Golf Club Atlas
GolfClubAtlas.com => Golf Course Architecture => Topic started by: David_Tepper on March 21, 2014, 11:16:47 PM
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Jack Fleck, 1955 US Open winner and a true "Cinderella story," has passed at 92.
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/kroichick/article/Jack-Fleck-course-pro-who-beat-Ben-Hogan-in-5339334.php
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RIP!
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A sad loss. One of the truly great golfing stories.
Jon
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Jack made a trip to play Olympic in 1987 and still had an incredibly graceful golf swing. After meeting him, it occurred to me what a humble gentleman he was - almost as if somebody forgot to tell him he's THE Jack Fleck. The fact that he caught Hogan with two late birdies on Sunday is really not a difficult feat at all - every single digit handicap member has played the last four holes in two under numerous times.
The thing that strikes me as incredible is the idea of going to sleep, knowing The Hawk will be waiting on the first tee for you the next morning for all the marbles - with every single person in America expecting the driving range pro from some Iowa cornfield to shoot 80 and slink off to obscurity.
There is something about our golf course that crushes legends. Arnie was never the same after the 1966 Open, the 1987 Open put a nail in Watson's coffin and how Lee Janzen weaseled by Payne Stewart on cruise control in 1998 is still a mystery.
The strangest of all is Nate Crosby winning the 1981 Amateur. We played high school golf together (his caddy and another teammate is a local pro) at Burlingame and though he was a good player at the local level, knocking off all those nationally ranked gunners one after another seems impossible even today.
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Jack Fleck was our club pro for many years at Green Acres CC in Chicago area. Truly a beautiful, graceful, flowing swing. He was never really comfortable in that role at our club. The membership felt a distance from him, either a shyness or aloof, no one could really tell., most thought he just took the job for the money but really his heart was somewhere else.