Goliath David

DAVID GRAHAM wasn't sure how he was going to play when he arrived at Merion for the 1981 U.S. Open. He had taken the 3 weeks before that off, citing fatigue. He had won the Phoenix Open early that season, his sixth PGA Tour victory of a career that would include 38 worldwide wins.

Yet in 11 previous Opens he had only finished higher than 18th once, a seventh (five shots behind Hale Irwin) 2 years earlier at Inverness. And he had missed the cut five times, including the one a decade earlier at Merion.

"Really?" the 67-year-old Australian said recently. "I actually didn't know I played in ."

What happened 32 years ago, the last time the national championship was held on the course where Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino (in a playoff over Jack Nicklaus) had claimed titles, will always be remembered. Not only did Graham add his name to that illustrious list, but he did so by playing a near-pristine final round of golf.

Starting Sunday trailing by three strokes, he basically hit every fairway and every green to close with a 3-under-par 67 that gave him a 3-stroke win over George Burns and Bill Rogers, who would win the British Open a month later.

"I certainly didn't go to any tournament thinking, 'I'm going to win this,' " said Graham, who had beaten Ben Crenshaw to win the 1979 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills with a birdie on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff. "And certainly not at a major. I was never like that. I don't think anybody does, unless you're maybe Jack or Tiger . Even if I felt like that, I never told anybody about it.

"The thing about any U.S. Open is it neutralizes a lot of the players in terms of the big hitters. They don't have an advantage because of the narrow fairways. And average iron players don't really do well, because the greens are comparatively pretty small. If you look at certain players that have won the Open, like myself, they're nice drivers of the ball, very consistent iron players and occasionally have spurts of good putting. Clearly, it requires a different style than say, Augusta at the Masters. You have to be a little more patient. You can't just swing the golf club. So that was a course that definitely suited the way I played. It suited my eyesight. So I went in there with some confidence. But I didn't just show up thinking I was going to win."

He played the first two rounds with Lanny Wadkins, opening with a pair of 68s that left him one off the lead. He played the last 2 days with Burns, in the final group. A 70 on Saturday kept him alone in second but tripled his deficit. He barely missed the fairway to begin the last round. It would be the only time he did so. He still made birdie. He got a bird on two as well.

His lone bogey came at the long, par-4 fifth. Officially he hit 15 greens. The ball was on the fringe each time so he putted anyway. He did miss three birdie chances from within 10 feet. But he finally moved in front by converting from 4 feet at 14, and added another birdie from 8 feet on the next hole ("An amazing putt" with some serious right-to-left break). He only needed to par in from there.

Did we mention that he only used his driver on three holes (5, 6 and 18)?

Graham's 273 was one off the Open record that had been set by Nicklaus the previous June at Baltusrol. He became the first from his country to win the Open (and only Geoff Ogilvy, in 2006 at Winged Foot, has done it since). He was one of five players to break par, something that had never been done in the three other Merion Opens.

"It really helped getting paired with Lanny ," Graham said. "He was one of the players more than capable of contending. He drove the ball straight and was a good iron player. He went there to win. So I couldn't have asked for anything better. We both got pretty intense.

"I played some good practice rounds. I had a strategy and stuck to it, never tried to push the envelope, which if you do at an Open sometimes bites you. It's hard to be that analytical about it. You have to play the way your game suits the course. You can't play it any other way."

Graham, by the way, couldn't identify his third-round partner, either. "Really, I don't know," he apologized.

What remains indelible is playing the 18th hole, which of course Hogan and his 1-iron had elevated to posterity status in 1950.

"Awesome?" Graham exclaimed. "Are you kidding? Scared to death I was. You haven't ever figured out how your nerves are until you get to the top of your backswing on 18, one of the hardest par 4s in the world, trying to accomplish something you haven't accomplished before. What an adrenaline rush. Thank goodness I had one more fairway left in me. I remember pretty much all of it . . .

"I think it's nice that a lot of people have said what a great round that was. Hogan was quoted as saying that, which meant a lot to me. Bob Rosburg, who was ABC's walker, actually brought that to the forefront after I hit my second shot to 18. He basically said, 'That's the perfect round of golf.' I think there are a lot of really good rounds of golf. Some are played on Saturday. But they don't necessarily get recognized because they didn't win the tournament, or maybe the tournament wasn't a major.

"I had it going much better at Oakland Hills, but I didn't put the finish on it. On the last hole I was 9-under, which was unheard of, but I a 6 up and that kind of ruined it. Thank God I ended up winning. When I won the America Golf Classic , I played with Arnold Palmer the first two days. Bogeyed the first hole and went 66 holes without another one at Firestone . I won by four shots. That was some pretty strong golf. To do it on a Sunday at a U.S. Open, that gets all the accolades. I'm still talking about it after 30 years."

He did get 25 cases of champagne for the media.

"If the airline strike is on," he said at the time, "we might as well get drunk and fly home."

Graham, who is considered one of the true gentlemen to ever grace the sport, would have seven more top 10 finishes in majors over the next 10 years, including ties for sixth and eighth in the next two Opens. The closest he came to winning a third major was the 1985 British Open, where he was tied for the lead after three rounds before closing with a 75 to finish two behind Sandy Lyle. His last victory on the Champions Tour came in 1999. He isn't in the World Golf Hall of Fame, a slight that "insults" him and many of those he competed against. He won events on six continents, a distinction he shares with only Gary Player.

In June 2004, in the final round of the Bank of America Classic (in Concord, Mass.), Graham collapsed over a putt on the eighth green. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and forced to retire. These days, the former Dallas resident and his wife Maureen spend their summers in Montana and winters in Southern California.

"I'm doing as good as can be, is a good way to put it," he said. "I've still got a lot of issues but I can't complain. I'm still here. I've got some good doctors taking very good care of me. So all things considered, I'm OK."

He has only been back to Merion once, to help the club celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1996. He will return again this week in part to serve as co-chair, along with Trevino and Arnold Palmer for Tuesday night's Champions Dinner, an event that was last held in 2000 at Pebble Beach. Graham missed that one.

"I wish I would actually have done that," he said. "Something happened where I couldn't go. I forget what it was. But it won't happen again. It'll be an emotional deal for me. But we'll all have a good time. If Trevino's there we'll all be laughing.

"It's a special place. I think every young player has heard of Jones and Hogan. I think it's good that they'll walk on the 11th tee and see Bobby Jones' plaque . It's a good experience. I took a picture of it. You bet. If they don't appreciate it, that's their fault . . .

"They gave me a beautiful gold medal, just beautiful the presentation was something else, all the members lined up down the 18th fairway, the bagpiper band playing. Really cool. It's one of those things where you kind of say, 'I don't need to do that.' Then you say, 'Yeah, I should do that.' And when you go you realize, 'Boy, am I glad I did that.' The club was awesome. I was in high cotton, as they say in Texas."

But he also realizes that there likely will be no next time after this, even if Merion does get another Open at some point in the future.

"It's a bittersweet thing, to be sure," Graham said, the emotion in his voice clearly evident over the phone. "It's basically the last chapter in my life where I will get the focus . . . But of course it will be wonderful. Oh, it's going to be an honor. And a thrill, just to be part of that."

For one day, few ever did it any better.

THE DAILY NEWS COVERS THE OPEN: Check out PhillyDailyNews.com's U.S. Open page for our guide to the tournament at Merion.