Jerry Meandering

Jerry Pate hit lots of memorable shots in his brief career as a full-time professional golfer, but the five-iron approach he hit on the 72nd hole to seal the victory in the 1976 U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club stands out.

Clinging to a one-shot lead on the 18th hole, Pate drove into the thick Bermuda rough on the right side. Facing a 194-yard shot over a water hazard, he rifled a shot at the flag and it stopped three feet from the hole. The birdie gave him a two-shot victory and a place on many lists of the best golf shots ever.

“I hit a few good ones in my career,” Pate said. “But to think about Atlanta, it kind of makes my shoulders pop back like a proud daddy.”

Pate was 22 then and seemed to have the golf world in his hands. The U.S. Open victory made him the first player to win the first major he played as a professional. Tiger Woods later matched the feat with his victory in the 1997 Masters.

Pate, now 47, has something else in common with Woods: They are the last two players who have won the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open.

Pate won eight times in seven years on the PGA Tour, and is credited with starting the trend of jumping into the water after winning a tournament when he dived into the lake after the 1982 Players Championship. A rash of shoulder injuries cut his career short.

He rarely plays competitively now, spending most of his time overseeing a golf turf and irrigation business and designing golf courses, but he will return to Atlanta Athletic Club this week for the PGA Championship. The PGA of America granted him a special exemption.

“I think I’ve played five times in six years,” Pate said. “Injuries have kind of pushed my career in a different direction. I still like to play, but I have different priorities now.”

The course Pate will encounter when he tees off today is different from the one on which he won in 1976. There have been two renovations since, a partial redesign by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay in 1987 and a complete redesign by Rees Jones in 1995.

The course has been modernized to challenge today’s longer hitters with better equipment. When Pate won at Atlanta Athletic Club in 1976, the course measured 7,015 yards. It will play at 7,213 this week.

“The long, straight hitters are going to be at an advantage,” Pate said. “Any time you’re in a PGA or a U.S. Open, there is going to be a premium on accuracy, so while length is important, the long hitters are still going to have to hit it straight.”

This will be the third major tournament at the Atlanta Athletic Club. It also was the site of the 1981 PGA Championship, won by current Senior PGA Tour star Larry Nelson.

Pate is looking forward to playing the course that launched his career.

“It was a class act by the PGA to invite me to play,” he said. “Whether I shoot 150 or 70, it’ll be nice to revisit the moments.”

Here, Pate revisits the course in a hole-by-hole description of the strategy required for a successful round: