1989 PLAYERS Championship, March 16 – 19

This is the fourth of a five-part series on THE PLAYERS Championship featuring milestone anniversaries involving members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

By Travis Puterbaugh, Curator of World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum

Winner: Tom Kite (12th career victory on the PGA TOUR)

Purse: $1,350,000

This Week in 1989 Trivia:

Fletch Lives starring Chevy Chase opened as the number one film in America, while Sports Illustrated prepared to release a report detailing allegations that Pete Rose had bet on baseball games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

Introduction:

Heading into THE PLAYERS Championship in 1989, Tom Kite had been playing some of his best golf in years. He captured the Nestle Invitational (now the Arnold Palmer Invitational) in Orlando the previous weekend, outlasting Davis Love III in a playoff for his first victory in nearly two years. At TPC Sawgrass, Kite would be considered a natural contender having never missed a cut since it moved from the Sawgrass Country Club in 1982 and had made the cut for 10 straight years. He finished tied for fourth in 1986 and seemed poised to truly make a run for the title in 1989.

In a tournament and course notorious for unpredictable wind, the opening round featured perfectly windless conditions and the field was able to take advantage. Keith Clearwater, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, took the early lead with a 65 despite bogeys on his final two holes (8 and 9), which cost him a chance at the course record of 64 set by Fred Couples in 1984. Gusty conditions returned to TPC Sawgrass on Friday, with only 36 players able to make par or better. Bruce Lietzke, who found himself just one shot behind Clearwater, took advantage and parlayed a 69 into a two-stroke lead at the end of the second round. Kite, who posted scores of 69 and 70, lingered at four shots back heading into moving day on Saturday.

“I’m playing awfully well,” Kite said. “Four shots is not a lot to make up on a course like this.”

Memorable Quote:

            “There are 140 Lanny Wadkins out here now. No one shies away from the pin.” – Bruce Lietzke, who led through 36 holes, on the windless conditions that had the field pin-hunting during the first round.

Turning Point:

            In 1988, Jacksonville’s own Mark McCumber set a then-tournament record for 72-hole score at the Stadium Course with a 273 and finished four shots ahead of Mike Reid to take THE PLAYERS Championship. He began the third round of the 1989 edition still very much in contention to become the first player to successfully defend their tournament championship. On the 17th, McCumber had a chance to take the outright lead after birdies on the 15th and 16th holes. Instead, after landing his shot 20 feet below the hole on 17, McCumber narrowly missed his putt for birdie. What then resulted was a four-putt fiasco for double-bogey and a three-way tie for third instead of holding a share of the lead with Chip Beck who shot a 68.

“It’s only fair a hometown boy spots the rest of the field a shot,” McCumber said.

Tom Kite, behind another solid score of three-under 69, found himself just one shot behind Beck heading into the final round. Lietzke had faded on Saturday after building a five-stroke lead with a bogey on 10 and a fatal double-bogey 7 on the 11th hole, thus opening the door for a Sunday dog-fight between two of the TOUR’s steadiest players in Beck and Kite. Waiting in the wings should either falter were the likes of McCumber, Ben Crenshaw, Gary Koch, Fred Couples, Lietzke, Greg Norman, and even a 49-year-old Jack Nicklaus, who shot a 68 on Saturday to pull within four shots of the lead.

“Just playing good golf isn’t going to get it,” Kite said prior to the final round. “The player who wins will have to play great, but he needs that one more break than anyone else. He will get one less bad break or one more good bounce.”

Result:

For Kite, his break came on the 16th holes. While Beck had faltered on the front nine, at one point falling five strokes behind Kite, he had rallied with three birdies in a row on the back nine to cut the margin to two strokes following a Kite bogey on the 14th. Perhaps heeding the words of Ben Crenshaw, who said, “there are too many guys, too many odds to sit back,” Kite decided to play aggressively on 16 when a cautious approach would have been the more by-the-books call. With 210 yards to the green, Kite faced winds gusting 20 miles per hour and a pin placement near the right edge and the water. Rather than laying up, Kite used his 4-wood and took direct aim for the green. His shot hit left of the pin and bounded towards the water before coming to rest just inches from disaster.

“I had a golf tournament to win,” Kite said. “It was not the time to lay up. I was thinking of building up as much of a lead as possible.”

Kite was rewarded for his shot with a par on 16, followed by another par on the 17th. Beck birdied on 18 to cut the lead to one, but Kite sunk his two-foot putt for one last par to clinch the victory with a one-under 71 on a day in which only eight players broke par. Kite, who added a win at the Nabisco Championship in October, would use this victory to springboard towards the PGA Player of the Year Award and end the year as the TOUR’s leading money winner.