Larry Mize’s 1987 Masters’ golf title: ‘Incredibly unexpected’

Larry Hogan Mize of Augusta, Ga., was a talented youth golfer. He attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta on a golf scholarship and turned pro in 1980. 

The first of his four PGA Tour wins came in 1983, when Mize, at age 24, won the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.

But Mize’s second win is the one that “golf people” remember. The victory continues to resonate…nearly 40 years later.

Competing as the hometown hero in the 1987 Masters Tournament, Mize found himself tied for the lead with golfing heavyweights Seve Ballesteros of Spain and Greg Norman of Australia at the end of four rounds.

 

The threesome began a sudden-death playoff on the 10th hole (par 4). Ballesteros was eliminated with a bogey.

Moving on to the 11th hole (par 4), Mize’s second shot leaked well to the right of the green, coming to rest about 140 feet from the hole. “Impossible lie,” the commentators said. Norman’s second shot landed on the edge of the green, about 50 feet from the cup.

With a sand wedge, Mize chipped in for an incredibly amazing birdie.

 

Norman commented: “From there, I didn’t think Larry would get down in two, and I was right. He got down in one.”

Norman missed his birdie putt, and Mize was crowned the champion. Sportswriters have ranked Mize’s phenomenal chip-in as one of the most miraculous shots (and endings) in the history of Majors Championships.

 

 

The “most valuable member” of Augusta National Golf Club for nearly 20 years was Jeff Knox, the “official marker” between 2002-21. 

Standing in the wings…always willing, ready and able to fill in…Knox would play alongside one of the competing professionals whenever the Masters Tournament field “was a man down.”

 

Golf writer David Westin said: “A marker plays when there is an uneven number of players after the 36-hole cut. He goes off in the first group of the day in a twosome to keep that participant’s scorecard and provide company and pace for the round. He does not post a score.”

 

Knox holds the course record of 61 from the members’ tees. A native of Thomson, Ga., Knox now lives in Augusta and is a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.

Westin reported that pro Paul Casey played with Knox in the 2018 Masters. “Jeff’s golf was stellar,” Casey said. “We were early on a Saturday morning first out. We played in about 3 hours, 10 minutes. It was just a joy. There is nothing better than quick, good golf.”

 

Over the years, Knox played with at least seven former or future Masters champions (Bubba Watson twice, Larry Mize, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh, Sandy Lyle and Craig Stadler). 

Jeff Knox and Bubba Watson.

Other partners have included Ernie Els, Jason Day, Steve Stricker, Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

“Most famously, Knox beat Rory McIlroy by a stroke when they were paired together in the third round in 2014,” Westin wrote. “Knox then beat Augusta native Larry Mize by two strokes the next day.”

“Jeff obviously knows this place so well,” McIlroy said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone putt the greens as well as he does. He was really impressive. He should be playing in the Masters.”

 

Westin said: “After beating McIlroy and Mize, Knox never kept a ‘real’ score again, picking up on at least one hole during his round.”

Knox was 59 when Michael McDermott, 48, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., succeeded him as the official marker.

 

Knox was there in 2023, sitting inside the ropes behind the first tee. He filmed McDermott’s first tee shot as marker. McDermott’s drive flew well past that of his playing partner Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion.

 

All is well in Augusta.

Patrons love the retro feel of golf’s Masters Tournament

Some of golf’s most endearing and enduring traditions are associated with The Masters Tournament, which is played every year in April at the Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club, which opened in 1933.

 

Co-founders were Bobby Jones of Atlanta, an amateur golfer and an attorney (shown above), and businessman Clifford Roberts, a native of Morning Sun, Iowa (shown below with pro golfer Arnold Palmer, a four-time winner of the Masters).

 

Jones and Roberts paid Dr. Alister MacKenzie of Normanton (near Leeds) in Yorkshire, England, to design the course.

 

Originally trained as a surgeon, Dr. MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army and specialized in the “principles of military camouflage.” He said those skills applied nicely to golf course architecture.

The first Masters, played in 1934, was won by Horton Smith of Springfield, Mo.

 

Uniforms for all the caddies at The Masters were introduced in 1940. Roberts wanted the men toting the players’ golf bags to clearly stand out from the patrons. At first, caddies were required to wear blue denim jumpsuits with green ball caps.

In the late 1940s, Roberts switched to outfitting the caddies in white jumpsuits, providing even greater “contrast.” Some patrons quipped that the caddies looked like a bunch of house painters.

 

Today, the caddies’ jumpsuits are made from a polyester/cotton blended fabric that is lighter and cooler. Each caddie’s jumpsuit has the player’s name on the back, affixed with Velcro, along with The Masters’ logo on the right breast and the player’s number for the week on the left side.

The defending Masters champion is assigned “No. 1” each year, but after that, the numbers are issued in the order that the players arrive and check in at the tournament registration station.

Players’ family members get to wear replicas of the white jumpsuits on the just-for-fun Par 3 outing on the Wednesday before the four-day tournament gets underway on Thursday.

 

The famous Masters’ massive leaderboards were installed in 1947, along with elaborate system of exterior ladders coupled with “monkey bars-like interior structures.” It takes a cast of 280 volunteers…just to keep score.

 

The scores are posted manually by real human beings. There’s nothing electronic about it. It’s all part of the “Masters charm.”

 

Veteran sportswriter Jim McCabe tells us: “Ten leaderboards grace Augusta National. The largest one is located behind the green at No. 7…and the volunteers working inside that leaderboard clamor up” about 20 feet of scaffolding.

“Eleven volunteers are on this crew. The commands come in over the radio to post the numbers,” McCabe said. “The synchronized movement is a study in teamwork. Special care is made to make sure no player is putting below on No. 7 green or hitting from No. 8 tee.”

 

“The numbers represent where the leading players stand in relation to par. Green is even par or over. Red is best of all, representing strokes under par.”

 

Fans cheer when the numbers go up and groan when they go down. The players are also “into it.”

“Fantastic. Nothing like them.” – Adam Scott.

 

“They’re special boards. Iconic.” – Zach Johnson.

McCabe said: “Only onetime leaderboard volunteer has gone on to win a green jacket.

“I love them,” said Larry Hogan Mize, an Augusta native and the 1987 Masters champion. 

“Electronic scoreboards are great, don’t get me wrong. But I’m old school. There’s nothing like putting numbers up by hand. The Masters wouldn’t be the same without it.”

As a teenager, Mize worked two Masters’ tournaments as a volunteer scoreboard operator on the 3rd hole. 

The names of the tournament winners are etched in his brain – Jack Nicklaus in 1972 and Tommy Aaron in 1973. “Just being on these grounds was awesome,” Mize said.

Jack Nicklaus with Lee Trevino

Tommy Aaron

‘Seniors golf for women’ came along in 2000

Yes, indeed. Women play golf, too.

There is a senior professional tour for women called “Legends of the LPGA,” featuring female players age 45 and older.

 

Founded in 2000, it showcases former LPGA Tour professionals.

Jane Blalock, 80, of Portsmouth, N.H., was the sparkplug who made it happen. She played on the LPGA professional tour from 1969-87, winning 27 titles.

 

Blalock holds the record for “most consecutive cuts made on a professional golf tour” – 299 – from 1969-80. (Among the men, Tiger Woods has the longest string of consecutive cuts made – 142, occurring between 1998-2005.)

A graduate of Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., Blalock spent a year as a high school history teacher, while taking golf lessons from legendary instructor Bob Toski.

 

As the CEO of JBC Golf, Inc., Blalock established the LPGA Legends tour in 2000, and her company continues to manage the program. She is also a consultant, motivational speaker and book author.

To ensure success of the LPGA Legends, Blalock recruited 24 veteran players who offered their endorsement and commitment to participate. Among them were JoAnne Carner, Kathy Whitworth, Sandra Haynie, Sandra Palmer, Judy Rankin, Carol Mann and Donna Caponi.

Perhaps the most noteworthy player on the list was Whitworth, a native of Monahans, Texas. 

She holds the record for most all-time victories in LPGA events – 88 titles. She competed from 1962-85, and all the tour players greatly admired her as a beacon of strength, providing guidance and encouragement. (Whitworth died in 2022 at age 83.)

Some of the early players who were successful on the LPGA Legends tour were: Rosie Jones of Santa Ana, Calif., and Christa Johnson of Arcata, Calif., (9 titles each); Trish Johnson of Bristol, England (6 titles); Nancy Scranton of Centralia, Ill. (5 titles); Juli Inkster of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Jan Stephenson of Sydney, Australia (4 titles each); and Patty Sheehan of Middlebury, Vt. (3 titles).

 

Rosie Jones

Christa Johnson

Trish Johnson

Nancy Scranton

Juli Inkster

Jan Stephenson

Patty Sheehan

Annika Sorenstam of Bro, Sweden (near Stockholm), is the top all-time money winner in women’s golf, with prize money totaling about $23.6 million. She won 72 regular tour titles and basically retired from the game in 2008. Sorenstam returned, however, in 2021 to win a major LPGA Legends event…much to the delight of her legion of loyal fans.

 

Two women who rank among the top all-time money-winners and are neck-and-neck in the standings (hovering around the $20.3 million mark) are Karrie Webb of Ayr, Queensland, Australia (shown above), and Cristie Kerr of Miami, Fla. (shown below). Both are now eligible to compete on the LPGA Legends circuit, and Kerr is a recent winner.

 

Relative newcomers on the LPGA Legends tour who have cashed in with recent victories are Giulia Sergas, 46, of Trieste, Italy (shown above), and Angela Stanford, 48, of Saginaw, Texas (shown below).

 

North Carolina’s greatest female golfer of all-time was Estelle Lawson Page (1907-83) of Chapel Hill. She was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1963 as one of five charter members and the first female athlete.

 

Estelle Lawson graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1928. She learned to play golf from her father, Dr. Bob Lawson, who was a professor of anatomy at the UNC medical school and head baseball coach…as well as the athletic director who gave birth to the basketball program at the university.

At age 25, Estelle Lawson won the 1932 Women’s Carolinas Amateur Championship, the first of 10 victories in that event during her amateur career. She also won the prestigious North and South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst Resort on seven occasions, which stands as one of her most enduring accomplishments. Estelle Page Lawson retired from competitive golf in 1955.