Thread by @SHistorians

What if I told you a Hall of Famer won 4 majors using equipment that was deemed illegal on two different occasions over a period of five years???

It happened and this story is insane!!!

Tom Watson won 4 majors with illegal equipment!

The story follows in this thread…

The story starts in 1977 which was a hallmark year for Tom Watson.

In 1977 Tom Watson claimed both the 1977 Masters & the 1977 Open Championship beating Jack Nicklaus both times by two strokes. The latter major was nicknamed “The Duel In the Sun.”

But 1977 fell under a cloud

Tom Watson had completed one of the greatest year’s in golf history, but at the end of 1977 it was discovered that Tom Watson had played the entire golf year with clubs that were deemed to be illegal.

@TheMasters
@TheOpen

As it turned out Tom Watson, Gary Player and Raymond Floyd all used Ram Golf Clubs and after the discovery that Tom Watson may have been aided by illegal grooves both Player and Floyd discovered that they too had played the season with Ram’s illegal irons.

@PGATOUR

The discovery was made at the last major of the year, the 1977 PGA Championship at Pebble Beach (yes Pebble Beach once hosted the PGA Championship).

However, both the Masters & the R&A allowed the major championship victories to stand.

End of story…OR WAS IT???

As bad luck would have it, the controversy was not over & Watson use of illegal equipment would rear its ugly ahead again.

Once again Watson would win 2 majors in the same year, the 1982 US Open & the Open!

But this time it was his golf ball!

@usopengolf
@PebbleBeachGolf

In 1982 Ram’s Pro Tour B Golf Ball - the same ball captured on film in Tom Watson’s miracle chip in on the 17th was illegal!

Ram’s golf ball was pulled from tournaments & deemed to be under the legal size of a golf ball.

Oddly enough Ram used the Patriots excuse to defend it.

Tom Watson had 2 years of his career where he won multiple major championships & at the end of both of those years he was deemed to have played equipment that was illegal.

He did so without his knowledge & ultimately the ruling bodies stood by the results & held him faultless

Ram’s head of marketing, Randy Diehl for the record guaranteed that Tom Watson’s ball was legal in his major victories.

He chalked it up to temperature and/or a coat of paint missing.

It should also be mentioned that both the irons and the golf balls that were deemed non-conforming were made by Ram Golf.

Equipment testing wasn’t quite what we have today.

The question has been asked- Is Watson at fault? The answer is a definable no. He was the victim in this story. He had zero idea.

It also should be noted that illegal or non-conforming does not mean that they were an advantage over the field. They merely did not fit the specification of the USGA.

Which is also why the majors kept the results