early summer 2010 issue

The Summer of '68

Jerry Magee revisits the last
Canadian Open at St. George's

by Garry McKay

Magee, who was born in Regina but raised in Toronto, had been playing the PGA Tour from 1958 through 1967. That year he decided it was time to hang his coat in one place for a while and agreed to replace outgoing Bobby Cunningham as head professional at St. George's Golf and Country Club, a position he would hold for 16 years.

It was an important time for St. George's, which was scheduled to host the Canadian Open the following year.

"It was a whole different ball game back then," says Magee, now 76. For one thing, there were no bleachers or skyboxes back then. "The fans just walked down the middle of the fairways behind the players," Magee points out. "Today, they're closing Islington Avenue and putting up grandstands. The game has really grown!"

In 1968, lefty Bob Charles won at St. George's and took home a top prize of $25,000. This year the winner will walk away with close to $900,000.

The players' practice area will also have a new look. This year, the Royal Canadian Golf Association has constructed a special driving range down the road at Islington G&CC. In 1968, they simply warmed up and practiced at St. George's cozy range. That was possible for two reasons, Magee explains. First, the players didn't practice nearly as much back then as they do now, and they, of course, didn't hit the ball as far.

"The young guys now live on the range," says Magee. "And they have all the Tour vans there now where the players can get their clubs worked on. Back then, if you needed your clubs regripped you had to find out what hotel or motel Wally Ulrich, the Golf Pride rep, was staying in and take them to his room."

As opposed to today's pros all but pitching a tent on the range, players of that era preferred to avoid it like the plague, Magee recalls. "I can remember Julius Boros would come into my pro shop every morning of the tournament and sit down and put his feet up on the coffee table and look like he was going to sleep," says Magee. "One of my assistants asked him why he wasn't going to warm up. Boros said, 'I already brought my game with me. I don't have to do anything to it."

But there was a revolutionary development at the 1968 event. Magee recalls that IBM came in and for the first time accurately measured the players' drives. "The average tee shot off the seventh hole was 257 yards," he says. "And if you hit it 270-275, you were long."

There also weren't the entourages that accompany many modern players. "Back then, everybody looked after themselves. You booked your own hotel and you'd arrive by car," Magee says. "Today you have road managers and your hotels are all arranged for you. I just heard that at the tournament in Charlotte they had Mercedes-Benz cars with drivers and a valet service for the players."

Media coverage will also have a different look. "The week before the tournament, a truck pulled up to St. George's to unload 147 Underwood typewriters for the press room," recalls Magee, who played a big part in organizing and operating the '68 Open.

There are, however, two things he believes will be the same next month as it was 42 years ago: the buzz among the players about the Stanley Thompson masterpiece and how they will play it.

"We played on a lot of municipal courses on the Tour back then, even some where we had to hit off mats," Magee notes. "When the players heard they were coming to a really good course like St. George's, well, that's why they had such a good field here. They had everybody-Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, Snead." All of whom had to contend with the Etobicoke course's lightning-quick putting surfaces.

"St. George's has back-to-front greens. If you realize that, you can be aggressive on the putting surface. But if you're a little too aggressive from the fairway and you're above the hole, your heart's going to be in your mouth and you can have a long day."

Robbie Robinson had something to do with that. The Stanley Thompson protege was hired in 1967 to prepare the layout for the world's best. Magee grew to be friends with Robinson, although he was unaware at the time that Robbie was simultaneously sculpting a course near Hamilton-laying out nine holes at Coral Creek.

Years later Magee purchased the elegant layout and completed the final 18 holes from the Robinson blueprints he discovered.

So while Stanley Thompson will get the credit at next month's RBC Canadian Open as the media compares the course's historical roots to today's award-winning design, Jerry Magee will be reminded of another architectural master who played pivotal roles in his own past and present.