15-05-2025
50 years ago Jack Nicklaus, tangled with Firestone before winning PGA Championship
50 years ago Jack Nicklaus, tangled with Firestone before winning PGA Championship
Jack Nicklaus's affection for Firestone Country Club knew no bounds. He turned the club's South Course into his personal playground, winning seven of his 73 career PGA Tour titles there, none more memorable than the 1975 PGA Championship.
"I wanted this one badly," Nicklaus said. "Playing so close to home, you feel the weight of every shot."
A native Ohioan, Nicklaus won at Firestone more than he did at Augusta National, but his win total was topped by Tiger Woods, who captured eight victories there before the course shifted to hosting a PGA Tour Champions event, the Kaulig Companies Championship. In 2018, Nicklaus joked that if he had known Tiger would surpass his win total there, he would have teed it up more at the historic venue.
Why did Nicklaus own such an impressive record at Firestone, regarded as one of the fiercest tests in golf? He credited a comfort level at Ohio courses, calling it a course that demanded long drives and a precise iron game, which favored his strengths, and an uptick in support.
'I enjoyed playing in front of family, in front of friends, and close to home,' he said. 'And that's where I started.'
Firestone was where Nicklaus first became acquainted with the professional tournament game, at the age of 18, making his PGA Tour debut at the 1958 Rubber City Open. That week, Nicklaus and his then girlfriend, now longtime wife, Barbara, drove every day to Akron and back to Columbus, Ohio, where they were students at Ohio State University.
'We drove about an hour and 45 minutes every day,' Nicklaus said. 'I couldn't stay up there with her. Yeah, that was not acceptable.'
It was practically unheard of how well he played as a teen against the pros, a harbinger of what was to come. Nicklaus raced out of the gates with rounds of 67-66 at the par-70 layout and sat in third place behind Art Wall and reigning U.S. Open champion Tommy Bolt, who taught Nicklaus a lesson in the art of gamesmanship the next day when they were paired together.
'He put his arm around me as we walked off the first tee and said, 'Jack, don't you worry about anything, old Tommy will take care of you out here.' He was giving me the old needle to get rid of young kids,' Nicklaus said. 'I proceeded to miss a bunch of short putts and I shot 41 on the front nine and Tommy never bothered to put his arm around my shoulder again. … I shot 76.'
Nicklaus fired a closing 68, playing with Julius Boros, another future member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, and finishing 15th. Nicklaus resumed his college and amateur career with a boost of confidence.
'The impression I took was that I probably could survive in that arena if I wanted to, and that I would probably enjoy it if I ever made such a decision,' he recalled. 'I learned that golf was really a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed playing with those guys and that I wanted to get better at the game, so I could compete against them.'
By the 1975 PGA Championship, Nicklaus already was 35 years old and had won a major in the Buckeye state, victorious at the 1973 PGA Championship at Canterbury Golf Club. Seventeen years after his Tour debut in the 'Rubber City' and 13 triumphs in the majors later, Nicklaus was licking his chops to play at Firestone, the 7,180-yard host of the 57th PGA Championship and site of a major for the third time in 15 years.
Robert Trent Jones Sr. had renovated the famed layout ahead of hosting the 1960 PGA Championship and Nicklaus had underwhelmed in finishing T-22 at the 1966 PGA there. He'd already won the World Series of Golf four times as well as the American Golf Classic here. With opening rounds of 70 and 68, Nicklaus trailed Bruce Crampton, who was forced to leave the tour for six weeks earlier in the year with a back injury, by four shots. Seventy-one players made the weekend at 8-over 148 and were chasing Crampton, who stood at 6-under 134. The wiry Australian's second-round 63 at the narrow, tree-lined layout set the Firestone (South) course record and at the time established the lowest round in Championship history.
'It's an honor to be leading the PGA Championship,' Crampton said. 'I just wish it was Sunday night and I had a three-stroke lead. That about sums it up.'
But on Saturday, Crampton's game returned to Earth and Nicklaus made his move. He picked up five shots in the first seven holes, including rolling in a 25-foot birdie at the par-3 seventh, to assume the lead and never relinquished it. But there was at least one dicey moment that nearly flipped the tournament on its head.
'I think the memory that sticks out most is making a par at 16, when it didn't look like I would,' Nicklaus said.
That's because his drive during the third round at the 625-yard, par-5, known for its relentless length and difficulty, steered left and into a creek and resulted in a one-stroke penalty. Arnold Palmer had carded a disastrous triple bogey at the hole during the 1960 PGA, earning the nickname the 'Monster,' and a plaque is positioned on the bridge near the 16th green in honor of Palmer's playful moniker. Would the Monster sink its teeth into Nicklaus after he dropped near the water, and spoil his pursuit of victory too?
'It's a little dish over there,' Nicklaus said. 'All I could do was hit it out to the right.'
Unfortunately, his 6-iron flew too far right and his third shot strayed into more trouble, coming to rest behind a looming maple tree 135 yards out. Nicklaus faced a daunting task for his fourth shot on the hole. He had to hoist his ball over the 30-foot-tall tree from a spot of bother and carry the pond fronting the turtle-shell shaped green. Nicklaus could hear ABC's Bob Rosberg, the former PGA Championship winner, whispering his commentary. 'I overheard him say, 'Well, he's dead here; He's got absolutely no chance. I don't know what he's going to do.' And I went ahead and just hit it right over the top of the tree, on the green,' Nicklaus recalled.
Chris Schenkel, ABC's lead commentator in the booth, was duly impressed, especially after Nicklaus poured in the 30-foot putt for an improbable par. 'Jack Nicklaus has just demonstrated what separates him from other golfers,' he said.
Nicklaus charged ahead with a 67, while Crampton soared to 75 for an eight-shot swing, giving Nicklaus a four-shot lead going into the final round. Spotting the Golden Bear that big of a lead usually didn't end well for his competitors.
After an up-and-down beginning with two bogeys and a birdie in his first three holes, Nicklaus skated along with a string of pars and added a birdie at No. 11. Nicklaus sank a 20-foot birdie at 15 while Crampton took three putts at 15, missing from less than 3 feet for par, when he could ill afford it. That stretched the lead back to four strokes and sealed the deal for Nicklaus. A double bogey at the last just trimmed the final margin to two, leaving Crampton a bridesmaid to Nicklaus for the fourth time in a major.
'We all suffer from human deficiencies; Jack Nicklaus just suffers from fewer of them,' said Crampton, who would win 14 Tour titles and another 20 times on the Champions Tour. 'He wouldn't have made a six at the last hole if he'd needed something better.'
Nicklaus was asked by Golf Digest's Dan Jenkins if that were true, what Crampton had said.
'I wouldn't have,' he said, winking.
A Hall of Fame cast, including, fellow Buckeye Tom Weiskopf, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin, Gene Littler and Tom Watson, all made runs at the title but came up short, finishing in the top 10.
Nicklaus signed for a final-round 71 and a 72-hole total of 4-under 276, pushing his string of PGA Championship victories to four — one shy of Walter Hagen's record, which he'd tie in 1980 – and his 14th career major title at the time. It capped off a major season in which he also won the Masters and lost the U.S. and British Opens by a total of three strokes. In case anyone needed to be reminded that Nicklaus was in a class by himself, he served notice once more.
'On the golf course, Jack reminds me of the eye of a storm,' his longtime caddie Angelo Argea once wrote. 'While all around him nerves are splintering and egos are being shattered, he is incredibly calm, at peace with himself in the knowledge of his ability and his past achievements, and in the knowledge that, win or lose, life will go on.'
Sons Steve and Jackie joined Barbara on the green for a family picture with the Wanamaker Trophy. During his acceptance speech, Nicklaus thanked officials, sponsors, the superintendent, fans and then Argea, who was raised 15 miles away in Canton and learned to caddie at a nearby course. Argea strutted out on the green, waving to the spectators and went to grab the microphone from Nicklaus, who whispered to him to take a seat.
'I don't have to tell you that I turned the color of an over-ripe tomato injected with Red Dye No. 2,' he recalled in his autobiography 'The Bear and I.'
This was Nicklaus's moment to take a bow and 50 years later he hasn't forgotten the time a Golden Bear handled the Monster and roared to victory at the 1975 PGA Championship.
