Jerry Pate’s Win At The 1976 U.s. Open Golf Tournament

By Author: Kellen Sears
Total Articles: 381
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The US Open is the biggest tournament of the year that takes place in the United States and it is considered to be a “major” tournament by the professional golf world. These major tournaments are the goal of every player in the world and they attract a large playing field. In 1976 the tournament was played in Duluth Georgia at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

The player that jumped ahead of everyone in the beginning was John Mahaffey. Mahaffey had a stellar round on day two of the tournament and managed to take the lead at the tournament. He managed to keep his lead after the third day as he shot a 69 in the third round of play. This put him 2 strokes ahead of Jerry Pate, a 22 year old golfer. Al Geiberger was three strokes behind the leader and Tom Weiskopf was 4 strokes behind.

The pressure was certainly on for these players and unfortunately, the pressure got to one of the players. John Mahaffey had a solid tournament over the first three rounds of play. He managed to shoot at or below par in the rounds and was 3 strokes under par. The last round is where he fell apart. After having such a stellar tournament ...
... he was only able to muster a 3 over par in the final round. He still finished in a tie for 4th place, but it was not nearly what he was hoping for entering the last day.

Jerry Pate was the player that managed to come through on the final day. He had his best round at the tournament, shooting a 68 on the final day to move to 3 strokes under par for the tournament. There were only two other players that managed to score below par during the tournament. Al Geiberger shot a 69 on the final day to move to 1 under par and Tom Weiskopf shot 2 under par on the last day to move to 1 under par for the tournament.

Butch Baird had a great finish to the tournament as he managed to post a 67 on the last day to move into a 4th place tie with John Mahaffey. These players finished at even par for the tournament.

Pate had to be very happy with his tournament as he brought home 42 thousand dollars for his tournament victory. Pate was only 22 years old and this certainly brought high expectations for the golfer. After winning the tournament, many people already had expectations that he would become one of the greats.

Fuzz Zoeller made his debut in major tournaments in this tournament. He did not finish well in the tournament however, as he finished tied for 38th place. While Zoeller didn’t have a great first major, he did go on to win both the US Open and The Masters later on in his career.

Al Geiberger and Tom Weiskopf received 18 thousand dollars each for their 2nd place tie. Butch Baird and John Mahaffey won 11,250 dollars each for their 4th place tie.

AUTHOR:-
Kellen Sears 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.