Hubert Green Wins 1977 U.s. Open Golf Tournament – Despite Death Threat

By Author: Cheyanne Cooke
Total Articles: 381
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While the US Open is almost always a great, exciting tournament, there may not have been a more exciting tournament that the 1977 US Open. The tournament was a close one, but this is not the only reason why the tournament had a lot of excitement around it.

The first thing to realize is that the excitement was not all positive excitement. Much of the excitement came because one of the players, Hubert Green, received a death threat during the final round.

The threat came from a caller that contacted the FBI Office in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The caller threatened that Green would have a man that would take an attempt on his life in the 15th hole of play.

Green was in the lead entering the last round of play. It seems that there was miscommunication between the police and Green, however. It was supposed that Green was notified that someone had threatened his life, but Green was not notified of the threat until after he finished his 14th hole of play. This meant that Green would have to make a decision on the spot as to whether or not he was going to proceed with play.

Green decided that he would continue ...
... playing without any delay. He approached the tee and drove the ball into a tree. While he was having a great tournament, it was to be expected that Green might falter with the pressure of a possible murder attempt weighing over him. Fortunately for Green, the tree kept his ball inbounds. Green managed to put the ball within reasonable distance of the hole and two-putted to save par. Green did not have anyone take an attempt on his life and the rest of the tournament went on without too much craziness.

Green put in a birdie on the next hole to take a two stroke lead. While he had the lead, Lou Graham was not ready to give up. He was three strokes behind Green at the beginning of the day, but he made a serious run on the back nine. In his last nine holes he managed to put down four birdies. This solid finish put a lot of pressure on Green.

It came down to the last hole of regulation and Green had to make a three foot putt, or the tournament would go to a playoff between Green and Graham. Green managed to sink the putt and avoided the playoff.

Green won 45 thousand dollars for his play in the tournament. Lou Graham won 23,500 dollars for taking 2nd place. These two players were the only two players in the tournament that managed to break par. Green finished two strokes under par and Graham was a stroke under par. Tom Weiskopf was in 3rd place at one over par and won 16 thousand dollars.

One other note about the tournament is that it was the last US Open played by Sam Snead. Unfortunately, Snead didn’t exactly go out in glory. He was 12 strokes over par after two rounds and missed the cut.

AUTHOR:-
Cheyanne Cooke writes reviews on various sporting events including the online sportsbook websites. In this piece of write up the author highlights on PGA Tour and PGA betting odds. The author also presents his views on how to bet on golf.