Cayman Connection

12 | The Tower

Island Visitor Publishing, LLC • December 2020 • 941.349.0194 • www.DELTURA-HOA.com

THE CAYMAN CONNECTION:

By Bill Woods

How the Careers of Slammin’ Sam Snead and the Golden Bear Crossed Paths at Del Tura Golf and Country Club n addition to his status in the 1980’s as world’s greatest golfer, Jack Nicklaus also had a piece of the controlling interest in the company that he had endorsed for nearly twenty years, MacGregor. Knowing that his best golfing days were behind him Nicklaus devoted more of his time and energies to golf course development and real estate acquisitions. One property in which he was particularly interested was located on the Cayman Islands. An immediate problem came to his attention and that of a Canadian conglomerate that was backing the project. There just wasn’t enough land for a hotel, marina, and regulation-sized golf course. So, what was one of the world’s most recognizable athletes to do? Nicklaus decided to put his MacGregor engineers to work developing a new golf ball that would accommodate play on a shorter or “executive” course. As Nicklaus was quoted in the Tampa Bay Times, “It is something I had been thinking about for a while: taking a golf ball and making it suit the land rather than have the land suit the golf ball.” And so was born the Cayman golf ball and the story of how the Cayman Classic came to be played in the summer of 1985 in North Fort Myers. At first glance the Cayman ball was an ugly duckling. Lighter in weight and designed to fly just over half as far as a regulation golf ball, its surface was brambled, eliciting a common reaction that the ball had “pimples and not dimples.” After pouring $100,000 into the ball’s development, the chief engineer for MacGregor claimed it could be hooked, faded, and made to back up. Putting was said to be as true as a normal ball and it could float on water (at one point Nicklaus considered putting a driving range into the ocean in front of the hotel, letting the waves “retrieve” the practice shots). Basically, it came down to Nicklaus, one of the game’s longest hitters, driving the Cayman ball about 135 yards. Perfect for a “short” or “executive” layout, allowing long par 3’s to played as par 4’s and par 4’s as par 5’s. Many par 3’s would measure less than 75 yards.

The ultimate test of the ball was to put it into play with PGA professionals and, by so doing, draw national attention to the ball and to the short courses that Nicklaus envisioned. In stepped Sam Snead. There were few sports fans anywhere in the world in1985 who hadn’t heard of Sam Snead. Snead, known as “Slammin’ Sammie,” was the winner of seven majors including three Masters titles. Along with Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, Snead dominated the professional golf circuit for nearly three decades. His golfing feats were legendary, including winning 82 tour events (number one all-time tied with Tiger Woods) and being the first golf professional to shoot below his age, shooting a 66 at age 67 in a Quad Cities tournament. His straw hat became a symbol and he was known for his gentlemanly but fiercely competitive nature.

So how about convincing Sam Snead to come to southwest Florida to play in a one-day tournament using the Cayman ball? It would be fabulous publicity for the ball as well as for the Golden Bear and McGregor Sports and would, in turn, introduce a new golf course in North Fort Myers known as Del Tura Country Club. Club professionals from across Florida and further afield would be anxious to play in a tournament headlined by “Slammin’ Sammie.”

It wasn’t recorded what Snead was paid to come to North Fort Myers, nor how much Nicklaus or MacGregor Sports put up as his appearance fee. What we do know is that he was approached in Chicago by the father of Del Tura’s assistant pro Keith Marks Jr. As local sportswriter Vince Smith summarized, “Keith (Sr.) was doing some teaching in Chicago and he happened to bump into Snead up there … Keith told him about our tournament …” Snead agreed to come to headline the tournament and get a look at the new Cayman ball in what became the first publicized short course tournament in the history of golf.

On the evening of July 28, 1985, Snead arrived at Page Field and was picked up in a Rolls Royce and brought to Del Tura where he spent the night in a guest house. Every piece of the plan had fallen into place; the fate of the Cayman ball would be determined the next morning.

The original nine (South) was designed by architect Ron Garl, whose career spanned 250 golf courses. The construction of the entire 27 hole Del Tura course that had begun in 1983 wasn’t entirely finished. So, eighteen holes were fashioned from what was ready for play. Karl Stumpp, Del Tura’s head professional, molded an ambitious and serious test of golf. Billed as the Cayman Classic, the executive course of eighteen holes would play to a regulation par 72. Owing to the ball’s shorter flight several of the longer par threes were converted to par fours; each of the par fours were altered to par fives.

The morning of the match the front-page banner of the News-Press read: Slammin’ Sam Snead tackles Del Tura with the Cayman ball.

The presence of Snead drew a capacity gallery who, for $10 got to witness the tournament and received a chit for a free round of golf with cart. The format was two-man best ball with nearly 60 teams of golf professionals (mostly Florida teaching pros) competing for a purse of $6,500. Snead, partnered with Keith Marks Sr., teed off surrounded by admirers lining the first fairway. The first two holes went well with consecutive birdies but after that as the saying goes “the wheels came off.” The legendary Snead and his partner carded a 75 and the post tournament interviews were anything but positive in discussing Nicklaus’s Cayman ball. Snead didn’t like the ball (manufactured for a time as the McGregor 50) as he made plain to the sports writers in attendance. His basic criticism was the ball simply didn’t fly far enough and that the best solution for short courses was for them to reduce par and use a standard ball. He wasn’t the least impressed by staring at a ball with pimples after spending sixty years staring at dimples. Snead and his partner split $75 in prize money, just enough (smiled Snead) to pay his caddy. As golf writer Vince Smith said, “… his effervescence and that big, unusual smile rarely left as he put on a gracious exhibition for nearly 600 spectators strolling the tidy executive course.”

At the end of the day the Rolls Royce and the sweet swinging Virginian Mr. Snead were on their way back to the airport for a flight to Chicago. Snead was due the next day to honor Patty Berg (winner of fifteen major women’s golf titles and Fort Myers resident) at a Wilson Sporting Goods event. By coincidence Snead had bumped into Berg’s step-mother at Del Tura and informed her that he was presenting the award to her step-daughter. As related by Vince Smith, “The 73 year-old Snead, who joined the PGA tour in 1937, considers [Patty] Berg one of the greatest women he’s ever known.”

The Cayman golf ball flopped but continued to be manufactured largely as a collector’s item. The clear winner of the tournament that July day in 1985 was the Del Tura golf course. Among many plaudits earned were these, from the Fort Myers News Press: The View from the Clubhouse is Spectacular, and Florida Golfweek: The Finest Executive Golf Course We Know.

The Tower | 13

Island Visitor Publishing, LLC • December 2020 • 941.349.0194 • www.DELTURA-HOA.com