DALLAS – Bobby Layne and Jack Nicklaus, who both enjoy full membership privileges in their respective halls of fame, shared something in common as it concerned the PGA Championship at the Dallas Athletic Club in 1963.
Faded memories.
On Friday of tournament week, Layne — may God rest his soul — might’ve registered as many shots as it takes to score a quadruple-bogey on a par-4.
“I heard that my friend Bobby Layne was outside and was drunk, and that I needed to come get him off the course,” Don January mused about that day, after initially believing erroneously that he had missed the cut and was off to Layne’s next stop for a few pops.
“When you were with Bobby, there was always going to be a lot of drinking.”
The liquor industry bowed its collective head in respect and grief when Layne, raised in both Fort Worth and Dallas, was recalled by his maker at age 59 in 1986.
It’s unknown if his last request was met, that of drawing his last dollar and last breath in the same instant.
Nicklaus, meanwhile, today golf’s senior statesman, appears to be about as healthy as the day he won the 1963 PGA, but … .
“I don’t remember a shot,” the Golden Bear said before straining to come up with possible approaches into the first hole and the last. “Except I shot the lowest score.”
There was plenty to remember about the first of five PGA Championships, which he won with a 5-under 72-hole total that bested Dave Ragan by two shots. The victory was his second majors title of the season for the young 20-something, who won his first Masters in April, and a mere week after letting one get away at the British Open.
Nicklaus, at 79, returned to the Dallas Athletic Club earlier this month to help it celebrate its 100th birthday. He has been a big part of its history. In addition to winning his third major there, Nicklaus returned a decade later to redesign the course.
But, at 23, Nicklaus stepped up to golf history’s elite class, the fourth player to win the U.S. Open, Masters and the PGA, joining Hogan, Nelson and Gene Sarazen. Fifty-six years later, that list now includes two others, Gary Player and Tiger Woods.
Only Hogan, Nicklaus, Player and Woods have won each of the major championships in their careers.
That one at the Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club could eventually cause Nicklaus some heartburn.
As golf’s current elite reassemble this week for the PGA Championship on Long Island’s Bethpage Black — moving for the first time from its traditional date in August to May — Woods is fully back on the trail of Nicklaus’ record 18 major championships and looking for a second straight majors title after rattling all corners of the earth with a fifth triumphant walk off the 18th at the Masters in April.
Tiger is three majors wins back of the king, who, though gracious about it, clearly doesn’t want Woods to reach his mark.
“No one wants to see their records broken,” Nicklaus said. “What I don’t want is for him not to [beat it] because he was injured.
“If he breaks it, I’ll be the first there to congratulate him. It is what it is. He’s a pretty talented guy. Pretty determined, too.”
In 1963, the field flew into Dallas from the UK after the finish of the Open Championship, a day of rejoicing for all left-handed activists. Bob Charles won a 36-hole playoff over Phil Rodgers, becoming the first lefty to win a major title. (Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson have since added their names to the Lefty Wall of Champions.)
Despite its proximity to home, Ben Hogan didn’t play in Dallas that year. Shoulder surgery kept him out for almost all of 1963, including that season’s Colonial NIT.
Problems with recollection for everybody probably had as much to do with what happened four months later in Dealey Plaza with the firing of three shots from a bolt-action, magazine-fed M91 Mannlicher-Carcano than the passage of time.
Dallas again took center stage but for the worst of reasons as the world changed in the noon hour.
Everybody forever forgot about the day before in a new world.
What Nicklaus does remember was the weather in Texas in July.
“If they ever hold a golf tournament in hell,” Sports Illustrated suggested, “the PGA will sponsor it and Jack Nicklaus will win it.”
When he raised the Wanamaker Trophy, which had been sitting outside all day, Nicklaus needed a towel as a potholder.
The temperature for Sunday’s final round reached a hellacious high of 110 degrees.
“As far as the heat goes, I never paid attention to it. It was hot,” Nicklaus said. “Sopping wet the whole time. When you come to Dallas in July, you know it’s going to be sopping wet.
“I always enjoyed being able to beat extreme conditions. The heat never really bothered me that much. You just have to learn to deal with it. I persevered and got through it.”
Long forgotten was the first- and second-round leader, Dick Hart, then a 27-year-old assistant pro from Illinois.
When you strike at a king, Emerson said, you must kill him.
Nicklaus wasn’t yet the king, but it was clear he was headed for coronation.
As Hart and Bruce Crampton, who shot a course-record tying 65 in the second round both faded, Nicklaus stayed consistent and made his move on Sunday.
A 30-foot birdie putt at 15 moved him into the lead and with momentum.
All that was left was how to handle a disobedient tee shot on 18 that settled under a tree. According to 100 Years of the Dallas Athletic Club, authored by Art Stricklin, Nicklaus wanted to go for the green in two on the par-5, a difficult shot considering where his ball sat.
The caddie was persuasive. Nicklaus laid up.
He won by two strokes and took home money for the mortgage and groceries, $13,000, or roughly $108,500 today.
That, he remembers.
This year’s winner will take home $1.9 million.
(Main art: Dallas Athletic Club)
