Capelle On Golf

I get a kick out the pampered pros of today whining about the difficulties of Pebble Beach. Take Tiger Woods for example. He said on Thursday that the greens were “awful.” Then, rather than softening his stance a bit, claimed that others felt the same way.

Then we have Ryan Moore, who everyone once thought had the makings of a multiple major winner crying about the Open. “I’ll probably keep playing them, just to torture myself once a year. I get angry, and it makes me hate golf for two months. Then I’m OK again,” whined Moore.  And finally, Phil Mickelson, when asked why no one could go low on Sunday, said “I’m not really sure. I kind of know, but I would rather not get into it. It just doesn’t sound good.” Translation: the USGA messed up big time.

Well, yes the course was tough on U.S. Open Sunday, but it is supposed to be, especially at Pebble Beach, which is Pebble Beast in the summer. But, if we take a look at history, this year’s version was a pitch and putt compared to the track Jack Nicklaus and Company faced in 1972 at the Shipwreck at Pebble Beach. Let’s look at the numbers.

In 2010, the top 20 averaged 72.8, in 1972 the top 21 averaged 76.5. That’s more than three and a half strokes greater. As for the entire field, the final round average was 74.9 in 2010 compared to an average of 78.8 in 1972.

What made Pebble Beach such a monster back then? Winds that gusted to 35 MPH, including one gust that led to Nicklaus’ double bogey on the 10th hole. Rough was much longer that in this year’s edition. And then there were the greens. According to Nicklaus, “Every green had a different speed and you were lucky to avoid three-putting.” Furthermore, the USGA, in it’s infinite wisdom, saw fit to roll and triple cut the wind-dried greens prior to the final round of play.

Proof of the oftentimes unhittable nature of the tiny targets was Nicklaus’ 3-iron shot to the par three 12th. In this year’s edition, Ernie Els managed to get his ball to stop with gimme range for a birdie. Nicklaus shot to the same spot bounded high in the air and fell from the sky in deep rough far beneath the green. Moments later he rolled home a bogey putt from eight feet, a putt that would have been for a birdie in 2010.

On to the diabolical 17th, the hole that really got the pro’s goat this year as they cried about how impossible it was to hit the green on their way to averaging 3.47 shots on Sunday. If they only knew how hard the hole really could play - in the 1972 Open, the field averaged 3.76. And yet, as you’ve seen a thousand times on replays, Nicklaus had the solution: just hit one of the most towering and accurate long irons in history, which he did in nearly scoring a hole in one.

The Golf Channel can show Tom Watson’s chip in 1982 all they want, and Woods’ putt on 16 to preserve his bogey free round in 2000, and Nicklaus’ 1-iron at the 17th. But what should be remembered most in the annals of Opens at Pebble Beach is the 74 that Nicklaus orchestrated under the most brutal single day conditions in Modern Era history. On this day, when some of the biggest names who started the day in contention crashed on the shore, including Lee Trevino (78), Arnold Palmer (76), Johnny Miller (79), Tom Weiskopf (78) and Bruce Crampton (76), Nicklaus remained afloat, keeping his dream of the Grand Slam alive.

Here is how noted scribe Dan Jenkins summarized it: “And while that closing 74 of his for the funny old total of 290 will not look so dazzling in the record books one day, it should be stated here and now that under the circumstances it was as brilliant as any man ever shot.” Amen.