Floyd Turns Out To Be the Leader of the Pack : He Is Oldest Ever to Win Open; 9 Others Held Lead on Final Day

Ten different players held or shared the lead in the final round of the United States Open golf championship Sunday before 43-year-old Raymond Floyd broke out of the pack to win the game’s most prestigious tournament.

Floyd, who started the day three strokes behind Australian Greg Norman, shot a near perfect round of four-under par 66 over the demanding Shinnecock Hills course. His round of four birdies and 14 pars gave him a 72-hole total of 279. He was the only player to finish under par.

Floyd is the oldest player to win the Open since it was first played in 1895, thus continuing the trend set by Jack Nicklaus earlier this year when he was the oldest ever to win the Masters. Ted Ray, a younger 43, had been the oldest Open champion since winning in 1920.

Although Floyd never led until he birdied the 13th hole, his margin at the close of one of the wildest days in major championship history was two shots over Lanny Wadkins and Chip Beck.

Wadkins and Beck, who finished more than a hour before Floyd, both shot course record 65s and then sat in the clubhouse and waited while all but Floyd fired and fell back.

At one time there were seven players--Norman, Lee Trevino, Hal Sutton, Payne Stewart, Ben Crenshaw, Bob Tway and Mark McCumber--all tied for the lead at one over par. Floyd was one shot back at the time, but there were so many clogged at the top that few were paying him much attention.

“This was a phenomenal experience for me to be able to achieve one of my greatest desires since I became a professional golfer 25 years ago,” Floyd said after accepting his $115,000 winners check. “I am especially proud of the way I won it, coming from behind. I’ve always had the reputation of being a front-runner, so this was a wonderful experience.”

Although Floyd played rock-steady golf for 18 holes through the dunes of Shinnecock, where the second U.S. Open was played in 1896, the 12th and 13th holes proved the turning point.

When Floyd arrived at No. 12, a 472-yard par 4, he was one shot behind the benickered Stewart. Floyd’s 3-wood shot off the tee landed in a fairway bunker. He blasted out short of the green, hit a second sand wedge 20 feet from the hole--and sank the putt to save par.

“I knew if I didn’t make that putt, I might drop too far out of it,” he said. “Payne (Stewart) was looking at a birdie and if I made bogey, I’d have been three behind.”

Stewart made his birdie to become the first player all day to go under par for the tournament and it also put him in the lead by himself.

“I think the way I came right back at No. 13 and hit three good shots to make birdie was an even bigger lift for me,” Floyd said.

No. 13 is only 377 yards long but it has the narrowest fairway at Shinnecock and calls for two perfectly hit shots. Floyd hit them, a 1-iron off the tee and a 6-iron that left him a four-foot putt for a birdie.

When Stewart bogeyed the hole, Floyd moved into a share of the lead.

“That hole devastated me,” Stewart said. “I thought I had a birdie and wound up with a bogey.”

Stewart’s second shot was just off the edge of the green. He chipped boldly and the ball caught the cup but spun a few feet away. His putt for par missed the cup completely.

“When my chip started heading for the cup I figured I’d made 3. Even when it missed I figured I had my 4 but I walked off the green with a 5. Even though I was still tied for the lead, I guess I lost a little momentum.”

Stewart bogeyed three more holes and wound up tied for sixth with Crenshaw.

“Once I got behind I gambled on making birdies and you don’t gamble at Shinnecock and get away with it,” Stewart said. “Suddenly, the party was over for me.”

One by one the other front-runners also fell by the wayside, victims of the swirling winds that blow capriciously across the narrow sliver of land between Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, the tight fairways and tiny greens that have made Shinnecock Hills one of the country’s top-rated courses--and their nerves drawn taut by U. S. Open pressure.

How they fell:

Norman--The flaxen-haired third round leader was alone at even par when the day started, but he never got started. After taking three putts on the third green and failing to birdie the par 5 fifth hole--when his six nearest challengers all did--Norman began his backwards slide.

“The whole thing played flat for me,” Norman said. “When I missed that little 3 1/2-foot putt on the sixth hole, all the emotion left me. Even when I made a birdie on the next hole I never felt like I was back in it.

“I’m not saying I gave it away, because Raymond (Floyd) did a hell of a job shooting 66, but I never ever had a chance with the score I shot.”

Norman shot 75--285 and tied for 12th with Denis Watson.

Sutton--The former PGA champion birdied the first hole to move into a tie with Norman and was still sharing the lead as late as the 11th hole, but a bogey at No. 12 did him in.

“The pack was still tight and I felt I needed to establish my position,” Sutton said. “Instead of going up, I went the other direction. It really hurt me.”

Sutton shot 71--282 and tied Trevino for fourth place.

Trevino--Like Sutton, Trevino moved into a share of the lead with a first hole birdie. A bogey on the sixth hole dropped him a shot back and although he finished with a 71 the 46-year-old warrior was never again at the top.

Tway--The tall former Oklahoma State star birdied No. 5 to join the seven-way tie for the lead and then took command alone with another birdie on the eighth hole. He was still only one shot back of Floyd going to No. 16 when he ended his hopes with a double bogey 7 on the 544-yard par-5 hole.

A bogey on the final hole dropped Tway back to 74--284 and an eighth place tie with McCumber, Bernard Langer and Jack Nicklaus, who closed with a 68.

Crenshaw--Four birdies in a row from three through six shot Gentle Ben from four shots back into a tie with Sutton for the lead.

A poor chip from a bunker cost him a shot on No. 7, but he still shared the lead through 11 holes until he made two bogeys in three holes.

Crenshaw shot his third straight 69 after an opening round 76 to finish in a sixth place tie with Stewart at 283.

McCumber--Three birdies in the first five holes put the former ministry student in the seven-way deadlock. He almost held the lead alone but a putt for an eagle 3 at No. 5 missed by inches.

He was still only a stroke back of Floyd at the 16th hole when he took a double bogey 7 on the same par 5 hole that bit Tway.

McCumber wound up at 71--284 with the Tway-Nicklaus-Langer grouping.

The other two one-time leaders, Wadkins and Beck, never faltered nor fell back. They just came up two strokes short despite their record 65s.

“I’ve got to sit and hope the wind blows like hell,” Wadkins said after his birdie on No. 16 moved him into a temporary share of the lead at one under par. “But there are some guys on that board I’m real familiar with--Raymond, Greg, Hal, and I don’t expect to see any of them backing off.”

All but Raymond Floyd did.

Beck, who grew up in Floyd’s hometown of Fayetteville, N.C., had seven birdies and didn’t really start his charge until the seventh hole. At the time he was seven over par after two straight bogeys, but on the next nine holes he reeled off six birdies to catch Wadkins as the leader in the clubhouse.

Beck missed a four-foot birdie putt at No. 18 that would have made him the solo leader at the time.

“I thought I had it (the putt) in the middle of the hole, but it broke out. I helped Lennie Clements prove that there were birdies to be made on the back nine here.”

Clements, who had a final round 75, shot a back nine record 30 on Saturday--a record equaled by Beck.

Mark Calcavecchia, a former touring pro from Florida who didn’t make enough money last year to stay on the tour, also shot a course record 65 but he did it early in the day before the breezes picked up and before anyone but a few friends knew what he was doing.

Floyd’s win was his 20th on the tour and his fourth major championship. He won the 1969 and 1982 PGAs and the 1976 Masters.

Before Sunday, however, his record in the Open was dismal. In 21 starts he had never finished under par and had only two top 10 finishes--sixth in 1965 and eighth in 1971.

“I said earlier this week that I had no idea why I had never performed well in the Open,” Floyd said. “I never did figure out why, but now I don’t have to figure it out.”

A bitter experience last week in the Westchester Classic helped motivate Floyd this week.

“I was embarrassed last week when I suffered a complete blowout in the final round,” he said. “I had always prided myself on being able to handle the pressure when I got in front, but last week I just fell apart mentally.

“On the drive over here last Sunday night, my wife Maria and I went over what happened and we decided to take a bad situation and turn it into a good learning experience.

“This week it paid off. I actually won the tournament on Thursday, the day the weather was so bad. I played terrible, I had no feel of what I was doing, but my chipping and my putting carried me. I shot 75 but I never gave up.

“Today I felt in complete control of myself. Everything was in sync and my rhythm was in the right mode. People tell me when I get like that that I get a certain look, like no one can beat me.

“Today I know I had that look.”

THE U.S. OPEN

THE TOP 11

Raymond Floyd 75-68-70-66--279 Lanny Wadkins 74-70-72-65--281 Chip Beck 75-73-68-65--281 Lee Trevino 74-68-69-71--282 Hal Sutton 75-70-66-71--282 Ben Crenshaw 76-69-69-69--283 Payne Stewart 76-68-69-70--283 Jack Nicklaus 77-72-67-68--284 Bernhard Langer 74-70-70-70--284 Mark McCumber 74-71-68-71--284 Bob Tway 70-73-69-72--284