Royal Birkdale Open Champions, 1954 – 2017
“I play for championships, not for money.” – Arnold Palmer
Royal Birkdale threw its entire arsenal of golf horrors at the 1961 Open Championship field. Arnold Palmer, 32-years old, two-time Masters champion (1958, 1960) and U.S. Open champion (1960) was up to the challenge of howling, gale-force wind, torrential rain, and that nasty willow scrub that lurked just beyond the short grass.
Arnie made adjustments to his game. He pulled out his 1-iron and, keeping the ball low and out of the wind, began hitting bullets that were flying waist-high, under the wind, with just enough spin to bite.
Playing in high wind during the second round, Palmer’s power proved invaluable and his 73 got him to within one shot of the lead. On the third day the rains came, torrential rains that threatened to end The Open.
Palmer, who vowed that he was ready to play under any condition, even if he had to do so from a rowboat, later recalled,
"I wanted this championship more than anything in my life but anything you want real bad is awfully hard to get."
The weather finally relented and play resumed, with officials sometimes using blankets to blot the greens dry enough to accept a proper putt. Palmer, Dai Rees, and Kel Nagle began to battle in earnest and Palmer’s shotmaking skill took center stage, in the moment and in memory.
At the 16th Arnie hooked his drive, played back to safety over a sand hill, then hit to the green with his 5-iron. The shot was a bit thin, ran over the green, up a small hill, and came to rest behind a small bush. Palmer spent some time looking over his situation, detected a small opening in the bush, about the size of a football, and decided to go for it with his wedge. It was the kind of go-for-broke kind of shot that became Arnold Palmer’s signature. The ball popped through the opening, made the green, and rolled to within 18 inches of the cup.
The battle went to the final round, where Arnie again delivered one his signature Hail Mary shots when he powered through a blackberry bush thicket with his 6-iron and managed to send his ball 150 yards to a narrow green fully protected by bunkers.
Past Open Champion Sir Henry Cotton, who watched it happen, described what Palmer executed as “one of the greatest shots ever.”
At that point, only Rees was close and even with birdies at 16 and 18 he wasn’t able to catch Arnold Palmer who finished at 4-under par and one shot clear of the closest in the field. One shot was all it took!
Palmer successfully defended his Open Championship title the following year at Royal Troon with an eye-stopping 14-under par final score.