Dave Stockton looks back at 1970 triumph

Some of us remember the 1970 PGA Championship when Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club hosted the event for the first time with the result being a first-time major winner and The King missing another opportunity for the one major championship needed for a career Grand Slam.

As everyone knows, the winner was a young Californian named Dave Stockton and The King, Arnold Palmer, finished in a tie for second at 281, two strokes behind the winner’s score of 1-under par.

We caught up with the 80-year-old Stockton at the offices of Stockton Golf in Redlands, Calif., to ask him about his memories of the win and Oklahoma in August, when in Saturday’s third round the temperature reached 101 degrees.

Stockton told me that as he completed his Monday practice round at Southern Hills while walking up the fairway to the 18th green he could visualize thousands of fans behind the green, just as they would be on Sunday. The 28-yearold, three-time winner in the preceding three years, was sure the vision was a great sign for his victory. The entire week in Tulsa was memorable. Wife Kathy, pregnant with son Ronnie who was born a month later, spent much of her time in the clubhouse out of the heat and the question of where to eat was solved after finding an all-you-can-eat buffet featuring Mexican food. Both Stocktons love south of the border food, and it gave them a relaxing place for meals during their stay. Fortune was smiling on Stockton although it may not have seemed so at the time. He related, “That week was the first and only time I fired a caddy. On Monday, the one they assigned me, the son of a bar owner the caddie master knew, I don’t think had ever been on a golf course. In the practice round, right on the very first hole, he put my bag down in a bunker, so I knew there was a problem. I couldn’t wait to finish the nine to get someone else.” Stockton continued, “The new caddie’s name was Jed Day and Jed was a Southern Hills member and had a low handicap, he certainly knew the course. He has since passed away, but this was one of the few times I ever had my caddie read the greens. He was that good and a lot of help, a big part of why I did so well.”

At that time the PGA required players to use caddies supplied by the course, not their regular caddies they had week-to-week on Tour. The fortunate teaming of Stockton and Day was a significant factor in the victory.

“I had a good third round (a 4-under 66) and had a nice lead going into Sunday. I was feeling pretty good for Sunday’s last round,” Stockton said.

The lead was three strokes over Raymond Floyd and by five over Palmer. However, no one anticipated the drama that would occur the final day.

On Sunday, Stockton played with Palmer in the last pairing. He pointed out, “Arnie was best of any of us with the galleries,” and quick to say Palmer was always apologetic about the often-boisterous favoritism

the fans displayed. The eventual champion had to endure a hazard not part of the course. On every hole there was yelling in support of Palmer and catcalls to disrupt Stockton’s concentration. He particularly remembered a scream from the gallery after he three-putted the fifth, “You’ve got’em now Arnie!” Along with other annoying instances, Stockton remembered it made him play harder vowing to “stand up to Arnie’s Army.” And he did. At the sixth, Stockton made a long birdie putt followed on the seventh by an eagle after holing out a wedge. Stumbling to a double bogey on No. 8, he completed the nine with another birdie putting everyone on notice he was in control. There was a final opportunity for Palmer on the long 13th when Stockton hit into the water guarding the green. Palmer had a Local assist birdie putt, but Stockton’s wedge to inches gave him a tap-in bogey slamming the door on his pursuers. Palmer’s second place was his third in a PGA Championship and turned out to be Stockton credits Jed his final bridesmaid finish and his last top 10 in the PGA. As most golf fans know The King never did win a PGA which kept him Day for 1970 PGA by ed travis from achieving a career Grand Slam. Stockton was never a long hitter and I asked Stockton about the equipment he used that week 52 years ago. “The Dave Stockton model by Spalding,” he said. “That’s persimmon woods and irons you wouldn’t want to have to play today." Stockton also contrasted the ball back then, a Spalding Top Flite, with those used today telling me, “The game is different, changed. The ball comes off the face so much faster distances are much greater.” The impression I received was he wasn’t lamenting the modern equipment but simply commenting on the facts. Jed Day Stockton, who had 10 wins during his career, received a 10-year exemption on the PGA Tour for his 1970 PGA but four years earlier, prior to a change in the rules, his friend Al Geiberger had been given a lifetime exemption for his 1966 PGA win. Stockton told me after his second PGA in 1976 he asked the Tour, I’m sure with tongue in cheek, if he could add the six years between his two championships to the 10-year award for 1976. Needless to say, the answer was no but it does give us a sense of Stockton’s attitude

of handling a situation in a humorous way.

Throughout his career, Stockton was one of the Tour’s best putters and a master of the short game. This led him to becoming an instructor for players on the professional tours as well as conducting hundreds of clinics for recreational players. A few years ago I was the beneficiary of a Stockton putting lesson and it stuck with me.

His contention is we take technique, the mechanics of the putting stroke, much too seriously. Concentrating on the “how” almost ensures problems with the stroke and this eventually leads to a loss of confidence which is then reinforced by more poor results. Stockton told me putting is like signing your name, something you do without a lot of thought, relaxed, and concentrating on the outcome not the process.

He told me to just figure out the line and then hit it. Almost the same way a kid starting out does, without stopping to check if his stance is OK, his weight distribution is right, his balance even, the grip is square…well, you get the idea. The kid just steps up and knocks it in.

Stockton is planning to be at Southern Hills during the PGA and looking forward to again seeing the course where he played some of the best golf of his life.

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