Despite Ben Hogan’s remarkable victory in 1950, it took a total of 21 years for the U.S. Open to return to Merion. There is no definitive answer as to why this was the case, only a combination of possibilities. However, America’s national championship did return eventually to Merion, and the 1971 United States Open would be remembered for its duel between two of the greatest American players of the 20th century. They were born within seven weeks of the other, one from Texas, and the other from Ohio. The Merry Mex and The Golden Bear. Lee Trevino and Jack Nicklaus.
Born on the 1st of December 1939, and growing up in an impoverished background in Texas, Lee Trevino eventually became one of the game’s greatest and most popular players. With his exuberant personality, and sublime shot-making skills, Trevino enthralled galleries, who would be initially entertained by his humour, before being dazzled by his extraordinary talent. In the end, Trevino’s career ranks among the most successful in history, with 29 victories on the PGA Tour, including six major championships. However, Trevino views his victory over Jack Nicklaus at Merion as his most important win.
Reflecting earlier this year, Trevino remarked: “That win at Merion was the most important win of my career, hands down. After that, I knew I didn’t have a lot to prove.”
Coming into the U.S. Open at Merion, Lee Trevino was already a major champion, having won his national championship three years earlier at Oak Hill. But despite that significant success, self-confidence on the golf course wasn’t something that came easily to the Texan, and he would often doubt his own ability to compete with the very best in the game.
Ironically, it took the man whom he would ultimately defeat at Merion to provide Trevino with the encouragement and belief that he needed. In the spring of 1971, Nicklaus remarked to the media: “I hope Trevino never finds out how good he is.” However, a more important episode would come soon after, as the eventual 18-time major champion later took the Texan aside for a personal chat, after Trevino decided to skip the Masters, believing that he couldn’t win at Augusta National. Nicklaus told Trevino: “You just don’t know how good you are. You can win anywhere.”
It was a statement that Trevino never forgot, and he reflected upon its importance to him as a player: “For the best player in the world to tell me that filled me with confidence. He didn’t have to do that, but that’s the kind of person he is.”
It was a confidence that would, in an intriguing twist of fate, help serve to defeat the man who inspired it. Coincidentally, the concerns about Merion in the lead up to the 1971 U.S. Open are almost parallel to those raised in 2013. Playing at 6,544 yards, the course was believed to be too short, with rainfall at the start of the week softening the layout up to provide optimum scoring conditions for the field. After all, 11 years earlier, Jack Nicklaus had decimated the course in the World Team Amateur Championship with a score of 66-67-68-68--269, which was 18 shots lower than Ben Hogan's total 10 years earlier in the 1950 U.S. Open.
Merion had its doubters, but these critics would be silenced by what turned out to be a memorable Championship.
As the opening round got underway, the predicted depth of low scoring didn’t quite materialise, with Labron Harris leading after a 67. Jack Nicklaus would find himself two shots back, with Lee Trevino in a tie for eighth at even par. There were seven players under par the end of Thursday.
However, by the conclusion of play on Friday, there would only be three players in those elusive red figures. And neither of them was named Nicklaus and Trevino.
Harris fell out of contention after a 77, with Jim Colbert and Bob Erickson leading the way after the halfway point. But it was Arnold Palmer who grabbed attention on Friday, as the 1960 U.S. Open champion shot a 68 that took him to within three shots of the lead with 36-holes to play. Nicklaus and Trevino both posted 72s on Friday, which left them at one and two-over respectively. But the two 31 year-olds were still within touch of the lead as Saturday arrived.
The third round would provide this U.S. Open with the possibility of the first amateur winner since Johnny Goodman in 1933, as 21-year-old Jim Simons took a two-shot lead into the final round, after shooting an extraordinary 65 on Saturday, which was then just one shot off the U.S. Open record.
Simons would play in the final round alongside Nicklaus, who had shot a third round of 68 to be two shots off the lead held by the Pennsylvania native. Coincidentally, Nicklaus had been the most recent amateur contender in a U.S. Open, having finished in a tie for fourth in 1961, in a performance that came a year after his runner-up placing to Arnold Palmer at Cherry Hills.
1964 PGA champion Bobby Nichols was a shot further back of Nicklaus, with Lee Trevino in a tie for fourth, just four back of Simons.
With such a fascinating leaderboard, the 71st United States Open was sure to provide an extraordinary finale.
Given the magnitude of the situation, many expected Simons to wilt alongside Nicklaus, but he still remained in the lead at the turn, and found himself just one back of the lead playing the 18th. Requiring birdie to force a playoff, Simons would make double bogey and finish in a tie for 5th. A stunning performance, and one that remains the last top ten by an amateur in the U.S. Open to date.
However, with Simons out of the way, the stage was left to Trevino, who had posted a final round of 69 to set an even par target of 280 in the clubhouse, and Nicklaus, who had partnered Simons. The Golden Bear struggled with his game on the back nine, but made a succession of par putts to keep himself in contention, and he found himself on the 18th green with a putt for birdie to win the United States Open for a third occasion. As Trevino sat anxiously in the changing area listening to the coverage on the radio, Nicklaus’ birdie attempt missed, and they would face the following day in an 18-hole playoff.
On the Monday morning, one of the most memorable U.S. Open moments occurred on the first tee. As they were waiting to commence the playoff, Trevino pulled out a three-foot toy snake that he had been carrying in his bag for two months, since his daughter gave it to him. As the crowd shrieked at the sight the snake, Nicklaus, while laughing, asked Trevino to throw the snake over to him.
In what turned out to be a difficult day for Jack, the playoff would become no laughing matter.
After making birdie on the opening hole, Nicklaus led by one shot after Trevino made bogey. However, this would prove to be the only hole that The Golden Bear would walk off with the lead. By the sixth hole, the fortunes of the playoff had completely turned around, and Trevino found himself with a one shot lead, as both players were called in as heavy rain began to fall over Merion.
They would return an hour later, with the course now significantly softer after the deluge. This was an occurrence that Trevino views as a positive break: “Had it not rained, I would not have won that playoff,” Trevino said. “As soon as it started raining I was saying, ‘Keep it up baby, keep it up. Now my low ball is going to stop. I’m not going to try to go at the front of every green.’ I knew it wasn’t going to hurt him and it’s not going to help him, but it was going to help me. I was a low-ball hitter, and the rain softened things up enough for me to be able to hold the greens with my approach shots. That was a huge break for me. Merion was the hardest damn course I had ever seen.”
As play resumed, Nicklaus attempted to fight back, but Trevino, who provided a clinic on the greens, matched every birdie. In the end, Nicklaus couldn’t make up the deficit, as Trevino made birdies on the 8th, 12th and 15th. The Texan would make par on the 18th, to complete a three-shot win in the playoff over Nicklaus, and seal a second U.S. Open title.
For Trevino, a victory at Merion was the most important of his illustrious career. As he reflected in a recent interview: “Merion gave me my career. Up until Merion, the way this played out, I never felt comfortable. I never thought that I belonged. I was a professional golfer, and I had won a few tournaments, but I didn't really feel like I was in the fraternity. When I got into the playoff and I beat Jack, I beat the best player in the world. It wasn't so much that I had won the Open for the second time; it was who I defeated to do it. It finally made me feel like I belonged in the fraternity.”
Trevino had defeated Jack Nicklaus, who was at that stage in the middle of an extraordinary run in the majors. From the 1970 Open Championship at St. Andrews to the 1972 Open at Muirfield, Nicklaus won four majors, was runner-up in three others and didn’t finish worse than sixth.
Lee Trevino would carry on the form of Merion, winning the Canadian Open two weeks later, before winning a third major at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale the following month. Trevino would later defeat Nicklaus again the next year at Muirfield, which is where the 142nd Open Championship will be contested in 2013.
Coincidentally, the final three major venues this year; Merion, Muirfield and Oak Hill were all sites where Trevino claimed victory on.
It will be an incredible summer of reflection for the 73-year-old. But for Lee Trevino, it all truly started at Merion.