91st PGA Championship Journal

A Tribute to Rossie

“Rossie thought that was crazy, but he

THE TABLE WAS SET, AND BOB ROSBURG HAD THE DATES CIRCLED on his calendar. Fifty years after “Rossie” won the 1959 PGA Championship at Minneapolis Golf Club, he was planning to commemorate his Minnesota milestone at Hazeltine
National Golf Club during the 91st PGA Championship at the age of 82.

However, the articulate Rosburg passed away on May 14 from injuries sustained in a fall two days prior outside a restaurant in

Mamaroneck, N. Y. In those days, the
final 3 6 holes of the U.S Open were
played on Saturday, but a rainstorm
pushed the fourth round to Sunday. On
another blustery day, Rosburg’s 71 matched
the low round of the day by host PGA
Professional Claude Harmon and long-
hitting Mike Souchak, but third-round
leader Billy Casper posted a final-round 74
to edge Rosburg by one shot at 282. Ten
years later, Rosburg missed a three-footer
on the 72nd hole and finished in a three-
way tie for second at the 1969 U.S. Open,
one stroke behind Orville Moody.
Casper remembers Rossie as a superb
putter and a supreme competitor. He also
recalls Rosburg’s sense of humor and sense
of golf history, which served Rossie well
during a 30-year career as a roving on-course
reporter during ABC-TV golf telecasts.

“Rossie and I were both considered pretty good putters and we were both from California, so we had some things in common,” notes the 78-year-old Casper. “During those years, the greens on most courses we played were scraggly and slow, so we were always figuring out a way to punch the ball with our putters. After Bob finished second at Winged Foot, I was happy to see him win a few weeks later in Minnesota at the PGA Championship (where Casper tied for 17th).”

Indio, Calif. But Rossie’s victory half a century ago, in the first stroke-play PGA

Championship conducted in Minnesota, will be remembered, celebrated and commemorated at Hazeltine National when the world of golf converges this week.

Rosburg, a native of San Francisco who resided in La Quinta, Calif., in recent years, chuckled earlier this year when recounting his 1959 PGA Championship triumph. He certainly earned his major title with closing rounds of 68 and 66 to finish a single swing superior to Jerry Barber and Doug Sanders. But when reviewing his ’ 59 victory during a taped interview, Rossie (pictured) acknowledged that he was “very fortunate” to win the 1959 PGA Championship after coming from six shots back on the final day.

“I’ve always said timing is everything in
golf, and I was on the good side of timing at
the PGA Championship in 1959 after being
on the other side of timing at the U.S. Open
earlier that year (at Winged Foot Golf

Club),” recalled Rosburg, who didn’t hit a single practice shot all week due to the scorching heat. “Looking back, I probably should have won the Open and not the PGA (Championship). I had a good final day at the PGA (his 66 was the low round), but Jerry Barber bogeyed the last two holes and kind of gave it to me. I had finished a little earlier, and Jerry looked like he was going to win it. I was surprised when he bogeyed the final two holes.”

At Winged Foot, Casper made headlines with the unique strategy of laying up short of the deep bunkers on the par- 3, 216-yard third hole each day. Rosburg never let him forget the ploy.

Rosburg used a similar, late-charging strategy to nearly win the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in

“Bob was mad at me. He says, ‘You beat me by one shot and layed up on the third hole every day.’ Every time he saw me, he mentioned it,” says Casper. “It was a 2-iron or 4-wood to the green, and I hit a 5-iron or a 6-iron short of the green and pitched up every day. Fortunately, I pitched close enough to hole four putts and make par every day.