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Use the pause and play button on our new player. The stop button will rewind the show to the beginning. Due to the length of the event, the scroll bar may not function optimally.
Enjoy!
Our first installment of Classic Events of the Persimmon Age.
This is a great one and gives younger players a chance to see up close how some of the legends of the game performed under extreme pressure in very difficult US Open conditions. Older players will only be reminded. The game was substantially different back then, requiring much more shotmaking skills and ball placement strategy than what the game has evolved into today. There is a lot to learn here and ponder.
We welcome discussions here about the event and hope to raise awareness of the values of proper golf.
Awesome John. Just great 
Many thanks for doing this…
Thank you very much, nice call for the first one. Godspeed to Jim McKay, what a treasure he was and how sorely his talent is missed now.
Such a good idea Lag! Love the sound of the best in the world hitting persimmon.
Crowd limited to 19,000?! You mean they didn’t shoe-horn anyone/everyone in the name of more money? They actually had the spectators’ best interest in mind?! How innovative.
And all this time I thought Tiger’s Sunday outfit was original. Lee should have trademarked it!
Kudos,
robbo
Thanks, Lag, really great seeing and hearing the sound of real golf. Seemed like almost everyone was playing well. Also loved how ABC covered the event, talking to final pairings on the range before going off (what a concept), the longer, almost leisurely camera angles following the players from tee to green, as opposed to today’s coverage which mostly shows just putting. Noticed that Tway really teed his persimmon driver high. Seems like a different age and a long time ago and I guess it was, hard to believe. It’s shocking to put that telecast up to today’s game–two totally different sports.
I propose we discuss this great event of golf history in 30 minute segments. There is so much to process and ponder here.
Even the great opening music (Barry White’s “Love’s Theme” from 1972) which some say actually was the basic template of the disco movement that soon followed.
Trevino wearing red and black again which he wore when he won his first US Open. He really seemed very relaxed and seemed to be excited to get out there. Norman did seem a bit apprehensive, but he makes a good point about how the nerves settle down once you get out on the course and into your round.
I found it interesting that in 86, most had not heard of Shinnecock and it had been considered too short a golf course to have a major event on. Interesting that going into the final round, no one was under par. Like Robbo said… limiting the number of attendees to 17K is a foreign concept in today’s mass marketing approach.
Seeing Ray Floyd just flush a long iron into #2, what a great looking swing he made. Very confident looking, like a premonition of things to come.
Trevino sneaking it by Tway off the first tee… I played with Tway and he was long. It would have been interesting to see the shot shapes played… I wonder if Trevino hit a lower drawing drive to keep it under the wind.
Classic Nicklaus even after an opening round 77 coming back on Sat with a 67 and starting out the final round 2 under out of the shoot to get on the Sunday leader board. Exciting stuff… and to think Tiger was a kid watching this stuff.
The flashback scene of Norman talking about his great putt on 18 two years before was interesting when he and Zoeller had it out. I had forgot he was using a bullseye putter back then, as I usually think of him with the 8802 style blade.
I think it’s interesting that he suggested he felt that putt might have won him the event because Fuzzy only needed par on 18 to tie, and could still have won with a birdie. Greg suggested the golf gods might have been in his favor, but as we know Fuzzy did par and beat him the next day in an 18 hole playoff. No easy task for sure.
I take a certain amount of pride in being a persimmon player, and for a variety of reasons. It means more to me to shoot par or under par on golf courses that were designed with a certain style of gear in mind, and equipment at that time was restricted by what was once a functional governing body before all hell broke loose with Karsten and his ego camp.
I also like the feel of hitting persimmon, and having a greater ability to control shot shape and trajectory. I would not want to give that up for the kind of courses I am interested in playing. I do carry an extra 20 yards in my back pocket when I need it, but I rarely go after a drive more than twice a round. Ball positioning into the correct side of the fairway is much more important to me that trying to advance the ball as far as possible on every tee shot. Precision playing works well and is the reason I score much better than most golfers regardless of what gear they are using.
Shinnecock Hills is an awesome course for those that have never been there. This brings back good memories. I played The US Open there in 1995. See below
Look at all the names around me on the draw sheet…no offense to Bruckner or Boros but I would have liked to have drawn any of the other guys for the greater experience of the whole situation
Round 3
Round 4
Very cool Bradley! My guess is that Boros and Bruckner learned a thing or two.
Is the Gold/White your caddie bib designation? For a second I thought the event might be handicapped and you were playing different tees with Boros and Bruckner on the “up” whites. 
Just watched the first 30 mins…Wonderful stuff, love the look and feel of the movie. Great to see the players being interviewed like that, I am getting goosebumps just watching, let alone Trevino!
I think there’s a different level of “anticipation” by the viewer on the tee shots. These cats really go after their drives but it seems soooooo much riskier when you see the clubhead size!
They show that clip of Arnie losing one of his Opens with that snap-hook drive on 18(?)…you couldn’t curve a modern ball with a modern driver that much if you tried! Yet these guys faced that possibility on every tee!!!
Isn’t there some irony in the fact that the first airing in this thread of such a classic tournament is the same day of the W-M Phoenix Open? I bet they spent over 50% of today’s air-time with cameras trained on the tournament’s “famous” 16th hole.
At what point does this alleged “phenomenom” of a hole run it’s course? I mean it was fun to watch the first 500 times but surely when Tiger aced it many moons ago (14 years… is that possible?) the mystique of that hole hit it’s peak. Jarrod Lyle jars it today and the reaction of he and the crowd was awkward at best.
I found it more fun to watch guys rifling long irons into the 2nd at Shinnecock. Probably just me. 
robbo
that was really great—I enjoyed very much…I couldn’t remember who won, so it was like seeing it for the first time
thanks
bent
Well, if you don’t know who won… enjoy it all the more, just like seeing a classic film from the golden age of cinema for the first time. The first time you see it… it’s fresh and new for you.
Twomasters,
How long was the course playing when you teed it up there? Do you remember? Was there talk about it playing the same as in 86 or did they lengthen it out some?
It must have been exciting to have been right in the thick of things going into the weekend. It’s great to have your thoughts on the course. I was hoping to get Sam Randolph’s take on it as he was playing in the 86 version, and I think he made the cut.
I am going to watch that video in it’s entirety and see what length the holes were and see what clubs they said they were hitting in. That will help me remember it all. It was an awesome driving course when I played it. Greens were fair, not overly fast, a couple of elevated greens like 9,10 and 11. A few elevated tees, most holes had some sort of shape to them. I played it with persimmon that year and didn’t have a problem with the length. From memory the only truly long par 4 was the 6th which was drive 2 iron or 3 iron over a pond near the front somewhere. And the 9th played long as a par 4 because the second shot was way up a hill towards the clubhouse. I will have to watch to refresh my head about it all. The wind played a factor as it is right on the tip of Long Island and not much in the way to stop the wind. It was truly like playing a Scottish links course but with US Open rough
I think I was doing well during the saturday round also, probably even or 1 under for the day after 10 holes…then I frigging 4 putted the plateau green par 3 11th in the wind and lost my thoughts after that…
This will be fun to watch. I remember getting up early in Aust to watch it especially with Norman in the lead but don’t remember how it all transpired in the end l being so long ago. I do think at one point there may have been like 7 players tied during the final day until the winner holed a trap shot and sealed the deal late in the round (16th?) as the others fell away…or something like that
I couldn’t get the video to load fully today as the wireless was spotty for some reason. I got up to the part where they were interviewing Trevino- they don’t make them like that anymore. It cracked me up that he wasn’t calling for the crowd to be calm or fairer to Norman- ever the competitor looking for the edge. I’m not sure you’d hear that kind of honesty out of a player these days, everyone has to say the right thing, it’s so boring.
I’m looking forward to hearing Two’s insights about the course…
Cheers for putting up the video- great stuff…
Lee does crack me up–so natural on camera, it’s like it’s all been rehearsed.
The opening hour of this tournament is pretty amazing. Watson birdies to get back to plus 3 and on the board with Nicklaus just a shot back of that. Trevino, Greg Norman, Sutton, Tway, Watkins, Floyd, Crenshaw and Payne Stuart, it’s really anyone’s to win.
Trevino’s iron play is just stellar out of the shoot, and rifling a 2 iron into #2, just great to watch. On the forth hole that is 408, it’s driver 6 iron, and that swing from DTL is so flush. What a thing of beauty. Knocking it down a bit to keep it under the wind.
Crenshaw rolling it great as usual, birdieing 4 in a row before giving one back after a pulled iron… which it seems he would do at times with such an upright swing.
It was commented that Floyd might have been hitting a 7 iron from 140 on the 4rth. Payne Stuart starting off 3-3-3 and making a move.
The commentators mentioning how great it is to see such an old course stand the test of time. It’s nice to see they used to care about such things.
I dug out my yardage book from the 1995 US Open…unfortunately it doesn’t have the yardages I had into holes or clubs used…but I may post it for people interested in seeing a tour caddie yardage book.
The yardage in 1995 was 6921 yards…I found online that in 2004 the yardage was 6996 yards…not sure what it was in 1986
Here are a few pics of Shinnecock Hills…a beautiful layout
