By Travis Puterbaugh, Curator
2019 marked the 45th anniversary of the creation of THE PLAYERS Championship, originally known as the Tournament Players Championship. In 1974, the PGA TOUR debuted this late-season event originally intended to rotate to clubs around the country. Newly installed TOUR commissioner Deane Beman envisioned that in the long-term, the event would become on par with the Majors.
“The idea was to have a tournament strictly for the players on the tour,” Beman said. “We wanted a championship that they could call their own.”
The first tournament would be played over Labor Day weekend at the Atlanta Country Club, host of the Atlanta Classic since 1967. It was also a “designated” tournament, one of three events during the season in which top players were required to compete, thus guaranteeing a strong and deep field for the inaugural event. Then as today, the Tournament Players Championship featured no amateurs or club professionals, only TOUR players.
Jack Nicklaus, arguably the best TOUR player of all-time, arrived in Atlanta enduring a bit of a dry spell by his exalting standards. Although the fourth-leading money winner on tour in 1974, he had not tallied a win since the Hawaiian Open in February.
Nicklaus posted consecutive seven-win seasons in 1972 and 1973 (including three Major Championships) but had fallen well short of matching those totals through the first eight months of the 1974 season. Just a few weeks prior to the start of the Tournament Players Championship, he dropped a thriller to Lee Trevino at the PGA Championship, losing by a single stroke in his bid to grab the Wannamaker Trophy in back-to-back years.
At the start of the tournament, J.C. Snead and Nicklaus set the pace early, with Snead tying the course-record of 64 in his opening round with 10 birdies while Nicklaus carded a six-under 66. As rainy weather softened the greens, Snead’s putts failed to drop as they had on Thursday leading to a second round 71. Nicklaus posted his own 71, and they stared up at Lou Graham atop the leaderboard heading into the weekend.
During the third round, Snead made his move while Graham faded, shooting a 67 to take a three-stroke lead over Nicklaus. Nicklaus hung with Snead, however, posting birdies on three of his final five holes.
Snead hadn’t tasted victory since June 1972 and seemed due for a big victory, although fortune certainly favored Nicklaus, the 12-time Major Championship winner who Tom Tucker of the Atlanta Constitution called “one of the best come-from-behind golfers alive.”
Snead came out charging Sunday and tallied birdies on his opening two holes. Pars by Nicklaus allowed Snead to extend his lead to five strokes with 16 holes to play, but a bogey on the third and a birdie by Nicklaus began to turn the tide in favor of the Golden Bear.
Multiple hour-long rain delays marred the remainder of the round, in which Nicklaus strung together birdies and Snead stumbled with some poorly timed bogeys. By the 11th hole, Nicklaus had at last overtaken Snead. Play would be halted by inclement weather at the completion of the 13th hole, and by that point Nicklaus had grabbed a two-stroke lead over Snead.
Nicklaus extended his lead to three strokes when play resumed on Monday morning. Snead manage only pars, so despite a Nicklaus bogey on the 16th, he could not pull any closer than two strokes.
A final round 67 (16-under par overall) ensured the victory for Nicklaus, who earned his 54th career title and received the Joseph C. Dey, Jr. Trophy, so-named for the first commissioner of the PGA TOUR. Just two weeks later, on September 11, Nicklaus would join 10 other golfers as the first inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Later, Nicklaus joked that he won the tournament “just in case” it one day attained the status as a Major Championship envisioned by the TOUR. For his part, Beman said, “All we are trying to do is put on a quality event with a good field that the public and press might someday accept as a Major Championship. It isn’t for me to say that this is a Major tournament, but to try and make it one.”
Nicklaus and the inaugural Tournament Players Championship met at the perfect time. A win by Nicklaus conferred instant credibility on the tournament, which he would win again in 1976 and 1978, and for Nicklaus, it served as a launching pad for a 1975 season in which he would win five tournaments, including the Masters and PGA Championship.
