Hale Irwin - Part 3 (1968 - 1976)
20-time winner on the PGA Tour, Hale Irwin takes us back to his early days on Tour and shares the lessons he learned from mentors like Bruce Devlin and Dale Douglas. Surviving the pressures of being a "Monday qualifier", Hale finally closed the deal in his fifth year on Tour, prevailing at the 1973 Sea Pines Heritage Classic. Confidence from that first victory propelled him to success the following year at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot and at the Piccadilly Match Play at Wentworth GC. Listen in as he recounts his 1975 successes which included another Piccadilly win and leading the U.S. side with 4 1/2 points in his first Ryder Cup with Arnold Palmer as the captain at Laurel Valley. We conclude this episode with Hale remembering his improbable comeback win at the 1976 Citrus Open and the life lesson from his father to always finish what you started. Hale Irwin recalls his early professional years, "FORE the Good of the Game."
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"FORE the Good of the Game” is a golf podcast featuring interviews with World Golf Hall of Fame members, winners of major championships and other people of influence in and around the game of golf. Highlighting the positive aspects of the game, we aim to create and provide an engaging and timeless repository of content that listeners can enjoy now and forever. Co-hosted by PGA Tour star Bruce Devlin, our podcast focuses on telling their life stories, in their voices. Join Bruce and Mike Gonzalez “FORE the Good of the Game.”
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11:20 - (Cont.) Hale Irwin - Part 3 (1968 - 1976)
Irwin, Hale
Professional Golfer
When it comes to the toughest competitors and most analytical course managers ever to play, Hale Irwin is near the top of the list.
Irwin’s distinction was excelling when the conditions were toughest, and his three victories in the U.S. Open attest to a sharp mind, a solid game and an iron will. It was never more apparent than at the 1974 U.S. Open, when Irwin persevered to win the so-called “Massacre at Winged Foot” with a score of seven-over-par 287. In perhaps the most difficult conditions a U.S. Open has ever been played under, Irwin shot rounds of 73-70-71-73 to win by two strokes.
Five years later at Inverness, on another punishing U.S. Open layout, Irwin shot even par to win by two. The scenario was quite different in 1990 at Medinah Country Club. Irwin was 45 and had not won on the PGA TOUR in five years. He received a special exemption to get into the championship. Lurking, but never in the thick of it until the final nine holes, Irwin made a 50-foot birdie putt on the final green that tied Mike Donald. The next day he fell behind but drew even when Donald bogeyed the 18th. Then, in the first sudden-death finish ever in the U.S. Open, Irwin birdied the 19th hole to win. Irwin became the oldest winner of the championship.
“When I got onto the tour, I relished the harder courses because I just felt I was going to try harder.”
From 1971 to 1994, Irwin won 20 events on the PGA TOUR, on such difficult courses as Harbour Town – where his first, second and, at age 48, final PGA TOUR victories came – Butler National, Muirfield Village, Rivier…
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