Nick Price and Gary Player honored at St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame

 

Next up on golf's major championship menu is the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. And like the recently completed Masters Tournament, the national championship entertains the possibility of a career Grand Slam being consummated.

 

At the Masters, Rory McIlroy had the chance. McIlroy has won the U.S. and British Opens, as well as the PGA Championship. If he can add a Masters he will join the Fab Five to capture all four majors in their careers – Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

 

McIlroy's pursuit was a big story coming into Masters week, but Jordan Spieth was the story coming out.

 

At the U.S. Open on Puget Sound in Washington, Phil Mickelson once again has the slam in play. When Mickelson won the 2013 British Open, it gave him three of the majors and left the U.S. Open as the missing link. Problem is, it's the U.S. Open, where Mickelson has finished second six times, where he always stays at Heartbreak Hotel.

 

In his first attempt at the "improbable quadrilateral" last June, he finished 28th at Pinehurst. If he can get over the hump at Chambers Bay, he will become the sixth member of Grand Slamma Jamma.

 

The circumstances in this year are especially appropriate for St. Louis. The 2015 U.S. Open marks the 50th anniversary of the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive Country Club. That championship was unique in a number of ways, and the last U.S. Open to be conducted in our town.

 

Most prominently, it was where Player made the final installment on his Grand Slam and secured his place among the greats of the game. To that end, Greg Maracek's St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame will recognize Player and that historic week when it presents "The Legends of Golf" program Monday at Chaminade Prep.

 

Along with Player and Bellerive, the awards show also will honor Nick Price, who made the 1992 PGA Championship at Bellerive the first of his three major titles. Longtime St. Louis golf professional Dick Shapier also will be recognized. All will be on hand to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. In addition, the Jay Randolph Achievement Awards will be presented to local players who have won area golf association events over the past year.

 

The event will take place in the Skip Viragh Performing Arts Theater on the Chaminade campus. Tickets range from $40 to $125, available at stlshof.com or (314) 993-4400, ext. 1302.

 

Player and Price were in town after competing at the Champions Tour Legends of Golf event in Branson, Mo. over the weekend. At 79, Player remains devoted to fitness and conditioning and looks remarkable. Perhaps he will wear the same shirt he wore at Bellerive in 1965 – the one he washed in his hotel room each night – the one he wore each day of the competition.

 

The Bellerive course was just more than five years old when the national championship came calling in '65. Once located on the grounds occupied by the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the club moved to its present location at Ladue and Mason roads in 1960.

 

Highly regarded architect Robert Trent Jones designed the new layout, with long, turning fairways and humongous greens. It would take years for the grounds to mature. In '65, some fairways still looked like rippled washboards, as the lines of new turf were still filling in.

 

The course was set up at 7,191 yards, the longest in championship history to that point. But it didn't play especially long. As is often the case here in June, the conditions were hot and parched that week. Covering the event for the Los Angeles Times, legendary correspondent Jim Murray called the environment "18 holes of capital punishment."

 

Player had won the 1961 Masters, 1959 British Open and 1962 PGA Championship when he came to Bellerive. Two months earlier, he had tied for second at the '65 Masters, a distant nine shots behind Nicklaus. He credits his longtime rival and friend for getting him focused on Bellerive.

 

"I have to give Jack a lot of credit for my win because he told me, 'If you want to win, you better come with me a week early and get in a practice round and familiarize yourself with the golf course,' " Player recalled when he was in town a few years ago. "I didn't normally do that and I wasn't planning on getting there that early. But I took his advice and it really wound up working to my advantage."

 

Along with the historic nature of Player's performance, a number of things made that '65 U.S. Open special. To that time, the USGA jewel was conducted over three days, featuring a 36-hole finish on Saturday. The marathon finale often produced roller-coaster drama and come-from-behind stories. Ken Venturi's epic 1964 win in the heat at Congressional was a prime example.

 

But for a number of reasons, not the least of which was television, the USGA adopted a new four-day format at Bellerive, featuring the 18-hole finale Sunday. Moreover, the '65 U.S. Open was the first golf tournament to be televised in color.

 

Coincidentally, St. Louis Country Club had conducted the first televised U.S. Open in 1947. At that time, KSD (Channel 5) had one camera involved, located on a truck behind the 18th green, sending images to the station via telephone wires. At Bellerive, the production included 75 people and more than a dozen cameras.

 

In those days, the USGA required competitors to use local caddies for the championship. Player's looper was Frank Pagel, a 16-year-old sophomore at now-defunct Mercy High. Player required Pagel to carry a jar of honey in the bag, which Player used to deal with the oppressive heat.

 

"Every two or three holes or so, he would take a swig of the honey," Pagel recalled years later.

 

The 29-year-old Player had a three-shot lead over Australian Kel Nagle with three holes to play. Nagle, who passed away last January at the age of 94, was the 1960 British Open winner. When Player double-bogeyed the par-3 16th, Nagle birdied No. 17 to create a three-shot swing in one fell swoop. Both finished at 2-over-par 282 to force a Monday playoff.

 

If you listen closely, you can still hear the moans coming from the press tent.

 

The 18-hole extra proved anticlimactic. An erratic Nagle hooked a drive on No. 5 that bloodied the forehead of an unsuspecting woman. Rattled by the scene, Nagle hit a spectator in the leg with his next shot and made a double bogey on the hole.

 

Wearing that shirt for a fifth consecutive day, Player birdied three of the first eight and led by five at the turn. The ballgame was over and the South African became the first foreign-born player to win the U.S. Open in 38 years, Even more noteworthy, he became only the third player at the time – with Sarazen and Hogan – to complete the Slam.

 

One of sports' greatest gentlemen, Player donated $5,000 of his $25,000 first-place check to cancer research (his mother died of cancer) and the rest to the USGA to advance junior golf. Player also tipped Pagel $2,000, which had an income value of close to $30,000 by today's standards. Pagel used the money to purchase a motorcycle so he wouldn't have to thumb it to Bellerive anymore.

 

No doubt Pagel's motorcycle is long gone. But 50 years later, Player is still going strong. It will be great to see him again. Maybe he'll be wearing the same shirt.

 

This article was written by Dan O'Neill from St. Louis Post-Dispatch and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.