How quick they forget ???

[Matt_Ward]

It amazed me with this year's Masters how CBS made it a point at the very end of the telecast (ditto ESPN) to say that Phil's final biride on #18 was only the fifth time a Masters champion needed to birdie the last hole to win.

They listed the following:

1960 -- Arnold Palmer
1978 -- Gary Player
1988 -- Sandy Lyle
1998 -- Mark O'Meara

Only one small problem -- Art Wall did it first in 1959 when he birdied five of the last six holes -- including the 18th hole to win by a stroke over Dr. Cary Middlecoff. How quick they forget ...

[Jim_Kennedy]

Matt,
No one forgot, you're just mistaken. Wall's accomplishment was tremendous but although he birdied the last hole and won, Middlecoff and Leonard were still on the course. Middlecoff could have caught Wall if he birdied 16, 17 or 18.
 

[SPDB]

How soon they remember, it would seem.

[TEPaul]

Matt:

Isn't that just the damn end of the world that they'd forget to mention something that important? The sun may not rise tommorow on CBS in NYC! What do you think should become of them? Is a year's suspension from the Masters by ANGC too lenient? Do you think the governement cancelling their network status would be too harsh?

[Brad Klein]

Matt, they left off Player from their list, even though Gary Player won the 1978 Masters by birdieing the last hole - though there were still an hour's worth of groups on the course.

The TV guys are intent on inventing a new category of win, so they've restricted their list to AP in 1960, Sandy Lyle in 1988, Mark O'Meara in 1998 and now Mickelson in 2004:

The walk-off birdie.

Ugh. Let's hope they fail in this effort.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Brad,
Just another reason why you should be resurrecting you T.V. column!

[Robert_Walker]

I anin't know grammer expert or nothing, but I no that the title of this thread ought to be "How quickly they forgot", as we are talking pass tins, and an A-D-V-E-R-B should have been used instead of an A-D-J-E-C-T-I-V-E.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Brad,
Why do you hope the effort fails? Isn't it worth a notice, as was seen in Golfweek's Final-Round Glance: "Mickelson became the fourth player in 68 years to win the Masters with a birdie on the final shot of regulation."?
I don't think the feat stacks up against Art Wall's stellar play in winning, but where's the harm in creating another category of trivia at a tournament which has been held at the same venue for the past 70 years?

[DMoriarty]

Art Wall?   He hasnt earned a mention with those greats.  He couldnt break 80 from the members tees at Winged Foot or Baltusrol . . .

[Jim_Kennedy]

DMoriarty,

Sandy Lyle- 1 B.O, 1 Masters, 3 PGA Tour and 16 international wins. 5 Ryder Cup appearances.

Mark O'Meara- 1 B.O., 1 Masters, 14 PGA Tour and 7 international wins. 5 Ryder cup appearances.  

Art Wall- 1 Masters, 14 PGA Tour wins and 3 Ryder cup appearances. He also won the Vardon trophy in '59.

He must have broke 80 several times.