Photographs courtesy of USGA
The 1975 U.S. Open at Medinah Country Club, which occurred 50 years ago this June, was my third as a golf writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and I’ll never forget it. It’s etched in my memory bank for a lot of things besides who won – Lou Graham defeating John Maha ey in an 18-hole Monday playoff. I’ve been covering golf for nearly 60 years – including 27 U.S. Opens – but I doubt it would have been nearly that long had the U.S. Open not been brought back to Medinah five decades ago.
Most of the big names of the era were in contention that year: Ben Crenshaw and Hale Irwin (T3), Jack Nicklaus (T7), Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer (T9). Fan interest was high.
But it was Graham and Mahaffey who were tied after 72 holes, both having shot 3-over par. Like Rory McIlroy at April’s Masters, Graham went to the final hole of regulation with a one-stroke lead but, like Rory, hit his approach into a greenside bunker and, again like Rory, failed to get up and down, triggering the 18-hole Monday playoff, which was the standard way the U.S. Open was decided after a tie in those days. Graham won with an even-par 71 to Mahaffey’s 73.
The ’75 championship was Medinah’s second U.S. Open. The first was in 1949 when Cary Middlecoff, a dentist from Memphis, won the title, defeating the great Sam Snead and Clayton Heafner. It was one of four runner-up finishes in the U.S. Open for Snead in the only major championship he didn’t win. Ben Hogan was recovering from a serious auto accident and didn’t play, and it was the last U.S. Open for two-time winner Ralph Guldahl, a legendary player in that period.
Then Chicago waited 26 years for another U.S. Open. Back then the United States Golf Association (USGA) didn’t schedule U.S. Open sites 10 or 20 years in advance, as it does today. Medinah was announced as the ’75 site in 1972, and that changed a lot of things in the way golf was covered by the Chicago media. Golf didn’t get much attention until the word was out that Medinah had landed the big one. In that long dry spell, Chicago beat writers covered only local events plus the Western Open.
In anticipation of increased reader interest at Medinah, my sports editor suddenly sent me to U.S. Opens at Oakmont in 1973 (where little-known Johnny Miller shot a final-round 63 to win the title) and Winged Foot in 1974 (where Irwin survived on a course so di icult the tournament was dubbed the “Massacre at Winged Foot’’).
Things were a lot different at Medinah. Watson, the young hotshot who had won his first PGA Tour event in the 1974 Western Open at Butler National, started the Medinah Open 67-68, a then-tournament record for 36 holes. He fizzled after that, shooting 78-77 on the weekend.
Frank Beard was the 54-hole leader, but he shot 78 on Sunday and tied for third. The playoff featured Graham, a journeyman, against Mahaffey, a young star who would wind up a journeyman. Nevertheless, all week the leaderboard had star power.
Nicklaus, bidding for his fourth U.S. Open win, had a chance to tie for the final round lead with a birdie putt on the 15th hole, but he missed then finished with three bogeys and wound up tied for seventh with Peter Oosterhuis.
Irwin tied for third with Beard along with Crenshaw, then a 23-year old hotshot who would go on to win two Masters and a Western Open; and Bob Murphy. At 288, they were just one shot out of the playoff.
Palmer tied for ninth – his last top 10 in a U.S. Open – with Watson and Jim Fitzsimons. Future U.S. Open winners Ray Floyd and Andy North tied for 12th.
With Graham failing to get up-and-down on the 72nd hole, he and Maha ey finished regulation play at 3-over-par 287 and headed to the Monday playoff. Graham opened a three-stroke lead through 10 holes and went on to capture his only major championship, though he did win six times on the PGA Tour in total.