If you read this website with any regularity you know that I am not just a fan of all the internet websites on golf but also favor the printed media that covers our great sport.
Sometimes I wonder why I subscribe to so many golf magazines when I can get most of the same content on the web. But many times the print articles don’t appear on the corresponding website right away or sometimes at all. And that is when I know my subscription is well worth the money.
Such is the case with a piece in the Winter 2016 edition of Links Magazine.
Well respected writer Thomas Dunne offers us a thoughtful insight into one of the most historic moments in amateur golf and a look at the character of the two competitors.
In his column Mark of a Gentleman, which is featured under Links Magazine’s Characters, Dunne gives us the story of Steve Scott.
Steve Scott could have beaten Tiger 3&2 in the final of the 1996 U.S. Amateur— instead, he did the right thing.
Dunne points out that this summer will mark the 20th anniversary of the ’96 U.S. Amateur Championship where Tiger Woods won his unprecedented third consecutive Amateur Championship.
We all know that Woods turned pro right after that and proceeded to set the golf world on its ear as he became the greatest player of his time.
Scott on the other hand leads a very content life as a club professional at a private club in suburban New York. He and his wife are both PGA Professionals and while he stills plays a good game he is now more respected for his teaching.
But on that day back in ’96 at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland Scott was on the verge of taking down one of the most decorated amateurs ever who would go on to become one of the greats of the game.
Scott had fashioned a 5-up lead after the first 18 holes. And Scott relates how Woods went to the range during the long lunch break to work with Butch Harmon. Scott on the other hand spent the time with his caddie/girlfriend at the time (now his wife) buying souvenirs in the merchandise tent.
True to form, in the afternoon Woods found his game and cut Scott’s lead down to 2-up and on the 16th hole Scott had a ten foot putt for par and Woods had a six footer for birdie.
With Woods’s ball near Scott’s line he asked Woods to move his ball. “As you do on any Saturday afternoon, I asked my playing partner to move the ball mark over, so he did.”
“I ended up holing my putt for par, forcing him to make his own to win the hole. I was walking over to the side of he green, and I noticed that he hadn’t replaced his mark. He was down in his crouch, lining his ball up, ready to go.”
“I would have won the hole and the match, 3&2,” Scott said. But it was at that moment that Scott truly showed his character and what kind of golfer he was. He reminded Woods to move his ball back to its original spot.
If Woods had putted from that spot he would have been penalized and the match would have been over with Scott winning in a surprising upset.
But Woods being Woods, holed the birdie putt and won the next hole to go All Square. And on the second playoff hole Woods claimed the historic victory and Scott became the answer to a trivia question.
“I was 19 years old at the time,” Scott said. “I could’ve very easily done something different, but I guess my parents raised me right. In every other sport , you wait for the referee to throw the flag, but in golf it’s the right thing to do. That moment will live with me forever. It’s something I’m very proud of.”
That’s one of the reasons we love this game. Not just the characters in the game but the character in the characters that play the game.
Click here for the Links Magazine website. Maybe they’ll have added Dunne’s article by now.
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