By Bill Huffman
Photos courtesy of The Phoenix Open/Communication Links

Contested on three different courses under three different names, the first 75 years of the Waste Management Phoenix Open have certainly lived up to its modern-day moniker of “The Greatest Show on Grass.”

There would be little argument for such a claim to fame from the millions of fans who have attended the PGA TOUR’s fifth-oldest tournament through the years. No matter whether it was the Phoenix Open (1932-2003), the FBR Open (2004-2009) or its new tournament title, the Waste Management Phoenix Open, or at places like Phoenix Country Club (1932-1986), Arizona Country Club (1955-1973) and the TPC Scottsdale (1987 and counting), the Valley’s largest annual sports attraction continues to pack them in like no other professional golf tournament in the history of the game.

Introduction
The late Bob Goldwater Sr., a.k.a. “The Father of the Phoenix Open,” was always immensely proud of what he had wrought. Even though Goldwater’s eyes would often well up with tears at some of the memories, the three-time Arizona Amateur champ never let his passion for the game get in the way of his vision for the tournament.

“It’s two different worlds, and both of them are – or were – wonderful,” he said of the tournament that has produced such champions as Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, Gene Littler, Billy Casper, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Miller Barber, Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, Mark Calcavecchia, Lee Janzen, Vijay Singh, Steve Jones, Tom Lehman and Phil Mickelson, to name a few.

“That much of our success in Arizona parallels the Phoenix Open, just makes the tournament that much more special to all of us who love it and cherish the Phoenix Open’s wonderful past,’’ Goldwater added.

Those two different worlds that Goldwater once referred to can be divided nicely into the “good old days” that began in 1932 and the “modern era” that began in 1987, when the tournament relocated from Phoenix Country Club to the TPC Scottsdale (see sidebar). Now in its ninth decade, after holding the first 51 tournaments in Phoenix and the past 23 in Scottsdale, the two unique periods of time are like comparing persimmon to Titanium.

Ralph Guldahl earned $600 for winning the inaugural Phoenix Open, then known as the Arizona Open, in 1932.

The purse has grown from $2,500 in 1932 when it was known as the Arizona Open and Ralph Guldahl won a mere $600 to $6 million last year when Kenny Perry won more than $1 million also should come as no surprise. It’s kind of like the meteoric rise in attendance from 186,000 when the tournament left Phoenix Country Club in 1986 to more than 500,000 for the week at the TPC in five of the last six years.

Read a newspaper story from 1932 about the inaugural Phoenix Open.

But that is only part of the story, as a decade-by-decade breakdown of the Phoenix Open not only shows the changes in the tournament but also life in the Valley of the Sun. Among the highlights from the past are such golden nuggets as these gems, which represent four distinct periods in the 75-year history of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

The Beginning: 1930s and ‘40s
In every way Phoenix’s one-and-only PGA TOUR event has come a long way. But it was not exactly an easy ride in the early years after Guldahl and Harry “Lighthorse” Cooper captured the first two titles and Goldwater’s brother, the late Senator Barry Goldwater, teamed up with Ky Laffoon to win the 1935 version, which had been reduced to an 18-hole pro-am. Like his younger brother, Barry Goldwater could play golf, as he contributed five shots to the winners’ total.

The tail end of the Great Depression and the early rumblings of World War II sent the tournament dark from 1936-38. It could have been worse but the ever-persistent Bob Goldwater cajoled his fellow Thunderbirds, which had been formed as a wing of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, to bring back the tournament in 1939. Believe it or not, not everyone was in agreement that a rebirth was in order.

“I got it going again, although some of the Thunderbirds were ticked at me for doing so,” Goldwater recalled during a 2001 interview. “Some of the ’Birds said to me, ‘OK, if you want this tournament so bad, you put it on,’ and I was the (tournament) chairman for the next 15 years.”

Golf legend Byron Nelson won the Phoenix Open in 1939 and 1945.

Even though raising the purse each year always was a challenge, Goldwater and the Thunderbirds usually got their money’s worth with a list of champions during the 1940s that read like the “Who’s Who of Golf.” After the legendary Byron Nelson beat the equally legendary Ben Hogan in ‘39, and Ed Oliver made Hogan the runner-up again in 1940, the tournament went on a three-year hiatus due to military commitments tied to World War II. During that absence, however, the Thunderbirds hosted the prestigious Western Open at Phoenix Country Club in 1941 and ‘42.

The Phoenix Open was back in business in 1944, as Harold McSpadden – he went by the colorful nickname “Jug” edged Nelson in a playoff only to have Nelson come back the following year and beat the heavily favored Sam Snead for his second win. After being a runner-up twice, Hogan broke through for back-to-back wins in 1946-47. What was slightly unusual about Hogan’s defense was that Nelson was, to everyone’s surprise, missing from the field in ‘47, as Lord Byron retired to his ranch in Texas at the early age of 34. South African great Bobby Locke was the winner in 1949 with a tournament record 268 that held up for 27 years.

Demaret closed out the decade with Phoenix Open victories in 1949-50, but Hogan was a significant storyline both times, as “Bantam” Ben burnt his thumb in ’49 then lost a playoff to Demaret the following year. It was following that playoff loss that, two days later en route to his home in west Texas, Hogan’s Cadillac collided with a Greyhound Bus on a foggy road; an accident that nearly cost Hogan his life. In fact, had Hogan not thrown himself across his wife Valerie to protect her during the crash, he would have been killed instantly as the steering wheel column punctured the driver’s seat.

The Golden Age: 1950s and ’60s
After struggling for years to make a living playing golf, the pros that followed the TOUR suddenly were beginning to earn some money. That old lifestyle of holding down a country club job in the summer and then playing tournament golf in the winter for a few bucks gave way to a full-time pursuit. As a result, the Phoenix Open’s purse jumped from $2,500 to $10,000 in 1950, a figure that would more than triple by the end of the decade.

The 1950s introduced the Golden Age of the Phoenix Open as attendance and purses dramatically increased.

The 1950s also represented a change for the playing conditions, as Phoenix Country Club replaced its sand greens with grass greens in 1952, the year Lloyd “the Human 1-Iron” Mangrum won the first of his back-to-back triumphs. In 1955, Littler captured the first of his three titles at Arizona Country Club, which had just been added to the tournament rotation, every other year, until 1973.

Not to be lost in that time frame was Ed Furgol’s 19-hole playoff win over Cary Middlecoff in 1954, the longest tournament ever (91 holes). Two years later, Middelcoff came back to beat a red-hot Mike Souchak with a rising amateur, Ken Venturi, finishing fourth. Two years later and following Billy Casper’s win in 1957, Venturi captured the Phoenix Open as a pro.

The 1960s belonged to Palmer, who captured the first of a record three straight Phoenix Open titles at Arizona Country Club. Len Huck, the 1963 tournament chairman for the Thunderbirds, recalled the golden era of Arnie and his impact on the tournament.

“Bob Goldwater was a big force back then, and, of course, Arnold Palmer was the player you just had to have along with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, and we had all three that year,” Huck noted. “I remember that we still had Calcuttas back then, when we could buy a player and your payoff was based on how he would come in, but the next year (1964) the TOUR put the kibosh on that.”

Television was getting into the golf business and everything had to look above board. Huck encountered yet other changes as the Thunderbirds’ Big Chief, including a potential player boycott the following year over who actually owned the TV rights. After huddling with the Thunderbirds and then a late-night meeting with Goldwater and Palmer, everything got worked out, although the tournament got off to a late start.

“I remember Arnold, Bob and I spent the night in a bar trying to work things out until they threw the three of us out,” Huck said with a laugh. “The next day, Arnold flexed his muscle, told the players the TV rights were an ‘unintentional oversight,’ and the tournament went on as scheduled.

“I’m not sure how Arnold did it because we didn’t get any sleep that night. But there he was on the tee the next day, rarin’ to go.”

Goldwater also recalled the revelry of the day, when the pros and members of the host clubs often spent long hours socializing. And through his many connections, as well as musical background that included a strong singing voice, he added the entertainment element to the tournament that made Wednesday’s pro-am perhaps the most popular day of tournament week.

“Those early champions were some of the greatest to ever play the game, and that was a theme that has been carried throughout the tournament’s history,” Goldwater pointed out. “We had entertainers like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Phil Harris that started coming to the Phoenix Open every year and making it fun for everyone, and that has always been a big part of our tournament, too.”

Goldwater might have added to that list such luminaries of their day as Lawrence Welk, Tennessee Ernie Ford, golfer/Olympian Babe Zaharias and boxing champion Joe Louis also participated. Adding to that list of noted Phoenix Open champs were Jack Nicklaus in 1964 and Julius Boros in 1967. Fittingly, Littler closed out the decade with his third win in ‘69, his 14-year stretch that began in 1955 still being the longest span between victories in tournament history.

The Rise of the PGA TOUR: 1970-‘86
The PGA TOUR had taken a giant step in 1968, when the Tournament Players Division split from the PGA of America and hired Joseph Dey as commissioner. It wasn’t quite in its modern form, but TOUR golf was getting serious and that meant more money and stiffer competition. The Thunderbirds obliged by increasing the purse to $100,000 that year. Six years later, the PGA TOUR as we now know it was officially formed under Dey’s successor, Deane Beman, who took the pro game to new heights with yet more money and more exposure that was fueled by Palmer and his charismatic personality.

No victory in the 1970s was bigger than Miller Barber’s in stoking that fire. All Barber did in 1971 was shatter the tournament record of 263 set by Littler in ’69 by two shots. That 65-64-67-65 performance by “Mr. X” was at the time the second best performance in TOUR history behind Souchak’s 257 at the 1955 Texas Open. Almost as noteworthy was the $25,000 first prize that Barber earned from the record $125,000 purse.

Jerry Lewkowitz was the tournament chairman in 1971 and remembers the week well. He especially recalls the reaction he got from his fellow Thunderbirds in trying to accommodate the TOUR’s new push for bigger bucks.

“I raised (the purse) from $100,000 to $125,000 and I thought they were going to run me out of town,” Lewkowitz said with a laugh. “But everything worked out because we eventually got the best player in the field, which was Arnold Palmer.”

But it didn’t come easy, as Arnie was such a celeb in those days that initially he said he didn’t know if he could make it because of prior commitments. But Lewkowitz put on a full-court press, sent flowers to Palmer’s wife, Winnie, and Sunday night of tournament week he finally got a last-minute commitment from AP.

“I remember I was breathless, and that night we went to a Suns game,” Lewkowitz recalled. “At halftime I went up to Al McCoy and asked him to make the announcement that Palmer was coming, and he did so and everyone cheered because Arnie was that big of a deal back then.”

Johnny Miller is the last back-to-back Phoenix Open winner, taking the title in 1974 and 1975.

Another big story of the 1970s was the entrance of “the Desert Fox,” who because of Johnny Miller’s domination in Phoenix (1974-75), Tucson (1974-76) and Palm Springs (1975-76) got tagged with the nickname. It was in ‘75 that Miller won all three events and was named the PGA TOUR’s player of the year. That also was the year that Miller shot 260 at Phoenix Country Club and won by a record 14 strokes, his 61 in the second round being the second time he had posted that score in the tournament, having first accomplished the feat in 1970, when he was a rookie.

The 1980s were of lesser note, although the crowds at Phoenix Country Club, which had taken over sole possession of the tournament in 1974, were starting to build in clamoring ways. Because of its tight confines on the corner of 7th Street and Thomas Road, getting everyone on the grounds became difficult and getting everyone a vantage spot nearly impossible, said Jim Frazier, the tournament chairman in 1982.

“I remember we’d get crowds of around 25,000 on the weekends, which was difficult on a course that was so flat,” Frazier said. “If you weren’t in the first or second row, you couldn’t see, so people tended to run from one hole to the next, which created a mob-like mentality.”

If there was a name to remember from the 1980s, besides Hal Sutton who captured the last Phoenix Open ever held at Phoenix Country Club, it was Phoenix’s own Tom Purtzer, who won in 1984 when he edged Corey Pavin by a stroke. Believe it or not, it was the first time a local player had won the tournament, the best previous attempt being a runner-up finish by Phoenix’s Johnny Bulla in 1953.

The Modern Era: 1987-present
Without question the accelerated growth of the Phoenix Open and its contributions to charity are direct results of the tournament relocating to the TPC of Scottsdale in 1987. So it was somewhat appropriate that a new face won the first tournament held at the new stadium golf facility. In that regard, Paul Azinger played the pivotal role by winning the first of his 13 PGA TOUR victories at the TPC. What few people remember is that Zinger defeated the defending champ, Sutton.

The most famous hole in golf is so well known, it is simply called 16.

What was especially surprising about the present holding off the past at that initial tournament at the TPC Scottsdale was that the crowds had swelled to 257,000 for the week. That was about 70,000 more fans than had ever showed up at Phoenix Country Club.

From the get-go, the TPC Scottsdale turned out to be the envy of the PGA TOUR, with crowds escalating to the point where more than 500,000 fans have attended the tournament in five of the last six gatherings. It might seem somewhat impossible to grasp, but in the 23 years that the tournament has been held at the TPC Scottsdale, the total attendance for that time frame is just shy of 10 million fans.

Along the way they have witnessed some terrific champs at the TPC starting with Mark Calcavecchia, whose lights-out style of play earned him most all of the tournament scoring records for his wins in 1989, 1992 and 2001. And while he holds the tournament record (256 in 2001) and shares the 18-hole record (60 also in ’01), one of his greatest and most little-known feats at the TPC is that in 1989 he played the island, par-5 15th hole in 6-under par for the tournament with two eagles and two birdies.

Other memorable champs from modern times include Sandy Lyle’s win in 1988, when he beat Fred Couples in a two-hole playoff after Freddie hit back-to-back tee shots into the lake at No. 18; Vijay Singh’s playoff victory over local favorite Billy Mayfair in 1995, when the Big Fijian won the first of two titles that include his win in 2003; Mickelson’s win in 1996 over Justin Leonard, a sudden-death victory that some thought dwarfed the Super Bowl that was being contested at the same time right down the road in Tempe; homeboy Steve Jones’ blowout win over Jesper Parnevik in 1997, a loss that the Swede avenged the next year when Jesper smoked his victory cigar while strolling down the 18th fairway; and J.B. Holmes’ win in 2006, when the two-time champ (he also won in 2008) became the only player in the tournament’s history to win as a rookie.

There have been other big winners since the tournament moved to Scottsdale, most notably local charities, which have received $66 million and counting, and the $200 million economic impact the tournament has on the Valley each year. But just as important from a numbers standpoint, at least as far as the Thunderbirds are concerned, is that the Waste Management Phoenix Open is 75 years young and still growing.

This story originally ran in the February issue of MVP Magazine in all of its interactive glory. MVP magazine, the first and only interactive, digital sports magazine can be read at www.mvptoday.com.