Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2012 - 23

tally, CBS televised the 1959 PGA tournament
for an hour on Saturday and an
hour and a half on Sunday-the fi rst time
a Minnesota golf tournament had been
on national television.
Palmer was never in contention, however.
He failed to break 70 and fi nished
tied for 14th. The story of the week was
little Jerry Barber, a 5-foot-5, 127-pound
former touring pro who had taken the job
of club pro at the Wilshire Country Club
in Los Angeles. Barber was one of a record
nine players who tied for the fi rst-round
lead at 69. Thirty-seven years after winning
the PGA in 1922, 57-year-old Gene
Sarazen shot a 73. " Might have been lower, "
he said. " One time a kid picked up my
ball, and when he threw it back it landed
right under a wire fence. "
On Saturday Barber
Kathy
Cornelius
three rounds and were playing together
not far behind McIntire.
Cornelius led McIntire by one shot and
Hagge by two with one hole to play. The
410-yard 18th played as a par 5 in that
Open, with the deep ravine and creek in
front of the green. Cornelius topped her
tee shot and decided to lay up short of
the ravine in two, but she hit her pitching
wedge too well and put the shot into
the creek. Hagge reached the green in two,
while Cornelius took a drop and pitched
onto the green in four. Cornelius twoputted
for a bogey and a tie with McIntire,
while Hagge three-putted for fi ve to miss
the playoff by a shot. Berg had a chance to
make it a three-way playoff, but missed by
a stroke after closing with a 74.
In the playoff the next day, McIntire
stayed even with Cornelius through seven
holes but wilted coming home. Cornelius
played the last 11 holes in 2-under par to
win by seven shots. Cornelius won seven
LPGA events, but the 1956 Open was her
only major championship.
Minneapolis Golf Club was the site of
the next major tournament
to come to Minnesota:
the 1959 PGA
Championship, which was
now a stroke-play tournament,
thanks, in part, to
Midland Hills pro Wally Mund. Mund,
along with Horton Smith, had lobbied
hard for a switch from match play. It was
costing host courses too much money to
have the fi eld narrowed to a few players
on the weekend, when the galleries were
much larger for stroke-play events.
On a pretournament inspection, PGA
president Harold Sargent compared Minneapolis
Golf Club favorably to Winged
Foot Golf Club in New York, site of that
year's U.S. Open, played earlier in the
summer. Jay Hebert shot a practice-round
69 and told Minneapolis Tribune golf
writer Dwayne Netland, " I rate this course
one of the fi nest I've ever played. It's a real
championship layout. "
The brightest young star on the pro
tour that year was 1958 Masters champ
Arnold Palmer. Perhaps not coincidenBob
Rosburg
looked
like a man destined
to win. He holed a 35-foot
uphill putt on 18 to shoot 71
for a 205 total. He was one
shot ahead of Doug Sanders,
who shot 68. Six shots
back, Bob Rosburg, a large,
bespectacled tour veteran,
didn't seem like much of a
threat. Yet Rosburg, playing
in the second-to-last group
on Sunday, shot 30 to Barber's
36 on the front nine before a gallery
of 12,000 that divided its attention between
the two players. Barber made a 12foot
birdie putt on 15 to take a one-shot
lead after Rosburg missed his two-footer
on 15 for birdie.
Barber " had the tournament apparently
won, " according to the Tribune, after
saving par on 16 with a 15-foot putt.
Rosburg parred the last three holes, giving
Barber a one-shot lead with two to play.
Barber split the fairway with his drive on
17, but put his 7-iron approach in the left
greenside bunker and hit a poor recovery
shot. He missed his 23-foot par putt and
fell into a tie with Rosburg, now waiting
in the clubhouse.
A light shower began to fall as Barber
teed up on 18. He hit another perfect
drive but again found a bunker left of the
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