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May 30, 2014- By Steven E. Greer
I was a kid in the gallery when this happened (see video). I was so close to Jack and his son the caddy (the one telling the story) that they bumped into me heading to the 18th tee.
The 17th hole is where Jack hit it way out of bounds right, landing on the wood deck of a house. I was ten feet from Jack on the tee when he did that. He said, “Oh Jack.” in his classic third person style.
To stay in contention to win the tournament, Jack had to make a birdie on his second tee shot, which would have been a 5. He did that by sinking a very long putt. Jack had to scramble with a chip shot on 18 to tie Bean. Then, Andy Bean missed some short putts, and Jack won in sudden death.
It was the best tournament I had ever seen. It is still one of the best.
On the cover of the 1985 Memorial Tournament flier the next year, they showed Jack on the 17th tee, and I was clearly in the photo. I tried to have the tournament dig up the photo decades later, but they could not find them.