Disney's 'Mouse-stake'
By Steve Elling
Posted September 11, 2002
It isn't often that the folks at Disney, as savvy and successful as they come in terms of marketing to the masses, drop the ball. After all, if Pooh were a polar bear, they could sell him snow.
This summer, the world watched at the Memorial Tournament and NEC Invitational as Tiger Woods attempted to become the first player in 75 years to win a tour event four years in a row and the first since 1929 to win the same tournament title four straight times. Woods didn't deliver, yet has one more shot at a Fore-Feat, so to speak, next March at the Bay Hill Invitational.
All of which is what makes Disney's golf gaffe in 1974 so memorable. Setting Woods aside for the moment, none other than Jack Nicklaus points out that Orlando faced a potential Quad de Sod years earlier before the House of Mouse shot down the Bear before he had a chance to try.
With the Disney Classic five weeks down the road, it's worth revisiting. Nicklaus won the resort's first three events, beginning with the inaugural tournament in 1971, and his success was so pronounced that writers started calling the Disney event "Jack Nicklaus and the 155 Dwarfs," a reference to the outclassed field. The Bear won the three events, redundantly titled the Walt Disney World Resort Open Invitational, by a combined 13 strokes.
Given the benefit of perspective, Disney then made a considerable blunder. In '74, the tourney was switched to a two-man team event, a format retained through 1981. The changes were met with mixed reviews.
"Obviously, it's a pretty difficult thing to do to win any tournament four straight times," Nicklaus recalled in May. "It's something that I only had one chance of ever having happen and they canceled the tournament."
Well, not exactly. Nicklaus paired with former Ohio State cohort Tom Weiskopf and finished in a tie for 14th, though he seems to have blocked it all out. He pulled off a Grand Scram immediately thereafter.
"In '74, I don't know if they got tired of me winning," Nicklaus said. "We didn't win and I don't remember where we finished. I didn't want to play a team championship again, so I didn't go back."
Disney reverted to an individual format in 1982, and mindful of Nicklaus' potential feat, resort officials successfully petitioned the PGA Tour regarding the four-in-a-row deed. In other words, had Nicklaus won in 1982, the tour ruled that he would have tied the record because he'd have won four successive stroke-play incarnations at Disney.
However, despite its attempts to patch the streak back together, Disney wasn't nearly as successful in terms of recruiting the Bear back to the grounds. Nicklaus, 42 at the time, never returned, leaving him one mouse-eared win shy of two of the sport's legends.
Walter Hagen's streak from 1924-27 at the PGA Championship stands as golf's most impressive single-event stretch, given the perilous match-play format of the era. The flamboyant Hagen survived 20 matches in a row during the four-year streak on diverse courses located in four different states.
Gene Sarazen's feat came over a five-year span in South Florida. The Squire won the Miami Open in 1926, and after the tournament returned from a one-year hiatus, again from 1928-30. However, Sarazen's achievement came against a diluted field because other tour events were being staged on the West Coast. He didn't bother attempting to win a fifth Miami Open in a row in 1931.
Though Woods failed in his first two cracks at pulling even with Sarazen and Hagen, the fact that he was a multiple reigning champion at three events simultaneously -- a first in itself -- is perhaps even more remarkable.
"That's pretty phenomenal, the golf he's played," Nicklaus said before Woods teed it up at the Memorial in the spring. "I'm not telling you anything you don't know because I'm as amazed about it as you are. That somebody can dominate to the degree he's dominated, I think it's been fantastic."
Thankfully, at Bay Hill, Woods gets another reprieve -- and so does Orlando. March can't get here soon enough.
By Steve Elling
Posted September 11, 2002
It isn't often that the folks at Disney, as savvy and successful as they come in terms of marketing to the masses, drop the ball. After all, if Pooh were a polar bear, they could sell him snow.
This summer, the world watched at the Memorial Tournament and NEC Invitational as Tiger Woods attempted to become the first player in 75 years to win a tour event four years in a row and the first since 1929 to win the same tournament title four straight times. Woods didn't deliver, yet has one more shot at a Fore-Feat, so to speak, next March at the Bay Hill Invitational.
All of which is what makes Disney's golf gaffe in 1974 so memorable. Setting Woods aside for the moment, none other than Jack Nicklaus points out that Orlando faced a potential Quad de Sod years earlier before the House of Mouse shot down the Bear before he had a chance to try.
With the Disney Classic five weeks down the road, it's worth revisiting. Nicklaus won the resort's first three events, beginning with the inaugural tournament in 1971, and his success was so pronounced that writers started calling the Disney event "Jack Nicklaus and the 155 Dwarfs," a reference to the outclassed field. The Bear won the three events, redundantly titled the Walt Disney World Resort Open Invitational, by a combined 13 strokes.
Given the benefit of perspective, Disney then made a considerable blunder. In '74, the tourney was switched to a two-man team event, a format retained through 1981. The changes were met with mixed reviews.
"Obviously, it's a pretty difficult thing to do to win any tournament four straight times," Nicklaus recalled in May. "It's something that I only had one chance of ever having happen and they canceled the tournament."
Well, not exactly. Nicklaus paired with former Ohio State cohort Tom Weiskopf and finished in a tie for 14th, though he seems to have blocked it all out. He pulled off a Grand Scram immediately thereafter.
"In '74, I don't know if they got tired of me winning," Nicklaus said. "We didn't win and I don't remember where we finished. I didn't want to play a team championship again, so I didn't go back."
Disney reverted to an individual format in 1982, and mindful of Nicklaus' potential feat, resort officials successfully petitioned the PGA Tour regarding the four-in-a-row deed. In other words, had Nicklaus won in 1982, the tour ruled that he would have tied the record because he'd have won four successive stroke-play incarnations at Disney.
However, despite its attempts to patch the streak back together, Disney wasn't nearly as successful in terms of recruiting the Bear back to the grounds. Nicklaus, 42 at the time, never returned, leaving him one mouse-eared win shy of two of the sport's legends.
Walter Hagen's streak from 1924-27 at the PGA Championship stands as golf's most impressive single-event stretch, given the perilous match-play format of the era. The flamboyant Hagen survived 20 matches in a row during the four-year streak on diverse courses located in four different states.
Gene Sarazen's feat came over a five-year span in South Florida. The Squire won the Miami Open in 1926, and after the tournament returned from a one-year hiatus, again from 1928-30. However, Sarazen's achievement came against a diluted field because other tour events were being staged on the West Coast. He didn't bother attempting to win a fifth Miami Open in a row in 1931.
Though Woods failed in his first two cracks at pulling even with Sarazen and Hagen, the fact that he was a multiple reigning champion at three events simultaneously -- a first in itself -- is perhaps even more remarkable.
"That's pretty phenomenal, the golf he's played," Nicklaus said before Woods teed it up at the Memorial in the spring. "I'm not telling you anything you don't know because I'm as amazed about it as you are. That somebody can dominate to the degree he's dominated, I think it's been fantastic."
Thankfully, at Bay Hill, Woods gets another reprieve -- and so does Orlando. March can't get here soon enough.