Lee Trevino Wins 1971 U.s. Open Golf Tournament

By Author: Cheyanne Cooke
Total Articles: 381
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The 1971 U.S. Open golf tournament was one of the classic golf tournaments of all-time. The U.S. Open is one of the major golf tournaments on the PGA Tour and is a very prestigious tournament to win. The event attracts tons of players to come and pit their skills against the other golfers of the world.

This tournament featured the story of the rubber snake. The tournament ended in an 18-hole playoff between golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino. Previous to the round the golfers were getting ready to tee up and there are two different renditions of what took place.

The less truthful rendition featured Lee Trevino pulling a rubber snake out his bag and tossing it at Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus was apparently startled by the snake and lost focus. Many people claimed that it caused a slow start for Nicklaus and gave Trevino the edge for victory.

The true story starts similarly to the first one in that Lee Trevino pulled a rubber snake out of his bag. When he pulled the snake out of the bag the gallery started to laugh at the gesture. Nicklaus saw that Trevino had pulled the snake out and asked to see the ...
... snake. Trevino threw it over the Nicklaus and he looked and the snake and threw it back. Nicklaus did not start slow either, as he actually managed to score a birdie on the first hole of the playoff.

After the first hole things started to unravel for Nicklaus. He found his way to the sand traps on two separate occasions and afforded a two stroke lead to Trevino. Trevino played a solid round the rest of the way through and would not allow Nicklaus to get back into the game. Nicklaus ultimately lost the round by a margin of 3 strokes and Trevino became the 1971 U.S. Open champion with a round of 68 against Nicklaus.

For his victory Trevino brought home 30 thousand dollars. Nicklaus would bring home 15 thousand dollars for placing second in the tournament.

Bob Rosburg and Jim Colbert were fighting to stay in contention in the tournament, but they were unable to come through and finished 2 strokes back in a tie for 3rd place. George Archer, Johnny Miller and Jim Simons finished in a tie for 5th place in the tournament. These golfers all finished 3 strokes back of the winner. Simons was actually just an amateur player at the time and still managed this fantastic finish.

Raymond Floyd finished in sole possession of 8th place in the tournament one stroke back of the players tied for 5th. To round out the top 10 there was a 4-way tie for 9th place between Gay Brewer, Larry Hinson, Bob Nichols and Bert Yancey. These players all finished one stroke behind Floyd in the standings.

The tournament was certainly a classic one and will be remembered for years as people recount the story of the rubber snake in the playoff between Trevino and Nicklaus.

AUTHOR:-
Cheyanne Cooke writes reviews on various sporting events including the online betting websites. In this piece of write up the author highlights on PGA Tour and PGA betting odds. The author also presents his views on how to bet on golf.