52 Years Ago at St. Andrews, Doug Sanders Watched British Open Glory Slide By

The record book says Jack Nicklaus won the 1970 British Open, but the agony of a missed short putt is the enduring story of this major.

The moment remains one of the most shocking, painful, and poignant in major championship history. Doug Sanders, resplendent in his purple sweater, stalked around the green examining his putt that ranged all of 24 to 30 inches in length. It was all that stood between him and winning the 1970 British Open at St. Andrews.

And when he finally settled in, and then failed to step out to gather himself after swatting a fly away from his ball, he struck a glancing blow that failed to deliver the ball anywhere close to the hole. He knew it too, reflexively reaching for the ball as soon as he hit it, as if to rake it back like he was a 30-handicapper, but stopping himself from doing so at the last possible moment.

With that, Sanders tapped in and let Jack Nicklaus back into the fray via an 18-hole playoff the next day. Sanders lost by a shot in the playoff. The PGA Tour‘s resident playboy had just lost his best chance to become a major champion. The story behind the 1970 British Open is an important window into the rich history of the game, implicating many golf figures past and some fortunately still present.

Sanders was a poor kid from Georgia who picked cotton to help support his family, with two blind brothers (one from war and one from an accident). The University of Florida recruited him and he was a collegiate star there. As a pro he morphed into a self-styled “Peacock of the Fairways," with his colorful clothes. He wielded a homespun swing so short they said he could have used it in a phone booth.

Hardly a slouch was Sanders, what with 20 PGA Tour wins and 13 top 10s in majors, including four runner-up finishes — two in the British Open (Nicklaus won both of those), and one each in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. In the 1966 British Open at Muirfield, Nicklaus broke a tie with Sanders by finishing par, birdie, par to win; Sanders and Dave Thomas finished second.

Impressively, Sanders was one of just three golfers in the last 67 years to win on Tour as an amateur, winning the 1955 Canadian Open. Scott Verplank in 1985 and Phil Mickelson in 1991 are the others.

Sanders could flat-out play. However, his prodigious talent was belied by his flamboyant lifestyle and his hide-your-wives-and-daughters-because-I-am-coming-to-town approach. An intimate of the Rat Pack, Sanders had left nothing in the bag when he passed in 2020 at 86, leaving three ex-wives and innumerable stories and adventures behind.

With his flamboyant clothes and homespun swing, Doug Sanders was one of the most recognizable pros of his era :: Malcolm Emmons/USA Today

With the British Open returning to St. Andrews for its 150th renewal, SI.com spoke to Nicklaus, now 82, about the 1970 Open, Sanders and some related matters. 

By the 1970 Open, Nicklaus’ greatness was already well on display, having collected seven of his career record 18 major victories. But “I had not won a major in three years,” said Nicklaus of his longest drought to date. 

There was, however, much more to the backstory of the 99th Open in 1970.

“My father had passed in February of that year at just 56 years old,” Nicklaus said. “He had lived for my golf accomplishments, and now he was gone, way too young. Candidly, I had not been working hard since he passed and perhaps before that as well. So I decided to rededicate myself to my game.

“And uncharacteristically for me, I did not ready myself for the Open by spending two weeks at the venue, but rather I went and played the week before at the inaugural Volvo Open in Sweden, where I finished second to Jean Garaialde. Despite not winning, I felt my game was ready for the Open.

“There was something else on my mind as well. Hanging over me were the words of the immortal Bobby Jones, who would pass himself the next year, in 1971, who once told me that 'no great golfer’s resume is complete until he wins not just the Open, but the Open at St. Andrews.'"

Nicklaus had played one Open there already, finishing second to Tony Lema in 1964, by five shots. Lema, Nicklaus recalled, "was a fun-loving and transcendent talent, taken from us far too young, at 32 in a plane crash in 1966. He and I were partners for the United States in the World Cup in Spain, and he had settled down a lot after his marriage, and I have no doubt he would have been a formidable foe and accomplished great things had he lived."

Nicklaus spoke highly of Sanders and his game. “Doug was a really good player, he just was never quite able to push it over the edge at majors. He was a great and tough competitor. He had a terrific short game and was a wonderful putter. He was tough to beat and was full of self-confidence.

“I enjoyed a very good relationship with Doug, as very different as we were in terms of personality and lifestyle. He and his third wife, Scottie, once spent a couple of days staying with me and Barbara, and we had a fine time. I will say this: Doug must have been awfully talented to have had all the alleged extracurricular activities people said he had, and still perform at such a high level on the course. I have no first-hand knowledge of what he did privately, but he was never badly behaved at any golf tourney.”

Reminiscing on the dramatic events of the 1970 Open, Nicklaus said, “I had finished and was in the scorer’s tent, watching the proceedings on the monitor, waiting for [Lee] Trevino and Sanders to finish."

Sanders teed off on 18 and put his drive in the middle of the fairway. With less than 100 yards left and the flag in the middle left of the green, Sanders played safe and put his second shot on the back of the green leaving. He left himself a very long lag and needed to get down in two to claim his first major championship.

“Talk about tough competitors — Lee had led both me and Doug by two after three rounds and he eventually finished tied for third," Nicklaus said. "He was on the green with Doug, who lagged his long birdie putt to a very short distance. So when Doug was preparing to putt for his par, and the win, I was moping. I was certain he would tap in that short putt and it’s over.

“But, oh my gosh: he missed it, and I had new life. I was not sure I deserved it, but I was going to make the most of it.”

“I just made a big mistake trying to hurry up and get it done,” said Sanders a few years ago to NationalClubGolfer.com. “The gallery was going wild. It wasn’t that I was nervous, it was just bad thinking on my part.”

It is said that Ben Hogan, who enjoyed a friendship with Sanders, was yelling at his TV set in Fort Worth, Texas, “step away and get your composure back” after Sanders swatted at the fly. But it did not happen.

In R&A championships at that time, golfers played a small British ball that played players believed provided more distance and workability in windy conditions. In the playoff, “when we hit the loop (holes 7-11) the winds were 56 mph, the highest I ever saw on a course,” Nicklaus said. 

Nicklaus remembers the playoff round as “neck and neck,” but it was really only close in the final few holes. Sanders stumbled early and after the 13th hole was 4 over par, four strokes behind Nicklaus. But Sanders birdied the 14th and 15th holes to claw back to 2 over; Nicklaus bogeyed the 16th and then only one stroke now separated the two.

They both made pars on the par-4 17th Road Hole and thus stood on the 18th tee still separated by that lone stroke. For the second day in a row, the British Open would be decided on the final hole with the wind whipping off the North Sea and the iconic R&A clubhouse in the background.

With the hole playing downwind, Sanders made a hard swing and drove the ball just short of the green. Nicklaus then removed his yellow sweater in hopes of giving his upper body more freedom. He ripped his drive dead at the pin, but as the ball hit the hardpan fairway, it took off and scooted over the green into the thick rough.

“Had there not been really thick grass behind the green, I do believe my tee shot would have gone out of bounds, and that would have been that,” Nicklaus said.

Sanders made a beautiful pitch up the swale and left himself about 3 feet for birdie, while Nicklaus was still in the thick stuff behind the green. Sanders undoubtedly was licking his chops at a short birdie putt on 18 for redemption, but he would never get that chance.

And that is because “I managed to scrape it on,” Nicklaus said, leaving himself a longer putt than Sanders, maybe a 5-footer. “It was the same putt Doug had the day before, just longer. I knew it would die right."

Nicklaus holed the putt for birdie to win the Open, and then, very uncharacteristically, threw his putter in the air — and almost landed on Sanders. Perhaps it was because his resume would now be complete by winning the British Open at the home of golf, or because Nicklaus was emotional and was still feeling the loss of his father that February, but whatever the reasons, the moment got to him.

“I never had done that before and never since,” Nicklaus admitted.

Nicklaus now had two Open crowns, and he was to add a third — another at St. Andrews, in 1978, when he finished two strokes ahead of runners-up Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Tom Kite and Simon Owen. Meanwhile, the 1970 Open catapulted him to win three of his next seven major starts.

And Sanders? When asked, late in his long life, if he ever gave his closest brush with majors immortality much thought, Sanders replied “Nah, not too much. Sometimes five or six minutes can go by in a day without me thinking about it ...”

It of course remains to be seen what new history will be written soon at St. Andrews at the 150th Open. But it will have to be special and exciting indeed to surpass what happened there in 1970.