The GOAT: Golf Digest's Greatest Of All Time Invitational
EDITOR'S NOTE: Golf Digest Writer-at-Large and World Golf Hall of Famer Dan Jenkins died March 7 at age 90. In his final piece for us, he introduces Golf Digest's Greatest of All Time Invitational, with the top 32 in the mythical event advancing from stroke-play qualifying at Augusta National to match play. Beginning daily March 20, Senior Writer Guy Yocom will document the match-play results, leading to the final at Pebble Beach. Screenwriter Mark Frost, whose books have included "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and "The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever," will write two versions of the final with different winners.
It will undoubtedly transcend the majors this year, if I've looked up the word correctly. I speak of Golf Digest's Greatest of All Time Invitational—The GOAT, for short—that started at the Augusta National Golf Club. It was one of the most fascinating tournaments ever contested, although in the end it was somewhat predictable that an immortal would win it, seeing as how there were very few lurkers and slugs in the field.
The competition was touched with sentiment throughout. It began with the opening ceremony on the No. 1 tee Thursday. Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris, in their three-piece wool suits that blended in with the color of their beards and sideburns, hit the ceremonial tee shots. They each nailed a gutty down the middle of the fairway, Young Tom's drive carrying more than 70 yards in the air.
In an interview later in the morning, Young Tom said he might have gotten more distance if it hadn't been for the fact that he was dead. The elite 72 competitors were very much alive, however, and in the prime of their careers, eager to decide who would prevail at 72 holes of stroke play.
The tournament committee wisely sent out the three fastest players in golf history in the first group: Byron Nelson, Tom Watson and Lanny Wadkins. They might not be the three fastest if you count those early years of the British Open when Prestwick was a 12-hole golf course and a light-running 52 was a terrific round, but they were plenty fast enough.
Wadkins, the first alternate, had replaced John Ball of Great Britain in the tournament. Ball, an eight-time winner of the British Amateur and the first player to win the British Amateur and British Open in the same year, which he did in 1890, made the trip to Augusta and played one practice round, but he withdrew in a huff, complaining that nobody in town had heard of him except Ben Crenshaw and Herbert Warren Wind.
Byron's 68 made him the leader in the clubhouse for three hours. He said it was “just the funniest thing” that he went 2–3—birdie, eagle—at the 12th and 13th holes. It was the same thing he'd done in 1937, when he overtook Ralph Guldahl to win his first Masters.
Nelson credited his eyesight for the fact that he hit it so close to the flags on 12 and 13. Repeating a remark he'd once made on an ABC telecast, he said, “I've always been able to see very well as far as my eyes are concerned.”
Watson and Wadkins each shot 70, but Tom wasn't happy with the round. He said he would have had more incentive if he'd been paired with Gary Player so he could publicly accuse Gary of cheating again. Maybe they'll get the opportunity in match play.
Lanny, on the other hand, was all smiles. Known as a fierce competitor for his own money, he closed out the day with a birdie on 18 to grab a five-hole carry-over skin.
The threesome played the round in one hour and 37 minutes.
Speaking of Ralph Guldahl, he was once the greatest player in golf from 1936-'39, when he won two U.S. Opens back-to-back, three Western Opens in a row and a Masters. But he was also one of the slowest and was correctly paired with the other two slowest players in golf history: Cary Middlecoff and Greg Norman.
It was an obvious mistake on the committee's part not to put them off last. Their round required six hours and 32 minutes, forcing six threesomes to play through.
Norman knelt, studied his green-reading book and plumb-bobbed the line on every putt from all four angles, including tap-ins, in his 73. And he further paralyzed the pace of play by stopping to get married on the front nine and divorced on the back.
Guldahl delayed play at length by combing his hair between shots, a trait for which he had become famous. This habit made him even slower on breezy days, as it was in the first round. He also managed a 73.
Middlecoff matched the 73 despite eagles at 13 and 15. A former dentist known as “Doc” on the tour and “methodical” to wire-service writers, he continued to pause annoyingly at the top of his swing. He seemed to find it impossible to bring the club down and through the ball until his caddie—a former dental assistant—hollered, “Now!”
Ernie Els, Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke, with 11 British Open wins among them, also caused a bit of a delay when Ernie made a 9 after six putts at the opening hole, half with the flagstick in and half with it out. Ernie regrouped somewhat and shot an 80, three behind Thomson and two behind Locke. Padraig Harrington, playing in the next group, shot a 70 and then babbled for 3 1/2 hours on why Augusta National would be an ideal venue for the Ryder Cup or the Olympics.
That was before the social-media firestorm that involved Lloyd Mangrum, who had a World War II flashback and hit Vijay Singh in the mouth with an ashtray and then pushed Dustin Johnson down the clubhouse stairs “because I felt like it.” Dustin landed at the feet of Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth, who all referred to Lloyd as Mr. Mangrum for the rest of the week. A writer for the Augusta Chronicle told Harry Vardon he was going to do a blog post on it all, and Harry said, “You're going to do a what?”
The Great Triumvirate pairing at 8:57 showcased the talents of Vardon, J.H. Taylor and James Braid. They were exceedingly popular with the dozens of fans who were bused in from retirement homes and assisted-living communities.
Illustrations by John Ritter
Braid's 70, Vardon's 71, and Taylor's 72 equaled the lowest rounds they had shot in British Opens while combining to win 16 of them from 1894–1914. Their scores were even more exceptional when you consider that the Augusta National was playing 1,000 yards longer than any course they had ever seen before. All three quickly gave credit to Big Boy, the new golf ball that gave them distances they'd never dreamed of.
Another entertaining group was that of Babe Zaharias, Mickey Wright and Patty Berg. While Mickey mostly chain-smoked and exhibited her picture-book swing, Babe and Patty chatted constantly.
It started on the first tee when Patty said, “Babe, I guess you'll be chasing that low hook of yours all day, huh?”
“It got me 10 majors, is all I know,” Babe said.
“Five less than me, of course,” Patty said.
Babe said, “Yeah, but think about how many more you and I could have won if we'd had some of those Evians and Inspirations to play for.”
Mickey's two-under 70 was one shot lower than Babe and Patty, and it didn't go unnoticed that the three women bettered several of the men, not the least of which were those in the United Nations pairing—Nick Faldo, the Brit; Seve Ballesteros, the Spaniard; and Bernhard Langer, the German. They all shot 74 in anybody's language.
Nor did it go unnoticed that Ballesteros was more irritated than the others with his round. As Seve walked off the last green, he was gesturing and mumbling, “The wind … the sand … the trees … the greens … the water.”
In the early afternoon, Byron's 68 was tied by Ben Crenshaw, Billy Casper and Horton Smith. They were playing together in a unique grouping of the world's greatest putters. They each one-putted 14 greens—Gentle Ben with his rear-shaft Armour rip-off, Buffalo Billy with his fat-head mallet, and the Joplin Ghost with his hickory-shaft blade.
It was late in the afternoon when the tournament lead wound up in the hands of Sam Snead. The Slammer shot a 67 while playing in a group with Jimmy Demaret and Lee Trevino. Shooting 69s, Demaret and Trevino also tied for Most Wisecracks During 18 Holes, and Snead's round not only gave him the lead, the press awarded him Most Unprintable Joke of the Day.
Brooks Koepka matched Snead's 67 but stomped off when no writers requested that he come to the interview room.
Lloyd Mangrum had a World War II flashback and hit Vijay Singh in the mouth with an ashtray and then pushed Dustin Johnson down the stairs because 'I felt like it.'
In a surprising development, the two featured groups failed to produce any fireworks, although they commanded the largest galleries.
Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Arnold Palmer all shot even-par 72, as did the final pairing of Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Jones insisted that “you can't swing the club too slowly,” and refused to say that it bothered him when Hagen kept stopping so often to smell the flowers, or when Palmer kept wandering into the crowds to see if anybody wanted another autograph.
Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods took the day in stride. Hogan said, “I pronated quite well most of the way, but I made four mistakes and will probably be hitting balls until midnight.”
Nicklaus said, “This competition is what it's all about, but I have a few changes I'd like to see made on the course.”
Playing with a broken leg, a torn rotator cuff and a very bad headache, Tiger said, “It is what it is.”
None of the six expressed concern over the five-stroke gap between them and Snead—especially after a sportswriter reminded them that Sam had led the first round of the U.S. Open on five occasions—1937, '39, '40, '46 and '51—but never won it.
Finally, the best newspaper lead of the day went to Leonard Crawley of London's Daily Telegraph. Crawley wrote:
Despite the abominable handling of the press luggage at the Augusta, Georgia, airport, Golf Digest's Greatest of All Time Invitational got off to a rather decent start yesterday.
• • •
SECOND-ROUND CRAZINESS
Friday was a day of confusion, rules decisions and a miracle shot. Lloyd Mangrum finished the day with a 64 but saw it turned into a 68 by Joseph C. Dey Jr. of the USGA, head of the Rules Committee.
Mangrum's four-stroke penalty was inflicted after the round because he had arrived eight minutes late for his tee time. His playing partners, Gene Littler and Lawson Little, also former U.S. Open champions, agreed that Mangrum was lucky not to be disqualified.
Darren Carroll
Mangrum and Dey exchanged words before a half-dozen members of the press outside the media building.
Dey said, “Lloyd, I saw you in the clubhouse. You were late because you refused to leave a gin game.”
Playing with a broken leg, a torn rotator cuff and a very bad headache, Tiger said, “It is what it is.”
Removing the cigarette holder from his lips, Mangrum said, “Yeah, well, I'll tell you one thing, Joe: You'd have been late, too, if you'd been trying to get off the schneid.”
Mangrum's 68 partly made up for his 76 in the first round, when he was given a two-stroke penalty for failing to mark his ball on the green before picking it up to blow a bug off of it. The irony of this wasn't lost on Mangrum. He had experienced a similar fate in the U.S. Open playoff with Hogan at Merion in 1950. One shot back of Ben with three holes to play, Mangrum had been struck with a two-stroke penalty on the 16th green for more or less the same violation.
Mangrum said, “Hell, I'm the guy who completed Hogan's comeback—and I still don't know if it was a real bug.”
Meanwhile, Arnold Palmer was aided by the rules in his round of 68 that briefly gave him the halfway lead at 140. Even though it hadn't rained in a month, officials suggested that Arnold invoke the embedded-ball rule when he missed the green at the sixth, 12th and 16th holes. Taking advantage of the rule, Palmer turned three double bogeys into pars. Ken Venturi, watching with Jim Nantz, had a coughing fit but walked away quietly.
The shot of the day belonged to Tiger Woods, who suffered a broken collarbone overnight and then failed to activate his glutes on the range. Paired with Bobby Jones, Tiger duplicated Gene Sarazen's double eagle at the 15th hole. It was “a shot heard round the world,” and one that got Tiger back to even par for the tournament. Whereas Sarazen in 1935 had hit a 4-wood from 235 yards away that landed on the front of the green and rolled directly into the cup, Tiger played it a little differently. He intentionally drove off the tee with a 3-iron to leave himself with the identical 235 yards to the flag, and then holed out his second shot with a sand wedge.
After the round, Bobby Jones said to the press, “Tiger plays a game with which I am even less familiar than I was with Jack Nicklaus' game.”
Those who followed the intellectual group of Phil Mickelson, Roberto De Vicenzo and Tommy Bolt witnessed a weird scene on the 18th hole. Mickelson needed a par 4 on the last hole to seize the tournament lead, but when he took his driver out of the bag, a Winged Foot member in the gallery yelled:
“No, Phil, no … not the driver!”
Ignoring the plea but sizing up the guy for a frozen-yogurt franchise, Mickelson proceeded to over-cut his tee shot and send it deep into the pines … into a horrible spot from where the best he could make was a double-bogey 6.
Tommy Bolt said, “Son, you ain't hit a fairway all day with that stick. If it was mine, it'd be climbin' a tree by now.”
Twenty minutes later in the scorer's tent, Mickelson wrongly totaled up Roberto's scorecard, giving him a 66 instead of a 65, and Roberto signed it. The mistake was quickly discovered by officials, and De Vicenzo was assessed the extra stroke.
“I am such an idiot,” Phil said.
“What a stupid I am,” said Roberto.
Bolt frowned at the scorecard, and said, “I don't see nothin' wrong. It's a perfect 6 and another perfect 6.”
Another incident was averted when Vijay Singh fled the locker room after Harvey Penick tossed Lloyd Mangrum an ashtray and advised him to “take dead aim.” Vijay's day took another bad turn when he got into an argument with Phil Mickelson, who was upset by the spike marks Vijay was leaving on the greens.
A writer for The Augusta Chronicle overheard them and told Harry Vardon he was going to do a podcast on it, and Harry said, “You're going to do a what?”
Sam Snead shot a 67, hitting all four par 5s in two and chipping in at No. 10. This gave him a halfway total of 134, 10 under, and three strokes better than Byron Nelson.
There was a huge group of glittering names at 142: Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Tiger Woods, Walter Hagen, Tom Watson, Harry Vardon, Lee Trevino and Gary Player. A sportswriter pointed out that they needn't worry about Snead's eight-stroke lead over them because Sam had three times been the 36-hole leader in a U.S. Open—in 1939, '40, and '48—but had never won it. Of his lead, Snead said, “I was just tryin' to make the cut.”
There was no cut, of course. The official conducting the interview told Sam as much. This tournament was like the old days at Augusta—everybody would play the full 72 holes.
“Well, heck dang shoot,” Sam said.
Something like that.
• • •
A SALTY SATURDAY
Things got tighter than a Phil Mickelson shirt on Saturday.
First of all, Snead drifted backward with a 75. He said he grew confused and lost concentration because he was never quite sure how he stood all day. Nobody in the gallery gave him any help reading the leader boards. This had happened to him a lot, he said, particularly in majors, and he was getting close to being hot about it. His 54-hole total was 209.
Byron Nelson also drifted back, although he did gain one shot on Snead. Nelson said his round would have been better if he hadn't been distracted by his pairing with the slow-playing, hair-combing Ralph Guldahl, who in 1938 became the last man to win the U.S. Open wearing a necktie. Another of Ralph's claims to fame.
Byron was reminded that they'd been schoolboy competitors when Nelson played for Fort Worth Poly High and Guldahl played for Dallas Woodrow Wilson High, and Ralph once dusted Byron, 6 and 5, in a match.
“It was the funniest thing,” Byron said. “Ralph and I decided we wanted to be pro golfers instead of baseball players when we were taken out to watch Walter Hagen win the National PGA at Cedar Crest Country Club in Dallas in 1927. It was a great experience, and it influenced both our lives.”
It's known that Ben Hogan of Fort Worth Paschal High would have gone to watch that PGA with them, but he was busy inventing practice.
Tom Watson shot a 69 and said, “I'm striking the ball pretty well. I don't expect to play any better than this until I'm close to 79 years old.”
There were some other headliners who didn't have it so good in Saturday's third round.
When Vijay Singh hit it into the pond at 11 and took a drop from knee height, Lloyd Mangrum took offense. Singh's jaw was still wired shut from the earlier altercation with Mangrum, and before Vijay could explain how the new rule works, Lloyd hit him with another ashtray.
Brooks Koepka shot a 75 and stomped off after giving a surprisingly good interview.
Jordan Spieth one-putted seven consecutive holes, which helped make up for the 7 he made at the 12th hole.
A number of players complained about the Poa annua. Not on the greens but on the clubhouse menu, where chef Thomas Keller had opened a new restaurant with Asian-fusion cuisine.
Lee Trevino shot a 76 after changing his shoes in the parking lot and hitting several shots with a Dr. Pepper bottle. He said he hadn't intended to give this tournament his best effort anyhow—the Augusta National had never suited his game.
“One year in the Masters,” Trevino said, “I even finished behind the peach cobbler.”
Harry Vardon apologized for his embarrassing 77 but said that Francis Ouimet, his playing partner, should take some responsibility for it. Ouimet, the amateur, kept distracting Vardon by bringing up an incident that occurred back in their past at The Country Club in Brookline.
Vardon made a confession in the interview area. He said he had not invented the overlapping grip, after all. He had simply borrowed it from a Scottish amateur named Johnny Laidlay, the real inventor. Vardon said he hadn't realized this until the other day, when he read it on Wikipedia.
Walter Hagen's bid faded with a 76. Which wasn't that bad a round considering that he barely made his tee time and played the entire 18 in his tuxedo. Walter had been to a black-tie party in connection with Greg Norman's wedding to one of the desperate housewives of Atlanta.
The two most exciting groups finished late in the day.
Those who followed Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods, all of whom shot 70, saw a curious mixture of shots. Hogan hit 16 fairways and 17 greens and two-putted for both of his birdies, at 13 and 15. Still playing hickory, Jones took advantage of the wind at his back and hit the par-5 second hole in two. After spraining an ankle on the practice green, Woods performed numerous feats on the course, saving pars from the eighth fairway at No. 1, from the third fairway at No. 2, from the third fairway again at No. 7, from the 13th fairway at No. 14, and from the 10th fairway at No. 18. He had 22 putts for the round.
The last group brought back memories of The Big Three of Golf when Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player each shot 66 and Arnold Palmer a 68 to tie for the lead.
Nicklaus said, “This is what it's all about.”
Palmer said, “This is what it used to be all about.”
Player was coming off of victories in the Nigerian Four-Ball and the Istanbul Classic and said a win the next day would be his third major in a row and 35th for his career, which would give him 17 more than Nicklaus.
The Big Three's total was only one ahead of Sam Snead, but it was a familiar stat that Sam had been only one stroke off the lead after 54 holes in five U.S. Opens—those of 1937, '39, '40, '47 and '53—but had never won.
The final round had all the elements of a thriller, what with Nicklaus, Palmer and Player at 208 and Snead, Nelson, Watson, Hogan, Jones and Tiger all within four of the lead.
Nevertheless, I was compelled to remind everyone in the press center that Golf Digest's Greatest of All Time Invitational never starts until the back nine on Sunday.
• • •
BIZARRE FINISH
Who knew?
That was the question fans and writers were asking themselves after all the surreal happenstances, or bizarre occurrences, if you will, that took place in the last round.
The first incident occurred when Bobby Jones tried to DQ himself after birdieing the first four holes of the last 18. Jones said he suddenly remembered that he had officially retired from competition earlier in the week, had accepted a handsome Hollywood contract to film short subjects, and was only playing in the first place to be amiable.
O.B. Keeler said he would write in the Atlanta Journal that it might have been “Bob's” finest hour, further revealing that Jones' closest friends, such as O.B., had always known Jones as Bob, not Bobby.
Augusta National's Fred Ridley gamely did his best to keep Jones in the field, invoking Augusta's little-known Rule 93.1 (a-z), referred to behind closed doors as We Do Whatever We Feel Like Doing. Using another little-known rule, Ridley banished CBS' Gary McCord “for thinking he's funny.”
Rory McIlroy got it going before hooking his tee shot at No. 10 through a cabin's kitchen window, causing an Augusta National member to spill coffee on his green jacket.
The only drama was whether Tiger could match Hogan's 3 and tie him as the stroke-play medalist.
Byron Nelson suffered a double dose of bad luck that might have cost him the tournament. After Byron drove into the rough at the 15th hole, his caddie accidentally kicked the ball while trying to find it. The result was a one-stroke penalty.
“It was the funniest thing,” Nelson said. “I lost the '46 National Open at Canterbury when the same thing happened to me.”
Then another memory came back to haunt Byron at 18. He drove in the right rough, but before he reached his ball, a golf cart carrying TV technicians ran over it and made it virtually unplayable. He was denied a free drop by a stern rules official on the scene and made another bogey.
It was Pomonok all over again, Byron said. Pomonok was the course that staged the 1939 PGA in Flushing, N.Y., a major that was played in conjunction with the New York World's Fair. Nelson and Henry Picard went to the 37th hole in the final when Byron drove in the fairway and Picard's tee shot wound up in the deep rough. Advantage, Byron. But a newsreel camera truck drove over Picard's ball, and Henry was given a free drop into a clean lie. Nelson knocked his second shot inside Picard's approach, but Henry made his putt and Byron missed.
Despite his bad luck at Augusta, Byron posted a 69, but he doubted it would hold up with so many good players still on the course.
Snead came to the 18th and met with a brutal catastrophe. As he stood on the tee, everyone knew that he needed only a par for the lead, and a bogey to tie Nelson. Well, everyone but Sam. He believed he needed a birdie.
Whereupon Snead hooked his drive into the pines, hit his second into a bunker, left his third in the bunker, punched his fourth into another bunker, wedged onto the green in 5 and three-putted for a disastrous 8.
“Some of that seemed kind of familiar,” Sam said afterward.
Arnold Palmer's fate, while incredulous, wasn't quite as tragic.
Palmer, the man who married golf to television and took the game to the people, looked like a lock to par 18 for a win at 278. His drive was perfect, and there he stood with only a 7-iron to the green.
What happened next was a bad dream for Arnie and his army. He uncharacteristically chucked his approach shot into a greenside bunker, bladed it across the green, and three-putted for a double-bogey 6 that left him tied for the lead.
Palmer managed to laugh at his calamity and said, “You're telling me I messed up like that and Gary didn't win again?”
Nicklaus got hot on the back nine, as he had so many times before on this course, and he needed to do exactly that. Short putts lipped out on the front, but Jack birdied the 13th and 15th, then birdied the 16th with a 30-foot putt.
This was Nicklaus roaring back. Nicklaus at Augusta in '72 and '75, Nicklaus at Baltusrol in '80. Nicklaus at Augusta again in '86. Even Nicklaus trying to save that Slam at Muirfield in '72.
Jack narrowly missed a 10-foot birdie at 17 but drove perfectly up the fairway at 18 and nailed an 8-iron to within seven feet of the cup for a birdie try that would give him a 71 and perhaps victory at 279.
Nicklaus studied the putt carefully and gave it a perfect stroke. The ball went straight into the cup—but mysteriously kept going, like it had merely crossed a bridge of some kind. The ball wound up four inches directly behind the cup. No win. Nicklaus was stunned. So was the crowd.
“Muirfield,” I said to a young writer standing next to me. “Fifteenth hole, 1972. British Open. Last round. Same putt. Would have put him at seven under. The ball didn't hit anything but air. Cost him the Slam.”
“Huh,” the young writer said, and moved away as politely as possible, rolling his eyes.
The last two players on the course, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods, paired together, came to the final hole.
Hogan had hit 17 fairways and 17 greens in regulation. He'd laid up on the four par 5s but birdied three of them by pitching to within four feet of the flag. He'd also birdied the dangerous 12th with a 7-iron to two feet.
Tiger had hit 17 greens but only three fairways. This was remarkable because Tiger had a back operation the previous night to replace his sixth, seventh and eighth vertebrae. He had chipped in for an eagle at the eighth, using a 3-wood off the fringe, and his sand wedge had provided his hole-in-one at No. 12.
Later, Tiger would reveal that when he and Hogan were walking to the 13th tee after his spectacular ace and Ben's birdie, Hogan had said, “That's the first 2 I've made there in a while.”
On the last hole, Hogan drove into the center of the fairway, placed an 8-iron absolutely stiff for a kick-in birdie, a closing 67, and 279. The only drama was whether Tiger could match Hogan's 3.
Woods made it hard on himself, as usual. His wild drive went through the pines on the right and into the 10th fairway. His long second shot soared over everything and landed on the clubhouse veranda, but the ball hit a chair at a table of people having cocktails and miraculously wound up down on the edge of the green some 60 feet from the cup.
Always a fighter, Tiger rapped a putt to tie that slowly curled its way down a slope, slowed toward the cup, and barely lipped out of the hole just as he was punching the air with his fist.
On the telecast, Henry Longhurst said, “Ah, yes. There you have it.” Brandel Chamblee blamed a swing change Tiger made before the round, and Johnny Miller compared Hogan's round to his 63 at Oakmont.
It was the first 60-foot putt Tiger had missed in four years.
And it left Ben Hogan the winner.
On the telecast, Henry Longhurst said, “Ah, yes. There you have it.” Brandel Chamblee blamed a swing change Tiger made before the round, and Johnny Miller compared Hogan's round to his 63 at Oakmont.
Hogan made a memorable remark at the presentation ceremony, He said, “I'm glad I could bring this monster to his knees. The course, too.”
Everyone in the press center agreed that Grantland Rice wrote the best story of the finish. His lead read:
Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, although it's April, the Four Horsemen rode again, although they're golfers this time. In dramatic lore, they were known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Wee Icemon, the Hawk and Bantam Ben Hogan. … Wait, I guess there are only three, actually.
FAILED TO QUALIFY FOR MATCH PLAY: Willie Anderson, Tommy Armour, Jim Barnes, Patty Berg, Tommy Bolt, Julius Boros, James Braid, Henry Cotton, Ben Crenshaw, Roberto De Vicenzo, Chick Evans, Ralph Guldahl, Padraig Harrington, Tom Kite, Lawson Little, Gene Littler, Nancy Lopez, Lloyd Mangrum, John J. McDermott, Cary Middlecoff, Larry Nelson, Francis Ouimet, Willie Park Sr., Nick Price, Ted Ray, Justin Rose, Paul Runyan, Denny Shute, Vijay Singh, Horton Smith, Annika Sorenstam, Curtis Strange, Payne Stewart, J.H. Taylor, Justin Thomas, Lanny Wadkins, Bubba Watson, Kathy Whitworth, Craig Wood, Babe Zaharias.
HONORARY STARTERS: Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris.