It was the same month President John F. Kennedy came to Salt Lake City and rode in a motorcade through town before giving a speech at the Latter-day Saint Tabernacle, just two months before he was assassinated in Dallas.
September 1963 was the last time the PGA Tour held a regular official PGA Tour event as top golfers played for four days at the Salt Lake Country Club for the annual Utah Open.
Gary Player, Billy Casper, Don January, Doug Sanders, Gene Littler, Bob Goalby, Al Geiberger, Dow Finsterwald, Bobby Nichols — all big names in golf six decades ago — were all on hand for the $40,000 event that paid $6,400 to the winner.
For the first time in 61 years, the PGA Tour returns to the Beehive State this week for the Black Desert Championship, being played at the brand-new Black Desert Golf Course in Ivins, near St. George. Utah has hosted the Senior PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour over the years, but not the “big” PGA Tour.
While top players such as Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele won’t be in the field, many top players will be playing in the FedEx Fall Series event, including the likes of Harris English, Kevin Kisner, Lucas Glover, Daniel Berger, Cameron Champ, Brandt Snedeker and Camilo Villegas, all multiple winners on the PGA Tour.
Local golfers Jay Don Blake, Mike Weir, Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn, will be playing along with BYU golfer Peter Kuest, Utah Section champion Dustin Volk, amateurs Zac Jones, Kihei Akina and Bowen Mauss and two-time Utah Open champ Nate Lashley.
I remember that 1963 tournament well, as I had the privilege of attending the tournament a few blocks from my home with my mother and father. I have particular memories of watching Player, dressed in all black as always, along with a few of the other top names.
The only top names missing that week were Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, who were playing for the $50,000 first prize at the World Series of Golf for the winners of golf’s four Majors, along with Julius Boros and Bob Charles.
My most memorable moment was watching Sanders hit his tee shot on the long, downhill par-3 No. 10 hole within inches of the hole. After tapping in his putt, Sanders turned and rolled the ball to a little boy in the gallery, earning a fan for life.
I kept that ball under my mattress for several years and closely followed Sanders’ career, agonizing when he missed a 3-foot putt at the 72nd hole of the British Open at St. Andrews that would have beaten Nicklaus.
A couple of decades later as the Deseret News golf writer, I had the honor of interviewing Sanders when he played at the Senior tournament in Park City and relating the ‘63 incident to him.
Utah had hosted PGA Tour events in previous years, including the Western Open at Fort Douglas Country Club in 1947 and other events in the 1950s and early ′60s when Finsterwald, Geiberger, Bob Rosburg and Billy Johnston were winners.
In the ′63 tourney, Tommy Jacobs, a 28-year-old from Southern California, took control in the third round when he fired a course-record 9-under 62 to jump ahead of second-round leaders January and Player, who were both three strokes back.
Before an estimated gallery of 10,500 in the Sunday final round, Jacobs hung on for a one-stroke victory over January despite double-bogeying the 18th hole.
Although Jacobs didn’t return to Utah to play in the annual Senior Tour event in Park City for two decades from 1982-2002, several others from the ′63 tourney did, including Player, Casper, Sanders, Littler, Goalby, January and Geiberger.
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s going to be fun to have the PGA Tour back in Utah, possibly for years to come.
