News
Thursday, May 8, 2008
They Were The First To Play Torrey Pines South
From left to right: Ralph Guldahl, Olin Dutra, Paul Runyan and Don Collett were the first foursome to play the South Course in 1957. The champions played an exhibition match following the dedication ceremony. (Courtesy Don Collett)
By David Shefter, USGA
Far Hills, N.J. - On a June day in 1957 three prominent professional golfers showed up at the first tee of a sparkling new public course along the Pacific Ocean north of downtown San Diego. Combined, the trio of Olin Dutra, Ralph Guldahl and Paul Runyan owned three U.S. Open titles, a Masters and three PGA Championships.
The fourth member for this historic exhibition match was a relatively unknown local professional. He had recently won the San Diego County Open, but hardly had the credentials of his fellow competitors.
“I was wondering why they put me in there,” said Don Collett, now 82 and living in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo. “That was a pretty distinguished threesome.”
Indeed. Runyan, the head pro at La Jolla Country Club, had won the 1934 and ’38 PGA Championship, then a match-play competition. Guldahl had enjoyed a brilliant three-year stretch of winning back-to-back U.S. Opens in 1937 and ’38 before taking the 1939 Masters, while Dutra captured the ’32 PGA Championship and ’34 U.S. Open.
After the mayor cut the ribbon officially opening Torrey Pines’ South Course, the foursome played the first round before what Collett estimated was “500 or 600 people.” The exhibition was arranged by Don Makie, then the director of parks and recreation for the city of San Diego. Both Dutra and Guldahl lived in Los Angeles and could make the easy commute. Runyan was a local legend and Makie figured Collett would be the ideal fourth to join the three dignitaries for a special match.
“I remember Guldahl showed up on the first tee wearing a tie,” said Collett. “He was a big guy, about 6-foot-3. But he was a man of mystery. He was like a meteor crossing the sky. He won and then all of a sudden he disappeared [from the game]. It was long before I got involved in golf. But he had a short-lived career.
“I very much enjoyed the day with them. They were kind and gracious to me and they (Dutra and Guldahl) didn’t know who I was. But I knew who they were.”
As it turns out, the local San Diego pros defeated their L.A. counterparts in a four-ball match, although Collett doesn’t remember the score. What does stick in his memory is the opening hole when Runyan - known as “Little Poison” because he wasn’t a long hitter but had an impeccable short game - snap-hooked his first two shots before living up to his mantra by holing a 30-yard pitch shot for a birdie 3. Collett still gets a chuckle over that.
Collett is the only member of that foursome still alive.
Prideful
Fifty-one years later another big event at Torrey Pines has Collett beaming with pride. Next month, the course will host to the first U.S. Open ever held in San Diego. Although the South Course plays about 700 yards longer than it did in 1957, the challenge remains just as difficult.
A three-time three U.S. Open competitor in 1959, ’61 and ’63, Collett has seen Torrey Pines literally grow up over the past 51 years.
“I’m looking at a couple of [early] pictures and there was hardly a tree on the place,” said Collett. “It has been dramatically lengthened and also made more difficult simply by adding bunkers. They haven’t altered the greens too much. They brought in [Rees] Jones and he relocated several of the greens.
“It’s going to be a very, very difficult test. I think I would sit on 284 and stay in the clubhouse.”
Collett, a PGA of America Life Member, didn’t discover golf until after he had been drafted into the Navy during World War II. He had been a solid tennis player growing up in Utah and thought he might eventually be a teaching pro. But while stationed in Seattle in 1945, a buddy took him to the Seattle Open. When they arrived at the first tee, Ky Lafoon, Ray Mangrum and Byron Nelson were starting their round. Nelson was first to play and he wound up shooting “63 or 64.” Nelson finished the event with a record 72-hole total of 259, besting the 261 Ben Hogan had posted just a week earlier in Portland, Ore.
Collett bought Nelson’s book “Winning Golf” and became hooked on the game.
The Pioneer
Years later Collett would honor the same man who brought him into golf by inducting him into the World Golf Hall of Fame’s first class in 1974. By then, Collett had moved to Pinehurst, N.C., where one of his duties was to do a feasibility study on creating a golf hall of fame. From 1972-79, Collett served as the president of the World Golf Hall of Fame, which eventually relocated to its current spot in St. Augustine, Fla.
That inaugural class included eight living legends – Hogan, Nelson, Patty Berg, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead – and five who had passed on (Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet, Harry Vardon and Babe Zaharias).
A few months earlier, Collett had reached out to then-Vice President Gerald Ford to dedicate the venue. The two met at a pro-am in Charlotte, N.C., and a few weeks later, Collett received a letter on Ford’s stationary confirming his status. But that was before President Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and Ford was suddenly sworn into the White House.
Ford’s appearance in Pinehurst looked to be in serious jeopardy. Bob Goodwin from the Secret Service office contacted Collett to cancel the trip. Collett offered up an enticement. What if he could get Ford a game with Nicklaus, Hogan and the rest of the living Hall of Fame inductees? Goodwin, not being a golf aficionado, didn’t recognize the names. “I don’t think it will make a difference, but I’ll run it by him,” were the words Goodwin used.
The bad news left everyone at the Hall glum. But a couple of days later, Goodwin called Collett back with a message: “Is Hogan really going to be there?”
Collett responded, “Not only is he going to be there, we are sending our company jet to pick him up.”
Replied Goodwin, “In that case, the President wants to let you know he is coming too.”
“I guess [U.S.] President’s have heroes, too. So I put them right together,” said Collett.
Going further, Collett arranged for Hogan to put together a brand new set of clubs for Ford. He also had two dozen golf balls monogrammed with his name. At the first tee of Pinehurst’s famous No. 2 Course, Ford pulled the cellophane off the clubs and proceeded to smash the ball.
“I think it’s the best drive he’s ever hit in his life,” said Collett. “He out-drove everybody but Nicklaus. It’s the only [good] shot he hit all day. He had a great time. The New York Times called it the coups of the year. We had him on the grounds for eight hours.”
Not long after Collett christened Torrey Pines, he was named the head professional at the new Coronado Golf Course. To commemorate the opening in December 1957, Collett, Runyan and San Diego legends Billy Casper and Gene Littler – both of whom would win U.S. Open titles – played an exhibition match. Runyan eventually became Collett’s mentor, giving him pointers on the swing and short game.
“Paul had a profound effect on my career,” said Collett. “He told me [my] swing needs to be more around than up. I went from hitting a fade cut to a high draw. He showed the nuances of the short game, which I have used the rest of my career.”
In 1959, Collett qualified for his first U.S. Open. A day before the first round at Winged Foot, Collett was going to play a final practice round with Casper when Phil Rodgers approached about having a match against two amateurs. At the first tee, Collett quickly noticed a burly blonde 19-year-old whose name was Jack Nicklaus.
“I tell you what, he put on an exhibition,” said Collett. “He shot 31 on the front side and 67 for the round. They beat Billy and I out of eight bucks.”
The interesting footnote is Collett, Nicklaus and Rodgers all missed the cut, while Casper, who shot the highest score among the three that day (79), went on to win the championship.
Collett went from Coronado to a club in Houston and then to Pinehurst before coming back to San Diego in the late 1970s to start his own company. He built 24 golf courses around the country, including six in southern California. He also authored two instructional books with Casper (“Chipping and Putting”) and Littler (“How to Master the Iron Game”). Collett began his writing career working as a special Navy correspondent for the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star Bulletin. He also penned a novel entitled “The Well” based on a true-life experience that he hopes will be turned into a movie.
He occasionally gets out to the golf course and even finds time to teach the short game at a facility near his home.
And now he will see the word’s best convene at Torrey Pines this June where he started it all 51 years ago.
“I just can’t wait,” said Collett. “Having played in the Open before, I know how difficult it is. I saw a piece in the [local] paper last week and [San Diego native Phil] Mickelson said, ‘It’s the most difficult course I have ever played.’ And he hits it a long way.
“It’s going to get down to guys who are familiar with the course like Mickelson and [Tiger] Woods, and several other people. You can eliminate about 80 percent of the field before they even tee off.”
David Shefter is a staff writer for the USGA. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.
