Oakmont Caddie Confessions, Part 7: Caddying for Byron Nelson

When we got into May of 1973, it became much harder to caddie. The rough was so high that you had to use extreme concentration to see where the balls were going.

There was a lot of play and there was constant activity around the USGA setting things up along with gallery seating construction. And we caddies were still allowed to golf on Mondays. It was great as we caddies had constant grudge matches on one of the greatest golf courses in the world.

A few weeks before the U.S. Open, I got the bag of a member, Jack Brand, early on a Sunday morning. Mr. Brand was a very nice man and wrote a letter of recommendation for me when I tried for a caddie scholarship. His brother Fred was a good man also and was a member of 13 Country Clubs.

I walked over to the first tee and I saw that he was going to play with Jack Mahaffey. I was standing there talking to Mr. Mahaffey’s cadie when we saw Sonny Stoner also heading our way with a huge bag.

I then looked at the back clubhouse entrance as someone was coming out and heading our way. I was amazed to see that it was Arnold Palmer. He was in town for an early practice round. He came over to the tee and talked for a while with the two members. I just stood there with the other caddies quietly in anticipation of watching Arnie play.

We were about 30 yards from the tee when Arnie stopped talking and started walking towards us.  As he got to us he stuck out his hand and said, “Hi fellas, I’m Arnold Palmer and I’m looking forward to being out with you guys today.” What a nice man he was.

Wheen we got to the third tee, there was a large crowd of people on the other side of the fence. It was the first tee of the Oakmont East public course that was parallel to the third hole of the country club and there were numerous golfers there waiting to tee off.

After the members and Arnie hit their tee shots, someone across the fence yelled, “It’s Arnie!”. Soon about 50 people were hanging on the fence. Arnie told us to wait up ahead and he went over to the fence to greet everyone over there. We had to wait about 10 minutes in the fairway for Arnie to visit with them.

He was still a pretty strong player at the time. I was amazed at how straight he hit his tee shots. As amazing as that day was, the next day was even better.

I was in the caddie bullpen early and talking to my friend Donny Streiff from West Deer Township, an area about 10 miles north of Oakmont. I was telling him all about Arnie when an ABC station wagon pulled in next to us.

A man came out wearing an ABC shirt and asked us if we were interested in caddying for Dave Marr and Byron Nelson. They were going to film a special for ABC Wide World of Sports. We said, “Of course!”. He said to follow him and the crew.

He turned out to be the producer Terry Jastrow. He ended up being a famous Olympics producer. I grabbed Byron Nelson’s bag and Donny grabbed Dave Marr’s bag. We were told to go out to the 15th tee, which was just on the other side of the 18th hole.

As we were standing there, another ABC employee was talking to us. He was just out of Notre Dame and he told us he grew up across the river in Natrona Heights. His name was Terry O’Neil and he ended up being an executive producer at ABC, CBS and NBC.

Then my jaw dropped as I saw Byron Nelson walking towards me. He was 62 years old at the time. He said, “Hey young fella, how are you today?” He was a very sweet man. He told me that he forgot his special golf glasses at the hotel. He wore bifocals and had a special pair for golfing that were less distorting.  He said he would have to make do.

He took his driver and started with some practice swings. He was creaking and cracking, but it was still poetry in motion. The camera crews were now ready and Mr. Nelson went to the tee and addressed the ball.  I thought to myself, “I am getting to see one of golf’s greatest right in front of me.

His swing was so pure that they designed the golf equipment machine “Iron Byron” after it. Well, he took a swing and hit the ball about 15 yards! He apologized to Terry Jastrow and said his back was bothering him.

Apparently the purpose of this special was for Byron Nelson and Dave Marr to visit some of the more famous holes and for Byron to reminisce about some of the shots he hit in previous Opens at Oakmont. So Terry Jastrow suggested we go out to the 15th fairway.

From there it was about a 220-yard shot to the green. Dave Marr hit a shot onto the green. Then it was Byron’s turn. He described the shot for the camera and then addressed the ball. He hit it dead right towards the woods. He tried again and hit it in the right bunker. He kept trying and hit a couple pull hooks to the left.

Finally he hit a beautiful high cut that ended up about 10 feet from the hole. Terry Jastrow hollered, “That’s a take.”. When the special aired, it looked like Byron Nelson just walked right up and hit a great shot. We worked about 6 hours, had a great time and were on TV.

Over the years, I have written to ABC to see if that episode was on film somewhere, but I never got any answer.

There was also a qualifier that month where we heard that hotshot amateur and multiple NCAA champ Ben Crenshaw was playing in. It was at Green Oaks Country Club in neighboring Verona. Green Oaks is one of the best, not well-known courses around. I was a member of the Pitt golf team, before the program was eliminated by Cas Myslinski, and our home course was Green Oaks.

A bunch of us caddied a round at Oakmont that morning and then drove over to watch. We caught up with Crenshaw on the back nine.  He was fabulous and qualified for the U.S. Open. Afterward we heard him say that he was from West Texas and had never seen such beautiful grass. He jokingly said he was considering sleeping in the fairway that night instead of finding a motel.

Ed Wieszcznski lives in Pittsburgh

Featured photo illustration of Ed Wieszczynski at Oakmont wearing his 1973 U.S. Open jumpsuit created with ChatGPT

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