Needing a strong round to make the cut
This is the ninth in a 10-part series of recollections by Ed Wieszczynski, who caddied at Oakmont Country Club near Puttsburgh from 1967 to 1975, including at the 1973 U.S. Open. While looping, he encountered the likes of Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, Whitey Ford and Mickey MantleOn Friday, of the 1973 U.S. Open, my player, Eddie Pearce, who had shot well over par the previous day, told me he thought he probably needed to shoot a couple under par to make the cut and he was going to be more aggressive at the start.
On the first hole he hit it to two feet and made an easy birdie. What he didn’t know was that my dad and his work friend came to watch us. My dad worked the 12-8 shift at Westinghouse Cheswick and came right out after work.
He was part of the huge blue-collar crowd that came out to support Arnold Palmer, who hailed from nearby Labtrobe, Pa. When Eddie made the short birdie, my dad hollered, “Way to go, Eddie!”. Eddie looked confused because he knew it was not his father-in-law hollering.
On the second hole, he hit his second shot about 15 feet past the hole. This was an extremely fast putt and there was a real possibility on that hole to putt off of the green. I warned him and he figured the putt was straight. I don’t know what got into me, but I told him that I believed the ball would move slightly left at the hole.
He hit a perfect putt and in the last 6 inches it fell to the left and into the hole. He jumped up and pointed his finger at me in front of everybody. Now this was more like it, Eddie was 2-under after two holes. And again my dad hollered “Way to go Eddie!”
On the third tee, I heard Eddie say, “Who the hell is that guy?”. I told him it was my dad and he was good luck. He smiled and parred the next two holes with ease. Then he sunk a 20-footer for birdie at number 5. After five holes he had moved to the projected cut line.
He made pars on the next nine holes and he was 3-under for the day, standing in the middle of the 15th fairway. But he short-sided himself in the right greenside bunker on his second shot. He tried to get the sand shot close, but it was a little short and stayed right off of the fringe. He chipped up and two-putted for a double bogey.
He missed the green on the par 3 16th hole for another bogey. He drove it into the greenside bunker on the short par 4 17th and got up and down for a much needed birdie and was 1-under par for the day. Maybe a birdie on the tough 18th hole would get him into the cut line.
Unfortunately, a three-putt bogey followed. I lined up seven putts on the last hole in two days in front of everyone. Eddie missed the cut.
On Saturday morning, I was sitting in the caddie bullpen with all the other caddies whose players had missed the cut. We are all telling our sob stories, wishing we were still caddying. One by one, they left to go out onto the course to watch play. We still had our badges, so we were allowed to be on the grounds.
I was looking at the program and saw that Chi Chi Rodriguez was going to tee off in about an hour. I sat there and talked to my friend Tom Tihey from Verona. He missed the cut also. Finally I decided to go out to the first fairway and watch Chi Chi come past.
Coming Monday
The Conclusion of
‘Confessions of an Oaknont caddie’
John Schlee, P.J. Boatwright
As he went past, I saw on the program that Arnold Palmer was teeing off in another 30 minutes, so I decided to wait there and watch him go by. As I watched, I noticed something strange. His caddy Vince was not carrying his bag. It was someone else. My God, it was Tom Tihey who I was just talking to a short time earlier. What was going on?
I went back to the caddie bullpen and saw the caddymaster, Joe Stoner. I said what happened to Vince. He said Vince didn’t show up. Vince was someone that we all knew was not a stable guy. We had heard rumors that he was a nervous wreck caddying for Arnie and that Arnie was not happy with him. So Vince stayed home.
It’s hard to imagine that Arnie’s caddie would stay home during a major golf tournament. So then Joe said the words I will never forget. “Tom was here, so now he has Arnie.”. It made me wonder if I had stayed, would I have been picked.
Tom was an excellent caddie, but he had worked at the Oakmont East Pro Shop that year because he was interested in becoming a club pro. Would I have had priority? Who knows? It’s not that I don’t think about it EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE SINCE THEN! And Arnie had a good day on Saturday and was near the top of the leaderboard going into Sunday.
Ed Wieszcznski lives in Pittsburgh
Featured photo illustration of Ed Wieszczynski at Oakmont wearing his 1973 U.S. Open jumpsuit created with ChatGPT
Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email gregg@alabamagolfnews.com
