That was the year that was. In 1959, the world mourned the death of Buddy Holly. Young lassies were wowed by the launch of the Barbie doll. And office workers gasped in head-scratching amazement at the first Xerox copier.
In the golfing bubble, meanwhile, Arnold Palmer was well on his way to becoming the King. It was a gentleman called Art Wall, however, who ascended the throne of Augusta National.
As the 83rd edition of the annual scramble for golf’s most sought after blazer builds to a conclusion today, events of 60 years ago still provide a fascinating flashback.
With the kind of name that sounded more like a section from a Tony Hart programme when enthusiastic young ‘uns would submit their own paintings, Wall captured the 1959 Masters with a rousing late charge which was so thunderous, he just about left hoof marks on those manicured fairways. He did make his major mark, of course, at a time when the Masters was moving into an era of blockbusting magnificence.
In a nine year stretch between 1958 and 1966, the green jacket was predominantly adorned by just three men. But what a trio it was.
Palmer won four times, Jack Nicklaus, who made his debut in ’59, claimed three wins and Gary Player took the prize in 1961.
This was a trinity that no marketing department could contrive, rather it was one of those of-its-time creations that occasionally happen when skill and personality converge in perfect harmony.
On the shimmering roll of honour from that era, some observers could just about be forgiven for thinking that an engraver had made a mistake by etching Wall’s name into the board.
He may have been largely unheralded but there was no mistaking his qualities. Wall, a Pennsylvanian boy like Palmer, had been a college golf stand out and would go on to become a multiple PGA Tour winner and a three-time Ryder Cup campaigner.
His Masters moment, however, was quite the bolt from the blue. “I caught lightning in a bottle that week,” he once said.
As oor ain Paul Lawrie will infuriatingly testify, though, major victories do not always get the acknowledgement they deserve.
As for Wall? Well, his blistering burst for the line, which featured five birdies over the last six holes, was, in many ways, overshadowed by defending champion Palmer’s triple-bogey six on the 12th which derailed his tilt. “If I had made a par at 12, I would probably have won the tournament by six strokes,” lamented Palmer.
In this fickle game, of course, what-ifs, maybes and might-have-beens are par for the course. In later years Player would state that Wall’s victory was “the best win that nobody knows anything about.”
He certainly did his best to make them sit up and take notice as he took route 66 to victory and pipped Cary Middlecoff to the title by a stroke.
“Art Wall’s finish of birdie, birdie, birdie, par, birdie, birdie has no parallel in a major American tournament and probably in any major tournament,” wrote the American golf writing doyen, Herbert Warren Wind, in the aftermath of Wall’s roaring surge which just about left the smell of burning rubber hanging in the Augusta air.
Wall would win four times during a 1959 season that culminated in him topping the PGA Tour’s money list and earning the PGA Player of the Year Award. Over the course of his career, he won 14 tour titles, the last of which arrived in 1975 at the sprightly age of 51. He also had a fairly astonishing haul of holes-in-one, a number which exceeded 40.
In the 1959 Masters, Art Wall was very much the ace in the pack.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here