Sarazen St. Andrews 1962- A video clip

[Neil Regan]

Gene Sarazen plays a favorite GCA shot on the Old Course, 1962

"Sarazen's taking a lot of time for Sarazen with his ticklish wedge shot..."

A clip from Shell's Wonderful World of Golf

from

Sarazen vs. Cotton



What hole is this ?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

 Neil,
It looks to me that he's on #7 or 11, playing a shot up short left of  You can see Shell bunker in the background, and the pin looks to have been playing extreme right for #11 or extreme left for #7.

Something like that. But my guess is he is on 11.

[mike_beene]

Since he made 3 ,probably 11.The river is behind.It's raining so probably didn't drive it there on 7,even with the small ball.Is that a little shed in the background?Wonder when it was removed?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

That shed is an old rain shelter. They have a few of them around the course hidden in the gorse between the New Course and the Old.

[JBergan]

Interesting to look at the list of videos for sale.  All the ones from the 1960's are from the world's great golf courses, all the modern ones (well, almost) - the more modern broadcast, the more so - the great real estate and ego courses of the modern era.

Jasna effin' Polana???

Where did they cross the line from great courses to "let's sell some real estate and memberships"?  Mickelson v. Monty at Cordillera?

[Steve_ Shaffer]

The answer is: $$$$$

The Cordillera's of the world pay "promotional fees" to have their development course showcased.

There was talk of a Tiger Woods v. Jack Nicklaus match at Merion a few years ago. Never happened. Wouldn't that have been neat?

[Bill_McBride]

If that was indeed #11 (and not sure what else it could be with the river behind and an up and down 3), they must have pulled the pin on #7 after playing the hole earlier.  I guess just Sarazen and Cotton were out there playing.  In those days the camera setups took forever, so the course most likely was closed.

[peter_p]

One clue is the red flag. It's the returning nine. I just watched my tape and it is #11. Sarazen tried to keep his long iron low and hooked it.

[Rick Shefchik]

Just a shot in the dark here, but wouldn't the ratings for a Woods-Nicklaus (or Woods-Mickelson) match at Merion be just as high, if not higher, than those hokey Battle at the Bridges snoozers?

Of course you can't expect Merion to underwrite a match like that, as a CCFAD would do eagerly, but the bottom line for TV is still ratings.

That's why Shell and ABC put Snead, Hogan, Sarazan, Nicklaus and Nelson on those great courses in the first place, because they knew golf fans would love to watch. Hell, I watched those matches when I was 12 years old.

Give the public the right players on the right course and the same thing would be true today. I'd bet Tiger vs. Phil at Merion, or Cypress, or Seminole, or NGLA, would blow the Battle at the Bridges out of the water, ratings-wise -- even if you had to tape-delay the thing for primetime (that's what they do for day two of the Skins, and they still get an audience after all these years.)
 

[PThomas]

Rick -- good points...those Battle at Bighorns were okay in the beginning, but not now ...dull golf and they take SO LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.....

imagine a $1 million, winner take all FOR CHARITY with TIger v. Phil at Seminole or PV or .....

[mike_beene]

I am afraid the majority of the viewers would say "this Merion course is OK but to bad they couldn't afford a good course like bighorn"