Resilient and talented, Hubert Green stood tall in an era of giants. Playing against the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Treviño, Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, Johnny Miller and Seve Ballesteros, Green won two majors and 17 other tournaments on the American Tour, the PGA Tour. In the three Ryder Cups he played, he was undefeated in singles.
With a distinctive swing, which was characterized by low hands and a fast tempo, Green was one of the best chipping players-value the word-in history. Although he often wore green pants (unusual at the time), he was known more for his jokes. Once, when his playing partner Lanny Wadkins complained about his position in rough high in the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Green said dryly, “I wasn’t that high: I could still see your knees.”
But Green’s humor couldn’t hide a competitive will that his coach at Florida State University, Don Veller, described as the most intense he had ever seen in an athlete. Hubert was at his best in the final round of the 1977 U.S. Open at South ern Hills. Green was leading the tournament by one stroke when authorities stopped him on his way to the 15th tee on the report of an anonymous call that three men were going to shoot him as he reached the 15th green. Given the choice between suspending play that day and returning without spectators the next day, or continuing to play, Green opted to continue.
“I was a little more nervous playing the 15th hole because that’s where they were going to kill me,” Green said. “I walked a long way to the green and, when in position to putt, I suddenly had the feeling I was going to get shot at any moment. As soon as I hit the putt, I knew I had come up short. I also knew I hadn’t heard any shots. I said out loud “Chicken!”, and I didn’t mean my short putt.” Green made par and then another birdie, which allowed him the luxury of scoring a bogey on the last and still claiming the victory.
The following year, in the Masters, he arrived at the last hole one stroke ahead of Gary Player and left his approach to one meter from the flag. As he was about to hit the putt that would take him to a playoff, he was interrupted by the voice of a radio announcer. He missed the putt and lost his chance to tie. Green refused to blame the announcer. “Only an amateur would have missed because of the interruption,” he said, “or tried to excuse himself for it.”
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 28, 1946, Green grew up playing at the golf club named after his hometown, where his parents were members. Nimble and ambitious, the skillful Green’s game was shaped to a high degree of accuracy when it came to getting the ball in the hole. “I just try to move an object from one place to another,” he once said with his usual sense of humor.
Voted PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1971, the season in which he scored his first victory on that circuit, at the Houston Champions International, Green won two tournaments in 1973 and four the following year. In 1976, he won three more, with the curiosity that all of them were back-to-back. Victories came less frequently in the 1980s, but Green’s last hurrah was a major, the 1985 PGA Championship at Cherry Hills. Battling Treviño in the final group, Green handled the short game well to make pars and win by two strokes. The star said it was the greatest victory of his career.
As a senior player, Green won four Champions Tour tournaments between 1998 and 2002. In 2003 he was diagnosed with mouth cancer, which he overcame after a chemo and radiotherapy treatment. He is still enrolled in the U.S. senior circuit, although last year he played only one tournament, in which he passed the cut.
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