The 1965 U.S. Amateur
The Championship at Southern Hills decided by one club
By Jenk Jones Jr.
One club too much means hitting a shot long, perhaps missing a green and risking a bogey.
One club too many can result in a horrendous penalty, help deny a championship victory, become part of golfdom’s legends.
The latter was the case in 1965, the last time the U.S. Amateur Championship was held in Tulsa. This year’s Amateur returns to the same site, Southern Hills Country Club, Aug. 24-30.
The 1965 championship was the first Amateur to be conducted in all stroke play. After using that format for eight years and returning to the original match play for another six, the United States Golf Association switched to 36 holes of stroke play for qualifying – reducing the field to 64 players – then match play to determine the champion. That’s what spectators will see at the famous south Tulsa venue this year.
Bob Dickson was the victim of a club too many in 1965.
A native of McAlester, a high-school star in Muskogee and an All-American at Oklahoma State University, Dickson played brilliantly at Southern Hills. But a four-stroke penalty was incurred when he found an extra club in his bag during the second of the four rounds of play, and he lost the title to Bob Murphy by one shot.
However, both golfers remember it still was Dickson’s championship to win with just two holes to play. But he finished bogey-bogey while Murphy made pars.
On that ill-fated second round, Dickson hit into a bunker on No. 2. When he reached into his bag for a sand wedge, there were two of them! "I had a feeling of shock; I literally did a double-take," he recalls. He says there was a nearly identical golf bag owned by one of the other participants, and that the club probably was put into his bag in club storage by mistake. "I only brought 14 clubs with me."
He adds, "It obviously was my fault. I didn’t count ’em on the [practice] range.
"It always boils down to the player’s responsibility." As part of the strict code of honesty in golf, he invoked the penalty on himself. "In golf, well over 90 percent of rulings [violations] are called by the golfers themselves."
Dickson recovered from his shock with style. "I went on a rampage, birdied three of the next five holes." He led until he flew the 17th green with his approach on the last day, then pushed a 5-iron into a right-side bunker on the finishing hole. In neither case could he get up and down, and Murphy slipped past for the win.
Winning the Amateur "was an incredible story for me," Murphy recalls. "It led me to believe I could play a little bit." And that gave him the courage to try the PGA Tour, which he joined in 1968 after a stellar career at the University of Florida, including medalist at the 1966 NCAA championship.
His dad pushed him to try the U.S. Amateur. Murphy says he had won a couple of local championships and the Florida Amateur, so he was game to seek broader pastures.
His trip to Tulsa was his first plane flight, and it was "rather rough. I was scared to death."
Southern Hills, as its name indicates, had something Murphy was unfamiliar with – hills. He grew up on Florida’s flat links, and changes in elevation took getting used to.
"I remember the challenge of the golf course. The rough was incredible." Instead of firing at the green even when in the shaggy stuff, Murphy remembers,
"When you got in the rough [at Southern Hills] your first thought was ‘How do I get out of this and back on the fairway’?"
Murphy was a short but straight driver, which helped him avoid some of Southern Hills’ trouble. Also, he studied the greens intensely. "My putting won it for me."
Tulsa was hardly the last golfing stop for either man.
Dickson won two PGA and one Champions Tour events and later held major positions on the PGA, Champions and Nationwide Tours, including championship director of the last. Before that, he won that elusive U.S. Amateur crown (in 1967) and added the British Amateur (a 2-and-1 win over Rod Cerrudo at match play) the same year. Dickson is one of only four golfers to win both Amateurs in the same year. He also was a member of the winning USA Walker Cup team that year – with Murphy a teammate.
At the U.S. Amateur that he won, Dickson again had a one-shot lead, this time on the last hole at the Broadmoor Golf Club’s West Course in Colorado Springs. And again he hit a bad shot and had to punch out into the fairway some 50 to 60 yards from the pin. But his approach got him within 20 feet, and he sank his par putt. His closest rival, Vinnie Giles, missed a birdie putt of similar length that would have tied Dickson.
Now 65, retired in Florida, Dickson is proud of having won the 1968 USGA Bob Jones Award for sportsmanship. He’s not sure why, but thinks taking his rival Giles’ side in a ruling dispute may have been a factor.
Murphy won five PGA Tour events, including the 1986 Canadian Open, and 11 more on the Champions Tour. His best year on the latter was in 1995 when he won four times, added three seconds and three thirds and was in the top 10 in 20 of 28 starts.
Murph, as he is commonly known, had his PGA career cut short by severe arthritis. He eventually overcame his affliction well enough to win the 1996 Ben Hogan Award for comeback play.
Now 66 and living in his native Florida, Murphy has been a broadcast analyst for more than a quarter century. Though more a phrasemaker than a shotmaker today, he still plays four or five tournaments a year because he enjoys being with fellow golfers.
"One of the reasons I do keep playing is to remember how damn tough it is," which helps him from being too critical of player errors.
Looking back, the amiable Murphy states, "I’ve been more than lucky in this game."
That luck got its jump start in Tulsa.
This article originally appeared in the 2009 U.S. Amateur Championship program.
