35 Years Ago-- Calvin Peete
The 2020 PLAYERS Championship is the 35th anniversary of one of the most prolific winners of the 1980s, Calvin Peete. His career is highlighted by his 1985 PLAYERS victory. Regarded as a bridge between African-American golfers Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder to Tiger Woods, Peete set several professional marks that are still unmatched.
He was known for his accuracy and won the Driving Accuracy category of the PGA TOUR nine seasons in a row, from 1981 through 1990. In addition, he led the stats in greens in regulation from 1981-1983, taking over from Jack Nicklaus, who won that category in 1980. Peete also won the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America and the Byron Nelson Award from the PGA TOUR, both for low scoring average.
At THE PLAYERS in 1985, he set a 72-hole scoring record of 274. It held for three years, until Mark McCumber shot 273 in 1988.
30 Years Ago – Jodie Mudd – 278
Jodie Mudd had his best year in 1990, when he beat reigning British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia by one shot to win THE PLAYERS.
It was one of those rain-interrupted years. On Saturday, the weather came in around 1:45 p.m. and washed out golf for the day, even though the leaders had only played four holes. Those who had not finished their third rounds had to come back on Sunday morning and pick up where they left off, starting around 6:15 a.m.
The leaders finished up and the final round began and concluded on Sunday with the last groups playing 40 holes of golf.
“I really can’t believe it,” Mudd said after winning. “My game just does not lend itself to this golf course.”
Like Rory McIlroy in 2019, Mudd also won the Tour Championship that same season.
25 Years Ago -- Lee Janzen – 283
Lee “Mr. Kleenex” Janzen won THE PLAYERS for the first time two years after his first U.S. Open victory. Janzen, in case you did not know, tears up when he wins. Every time. Like Bubba Watson.
While Janzen beat the best field all year, he didn’t battle just anybody on the way to the title. In second place that year was Bernhard Langer, one of the most tenacious competitors ever to play the game. Janzen made a five-footer for par on the final hole to capture the 1995 PLAYERS Championship.
Course conditions were called severe by some, with the greens rock hard, a reaction to 1994 when Greg Norman set a course record of 24-under par in wet conditions and the greens were like sponges.
20 Years Ago -- Hal Sutton -- 278
Hal Sutton is one of few golfers to win The Players twice. His second victory in 2000 was over none other than Tiger Woods. Woods had already won the Tournament of Champions and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am that year, the latter with a stunning seven-shot, come-from-behind victory. Woods was coming off a previous season when he had won eight times. Suffice it to say, PGA TOUR pros had a hard time beating him. He was at his peak.
Sutton decided not to be defeatist.
“I have only played with Tiger once this year, first two rounds at Los Angeles,” he said during THE PLAYERS. “And I felt like it was important that I send a message to me and him in those two rounds, you know. One, that I could beat him, playing with him; and two, that he knew that I could beat him playing with him.”
And at THE PLAYERS, he did.
After hitting his second shot on 18, Sutton famously shouted: “Be the right club today!”
15 Years Ago -- Fred Funk -- 279
A local resident at the time, Fred Funk became everyman’s golf hero with his victory at THE PLAYERS in 2005. He wasn’t long. He wasn’t a big man. And he was able to turn back time to win the most lucrative tournament against the toughest field all season. At age 48, he also became the oldest champion.
Weather played havoc with the schedule that year. Play was suspended on Sunday. The final round was pushed to Monday. Funk had to play 32 holes in winds that gusted to 35 mph. The average score for the field that day was the highest for the entire year of any tournament on the PGA Tour. It was 76.897.
“I knew I was playing good, but I didn't know I was going to be in position to do this until the back nine. And I hung on there, barely,” he admitted after the victory. “I felt kind of like Herbie the Volkswagen, The Love Bug, because I'm just out there just hitting my little pea shooters, and the bombers are going 40 by me, everybody I was playing with.”
10 Years Ago -- Tim Clark -- 272
Tim Clark was winless on the PGA TOUR until he won THE PLAYERS in 2010. He captured the title in fine fashion. His final 18 holes were bogey free, and he had only four bogeys for the entire week. He credited his green-reading ability.
Before winning THE PLAYERS, Clark considered his most important victory as the U.S. Public Links, a USGA event that is no longer played.
“That qualified me for the Masters, as an amateur. And to this day that's still probably the highlight of my career is playing Augusta as an amateur,” he said.
“I think at the end of the day, these are tournaments that you do judge your career on, THE PLAYERS Championship and majors,” he added. “If I go on and win some majors, that will probably define my career. If I win eight or nine Tour events, it's not going to probably change me a whole lot. I'll drive nicer cars, though.”
5 Years Ago -- Rickie Fowler 276
Rickie Fowler stunned golf fans with the courageous golf shots he hit, including the final tee shot in the playoff at the 17th hole to win THE PLAYERS in sudden death over Kevin Kisner in 2015.
At the beginning of the final round, Fowler was so far back that his family left for the airport while he was on the golf course. But when he finished birdie-par-birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie, he vaulted into a lead that only two other players could equal, Kisner and Sergio Garcia.
The trio started the first ever three-hole, overtime, cumulative-score playoff. At the end of three holes, Garcia was behind the other two and dropped out. At that point Fowler and Kisner went to sudden death starting at the 17th. There, Fowler hit an amazing shot to within five feet of the hole, and Kisner’s was 12 feet. Kisner missed his putt and Fowler made his, sealing his biggest victory to date.
“I feel like I look at this event as basically like a major. It has the major feel, obviously one of the best fields we play all year, on a tough golf course,” he said. ‘”Being that I was able to get the job done here, especially in a playoff and when it really mattered, it's just going to give me added confidence and belief in myself going forward.”
