Hal Sutton may go down in the record books as one of the few who can claim a victory over two of the greatest players in golf history: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. But the tournament that changed the course of his career was one he lost.
First, a little background. Sutton came onto the golf scene as a relative phenom, a Next Big Thing, after winning the 1980 U.S. Amateur, the 1979 and 1980 Western Amateurs, 1980 North & South Amateur, the 1980 Northeast Amateur, and playing on the 1979 and 1980 Walker Cup teams. There were other amateur victories and more awards, but Sutton had his sights set on the PGA Tour, which he joined in 1981.
His first victory was in the fall of 1982 at the Walt Disney World Classic, which was often the last tournament of the year. There was no Tour Championship in those days.
Sutton’s second victory came at The Players in 1983, a title that carried the year's largest prize, $126,000. To show how much things have changed, when Rory McIlroy won the same event last spring, he was handed a $4.5 million check.
Sutton’s next big chance to win was at the Anheuser Busch. He posted a third-round 69 to take a six-shot lead over Calvin Peete and Payne Stewart.
“You spot me six shots, I didn’t think there was anybody in the world who could beat me,” Sutton said in an interview at the PGA Show, where he was representing Makefield Putters.
But Peete did beat him. It was more than a wake-up call for Sutton. It was like being smacked in the head with a two-by-four.
“I beat myself,” Sutton said about the experience.
The 1983 PGA Championship was two weeks away. Sutton, with newfound determination, went home to practice hard on his game and his putting.
He asked his father to go with him to historic Riviera CC in Los Angeles, where the tournament was being played.
“I said, 'You need to go with me. I’m going to win this tournament. I’m going to lead it from start to finish,'” Sutton recalled. “I opened with 65. I led. I shot 66 the next round. Never lost the lead. Sunday, I had a four-shot lead going into 12. Bogeyed 12, 13, and 14. Jack (Nicklaus) was in front of me.”
What he meant by that was not only was Nicklaus there, he was just one shot behind. That close, Nicklaus was a threat to win.
Just three years before, in 1980, Nicklaus had won the U.S. Open (his fourth) and the PGA Championship (his fifth). And everyone, professionals and fans alike, knew that Nicklaus had a clutch gene that most other golfers didn’t possess. If Nicklaus was close, he could somehow will a win to happen.
“I buried my head in the towel and said, ‘Hal don’t let this happen again because, if you do. It’s going to define me,’” Sutton explained.
“So, I played one shot at a time. All I could do is hit the drive in the fairway at 15,” Sutton continued. “People say hit one shot at a time because you can’t live in the past, and you can’t live in the future either. It’s hard not to live in the past when I just bogeyed the last three holes and The Bear is roaring.”
Despite the fact that he had thought about the past and the future when hitting previous shots on that day, he found a way to fight it off during the finishing holes.
“I was able to pull that off, parred the last four holes, and honestly, I think I could have done whatever I had to do because I got to the level of only that shot,” he added.
Then, 17 years after defeating Nicklaus at the 1983 PGA, Sutton beat Tiger Woods at the 2000 Players, creating kind of career bookends that few, if any, can match. The 18th hole at that Players that day is where Sutton uttered his now famous line, “Be the right club today!” And, of course, it was.
Sutton ultimately won 14 times on the PGA Tour, played on four Ryder Cup teams, and was the U.S. captain in 2004. He also played on the 2000 Presidents Cup team.