1912 champion Ted Ray beats four-time champion Walter Hagen in a playoff
Perhaps it’s appropriate as an event as closely contested all week should come down to a pair of shots on a single hole. That’s what happened at the virtual British Open contested in cyberspace at Royal St. George’s.
In the end, Ted Ray, Open champion in 1912 and in 1920 a U.S. Open champion as well, emerged holding the Claret Jug. But to claim that prize, Ray had to hold off final-round charges by some of the game’s immortals, and then fight through an 18-hole playoff with one of them, American Walter Hagen.
Ray shot a final round of 69 for a four-round total of 263, tying Hagen, who began Sunday’s play two strokes behind his rival. In the playoff, the combatants reached the 17th hole, a 424-yard par 4, dead even, each at 3-under par. But Ray’s booming drive found the center of the fairway while Hagen’s rolled into the tangly seaside rough. While Hagen was forced to hack out and accept a bogey, Ray laid his iron within four feet of the flag and took a birdie that gave him the decisive two-stroke lead.
The playoff only concluded a Sunday that began with nine players shoehorned within six strokes of Ray’s lead. In measurable respects, the champion played his most conservative golf of the week protecting that lead, sitting at 1-over for the round through 10 holes and peering over his shoulder to see whether anybody was gaining on him.
A few made runs, but most started too far back to get in serious touch. Those included Tiger Woods, who began play Sunday a dozen strokes behind Ray. Woods eagled the par 5 seventh, played the four-hole stretch between eight and 11 in 3-under par and birdied three of his final four holes. It all added up to a 64 and a total of 270, but that was only good for a tie for 11th place.
Harry Vardon, the great turn-of-the-century six-time British Open champion, made perhaps the most serious charge. Vardon played bogey-free golf and his six birdies moved him within three strokes of Ray by the 15th hole. But when neither Ray nor Hagen came back to the pack, Vardon, too, ran out of holes. He settled for a tie for fourth at 14-under.
It’s likely that nobody left Royal St. George’s more frustrated Sunday than three-time American champion Jack Nicklaus. Arguably the best player in U.S. golf history, Nicklaus began the final day five strokes behind Ray.
His card showed seven birdies. But Nicklaus somehow was never able to get out of his own way. Those seven birdies were offset by four front-nine bogeys, preventing Nicklaus from ever drawing closer than within three shots of Ray. He tied Vardon and Jim Barnes at -14.
George Duncan, a lightly regarded Scottish player and a contemporary of Ray, birdied two of the first four holes he played and forged a three-way tie with Ray and Hagen midway through the round. But a bogey at the 545 yard par 5 14th hole, the famed Suez Canal, finished Duncan’s chances.
That left Hagen as the only challenger. The flashy American, a four-time British Open champion in the 1920s, played conservatively, parring his first nine holes before picking up a stroke at the 412-yard par 4 10th. That enabled him to catch Ray, who had bogeyed the ninth hole.
Ray fought back with birdies at the 11th and 13th to re-assume a two-stroke lead. The pair came to the 17th with Hagen needing a pair of birdies to send the contest to a playoff…and that’s what he got. His 6-iron at the 456 yard par 4 18th settled 10 feet above the cup, and Hagen drained the slippery downhiller to send the contest to overtime.
But a balky driver undid Hagen in the playoff, starting with the first hole, when he missed the fairway left, found an unplayable lie and took double bogey. Ray’s lead remained two until the par 3 sixth when he three-putted from 45 feet for a bogey. At the 410-yard par 4 ninth, Hagen rolled home a 25-footer of his own for a tying birdie.
Across much of the back nine, the contest seesawed. Ray birdied the 11th, Hagen birdied the 12th and 13th to take a lead, then at the Suez Canal hole Ray birdied while Hagen found the canal and took bogey.
He re-tied the match with a birdie at the long par four 15, leaving those drives at 17 to be the decisive strokes.
Here are the full 72-hole scores.
Player 1 – 2 – 3 – 4- Tot.
Ted Ray 64-65-65-71-263#
Walter Hagen 64-66-66-67-263#
George Duncan 66-67-65-67-265
Jack Nicklaus 66-65-68-67-266
Harry Vardon 68-67-67-64-266
Jim Barnes 71-61-67-67-266
Jamie Anderson 62-67-69-69-267
Sandy Herd 67-72-66-62-267
Peter Thomson 67-66-66-69-268
John H. Taylor 67-67-67-68-269
Tiger Woods 70-71-65-64-270
Tom Watson 68-71-69-62-270
Henry Cotton 67-67-71-65-270
Bob Ferguson 67-66-64-76-271
Willie Park Sr. 71-69-65-66-271
David Brown 68-69-69-65-271
Roberto deVicenzo 67-64-71-69-271
Henrik Stenson 66-64-68-74-272
Reg Whitcombe 67-68-66-71-272
Hugh Kirkaldy 68-65-68-72-273
Willie Fernie 69-72-66-66-273
Alf Padgham 70-72-68-63-273
Seve Ballesteros 63-69-68-74-274
Willie Auchterlonie 72-69-65-68-274
Louis Oosthuizen 68-71-68-67-274
Arthur Havers 71-69-68-66-274
Fred Daly 78-60-70-66-274
Zach Johnson 66-70-65-73-274
Gary Player 70-72-65-68-275
Nick Faldo 66-69-72-68-275
Gene Sarazen 69-71-70-65-275
Young Tom Morris 68-70-66-71-275
Jack Simpson 63-67-74-71-275
Harold Hilton* 65-75-67-69-276
Arnold Palmer 71-67-70-69-277
Ernie Els 66-69-69-73-277
Greg Norman 68-67-74-68-277
Mark O’Meara 69-72-64-72-277
James Braid 67-71-71-69-278
Old Tom Morris 70-68-72-69-279
Sandy Lyle 72-68-66-73-279
Tom Weiskopf 66-73-74-67-280
Willie Park Jr. 68-74-71-68-281
Shane Lowry 66-72-70-74-282
Bob Martin 71-72-66-73-282
Kel Nagle 71-68-71-72-282
Arnaud Massy 68-67-75-72-282
Darren Clarke 69-68-74-71-282
Phil Mickelson 69-72-70-71-282
Alf Perry 70-73-71-68-282
Bobby Locke 75-66-73-69-283
Mungo Park 69-68-75-72-284
Jack White 67-75-71-71-284
Bob Charles 74-66-73-72-285
Jordan Spieth 70-71-72-72-285
Justin Leonard 71-72-69-73-285
Francesco Molinari 68-72-71-75-286
Johnny Miller 70-72-74-70-286
Lee Trevino 70-75-74-68-287
Mark Calcavecchia 74-78-68-67-287
Max Faulkner 71-79-65-72-287
Stewart Cink 77-71-67-73-288
Nick Price 75-72-71-70-288
Tony Jacklin 74-77-68-69-288
David Duval 71-73-76-69-289
John Ball* 72-71-72-74-289
Rory McIlroy 72-72-72-74-290
Ian Baker-Finch 70-77-71-72-290
Padraig Harrington 70-77-74-73-294
Dick Burton 73-68-80-74-295
Paul Lawrie 71-77-75-75-298
Bill Rogers 73-76-74-76-299
Ben Curtis 74-81-73-73-301
John Daly 71-78-74-79-302
Tom Lehman 74-74-75-79-302
Todd Hamilton 83-67-75-77-302
*denotes amateur
# Playoff line
Hole 123 456 789 101112 131415 161718
Par 443 443 544 4 3 4 4 5 4 3 4 4 — 70
Walter Hagen 633 443 543 4 3 3 3 6 3 2 5 4 — 68
Ted Ray 443 434 544 4 2 4 4 4 4 2 3 4 — 66