THE WINNING OPPORTUNITY TAKEN BY WAYNE GRADY AT THE 1990 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP – SportHistoria

article by Nicola Pucci

When Wayne Grady shows up on the starting tee on August 9, 1990 of the Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club of Birmingham, Alabama, for the 72nd edition of the PGA Championship (let’s face it, the least fascinating of the four major golf tournaments), it doesn’t collect who knows what credit from bettors. In fact, on other purebred horses, the bets focus on who will be able to lift a coveted trophy, which grants whoever becomes the recipient the enormous privilege of becoming part of the very reserved core of the chosen ones.

In fact, this nice 33-year-old Australian, a professional since 1978, has played for years on the PGA Tour of Australasia and on the European Tour, achieving success at the German Open in 1984 by beating Canadian Jerry Anderson by one shotand then, passing through the Caudine Forks of PGA Tour Qualifying School, securing admission to the PGA Tour in 1984. But since that day in Frankfurt, if we exclude a second victory on the Australian tour in 1988, taking the luxury of beating a certain Greg Norman in the play-off, the plate has cried. Until the year 1989 strikes.

It is good to remember that Grady, When it comes to his Grand Slam resume, he boasts only a 21st-place finish at the 1986 PGA Championship and a 17th-place finish at the 1987 Open Championship.the year in which he also made the cut at the US Open, finishing in 43rd position, and then adding, in 1988, 38th place at the edition of the British Major played at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club. Nothing exceptional, therefore, but his time is about to strike and in the summer of 1989, announced by a victory at the Westchester Classic (the first on the PGA Tour) beating Ronnie Black in the play-off, Grady almost scores a coup al Royal Troon Golf Clubin Scotland, where the 118th edition of the Open Championship was held, finishing the second and third laps in the lead and only being defeated in a dramatic three-way playoff with Mark Calcavecchia and Greg Norman himselfthe one then final winner of the Claret Jug and the other to chew bitterly for yet another place of honor (there will be 8 in his career) in the Slam tournaments.

In 1990 Grady made the cut at the Masters, finishing in an honest 27th place, only to fail at both the US Open, in June, and the Open Championship, in July., before a historic and memorable edition of the PGA Championship comes to his rescue. And controversial, if it is true that in view of the tournament the founder of the club, Hall Thompson, confirms the club’s policy of excluding African-Americans from the event, as already happened in the previous edition of 1984, then won by Lee Trevino. The protests of the groups in favor of African-Americans and the controversies, for the occasion, are wasted, the sponsors (including the giant IBM) threaten to withdraw advertising from the network broadcasting the event, the ABC (which the following year it will be replaced by CBS), and the PGA considers moving the tournament away from Shoal Creek. Finally, a local African-American leader is invited to become an honorary member of the club and the tournament can be broadcast regularly.

Payne Stewart is the reigning championand has every intention of playing his cards at the table of contenders for victory, where champions of the caliber of Nick Faldoworld number 2 and winner this season at the Masters and the Open Championship, by Hale Irwinwhich brings victory at the last US Open in an exciting play-off with Mike Donald, and of the same Normannumber 1 in a world ranking in which they also find a place among the ten best golfers on the planet Jose Maria Olazabal, Ian Woosnam, Severiano Crossbowmen, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange, Calcavecchia and Paul Azinger. Curiously, with the obvious exception of Stewart, credited with the number 3, none of them have ever won the PGA Championship.

The first round of a course designed by Jack Nicklaus, competing despite the 50 springs (it will not pass the cut, however), and which measures 7,145 yards, met and ali of Bobby Wadkins, who signs a 68-hit card and is one stroke ahead of the pair of Fred Couples and Mark O’Meara, number 11 and 30 respectively in the ranking. Faldo and Stewart are already well positioned in the rankings, 3 strokes more than the leader of the day, while their Grady, constant in his performance, closed in close par, 72 strokes, ready on the second round to score such an important score, 67 strokes, that it projected him into the lead in blissful solitude after 36 holes, 5 strokes under par and one stroke better than Couples himself and Larry Mize.

The third lap, on Saturday, confirms Grady and Couples in the first two places in the provisional rankingwith the Australian, again, capable of scoring 72 shots and the American finishing in 73, falling back to 2 shots behind, paired with Stewartand with Gil Morgan, who with 65 shots achieved the best score of the day, who follows together with Loren Roberts with 3 shots to recover.

Leading after the second and third rounds, Grady found himself in exactly the same position on Sunday as he was at the Open Championship the year before, when he stepped to the tee with a one-stroke lead over Tom Watson. There is no doubt that, this time, he really hopes to complete the work that would make him champion. And after a bogey on hole 2, two consecutive birdies on the par5 of the 3rd and on the par4 of the 4th confirm him in the lead with 3 shots over Coupleswho by virtue of the errors of Stewart (who plays in the last team with Grady), Morgan and Roberts who move away, really seems to be the only opponent capable of challenging Grady for the final victory.

In fact Couples, with all the class that in 1992 allowed him to win the Masters and become number 1 in the world, he comes back under with three birdies on holes 6, 12 and 13 which, in conjunction with two errors by Grady, allow him to overtake, -7 against his rival’s -6with Morgan who, having recovered to -5, then lost any residual chance of victory with the double bogey on the 13th hole.

Even us Sunday amateurs know golf well, “It’s the devil’s sport“, and just at the moment in which Couples, alone in command, could gain the momentum to go and capture the first title in a Major, instead he stumbles into four (!!!) consecutive bogeys which put him back three strokes away from Grady, with only two holes to play. And given that the Australian, showing off unexpected coolness, is so constant in his performance that he scores 6 pars in the last 6 holes, so at the end of the day, when Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club evening is coming, Wayne Grady, the champion that no one had mentioned in the predictions, takes home the cup intended for the winner.

When they say that golf gives everyone the opportunity of a lifetime…

2024-05-18 11:11:00
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