| Stanford Men's Golf Team | 2007 NCAA National Champions |
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1956 Team Stories & ExperiencesGolf alums - 1932 to nowEmail your story/experience to Bob Stevens @ bob@stanfordmensgolf.org |
12/29/07 - Phil Getchell recalls:Here is a bit of information for your project: I was captain of Stanford Golf Team in 1955 and 1956 (Bud Finger was our fine coach). We won the Pac 8 both those years and I won the Pac 8 individual championship at L.A. Country Club North in 1955. Also was finalist in 1954 Western Amateur and the Southern Oregon Amateur in 1956. Was a Morse Cup Team member (Ryder Cup format at Pebble, Cypress and maybe Monterey---can't recall this last detail: this was a Calif. vs. Northwest team competition --- I played some years for California and some for the Northwest side) and played on Hudson Cup teams (same format, Northwest vs. Canada). A couple of strange things I recall was that in 1956 I qualified for the US Open at S.F. Golf Club (Byron Nelson and Jim Turnesa played off for the last spot), but the strange aspect was that the Stanford Athletic Director --- won't mention the scoundrel's name --- wouldn't let me play in the Open because we were going to play the NCAA tourney two weeks after the Open. He said I could choose one or the other, but playing in the Open would make me "too tired to play in the Nationals?!" Of course, I chose the Nationals because I was captain and we were primed to win it in Knoxville --- we didn't, but came in third, we THOUGHT, until the officials came back to us and said we had been bumped ahead into second place because the team ahead of us had a player who had been found cheating on the back nine. So there is another scoundrel! That player, incidentally, went on to become a very famous and successful professional tour player?!After graduation, I didn't play again for many years as my profession landed me in the Brasilian jungle without clubs or course. Phil Getchell, '56 |