Appleby's three-peat impressive, but not unprecedented Littler duplicated the feat in the 50s, drawing comparisions to Hogan  PGATOUR.COM Contributor It's not the same as climbing Everest but Stuart Appleby faces an enormous obstacle this week in trying to take the Mercedes-Benz Championship a fourth straight time. Winning any tournament on the PGA TOUR is a big accomplishment, a just reward for years of diligent practice to become one of the planet's best players. The Mercedes-Benz Championship is a different animal, though. Since its 1953 inception as the Tournament of Champions, the event has brought together only tournament winners of the previous season -- the best of the best.  (WireImage)
While phenomenal, Appleby's three consecutive triumphs aren't unique. To find their equal, though, you must go back nearly a half-century to when Gene Littler, himself a relative newcomer to the TOUR, took 1955, '56 and '57 titles. The Tournament of Champions was born at the Desert Inn Country Club and stayed in Las Vegas for 16 years. The only course along the Strip had barely opened when Al Besselink shot 280 to win in 1953. Part of the glitz came from an annual photograph of wide-eyed winners posing with their payoffs in silver dollars. At the time Littler was one of the country's best amateurs and collegians, representing San Diego State University and the enlisted of the U.S. Navy in winning the 1953 U.S. Amateur with a 1-up victory over Dale Morey. The next year Littler entered the San Diego Open and cemented his reputation as hometown hero and amateur phenom, coasting to victory by four over E.J. Harrison at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club. It was another three decades before Scott Verplank took the next TOUR victory by an amateur, at the 1985 Western Open. That triumph convinced Littler to turn pro and he found himself spending the last week of April 1954 in the Tournament of Champions' second edition. "I hadn't played hardly any [as a professional] up to that point," Littler recalls. "I tried to take it in stride, but it was hard to be thrust into that tournament with so many great players." He began strongly, standing second after each of the first two rounds, but rounds of 76-76 during a blustery weekend brought a tie for seventh, 11 shots behind Art Wall Jr. Littler would not make the same mistake in 1955, blustery winds or not. Sam Snead may have been the overwhelming favorite -- Ben Hogan again passing on his chance to compete -- but Littler rapidly established himself as the man to beat. He began with rounds of 69-71 and then ran home four front-nine birdies en route to an astounding 10-shot cushion over Billy Maxwell, another former U.S. Amateur champ. Littler's closing 72 was anticlimactic yet secured a 13-shot margin. Not surprisingly, Littler made the only two birdies of the week at the fearsome seventh, measuring 221 yards. "That hole always seemed to play into the wind so you had a play a wood," Littler says. "I remember that the next-best player on that hole was seven shots higher -- the next-best player. So I basically won it on that one hole." The week was not without is adventures, Littler recalls. Saturday night he received a phone call from a sportswriter who asked but one question: What's the biggest lead you ever blew? "I told him I didn't know and I didn't want to think about it." The wide victory was Littler's third of the year, coming after Los Angeles and Phoenix. He would tack on the Labatt Open and finish one back of Ed Furgol in the U.S. Open. That fanned expectations of Littler as the next Hogan, an understandable comparison considering Littler's mechanically sound swing. Littler was a wire-to-wire Tournament of Champions winner in 1956, this time by four over Cary Middlecoff. But Littler wrestled through what he called one of the worst driving weeks of his life -- over a course covered with rough estimated at 6 inches deep -- thanks to stellar putting. Middlecoff began with a 79 yet rallied to pull within two of Littler with 11 holes remaining. The San Diegan retaliated with a string of must-make putts, one as far as 30 feet. He covered the last nine holes in 16 putts as Middlecoff withered. Littler fell into a slump and struggled for most of the next year. But he returned to the Desert Inn in April 1957 and recaptured his form for his three-peat. Littler made one birdie in each of his opening 73s but rallied Saturday with four more to shoot 215 for a one-shot edge over Don January. He made three more in Sunday's conclusion and kept a foursome of contenders three back.  (Getty Images)
Try as he might, Littler couldn't tack on a fourth Tournament of Champions victory. His Thursday play in '58 would have been celebrated in prior years but his 68 was three back of Billy Casper's course record-tying performance. A second-round 74 knocked Littler from contention, although he did close strongly to tie for fourth at 281, six behind Stan Leonard of Canada. "Back in those days there was a Calcutta pool and Frankie Laine [the singer] bought me every year," Littler says. "In 1958 he maybe doubled his money. Then the next year made his money back. And the next year I about finished last -- but that was the first year without the Calcutta. I used to say that Frankie Laine never knew how lucky he was." Littler would not win again until the 1959 Phoenix Open Invitational, his first in a season when he won a career-best five times. He broke through in majors in the 1961 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills Country Club, edging Doug Sanders and Bob Goalby. And after his 29 TOUR victories, a run completed with the 1977 Houston Open, Littler became one of the more respected players as the Champions Tour rose to prominence. This week the World Golf Hall of Famer will watch the Mercedes-Benz Championship telecasts and track Appleby's pursuit of a four-peat. The Aussie hasn't called Littler for advice, but if Appleby did place a call Littler would offer one word: "Luck. You just have to be playing well that week. You can't go into it thinking, I have to win another." Littler will be surprised if Appleby doesn't play well. In fact, he'll be just as surprised if he wins a fourth straight, too. "It'll be interesting to see how he does." |
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