Southern Hospitality

Southern Hills CC will be hosting its seventh major championship (four PGAs, three U.S. Opens) next week. Oakmont (Pa.) CC is the only other course to host the Open and the PGA at least three times. In addition, the Tulsa, Okla., course has hosted five other USGA events, including the 1946 Women’s Amateur won by Babe Didrikson. Here are seven things you may not know about major tournaments held at Southern Hills.

1) The 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur field of 60 was the smallest since 1910 and had no defending champion because Betty Hicks Newell turned pro immediately following her 1941 triumph. The course measured 6,232 yards and played to par 75. There were seven par 5s on the card (first, second, fifth, 12th, 13th, 16th and 18th).

2) Bob Murphy nearly realized an improbable double in the 1970 PGA Championship. The winner of the 1965 U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills (the first contested over 72 holes of stroke play) finished two shots behind Dave Stockton in the PGA. Murphy’s closing four-under 66 was bettered only by Lee Trevino, whose 65 tied the course record.

3) That 1965 Amateur saw the USGA introduce an experimental rule to combat slow play in tournaments. A “continuous putting” rule called for the ball farthest from the hole to be putted out, with a two-stroke penalty for an infraction. The rule also allowed players to lift their ball only once on the putting surface.

4) The 1977 U.S. Open’s final-round telecast on ABC offered all 18 holes, a first, and four hours of live coverage. The network showed three hours of live coverage Saturday and a 30-minute package of highlights Friday night.

5) When Raymond Floyd shot 63 in the first round of the 1982 PGA, he crammed nine of his 10 3s in a stretch from the sixth through 14th holes. Only 17 players broke par that day as Floyd, who would celebrate his 40th birthday the following month, capitalized on a 9:24 a.m. starting time that put him out before the greens spiked up and the wind blew.

6) After Nick Price (above) won the 1994 PGA at Southern Hills, he became the second person to move from second to first in the World Ranking with a major victory. Nick Faldo did it in 1992 in the British Open at Muirfield, supplanting Fred Couples. Price’s triumph pushed him ahead of Greg Norman. Only one other player has accomplished the feat since: Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA at Medinah, passing David Duval.

7) Only two courses used for majors since the 2001 U.S. Open have measured less than 7,000 yards in length (Southern Hills was 6,973 six years ago). Royal Lytham & St. Annes, which hosted the 2001 British Open, measured 6,905 yards while Shinnecock Hills was 6,996 for the 2004 Open. In that 2001 Open, the course had five par-4 holes over 450 yards and what was then the longest hole in major championship history, the 642-yard fifth.