PGA Championships. That adds up to 115 men’s major championships, making it safe to say that few people outside of some of golf’s greatest players have personally attended more of game’s biggest events.
“I’ve developed such great friendships with so many people -- Arnold (Palmer), Bob Toski …,” said Kessler, who started his major run at the 1950 PGA in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. “The association with most guys has been terrific. It’s a little different now. It’s tougher to get next to guys these days.”
Kessler’s talent and longevity have earned him numerous honors, including spots in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame and the Ohio Golf Association’s Hall of Fame, along with the PGA of America‘s Lifetime Achievement in Journalism award and the Memorial golf tournament‘s journalism award. And last year, Kessler was among 14 writers who, by virtue of covering at least 40 Masters, were awarded wall plaques of the Augusta clubhouse carved out of a famous tree that long stood near the second hole of the course.
Though Kessler, 84, knows many of golf’s greats on a first-name basis, he’s best known for writing about Jack Nicklaus for the last 55-plus years, ever since the Bear started turning Golden in the early and mid-1950s. Kessler was a sports writer and columnist in Columbus -- where Nicklaus was born and raised -- for about 40 years from the 1940s to 1985. He wrote a brief blurb when Nicklaus shot 51 for nine holes the first time he played golf -- at age 10 in 1950 -- and did a full-scale magazine piece on him three years later. With an accompanying photo of Nicklaus in a Sam Snead-style cap, the headline was “Move Over Snead, Here Comes Nicklaus.”
“He took off like wildfire,” Kessler said of Nicklaus. “He was so impressive. Even the older guys would comment on him.”
With Nicklaus going on to win two U.S. Amateurs, an NCAA Championship at Ohio State, and finishing second as an amateur to Palmer in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club south of Denver, the Golden Bear was the primary reason Kessler has covered so many majors during his career.
Nicklaus won a record 18 professional major championships, and Kessler was on hand for all but two -- both British Opens.
Not surprisingly, Kessler has also attended many a Memorial tournament, Nicklaus’ PGA Tour event held in Columbus ever since 1976. Kessler was there again a couple of weeks ago, and figures he’s attended about 25 Memorials over the years.
In all, between the PGA and LPGA Tours, Kessler has been to nearly 200 tournaments in his 60-plus years in the journalism business. That includes all 21 Internationals in Castle Rock, where Kessler was hired as the tournament’s first media and player-relations relations director in 1985, when he moved from Columbus to put down roots in Colorado.
With all that under his belt, it’s little wonder that Kessler also once served as president of the Golf Writers Association of America.
Of all the many tournaments Kessler has covered, the two that stand out most in his mind are similar in some respects, with two of the greatest players of all time making their final big splashes in the game.
The first involved Ben Hogan at his final Masters, in 1967. In the third round, the 54-year-old made a charge with a 30 on the back nine at Augusta, moving within three shots of the lead.
“I was tickled to be part of that,” Kessler said. “Each hole, there would be a greater cheer. He made a marvelous run and people gravitated to him.”
On the 14th hole, after Hogan took an extraordinary amount of time over a putt, he backed off and said to the gallery, “I know what you’re thinking: Why doesn’t he hit the G-- damn ball?”
“The crowd broke up,” Kessler remembers.
As Hogan walked up the 18th hole, he doffed his cap to acknowledge the growing cheers. He then calmly rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt. “It went just zany at that point,” Kessler said.
Alas, Hogan then shot a final-round 77 to finish 10th.
Three years later, at his last Colonial, the normally stoic Hogan got a big kick out of a comment then-Ohio State basketball coach Fred Taylor made about Kessler’s multi-part swing. Said Taylor: “Kaye, don’t ever take that swing out of town; you can’t get parts for it.“ “That just broke up Hogan,“ Kessler said.
Kessler’s other most memorable major was, not surprisingly, the 1986 Masters, where Nicklaus won his sixth green jacket -- and last PGA Tour event -- at age 46. To this day, Kessler has an autographed picture on the wall of his house of Nicklaus making his birdie putt on No. 16 in the final round.
“Jack did the same thing as Hogan -- shoot 30 on the back nine -- but his was on Sunday,” Kessler said. “It was reminiscent to me of Hogan. And he hadn’t done much of anything since 1980. “
Nicklaus was given extra motivation by Atlanta Journal Constitution golf writer Tom McCollister, who, in a story handicapping the Masters, called Nicklaus "done, washed up, through.” Nicklaus took great pleasure in proving McCollister wrong.
Kessler jokes about putting out of business three newspapers he worked for, along with two golf tournaments (the International and an LPGA event in Columbus). But, unlike those, he’s still going strong at age 84, and takes pride in calling several irascible sports figures his friends, including Bob Knight, George Steinbrenner, Tom Weiskopf and the late Woody Hayes.
And Kessler still gets a letter every Christmas from Jack and Barbara Nicklaus.
Kaye Kessler has spent so many Father’s Days at the U.S. Open that keeping track takes some doing. If it’s the second week of April, you can always find him at the Masters. He’s made plenty of July trips to Great Britain for the British Open. And he’s spent many an August day at the PGA Championship.
In short, while major championships are an interesting spectator sport for casual golf fans, they’re a way of life for Kessler, the Littleton-based journalist who has chronicled the sport since the 1940s.
Kessler is skipping the U.S. Open this week, but that’s certainly been the exception rather than the rule during his adult life. After going to Augusta National again this spring, Kessler has covered 45 Masters, 38 U.S. Opens, 12 British Opens and 20
Majors are a Way of Life for Kessler
Colorado journalist has covered 115 men’s Grand Slam events
By Gary Baines
Colorado Golf Journal, Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Kaye Kessler (right) has written about Jack Nicklaus
since the early 1950s
