For all of the understandable attention showered on Aronimink Golf Club and the PGA Championship’s return to the golf-rich Philadelphia area for the first time since 1962, little attention was paid to Llanerch Country Club, seven miles from where the golf world gathered last week.
Time has a way of hiding things.
The 1958 PGA Championship was played at Llanerch and it was there that two monumental things happened:
First, at the urging of Llanerch’s longtime and legendary head pro Marty Lyons, the PGA Championship abandoned its match-play format for stroke-play competition. A letter from Lyons to the PGA of America that hangs in the Llanerch clubhouse details the reasons why a stroke-play championship would be better than match play. Lyons listed six primary reasons for the change, including, “It would certainly draw more people,” the PGA would “find a lot more clubs bidding for the championship,” and, “there is a possibility of a national television set-up that could mean quite a few dollars.”
That’s the second important thing that happened at Llanerch in 1958.
Golf on television was still in its infancy and CBS was three years into its relationship with the Masters when it expanded to include the PGA Championship ...
There was a young, energetic visionary named Frank Chirkinian working at CBS affiliate WCAU, where John Facenda, later the legendary voice of NFL Films, was the nightly news anchor. Lyons got Facenda to convince CBS to televise the 1958 PGA Championship and Chirkinian was assigned to produce the telecast.
Golf on television was still in its infancy and CBS was three years into its relationship with the Masters when it expanded to include the PGA Championship, once the tournament abandoned its match-play format.
With Chirkinian’s WCAU colleague Jack Whitaker doing interviews for CBS News at Llanerch, the PGA Championship was televised for a total of 2½ hours on Saturday and Sunday. Dow Finsterwald won his only major title, finishing two strokes ahead of Billy Casper, while Chirkinian launched a revolutionary career that ultimately landed him a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
While thousands from across the country and around the world gathered at Aronimink last week, life went on in its peaceful, charming way at Llanerch, where the PGA Championship and televised golf as we know it stepped into the future 68 years ago.
Ron Green Jr.
Top: Arnold Palmer finished T40 at the 1958 PGA Championship.
Bettman Collection, Getty Images