Dow Getting His Due

50 years after winning PGA, Finsterwald set to go into Colorado Sports Hall of Fame

By Gary Baines

Colorado Golf Journal, Thursday, February 28, 2008

         But it never gets old for Finsterwald, 78, who graciously accepts his many accolades.

    “It’s quite a thrill, especially when you see those being inducted at the same time,”  Finsterwald said by phone from Orlando, Fla., where he spends the cold months. “Those are people I’ve admired over the years.”

    The second week in April is shaping up to be eventful for Finsterwald. On Monday, April 7, he plans to drive from Orlando to Augusta, Ga., where for the last 30 years he’s served on the rules committee for the Masters. On that Tuesday, he’ll fly to Denver where his induction ceremonies will be held that night. And Wednesday,April 9, he’ll fly back to Augusta, where he’ll make rulings for the Masters, which starts that Thursday.

    Irwin, winner of three U.S. Opens and the career victories leader on the Champions Tour, paid tribute to Finsterwald during an event held last year in anticipation of the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor. Finsterwald was the director of golf at the Broadmoor for 30 years, until 1993.

    “After getting the stuffing beaten out of me playing football, I came to the Broadmoor in 1965 and asked Dow one thing: Do I have the game to play professional golf,” Irwin said. “He took me to the range and asked if I could hit a draw, so I hit one. Then he asked if I could hit a fade, so I hit one. He was a guy who believed in me and is responsible for helping get my career started.”

     Finsterwald said he’s “flattered” that Irwin will present him as an inductee on April 8. But Irwin and many prominent players of his era greatly respected Finsterwald, who had a relatively brief but exceptional career on the PGA Tour. In the late 1950s and early ‘60s — after Finsterwald left the Air Force — he was considered one of the best players on the circuit, winning a dozen Tour events.

    The two-stroke victory over Billy Casper at the 1958 PGA in Havertown, Pa., was the biggest feather in Finsterwald’s cap, but he had also been in the match-play final of the PGA the previous year, when he lost 2 and 1 to Lionel Hebert.

    The 1958 PGA significantly “affected my life,” Finsterwald said. “At the time, I didn’t realize what effect it would have. It has opened certain doors. It was quite an experience. I took a great deal of pride in winning.”

    In 1962 at the Masters,Finsterwald almost added another major championship to his list of wins. But both he and Gary Player lost in a playoff to Arnold Palmer, who to this day remains a close friend of Finsterwald. (Dow, born four days before Palmer in 1929, lives across the street from Bay Hill, Palmer’s course in Orlando, and practices there on a regular basis.)

    Finsterwald won the Vardon Trophy for lowest stroke average on the PGA Tour in 1957, and he was named PGA Player of the Year in 1958.

   Finsterwald’s final win on the Tour came in 1963, though he was in the hunt in some majors after that. But he counts a 1977 event as the second-most-memorable of his career. That was the year Finsterwald, a four-time Ryder Cup player, served as the non-playing captain for the U.S. Ryder Cup team in the final year in which it played opponents from Great Britain and Ireland, rather than from the whole of Europe.

    “Being captain of the Ryder Cup team was a close second to winning the PGA,” said Finsterwald, who had Irwin as one of his players that year. “It was the end of an era and the beginning of an era” with the U.S. facing Europe in the Ryder Cup beginning in 1979.

     Finsterwald also “is gratified” to have played other roles in golf: as a national officer in the PGA, on the USGA’s Rules of Golf Committee, on the Rules Committee at Augusta, and as president of the Colorado Section PGA.

     These days, Finsterwald lives half the year in Orlando and the other half in Colorado Springs, where three of his four children are still based. He practices more than he plays, and “if I break 80 it’s a good round.” Occasionally, he plays with Palmer, his longtime friend.

This figures to be a golden year in at least a couple of respects for Dow Finsterwald.

      The summer of 2008 will mark the 50th anniversary since the longtime Colorado Springs resident won the tournament that set his career apart. Finsterwald made history in 1958 by winning the first PGA Championship contested on a stroke-play basis.

     That victory is a big reason why Finsterwald will be one of six people inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame April 8 at the Denver Marriott City Center. Joining him in the Class of 2008 will be former Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry, longtime Colorado Avalanche executive Pierre Lacroix, Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter, former Western State football coach Bill Noxon and former Denver sportscaster Starr Yelland.

    Finsterwald will be among the first 10 Colorado Sports Hall of Famers inducted largely because of their background in golf. Arguably the most famous golf-related inductee, Hale Irwin, will be the presenter for Finsterwald on April 8.

   Finsterwald is already a member of several Halls of Fame, including those of Ohio University Athletics, PGA Golf Professionals, Colorado Golf, and Colorado Springs Sports. And he’s also received a lifetime achievement award recently at Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament.