22ft putt with the topcoat on, he sank the putt for a birdie 4, I missed my 20ft eagle putt and also recorded a birdie 4 that left me in second place one shot back of Lee. By the time we reached the 16th tee it was snowing again, and Lee’s navy-blue topcoat was completely white. Lee took off the topcoat and gave it to someone that was following our group, by the time we reached our drives on the 16th the snow had stopped, and the temperature was in the 30’s. When we finished the round, it was almost dark, at the end of 54 holes Lee was leading the tournament and I was in second place 2 strokes back. Back then they paired 1st and 3rd together and 2nd and 4th together so I was in the next to the last group and Lee was in the last group right behind me, I birdied 5 of the first 8 holes and was 5 under for the round, Lee also played the first 8 holes 5 under and maintained his two-shot lead, I bogeyed the ninth hole and Lee parred the 9th. I didn’t have a good back nine and Lee went on to win the tournament.

I was playing in the 1963 National Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. It was Tuesday of the tournament week and Sam Sneed ask me if I would like to play a practice round with him tomorrow before anybody else got on the course at 7:00 am, I said yes and met him at the 1st tee the next morning, Sam hatted to give autographs and on the 6th hole there were 2 boys standing by the green, Sam knew what they wanted because they stood by our exit from the green, Sam said to me when we leave the green you walk on my left that way you will be between me and the boys, I did and we got pass them because they weren’t interested in my autograph, this plan of Sam’s worked until the 14th hole when the boys found a way to trap Sam after we drove off the 14th tee we both hit it in the fairway, as we were walking towards our drives there was a crosswalk about 75 yards from our drives and the boys got on each side of the crosswalk so Sam would be next to one of them, as we got closer to the crosswalk they closed the gap between them and when Sam reached the crosswalk one of the boys was right next to him, the other boy ran over to where they were, Sam said give me your program and the boy handed him his program, then he said well give me a pen, the two boys looked at each other neither had a pen, Sam got a smile on his face and said boys let me tell you something never go hunting without a gun.

I was playing in the 1962 National open at Oakmont C.C. and in the group in front of me was Johnny Pott, when it was time for Johnny to tee off, he was announced on the pot Johnny tee.

To show you how serious the Scots are about golf, I was playing in the International Pro-Am Championship at Carnoustie and shot a 66 to set a new course record, the course was 300 years old at the time, the record up until then was 68 by Ben Hogan.
That evening a group of contestants were at a local pub and was talking about my 66 at Carnoustie, a local overheard them and went over to their table and said if you don’t stop saying someone shot a 66 at Carnoustie, we will throw you out of here because no one shots a 66 at Carnoustie. The next day the Town Council of Carnoustie called a special meeting to see if they would accept the 66 as a course record, the first question they ask was did he play the metal tee’s (which is the back tees) answer yes, so the next question was did he keep his own score, answer yes, they said no record, a tournament official had been invited to the meeting spoke up and said it was the rules of the tournament that the pros keep their own score along with the pro-am score, the council then said they would recognize it as the course record. If you are ever in Carnoustie go to the town hall and you will see the minutes of the special meeting of the town council, that was called about that course record.