The Joy of Six: Open nightmares

From Walter Danecki to Ian Woosnam's 15 clubs, via the travails of Ian Baker-Finch, here are half a dozen Open lows

Ian Woosnam and his caddie Miles Byrne walk away from the second tee
Ian Woosnam and his caddie Miles Byrne walk away from the second tee in 2001 after the Welshman was told he had too many clubs in his bag. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA

1) Walter Danecki (1965 qualifying)

Walter Danecki was a 16-stone postal worker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who in the mid-1960s decided to become a professional golfer. His dreams were stymied by the US Professional Golfers' Association, however, who tiresomely insisted Danecki provide proof of some playing ability. Unwilling to put himself through the bother of a mandatory five-year apprenticeship in the States, Danecki instead filled out an entry form for the 1965 Open. He assured the R&A he was indeed a pro, arguing that "it's the money I'm after". Amazingly, the 43-year-old Danecki was awarded a place in the 36-hole qualifying tournament at Hillside Golf Club near Liverpool. He spent $800 on a holiday to England, and came over to compete without telling his workmates, planning on taking the Auld Claret Jug back to them as a "fine surprise".

Sweet intentions from the big man, but it was not to be. Danecki's first round was going fine through the first 11, in that he had yet to card double figures on any single hole. Then he took 10 strokes on 12. "I'll probably wake up at three o'clock in the morning and remember it all clearly," he said when asked to recall events on that fateful hole, "but it's a little foggy now. Maybe it was bunker trouble. No, come to think of it, it might have been out of bounds." Danecki went on to card 108, the worst round in Open history. The record would not stand for long: in his second round, he shot 113 for a total of 221, a mere 81 over par. "I usually shoot around par," he insisted, though admitted it could have been much worse. "I like playing with the small British ball. If i had used the American size I would have been blown all over the place."

"He was forever proud of his Open adventure," his wife Olive recalled after his death in 2005. "Some people wanted to make a joke out of it, but he wasn't a joke. How many of us would ever have had that much courage, to do what we dreamed of doing? My Wally did." Danecki's heroic nonsense would inspire Maurice Flitcroft to similar heights in 1976, the Barrow crane driver breaking the American's single-round record with his infamous 121 in qualifying at Formby. But the differing ways the two men were treated by the R&A were instructive: Flitcroft was banned from every course in the land by incandescent R&A secretary Keith Mackenzie, and responded by becoming a thorn in the establishment's side for years afterwards. Danecki's antics were met with a wry smile, the American sent off with the joke that he had bettered the great Bobby Jones – who had suffered a no return on his first championship in this country – ringing in his ears. On the R&A's shores at least, Danecki's name would soon be forgotten, but Flitcroft haunts the game's ruling body to this day. How they must wish Mackenzie had smiled at Maurice in 1976, admitting through gritted teeth that the old chap had got the better of them.

2) Ian Baker-Finch (1984 and 1995-97)

Has any golfer ever experienced such polar highs and lows as Ian Baker-Finch? His career in the majors, not much more than a decade long, is more bell curve than rollercoaster – sloughs of despond bookending one monumental high. His performance in the 1984 Open as a 23-year-old would have finished lesser men's careers before they had started: he led after three rounds of sublime golf, only to fall to pieces mentally on the final day, shooting a 79 and ending the tournament tied for ninth position. But Baker-Finch had the mental strength to bounce back to reach the very top of the game – a fact that made his subsequent capitulation even more jaw-dropping.

In 1991 at Birkdale, Baker-Finch won the Open. His progress was so serene it belongs up there with Tiger Woods's 2000 US Open win and Rory McIlroy's procession towards the same trophy this year. Baker-Finch's eventual modest margin of victory – two shots over his fellow Australian Mike Harwood – distorts the picture. He barely missed a green in regulation all week, shooting 64 and 66 on the final two rounds; in the third round, he went out in a record 29, while on Sunday he birdied five of the first seven holes.

There followed a couple of average seasons, after which doubts began to creep into Baker-Finch's mind. He tinkered with his swing again and again, so much so that he ruined his mechanism beyond all repair, much like the time Father Ted Crilly attempted to hammer out a small dent in the wing of his car, only to eventually turn the whole thing into a mangled wreck of metal.

By the time of the 1995 Open at St Andrews, his confidence was twisted almost beyond repair. He stood on the 1st tee, paired with the legendary Arnold Palmer, having not made a single penny in prize money all year. Then came the sort of mistake even a weekend hacker would have trouble making. Standing in front of the widest fairway in championship golf, Baker-Finch snap-hooked his ball straight over the parallel 18th fairway and out of bounds, nearly 180 yards to his left. Baker-Finch shot 77, six shots better than his playing partner Palmer, but then Arnie was 65 years old.

And then came Troon. Having taken a year off major-championship golf, after coming last in the 1996 Open at Lytham with rounds of 76 and 84, he returned to action in the 1997 championship. What happened next would finish him as a professional golfer. He parred the opening hole, but that would be only one of five pars all day. When he double-bogeyed the Postage Stamp – the 8th hole – it was his third double of the round already. He went out in 44 shots. "Well that's the hard nine over," he laughed bitterly at the turn. By the 11th, he was no longer confident enough to take the club further back than waist high. Two more double bogeys and a triple bogey on 16 later, and he had come back in 48 shots, for a twenty-two-over-par 92.

He had carded the worst round by an Open champion in modern times. After signing, he crumpled to the floor in the Troon champions' locker room and sobbed for the best part of an hour. He withdrew from the tournament and, effectively, walked away from top-level golf, a mere six years after one of the greatest Open performances of all time.

3) Guy McQuitty (1986)

Turnberry's most famous Open produced a famous scrap on the last day in 1977 between Jack Nicklaus and his eventual victor Tom Watson, the Duel in the Sun. Nine years later, the championship came around to the Ayrshire course again, but the weather wasn't quite so great. A bitter westerly force-eight gust sent scores into the stratosphere on the first day: defending champion Sandy Lyle carded 78, former South African Open winner Tony Johnstone shot 87, and our old pal Ian Baker-Finch took 86. Andrew Broadway, a 25-year-old pro from Peacehaven,

took 49 shots going out, then ran up eight at the 10th. He retired, citing a bad back, amid suspicions that he had bailed out before things got really ugly. That wasn't an option 23-year-old Exeter pro Guy McQuitty was prepared to consider, though. Although you couldn't have blamed him if he had done; the poor bugger took 95 shots, the worst round at the Open proper in modern times.

It was easy to feel sympathy for McQuitty under the circumstances. Even Greg Norman, who shot a four-over 74 while waddling around in thermal underwear and two cashmere jumpers, moaned: "It was brutal. You felt really humiliated, a nonentity just hacking around." However Norman responded by equalling the Open low-scoring record on day two with a blistering 63 in much improved conditions, en route to winning his first major. McQuitty, on the other hand, followed up his first-round debacle with an 87, which meant that while Norman was rewriting the record books, he was scrawling over the footnotes, his 36-hole total of 42 over par the worst in the history of the Open proper.

But small scraps, and all that. Despite going out on day two feeling "scared to stand over the ball", losing "all concentration", and being "unable to even visualise how to swing the club", McQuitty had ploughed on, pointing out that his trip had been financed by friends and fellow club members back home. "I couldn't let them down," he smiled, albeit thinly. That attitude would stand McQuitty in good stead, gaining him the respect of his fellow pros for not throwing in the towel. "There's no quit," his fellow pros would joke all week long, "in McQuitty." And to ensure McQuitty left Turnberry with some pride left in his back pocket, one of those quirks that make golf the greatest, and most puzzling game of all: he might have ended the tournament 42 over par after 36 holes, but he had parred the last four he played.

4) Thomas Bjorn (2003)

The Open has been won by some right chancers down the years. Nobody would place one-major wonders Bill Rogers (1981), Paul Lawrie (1999) or Todd Hamilton (2004) on any list of all-time greats, though at least all players made proactive moves to grab the Auld Claret Jug. The same can't be said for the winner of arguably the most risible Open Championship in the history of the tournament.

"The champion golfer of 2003 is a man called Ben Curtis," reported the late, great Guardian golf writer David Davies, "of whom it can only be asked: who? ... Curtis won cracking up. He was five under after 11 holes, dropped four shots in the next six, and had been consigned, in the minds of many, to a supporting role. But not only did his pursuers fail to capitalise on his collapse, they emulated it."

Three of the world's best golfers – Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods – all dismally failed to mount a challenge, but it was Denmark's Thomas Bjorn who really gifted the championship to Curtis. Standing on the 15th tee with a three-shot lead, Bjorn drove into a bunker and was unable to save par. Then, on the 16th, came one of those slow-motion disasters in which golf specialises.

Bjorn hoicked his tee shot into a bunker to the left of the green. He was left with a delicate splash out, up over a small ridge and down towards the hole. But instead of making sure of escape, he aimed for perfection. He didn't quite get enough on the shot, his ball running down off the green back towards him and into the sand, right by where he was standing. He repeated the error, to silence. Bjorn finally splashed out, third time lucky, to four feet and knocked in the putt for a double-bogey five. He was now level with Curtis – who was safely in the clubhouse – but had Sandwich's difficult closing two holes to navigate. Sure enough, he bogeyed 17 – his fourth shot dropped in three holes – and his chance of the Open was gone.

Curtis lifted the trophy to polite applause, having won a major championship after going backwards at a rate of knots. His compatriot Hamilton would take the title off his hands 12 months later in an almost equally egregious shambles, nudging around the greens with his rescue club. But even that sorry sight didn't tarnish the Auld Claret Jug quite like Curtis's victory, so unremarkable that Bjorn's meltdown in the bunker is the only bit anyone actually remembers.

5) Tommy Nakajima (1978)

1978 was the year that the Japanese golfer Tsuneyuki Nakajima became a golfing immortal. Sadly it would be for all the wrong reasons. Tommy, as he was known, was an excellent player, one of the many Asian stars of the 1970s and 1980s (Jumbo Ozaki, Isao Aoki, Lu Liang-Huan, TC Chen) who nearly broke through in the majors but never quite managed to land a big prize. He registered top-10 finishes in all four majors between 1986 and 1988, but he's chiefly remembered these days for his many meltdowns.

At the 1986 Open, he went into the final round one behind Greg Norman, only to three-putt on the 1st, then bogey the 3rd, to effectively fall out of contention before the day had really got under way. Meanwhile at the 1987 US Open, he was in contention only for his ball to get stuck in a tree and refuse to budge despite several swishes.

But by then he was already defined by his travails in 1978. At the Masters that year, he carded a miserable 80 in the first round. His performance on the second day was much improved: he was under par for 17 holes. Unfortunately, he took 13 shots on the par-five 13th, when his attempt to cut the dogleg and make eagle sent his ball into Rae's Creek. He signed for a second 80 and waved a sorry sayonara to Augusta.

Worse was to come at the Open at St Andrews, though. At the halfway mark, he was two shots behind leaders Aoki, Seve Ballesteros and Ben Crenshaw, and by the time he arrived at the 17th, the infamous Road Hole, was tied for the lead. With his approach having found the front-right of the green – the pin was tucked back at the far left, behind the bunker – Nakajima attempted to utilise the camber at the front of the green to send his ball winging left towards the hole. It looked for a second as though he had hit the perfect putt, but just at the last, the ball was stolen by the bank and deposited into the sand. Nakajima then took four shots to escape: a useless slap straight into the face of the bunker, a short splash that stayed in, a third which found the green only to roll back into the trap, and a fourth 10 feet past the hole.

Failing to make the quadruple-bogey putt, he left the hole having taken nine shots, his chances of Open victory gone. The bunker would become known as The Sands of Nakajima, the player's name destined to be forever synonymous with failure.

6) Ian Woosnam (2001)

Ian Woosnam's career in the majors tailed off abruptly after his win at the 1991 Masters. He would only have three more top-10 finishes in grand-slam events in the 1990s, one apiece in the US Open, the Open, and last of all the PGA, and that was in 1994. He spent the second half of the decade in the doldrums, looking for all the world like a spent force.

Then came what promised to be an astonishing comeback at the Indian-summer age of 43. After a third-round 67 at the 2001 Open at Lytham, Woosnam was tied for the lead alongside Alex Cejka, David Duval and Bernhard Langer. The diminutive Welshman should have known it wasn't going to be his day when he and his caddy Miles Byrne misread their tee-time, and only made it to the 1st with three minutes to spare. "Usually players get there with seven or eight minutes to spare," recalled European Tour referee John Paramor. The pair were clearly flustered.

Woosnam soon found his groove, though. Now a shot off the lead – the Swede Niclas Fasth already out on the course and having made a move – Woosnam immediately regained a share of top spot by nearly hitting a hole in one at the par-three opening hole and tapping in for birdie. The crowd went wild, the momentum with the home favourite. But the wheels would come clanking off in spectacular style.

"Normally I would have asked the players if they had counted the number of clubs in their bag on the first tee," remembered Paramor, "but this year the R & A had specifically asked us not to because in previous years some of the referees had been teased by the players or made to feel stupid for even asking such a question." It was to prove a costly policy for Woosnam, as Byrne was about to reveal.

"You're going to go ballistic about this, I left that spare driver in the bag, we've got 15 clubs," whispered Byrne to his man on the 2nd tee, as the nation looked on, a silent-movie slapstick farce developing on screen. (Players are only permitted to carry 14.) Woosnam plucked the offending club from the bag, and lanced it into a bush like a Sunday hacker who had topped one too many drives. "The one fucking thing you had to do!" he could be seen to mouth. Woosnam was immediately docked two shots, his spirit punctured, all hope and momentum lost.

Woosnam rallied heroically to finish third, four shots behind eventual winner Duval, but would always wonder what could have been were it not for Byrne's error. "It's the ultimate sin for a caddie," he said. "I only carry one wood anyway, so he should have noticed there were two headcovers in the bag. He's a good lad but I haven't had the chance to see him yet. When I do he'll get a severe bollocking." Even so, Woosnam kept Byrne on. That is until the Scandinavian Masters a few weeks later, when Byrne slept in, forcing Woosie to break into his locker to get to his golf shoes. Byrne was sent off with them whistling past his lugs. "He could be a good caddie if he improved his adding up and timekeeping," quipped Woosnam dryly, years later.

The one person often forgotten in this story is Woosnam's playing partner that day. Alex Cejka had been tied for the lead after the third round, but Woosie's plight knocked him off his equilibrium. "Alex should have won the Open," insisted his manager Richard Rayment. "He was mentally strong enough and he was definitely playing well enough. He was absolutely devastated for Woosie. It was such a shock he was nearly crying on the tee. It was incredible, as if it was Alex who'd been penalised two shots. After that he lost his focus." Cejka had dropped five shots through 5, ending the tournament in 13th place. "He could have set up his whole life on the back of that afternoon: a place in the Ryder Cup, the prize money, $10m sponsorship, all the fame and glory he has ever dreamed about." But it could be worse. Byrne was last heard working on a building site.


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  • BrisBrougham

    15 July 2011 11:15AM

    Great stuff as always Scott.

    Bill Rogers in 1981 was hardly a "chancer" - he won 7 tournaments that year and was player of the year, at the height of the Watson/Nicklaus/Seve era..he belongs more properly in a Joy of Six on one-off sporting annuses mirabilises, so swift was his decline after that.

    No space for all the great Open collapses, and the coverage of Doug Sanders in 1970 (which I saw on BBC's Great Sporting Moments in the 1980s) with Henry Longhurst's commentary is almost too poignant and unbearable to watch (He spookily said of Sanders' drive on 18, "They clap, little knowing what is to come.." then famously

    "This then, is what you dream of. That you've got this one, with a left hand borrow, on the 18th green at St. Andrews, to win the Open Championship...

    [Sanders stops, picks up bit of grass from line, stands over putt again without getting properly aligned, then..)

    "Missed it...yes, that's the side you're bound to miss it.."

    Jacklin v. Trevino on 17 at Muirfield in '72 - Jacklin on in 3 with a putt for a birdie, Trevino hacking all over the place, still off the green in 4 shots. Trevino then walks up to his ball having virtually given up, hits it in a sulk without taking any practice swings, and chips in. Jacklin then 3 putts and his career never really recovers.

    Lesser known blow ups - Andreas Oosthuizen in '75, Simon Owen in '78, and John Cook (v. Faldo) in '92.

    Fair play for not including Jean VDV in 1999..we've gone over that one many times.

    Get back to your live blog now!

  • deiseach

    15 July 2011 11:18AM

    A nice combination of the familiar and the obscure. Didn't Baker-Finch screw the ball back into the Swilkin Burn on the first hole of his fateful round - the one at St Andrews anyway?

  • hellface

    15 July 2011 11:21AM

    Not to mention Van de Velde in 1999 makes this Joy of Six a mockery, it's ridiculous IMO for him not to be mentioned.
    Who the hell REALLY is going to remember Walter Donecki qualifying in 65.

  • THC1971

    15 July 2011 11:26AM

    Hellface, you do realise that the whole point of Joy of Six is to stimulate debate, not just to list the six best/worst/longest, etc.? Sheesh...

    Thanks Scott, a very enjoyable read.

    THC

  • mkb86

    15 July 2011 11:32AM

    hellface

    Who the hell REALLY is going to remember Walter Donecki qualifying in 65.

    I am, now that I've read about it for the first time. I already know all about Van der Velde.

  • legslikeaspider

    15 July 2011 11:52AM

    I believe there was a column on here recently about Van De Velde and how he played the last hole (and indeed the whole tournament) at Carnoustie 'like a muskateer'. That wasn't a meltdown, it was a glorious, epic failure. He could have played the percentages but there didn't appear to be a drop of caution or doubt in his blood and so he whacked it up the last. Yes, the outcome was a nightmare but I think even the man himself would say most of his memories of that week are like a golden dream.

  • Debaser92

    15 July 2011 11:52AM

    Andres Romero at the 2007 Open deserves a mention below the line. Birdied something like 10 of the first 16 holes, was -7 for the day and had played some of the best golf I've ever seen, it was ridiculous how he birdied what seemed like every hole at a brutal course like Carnoustie.

    He's leading the Open on the 17th tee and he drives into thick rough. Decides to go for the green rather than chip out, hits it too well and smashes it out of bounds. This put him two shots down on 18, and he missed a short one for par thinking it doesn't matter. Pod and Sergio then messed up, meaning if he had made that tiddler for par or not taken double on 17, he'd have won or had a playoff. Pod winning means this is a rather forgotten tale, made more stark by the fact I've never heard of this chap Romero again.

  • InLikeFlynn

    15 July 2011 11:54AM

    David Duval

    At St Andrews I think before he won a major and had that Best Player not to moniker.

    Wasnt a massive blow up but think I remember him losing it at the Road Hole bunker.

    Also Azinger when Faldo went around in Par on the final day and poor Paul couldn't get a put to drop all day. Again not an absolute collapse but certainly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

  • TotalMadness

    15 July 2011 11:59AM

    The Open is quite a strange major, in that it seems to be won on a regular basis by relative outsiders. I think it's good for the sport because there aren't that many other sports where an outsider can come up and win on a regular basis - certainly not grand slam tennis or Premier League football. I'm not a big golf fan but I can always remember when the "chancers" emerge and win the Open title.

  • Debaser92

    15 July 2011 12:01PM

    A mention for Greg Norman at the 89 Open as well. Including the playoff he was -10 for the first 20 holes he played that day, came from nowhere to get in a playoff. Then he bogied 17, and on 18 drove it into a bunker. The 2nd shot came up short of the green in another bunker, then he thinned that shot onto the clubhouse path. He never even finished the playoff after playing lights out all day.

  • Kperson

    15 July 2011 12:52PM

    I've never been much of a golf fan, but I always enjoy the Joy of Six (and especially so when it's not the usual Arse v Man U moments). Great stuff this week. That Danecki story is lovely.

  • hellface

    15 July 2011 1:12PM

    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

  • THC1971

    15 July 2011 1:36PM

    J6 pointedly does not profile "the biggest/best/worst" of anything, hellface, and that is the point I am making. It leaves us free BTL to debate relativity to the examples everyone knows about, such as JVDV. Otherwise that's a journalist's very expensive time spent on something we could all Google in a few seconds. And where's the fun in that?

    THC

  • Chatterton

    15 July 2011 2:25PM

    i like to play a little game when i see the subject matter for the weeks JOS, before reading it i try to guess which blatantly obvious entry has been left out and how long it will take for somebody to whine about it

  • MarcoBonfiglio

    15 July 2011 2:28PM

    To all who disagree id like to kick the cnut out of you...

    Assuming you're not being ironic, hellfarce, and assuming you do engage in this somewhat dubious enterprise, I think I can advise you that it will take a while, and involve a great deal of travel.

  • IvorEngine

    15 July 2011 2:34PM

    That Woosnam mistake was heartbreaking - he was in brilliant form on the run up to that tournament, he really could have won it. I may have my chronology a bit mixed up but hadn't he recently beaten Harrington (another golfer prone to bottling it at the death until he won his first major and got that particular monkey off his back) in the final of the World Matchplay? I remember that round and it was one of the greatest head to head matches i've ever seen.

    Can't remember Cjeka that day, but it sounds incredibly unfortunate that he was dragged into the situation too at a point when he could have made his career.

    Oh, and HellFace - if you want to talk about Van Der Velde, be our guest - that's what this blog is for - just stop whining about his absence above the line. You never read this column before?

  • BrasilBranch

    15 July 2011 3:11PM

    Next week can you just do this one and have done with it forever...

    The Joy of Six Joy of Sixes Joy of Six:

    You Must Be Fkn Idiots Because You Didn't Include:

    1. Diego Maradona v England, both handball and great goal??
    2. Liverpool/Steven Gerrard in Istanbul!!!!????
    3. Jean Van der Velde's Meltdown!!?
    4. Ian Botham at Headingley????!! WTF???!!!!
    5. Zinedine Zidane, the Greatest Player that ever Lived????
    6. Of course, you had to include Manchester United, didn't you, even if the JoS is about football/sailing/boxing/mountain-biking.

  • richardw

    15 July 2011 7:01PM

    2003 was bad for Bjorn, but might we also remember Mark Roe being disqualified for signing the wrong score card when two off the lead at the end of the thrid round? I dion't think he was ever that close to being in contention in a major before or since

  • snarf

    15 July 2011 8:11PM

    Photo caption says Woosnam's breakdown was 1991. Needs changing.

    Another good one would be Rob Pampling who was leading after the first round in 1999 at Carnoustie...and missed the cut.

    Great article though.

  • GonzoC

    15 July 2011 8:11PM

    "Alex should have won the Open," insisted his manager Richard Rayment." He was mentally strong enough and he was definitely playing well enough. He was absolutely devastated for Woosie. It was such a shock he was nearly crying on the tee. It was incredible, as if it was Alex who'd been penalised two shots. After that he lost his focus."

    Obviously he wasn't mentally strong enough.

  • LeBur

    15 July 2011 10:12PM

    I have a memory of the camera cutting away from Woosnam as he walked between green to tee. We didn't hear what the caddy said, but Woosie was clearly audible saying something along the lines of 'Oh No, you've got to be kidding.' To have it taken away from you like that must have been guttting. I wonder if the caddy still got his 10%?

  • Arref

    16 July 2011 10:59AM

    @Debaser92

    I've never heard of this chap Romero again

    Romero won the Deutsche Bank tournament just a week later so presumably he wasn't totally devastated by his Open mishaps. He also won in New Orleans the following year.

  • Arref

    16 July 2011 11:05AM

    While I'm rooting around about relatively obscure players:

    Čejka took a five-shot lead into the final round of the 2009 Players Championship after rounds of 66, 67, and 72. However he shot a 42 on the front nine en route to a 79 and an eight-stroke loss to Henrik Stenson.

  • hunsrus

    16 July 2011 10:05PM

    Hale Irwins fresh air shot always sticks in my mind, mainly because so many pros still make cavalier putts from such short range. Think it was Ricky Barnes who came close to screwing it up today.

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