Class superlatives
Some future PGA Tour stars—and other characters—got their start at Q School in 1971
You don’t think of Tom Watson with a mustache, but in the fall of 1971 he had one. It’s easy to see why the facial hair didn’t last the way Watson did on the PGA Tour. The ‘stache looked as if it had been painted on for a part on the high school stage back home in Kansas City, a temporary disguise to make him resemble someone else.
Although Watson might not have appeared then as he would a handful of years later when the Huck Finn of the Fairways started beating everybody, his golf game already was showing it had a high gear. Fifty years ago this month, when he was only 22, Watson comfortably made it through PGA Qualifying School and never looked back, setting off on one of the most successful careers of the modern era.
That Q School has become part of the game’s lore, not just because Watson—who would go on to win eight major championships among 39 PGA Tour victories—was among the 23 golfers who earned an Approved Tournament Players card. The list of qualifiers from the 108-hole event also included future major winners David Graham, John Mahaffey and Lanny Wadkins along with others who would give the group more than 80 combined career victories on the PGA Tour. Bruce Fleisher, who passed away recently, won just once on the PGA Tour but dominated PGA Tour Champions for a time, winning 18 senior tournaments.
“Let’s show them that this is the best class,” medalist Bob Zender said to his fellow graduates after the final round as they gathered for a dinner ceremony. The only contender is 1981, when through the fall and spring Q Schools (there were two tournaments some years), future major champions Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, Steve Jones, Larry Mize, Payne Stewart and Hal Sutton earned playing privileges.
1971 Qualifying School, PGA National Golf Club, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Qualifiers
425—Bob Zender; 428—Sam Adams, Lanny Wadkins; 430—Steve Melnyk; 433—Tom Watson; 435—Allen Miller; 436—John Mahaffey; 438—Bruce Fleisher; 439–Jim Barber; 440—David Graham; 441—Forrest Fezler, Gary Groh; 442—David Glenz, Leonard Thompson; 443—Mike Spang, Bill Ziobro; 444—Greg Powers, Wayne Peddy, Chuck Thorpe, Dave Haberle, Ray Arinno, John Gentile, Rogelio Gonzalez.
The 1971 Q School site exists a half century later, but it isn’t where you might think. Fifty years ago, PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., wasn’t located in its current location, where The Honda Classic is held each March on the Champion course. Watson and the rest of the 75-man field competed on the East course of what is now called BallenIsles Country Club but was then known as PGA National Golf Club, which that winter had hosted the ’71 PGA Championship.
“It was kind of cool that we were playing in qualifying school where Jack Nicklaus had won the PGA,” says Allen Miller, a standout amateur of that era.
Unlike every other tournament, winning wasn’t the idea at Q School. In those days here was no prize money and no pecking order for the following season based on your finish. If you earned a card, it gave you the privilege of trying to qualify on Mondays, of becoming a “rabbit” hopping from city to city chasing dreams as fragile as soap bubbles.
“I was considered one of the ones who was going to make it through at the school,” Miller says. “My whole game plan was just to not make any double bogeys. You just wanted to keep yourself in it the whole time, not shoot yourself out of it the first round or two.”
A two-time Walker Cupper, Miller wasn’t the only entrant with a glossy record before turning pro. Wadkins, Fleisher and Steve Melynk were U.S. Amateur champions. David Graham of Australia, Rogelio Gonzalez of Colombia and Bob Cox of Canada had represented their countries in the World Cup of Golf, Graham teaming with Bruce Devlin to win in 1970.
Attracting the most attention after the assembled “students” finished two days of seminars and teed off was recently retired Major League Baseball player Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson. After a nine-year career, the hot-tempered Harrelson wanted to try to make it as a pro golfer. On a rainy first day he started off well, shooting even-par 72, but the second round was a different story as he shot 82.
“On one hole today, I had a 110-yard pitch shot, and I hit it 60 yards,” Harrelson told The Miami News. “I got so mad, I almost blacked out.”
Harrelson cleared out after a fourth-round 83, withdrawing after 72 holes with little chance of qualifying. He played in only four PGA Tour events over the years, making the cut once, at Pleasant Valley in 1980.
A record 357 applicants attempted to make it to Palm Beach Gardens through three regional qualifiers (Winston-Salem, N.C., Quincy, Ill., and Riverside, Calif.). Not making it out of the western venue in his first Q School attempt was Phil McGleno, who changed his name to Mac O’Grady and finally got through on his 17th try in 1982. An unheralded Oklahoma assistant pro named Spike Kelley had to borrow a proper golf bag so he would look the part. Kelley fought back from an opening 80 and was in position to get a bag with his name on it until a closing 79 that made him miss by six shots.
Among others who advanced to the ’71 final and failed to qualify: Victor Regalado, Frank Conner, Don Padgett, Nate Starks, Pat Fitzsimons, Barry Jaeckel, Gary McCord, Bob Betley and Vaughn Moise.
“I played well the whole time and didn’t make many bogeys,” says Miller, whose fifth-round 67 was the low score of the tournament. “After that score, I knew I couldn’t mess up unless I shot 85 or something.” A 76 was just fine for a sixth-place finish one behind Watson, nine strokes inside the number.
As strange as it seems, the players didn’t know exactly how many cards would be awarded until the conclusion of the fourth round. Commissioner Joe Dey, on site and assessing the quality of play, determined that the top 23 and ties would receive privileges for the 1972 season.
Dey figured in the outcome in another way, overruling a two-stroke penalty given by a rules official against Chuck Thorpe during the fifth round for an improper drop. Thorpe’s score went from 81 to 79. A final-round 74 the next day put Thorpe in a seven-way tie at 444, which turned out to be the cutoff. Gonzalez got up and down from a greenside bunker on the last hole to be part of that group, a save that kept the trio that had finished at 445—James Black, Jim Conace and David Oakley—from qualifying.
As illustrious as the Class of ’71 was, some of its graduates didn’t leave Palm Beach Gardens and evolve into world-beaters. A few, including Miller and lefty Sam Adams, won once. Many played for years and never claimed a trophy, Melnyk being a surprising example before a long career as a golf broadcaster. Others such as Mike Spang and Dave Haberle competed in fewer than 20 events prior to moving on to other pursuits.
The PGA Tour career of Gonzalez, who had grown up learning the game as a barefoot caddie in Medellin during the 1950s, was particularly brief. He showed promise in his first start, a tie for 25th and check for $252 on Hilton Head a little more than a month after getting his card. But Gonzalez would make only one more appearance. The following spring at the Greater New Orleans Open he was accused of altering his scorecard, found to have changed a 5 on a hole to a 4. Dey banished him from the tour, and Gonzalez returned to South America.
Gonzalez ended up a respected teaching pro and honorary member at the club where he once caddied, ably instructing many in how to play the game, among them Camilo Villegas, who has won four tournaments on the PGA Tour. The scrambling par Gonzalez made when he had to a long time ago in Florida must be one of golf’s strangest footnotes, a ticket for a trip that took a sharp detour for an unfortunate reason, pass-fail in the blink of an eye.