Forget the Hype - The Real Rivalries in Golf

BROOKS KOEPKA easily swept aside his supposed bitter rival Bryson DeChambeau in The Match, a charity event at Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas. It was meant to be played over 12 holes but Koepka only required nine, winning 4&3.

The American pair have been involved in a war of words for around two years and the media has attempted to hype it up as some kind of rivalry. It is no such thing. The bottom line is that they are two men who simply don’t like each other very much.

Below are what we consider to be some proper rivalries…

Harry Vardon, James Braid and JH Taylor

“The Great Triumvirate”, as they were known, dominated golf shortly before and after the dawn of the 20th century. From 1894 through 1914, Vardon won six times with Braid and Taylor claiming five titles apiece. The five years in that span that one of the three didn’t win the Claret Jug, one or more members of the trio finished second.

Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen

Throughout the 1920s, Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur ever to draw breath,  and Walter Hagen traded majors for fun. Hagen won his two U.S. Opens (1914, 1919) before Jones played in his first. In two of Jones’ three Open Championship victories (1927, 1930), Hagen wasn’t in the field; Jones didn’t compete in two of Hagen’s Open wins (1928, 1929). Hagen wasn’t a factor the four times Jones won the U.S. Open. At the 1926 Open at Royal Lytham, Jones, with the clubhouse lead, looked on as Hagen, trailing by two strokes, played the last hole. Hagen paced off the approach he needed to make to force a playoff. He landed his shot within inches of the cup before watching it scuttle over the putting surface. His chance at victory gone, Hagen took four to get down and tied for third place, four behind Jones.

Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead

Unbelievably, Hogan, Snead and Nelson were all born in 1912. Nelson retired from fulltime competition following the 1946 season, but Hogan and Snead remained on the stage much longer. Snead defeated Hogan in a playoff at the 1954 Masters in their last head-to-head contest at a major. Snead enjoyed  82 PGA Tour wins including seven majors; Hogan, 64 wins, nine of them majors; and Nelson, five majors among 52 titles.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player

During a 21-year period beginning with the first professional major title won by Palmer at the 1958 Masters and running through until 1978, Nicklaus, Player and Palmer combined for 31 victories in the 84 majors contested. Seventeen additional times one or more of The Big Three finished second in a major, giving them first or second in a major 57 percent of the time. Even so, head-to-head duels were infrequent. Nicklaus defeated Palmer in a playoff at the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont. They were paired together over the final 36 holes at the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, Nicklaus again getting the better of Palmer. It was another 5½ years before they played together in a final round with everything on the line. At the 1973 Bob Hope Desert Classic, Palmer outplayed Nicklaus to win his 62nd and final PGA Tour event.

Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus

Tom Watson played the final two rounds at the 1977 Open Championship at Turnberry in 65-65 to defeat Jack Nicklaus by one stroke. Known as the Duel in the Sun, it was a classic encounter, one of several battles these legends played out with majors at stake. In the 1982 US Open at Pebble Beach, Nicklaus was in the clubhouse believing he had done enough to defeat his rival until Watson came to the par-three 17th and holed the unlikeliest of chips from the greenside rough. From the 1977 Masters through the 1982 U.S. Open, a total of 22 majors that started with Watson’s narrow victory over Nicklaus at Augusta National and concluding with the same outcome at Pebble Beach, Watson accumulated five majors and had five additional top-five finishes; Nicklaus won three majors and had nine top-fives.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson

In the 25 years that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been on Tour together, fans have longed for more head-to-head confrontations. As with headliners of previous generations, though, such occasions have been relatively rare. Mickelson was paired with Woods in the fourth round of the 2001 Masters with the “Tiger Slam,” four consecutive major victories, in the balance. Woods outscored Mickelson, 68-70, to edge David Duval by two with Mickelson finishing third, three shots back. The two legends haven’t been in a final-round major pairing since that monumental day when Tiger made history, but they have played alongside one another seven times in final rounds on the PGA Tour. Woods (2003 Buick Invitational, 2005 Ford Championship at Doral), and Mickelson (2007 Deutsche Bank Championship, 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) each won twice.