Club History

Jeremy Ranch hosted the Senior PGA Tour Event, The Shootout at Jeremy Ranch from 1982 - 1992. 
Ever since the PGA Senior Tour blew into Utah in 1982 with the inception of the Shootout at Jeremy Ranch, the annual tournament has provided many thrills and glimpses of golf's greatest players for local golf fans. The tournament has gone through as many changes as Elizabeth Taylor has gone through husbands. After the "Shootout," it became the Showdown Classic, the US WEST Showdown Classic, the Franklin Quest Showdown, the Franklin Quest Championship, the Utah Showdown Presented by Smith's and finally the Novell Utah Showdown. In the early years, the crowds were huge, even on pro-am days. It was a novelty back then, having all these legends of golf in Utah, and each day tournament officials would provide daily attendance figures, upwards of 10,000 per day. While the numbers were probably inflated, there were definitely a lot of fans who came out to see the tournament, especially those years when players from the regular tour joined the seniors in a best-ball tournament from 1983 to 1986. It was originally a 72-hole seniors-only event, then went to a senior/junior event from 1983-86, then 54-hole seniors-only event in 1987. 

Past winners include: 
1982 - Billy Casper 
1983 - Bob Goalby/Mike Reid
1984 - Don January/Mike Sullivan
1985 - Miller Barber/Ben Crenshaw
1986 - Bobby Nichols/Curt Byrum
1987 - Miller Barber
1988 - Miller Barber
1989 - Tom Shaw
1990 - Rives McBee
1991 - Dale Douglass

Tournament Records: 
54 holes _ Miller Barber in 1988 (70-67-70-207) 
36 holes _ Ben Smith in 1988 (66-67-133)
18 holes _ Bobby Nichols in 1987 (65 on second round) and Bill Casper in 1982 (65 in fourth round). 

ARNIE:
A big reason for the Senior Tour coming to Utah in the first place was Arnold Palmer. Arnie was the premier attraction of the fledgling Senior Tour, and the fact that he had a brand-new course in Utah made it a natural for a Senior tournament. Palmer was the big attraction that initial year and, at age 51, wasn't too many years removed from his glory days.  Unfortunately, Palmer never did have much success in the Senior event in Utah in four tries in the '80s, however, one thing never changed about Palmer, whether he was dealing with fans or media, Arnie always displayed class. Pure class! Palmer died at age 87. In Utah, his legacy is based at Jeremy Ranch Golf and Country Club, the course he designed with Ed Seay near Park City. Not coincidentally, Jeremy Ranch became one of the first venues to stage an event on what originally was called the Senior PGA Tour. That circuit came into existence shortly after Palmer's 50th birthday, and having a him closely tied to the course is major reason Utah became part of an 11-tournament schedule in 1982.

Mr. X
Here are a few excerpt from local newspapers about the tournament: During the 80s, if anyone owned Jeremy Ranch it was Miller Barber, the venerable Mr. X. Barber finished second in the initial tournament behind Billy Casper, second in 1984 while teamed with Gil Morgan, then won it in 1985 with Ben Crenshaw in a sudden-death playoff. Then in 1987, when the tournament returned to an individual event, Barber won again, edging Bruce Crampton by a shot. The following year, the pudgy man with a swing one writer described as "a roto-rooter impression" came back to defeat three golfers by two shots. That made three firsts and two seconds over a six-year period. In '87 and '88 the scene in the press tent was almost identical. Before he could go into the interview room, the man who was a dead ringer for Mr. Bartles from those old Bartles and Jaymes commercials stopped to make a phone call to his home in Sherman, Texas. In his squeaky voice, Barber told his wife and sons all about his victory, sounding as excited as a kid on Christmas morning, before heading into the interview room.

Heavy Hitters
Greg Norman . . . Curtis Strange . . . Ben Crenshaw . . . Fred Couples . . . Mark O'Meara. Those were just a few of the big-name golfers who local fans were able to see when the tournament was a best-ball event, pairing golfers from the Senior Tour with golfers from the PGA Tour. In those days, fans got a double dose of big-name golfers from each tour. It was a great concept but died after the 1986 tournament, when Dr. Gerald Bagley and Lanny Nielsen were no longer involved.

Slammin' Sam
The Senior Tour came 20 years too late for Sam Snead, one of the greatest golfers ever to play the game. Snead was on hand for the first "Shootout," where he was a big attraction and a pretty good player for a 70-year-old.  Snead played in that '82 tournament and fared admirably, finishing in 13th place, despite a third-round 78. My most vivid memory of Snead, however, was watching him hold court in the locker room during a final-round rain delay, regaling his senior buddies with some of the dirtiest jokes I've ever heard.

1981

In the fall of 1981, Jeremy Ranch Golf Club, the only Arnold Palmer / Ed Seay designed golf course in Utah opens to much acclaim.

1982

Winner: Billy Casper 

Arnie shot an opening-round 79 on the very course that he had helped design.

For a decade starting in 1982, the best players in history to strike a golf ball came to play in the Shoot Out at Jeremy Ranch. Players like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Ben Crenshaw and Dave Stockton came to experience mountain golf at its finest! 

The seventh stop on an 11-stop Senior Tour that awarded $1,372,000 in official prize money.

In June 1982 the 22,000 square foot glazed sentinel Jeremy Ranch Clubhouse was designed by a prominent Utah architectural firm. Once complete, the golfers' clubhouse was one of the most imposing features of the entire Jeremy Ranch area. Its most striking feature was the exterior glass walls which exposed the massive wooden structural beams and pillars. The glass walls facilitated a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape from almost every room in the building.

1983

Winners: Bob Goalby and Mike Reid 

The Jeremy Ranch Golf Course, site of a 1983 PGA Seniors tournament, will be playing longer and tougher this year, host pro Lanny Nielsen said Thursday. The $325,000 tournament Aug. 25-28 will also be the first on the senior circuit to use a best-ball format. Each team will include one player from the senior tour and a regular PGA player. Nielsen said the par-72 course will be lengthened by 150 yards, to 7,097 yards, but using new tee boxes on five of the holes. He said fairway bunkers have been added to the ninth, 13th and 14th holes to place more demand on accurate drives. In last year's 'Jeremy Ranch Shootout,' two-time former U.S. Open champion Billy Casper of Springville, Utah, fired a course record 65 in the final round to win the tournament with a 9-under 279. Casper will be back this year, teamed with Jim Nelford of Pleasant Grove, Utah. Nelford ranks 30th on this year's PGA money winning list with more than $95,000 in official earnings. Also coming back to Jeremy Ranch are Gene Littler, Don January and Miller Barber, who finished second, third and fourth to Casper last year. Barber has said he will team with Lee Trevino in this year's best-ball tournament. January and Littler have yet to select their partners. The first-place team will share $50,000 in winnings. Some of the other teams that have already entered the 1983 Jeremy Shootout were: Tommy Bolt-Tom Weiskopf, Sam Snead-J.C. Snead, Bob Rosburg-Curtis Strange, and Charlie Sifford-Jim Dent. Nielsen said he hopes the longer course and play by PGA regulars will help qualify the layout for a PGA Tour event. He said an application has been sent to the PGA seeking a tournament in 1988 or 1989.

THE CLOUDS AND THE CROWDS 
The biggest crowd I've ever seen at a golf event in Utah was in 1983 when Bob Goalby and Mike Reid teamed to defeat Billy Casper and Jim Nelford by one stroke. Reid was on fire that day, carrying Goalby on his shoulders and past the fading Casper-Nelford team, which had led most of the tournament. As Goalby and Reid played the final hole, I remember looking over at the hillside alongside No. 18 and seeing it packed with fans. And just above them, I noticed one of the biggest, blackest clouds I've ever seen. Reid and Goalby finished with a par and right behind them came Casper and Nelford, needing a birdie to tie. Suddenly the wind started howling, nearly blowing off Casper's hat as he stood in a bunker at 18. He needed to hole his shot to tie Goalby-Reid and I'll be darned if his shot didn't roll within two inches of the cup before stopping. It's a good thing, too, because they never could have held a playoff. Within minutes after Casper tapped in, the black cloud opened up and drenched thousands of fans as they scrambled to get off the course.

1984

Winners: Don January and Mike Sullivan

Burt Weaver used a five-iron to score a hole-in-one on the par-3 eighth hole Sunday to win a new car during the final round of the $450,000 Shootout at Jeremy Ranch. Weaver's ace on the 196-yard hole won him an Oldsmobile Cutlass as the prize for the first hole-in-one of the team best-ball tournament.

Don January says members of the PGA Seniors Tour will try to change the date of the $450,000 Shootout at the Jeremy Ranch to end its conflict with the World Series of Golf. 'I think this tournament should not be against the World Series, it's too good a format,' January said after he teamed with Mike Sullivan to win the Shootout title Sunday. Everybody has too much fun to have it placed up against the World Series of Golf. And, as far as the seniors are concerned, we're going to try to change that next year,' said January. He and Sullivan finished the 72-hole team tournament at 38-under-par 250. They had best-ball rounds of 62, 63, 61 and 64 on the Jeremy Ranch Course in the mountains east of Salt Lake City to share the $60,000 first prize. 'I'm proud to have Mike as my partner,' January said. But he added, 'When you invite a player from the other Tour, you really don't want to invite him because you want him to win and go to the World Series. This is kind of like a consolation to it or something and I think that's very wrong.' Sullivan's share of the $60,000 was his richest payday of the year and he added, 'As far as this being a consolation, it's a heck of a consolation. 'I know Tom Kite has said he would like to play here, and I'm sure Ben Crenshaw would. It would be nice if it was opposite an open PGA Tour date so that more people would have an opportunity to play here. 'And I know there's a lot of guys from our Tour that feel the same way,' added Sullivan, who came to northern Utah this weekend rather than Akron, Ohio, and the World Series of Golf. 'No offense to this tournament, but I would have liked to have been in the World Series just because that would have meant I would have won a PGA tournament during the past year,' Sullivan said. Donnie Hammond, who teamed with Al Besselink to finish tied for second, said the Shootout featuring a player from the PGA Senior circuit teamed with a touring pro give the younger players and chance to meet golf's legends. 'It was really a thrill for me,' Hammond said. 'I've played with (Jack) Nicklaus before and now I've played with (Arnold) Palmer.' Besselink and Hammond played with Palmer and Ray Floyd in the final round. They tied for second with the team of Miller Barber and Gil Morgan with 254s. Palmer and Floyd tied for seventh with Mark O'Meara and George Bayer at 257, 31-under.

A reporter wrote, "Wandering out to the 18th green one day to watch some groups finish, I saw a golfer's second shot on Jeremy's toughest hole bounce onto the green. The ball rolled and rolled, right into the cup for an eagle-2. Wow, I thought. I've never seen a shot holed out from so far away, maybe a couple of hundred yards away. Who was that golfer? Turned out to be Bob Rosburg's partner, Curtis Strange, who would become one of the top golfers in the world a just few years later."

1985

Winners: Miller Barber and Ben Crenshaw

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback John Brodie has decided to quit as NBC television and golf announcer to take up a career as a professional golfer.   He will become eligible for the PGA Senior tour when he turns 50 on Aug. 14. “I’ve had 12 great years with NBC,” Brodie said. “When they learned I was thinking of trying the pro tour, we sat down and discussed it. NBC said, ‘We can’t pay a guy $300,000 to $500,000 a year to be part time.’ I said, ‘That’s why I want to discuss it.’ ” Brodie, who spent the majority of his NBC time announcing football before switching to golf, decided he “wanted to play golf--full time.” Brodie said that he learned then that one can’t do well in golf as a part-timer. “When you become 50 and love to play golf, then that’s the thing to do,” he said. Brodie will play in his first tour event in late August in the Shootout at Jeremy Ranch in Salt Lake City. He was supposed to be the partner of Peter Jacobsen, but Jacobsen had to withdraw. His partner will be announced later this week.

1986

Winners: Bobby Nichols and Curt Byrum

Tom Barber wanted to emulate his father, Jerry, and win the $45,000 Toyota Southern California PGA championship at age 43. But another Barber, Dave, wouldn’t let him. Tom will join his father, now 70, in the Jeremy Ranch senior best-ball partners’ tournament next month in Utah. “What a thrill that will be for me,” Tom said. “I’ve never played with my dad in a big tournament like that, and I’ll be around all those old fellows who used to baby-sit me when Dad was playing the tour.”

1987

Winner: Miller Barber

Miller Barber, despite a three-hole slump, beat Australian Bruce Crampton by one stroke and won the $300,000 PGA Senior Showdown at Jeremy Ranch, Utah.
Barber, who once held a five-stroke lead over Crampton, shot an even-par 72 to finish the 54-hole event at 210 and earn $45,000. The money put Barber less than $8,000 short of $3 million in combined PGA and PGA Senior career earnings.

There was that tantrum out on No. 15 in the final round when not once, but twice Miller Barber couldn't get out of the fairway trap cleanly and flung his club into sand. Then after recovering and hanging on to win by one, the Mr. Bartles look-alike stopped in the press tent before his interview and called home to Texas to talk to his wife and young son about his victory while everybody in the press tent listened.

1988

Winner: Miller Barber

Johnny Miller, Bob Hope and 140 pro-am golfers will whoop it up again June 27 at the fifth annual Great American Indian Shootout on the Jeremy Ranch golf course near Park City. This will be Hope's third visit to the fund-raising tournament for American Indian Services at Brigham Young University. "The Great American Indian Shootout seems to be getting stronger and better every year," said Dick Cheney, who with Paul Ream is one of the major promoters of the event. "I am amazed at the positive response I am getting from brokers and grocers and businessmen to the tournament. "Slots for the 28 teams are nearly sold out. he said. Johnny Miller will conduct a special mini-golf clinic near the club-house at 9 a.m. before the shotgun tournament begins. Bob Hope will join one of the pro-am teams and entertain during the steak fry in the evening.The public is welcome to be a part of the gallery for the one-day event.

World-famous entertainer Bob Hope jokes with Raymond Tracey, left, and Tom Lovell during a break in the action at the Great American Indian Shootout Monday at the Jeremy Ranch Golf Course. Hope joined PGA golfers Johnny Miller, Mike Reid and Rod Curl and top professionals and amateurs from around the state in helping to raise approximately $150,000 for American Indian Services at BYU. The team of pro Ken Clark and amateurs Neil Stevens, Ron King and Buzzi Basini won the scramble event with a score of 19-under 53. Second place went to the team of Arnold Hawkins, Bill Marcroft, Karl Tucker, John Johnson and Hot Rod Hundley with a score of 55. More than 150 golfers took part in the annual fund-raiser.

This was the poorest field the Showdown ever produced, so it seemed appropriate that an unknown named Smith, Ben Smith, led right from the opening gun. But he bogeyed five of the last 10 holes on Sunday to lose his large lead. The one I remember most was a 14-incher he missed at No. 14. After blowing that short putt, Smith reeled backward like he'd been shot. Although he still led at that point, he never recovered and eventually lost by two.

1989

Winner: Tom Shaw

Events begin with Gala benefit on Saturday. Special event will be held on Tuesday. A Pro-Am will be held Wednesday and Thursday. US WEST Showdown Classic will be Friday through Sunday (Aug. 4-6).
Course: Par - 36-36 - 72. Yardage - 3,466 front, 3,637 back - 7,103 total.
Purse: $350,000 . .  1st - $52,500, 2nd - $30,000, 3rd - $24,000.
Format: 72 Senior PGA Tour players will play 54-hole (three rounds) medal play.
Other Events:
Pro-Amateur . .  The US WEST Showdown Classic Pro-Am is scheduled Wednesday and Thursday.
Shoot-Out . .  The Merrill Lynch Shoot-Out, a nine-hole tournament, is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 1) afternoon. Ten Senior PGA Tour players will compete for $10,200. One player will be eliminated each hole leaving two players for the winner-take-all final hole.
Skins Game . .  The US WEST Showdown Classic Skins Game will feature Orville Moody, Miller Barber, Bobby Nichols and Harold Henning, on the back nine of Jeremy for a $20,000 event starting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 1).
Tickets: For special events day on Tuesday (Aug. 1) a $10 tickets will allow entry to the Skins Game (9 a.m.), Shoot-Out (2:30 p.m.) and golf clinic by Bobby Brue. Daily passes Wednesday through Sunday will be $10 advance and $12 at the gate. Weekly pass Wednesday through Sunday will be $35 in advance and $45 at the gate. Tickets are at Jeremy Ranch, all Smith-Tix locations, all McDonald's locations, all golfing shops, all Top Stop locations, the Ronald McDonald House, 935 E. South Temple (363-4663) or the Cottonwood/Alta View Health Care Foundation, 5770 S. 300 East (269-2085. And for the Saturday Benefit Gala at the Park City Olympic Hotel. All proceeds to go the the Ronald McDonald House and the Cottonwood/Alta View Health Care Foundation. Cost if $50 a person or $400 for a table for eight.

1990

Winner: Rives McBee

THE SHOWDOWN CLASSIC that will be played this week at the Jeremy Ranch Golf Course is the 29th stop on the 1990 Senior Tour calendar that includes 42 official tournaments and $18 million in official prize money.
Showdown alone offers a $350,000 purse.
With its nine years of uninterrupted play, Jeremy's event is exceeded in tradition by only eight other Senior Tour stops. 

Rives McBee withstood a late challenge from two other senior pros, firing a final-round 68 to win the Seniors Showdown event at Jeremy Ranch by one stroke. McBee’s 54-hole total of 14-under-par 202 was a tournament record. Lee Trevino (68) and Don Bies (71) shared second at 203.

Lee Trevino, a Senior Tour rookie, comes into the tournament with six victories already to his credit. Trevino thus continues a Senior Tour tradition of having players who grab the Tour and dominate it all season long.

1991

Winner: Dale Douglass

Tight Around the Collar

After leading the 1991 tournament since his opening-round 65 on Friday, all Charles Cody had to do to win Sunday afternoon was stay awake. He led by three shots with two holes left and a par-par finish or even a bogey-bogey finish would be good enough to win. However, the former Masters champion suddenly transformed into a Sunday afternoon hacker. He scuffed a shot a few feet on 17 and ended up making double bogey. Then at No. 18, he hit a few more bad shots and topped it off with a three-putt for a triple-bogey. That handed a victory to Dale Douglass, who finished par-par and made up five shots in two holes.


 

1992

Jeremy Ranch Golf Club becomes Jeremy Ranch Golf &Country Club, a private Equity Club.