Jack Fleck's legacy, the 1955 U.S. Open upset, lives on

Zach Johnson was making that climb Sunday in San Francisco after finishing a practice round in preparation for Thursday's first round of the U.S. Open.

As he walked, he was responding to a reporter's text message about Jack Fleck. Johnson turned a corner, looked up and there he was. Fleck, in the flesh.

"I'm texting about him and he's standing there," Johnson said. "A weird, bizarre moment."

Fifty-seven years ago, on the same 18th green Johnson had just left, Fleck stood over a 7-foot birdie putt in the final round of the 1955 U.S. Open. Make it and the Iowa native and Davenport club pro would tie Ben Hogan and force an 18-hole playoff the next day. Miss it, and Hogan would become the only man with five U.S. Opens.

He made it. Then Fleck, dubbed a "darkhorse of the darkest hue" by one reporter, pulled off an upset for the ages when he beat Hogan, his idol and the best player of his era, in the playoff.

Flip the calendar ahead 52 years. Johnson, another Iowa native, outdueled the greatest player of his era, Tiger Woods, to win the 2007 Masters.

"If you want to compare, I was probably a greater unknown," said Fleck, who now lives in Fort Smith, Ark.

Two Iowans. Two late bloomers. Two major champions. As Johnson played Olympic Club in preparation for his ninth U.S. Open appearance, Fleck's legacy crossed his mind "a time or two. His name, face and story are all around the clubhouse. It's pretty cool. I feel a connection, sure. The only Iowa boys to win a major."

Fleck will be at The Olympic Club, as guest of the United States Golf Association, all week. At 90, he is the oldest living U.S. Open champion.

"I'm 90," Fleck said. "But I wish I was 50."

***

Jack Fleck still has the Ben Hogan clubs he used to beat Ben Hogan in 1955.

"Some guy called me a year ago and said, 'Hey, you got that set of clubs you won the Open with? I'll give you $45,000,' " Fleck recalled. "I hesitated a minute and said, 'I might as well give them to you.' (Meaning they were worth far more.) He hung up."

You can't put a price on history. Especially when your feat is considered one of the greatest golfing upsets of all time. The debate rages, between amateur Francis Ouimet's victory over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the 1913 U.S. Open, and Fleck over Hogan in 1955.

Fleck, a child of the Depression, was born in Bettendorf. He was introduced to golf as a caddy at the Davenport Country Club. When that club hosted the 1936 Western Open, one of the biggest events of that era, Vic Siegel remembers that he and Fleck were hired.

"Fleck was a forecaddie, and I worked in the clubhouse," recalls Siegel, now 91, an outstanding basketball player at Iowa in the early 1940s. "I waited on Lawson Little, Tommy Armour, Horton Smith, all the greats of the day.

"I think that's where Jack really got the golf bug, seeing those guys playing."

Fleck was 17 when he graduated from Davenport High School in 1939 and immediately turned pro. He was hired by Joe Brown at the Des Moines Golf & Country Club and worked there until joining the Navy.

After World War II, Fleck returned to his job in Des Moines but was out of work after the clubhouse burned down in 1946.

Fleck circled back to Davenport and landed a job as the pro at the city's Credit Island and Duck Creek courses, a job he still held when he won in 1955. Fleck would play the winter pro tour from December to March, with little success, before returning to open his two courses in the spring.

In 1955, Fleck decided to try the PGA Tour full time and gave himself two years to prove he belonged. Heading into the U.S. Open, his best finish that season had been a 10th at the Baton Rouge Open.

"I was a 'Joe Nobody,' " Fleck said. "I wasn't in the news every day, winning a lot of tournaments."

Fleck had to make it through sectional qualifying in Chicago, shooting 73-73 to get in the U.S. Open field. He then made the 1,960-mile drive from Davenport to San Francisco — in 49 hours.

Early in the 1955 season, Fleck came across a set of clubs produced by Hogan's new equipment company. He wrote Hogan, asking for a set. Hogan, to the shock of many, obliged with irons, a 3-wood and a 4-wood. Fleck became the only touring pro, other than Hogan, to use his clubs.

Hogan even delivered the last two clubs in the set, a sand wedge and a wedge, to Fleck at the Olympic Club.

Fleck was making his third Open appearance. He missed the cut in 1950 at Merion, where Hogan had come back from a near-fatal automobile accident the year before to win his second U.S. Open crown. Fleck also tied for 53rd at Oakmont in 1953, when Hogan won for a fourth time.

At Olympic, Fleck got in plenty of practice — up to 44 holes a day — in preparation for the start of play.

"People would say, 'You're playing too much, don't do that,' " Fleck said. "But I loved the course. You had to drive it to a spot. Miss it a little bit and you were in trouble. You were lucky to find your ball."

Fleck shot 76 the first round, but jumped from a tie for 21st into a tie for third with a second-round 69. Back then, the tournament ended with 36 holes on Saturday. Fleck faded with a third-round 75, but rallied with a 67 to get in the playoff.

Televised golf was in its infancy then, and leaders weren't prepared for the final round. Fleck had just bogeyed the 14th hole when Hogan finished, falling two shots back. Seven-time major champion Gene Sarazen, doing TV commentary, congratulated Hogan on the air for his fifth Open title, adding that "no one out there can catch him."

A gallery estimated at 25 people saw Fleck bogey the 14th. But he birdied the par-3 15th to get within a shot of Hogan's score. The gallery grew with each step as he parred the 16th and 17th. Needing a birdie at 18 to tie, Fleck hit a 3-wood off the tee into the first cut of rough but caught a good lie. He hit a 7-iron second shot to 7 feet and made the downhill, right-to-left putt.

No one gave Fleck a chance the next day, but he carried a one-shot lead to the 18th hole and won by three when Hogan made a double bogey to shoot 72 to Fleck's 69. Of the three sub-par rounds shot the entire championship, Fleck carded three of them.

"Hogan had been my idol since my caddy days," Fleck said. "I always thought a lot of him. He was so great to me. After that, most of the other pros would say, 'He must hate your guts.' I said, 'No, you've got that all wrong.' He was a great guy."

Back in Davenport, Siegel listened to the playoff on the radio.

"I was thinking how impossible this was," Siegel said.

Fleck returned home to a hero's welcome and a parade and was presented a new Cadillac.

He received a first-place check of $6,000 for his U.S. Open triumph, but won just twice more on the PGA Tour.

"If he just could have putted," Siegel said. "He was not a good putter, but he had every shot in the bag."

Fleck, who still owns the Bulls Eye putter he used that week at Olympic in 1955, wouldn't disagree.

"If I had putted half as well as the other guys on tour, I would have won 40 or 50 times," Fleck said. "I'd have been a miserable cuss, because I would have won so many tournaments."

That week at the Olympic Club was an exception to Fleck's career rule.

"I putted pretty good for me that week," Fleck said. "I made some 7-, 8- and 10-footers. Those were long putts for me. Goodness sakes."

***

Johnson and Fleck visited for several minutes after their impromptu meeting Sunday.

"We talked about the course, and how it had changed," Johnson said. "It's longer now. I heard they had cut down a lot of trees, but he said he didn't see much difference. We've met probably half-a-dozen times over the years."

Johnson is one of four native Iowans to win on the PGA Tour, joining Fleck, Jack Rule and Steve Spray. Johnson has won eight times. The other three won a combined six times.

"Zach," Fleck said, "he's doing great."

Johnson would like to make some noise in a U.S. Open for the first time in his career. His best showing, a tie for 30th, came last year at Congressional.

Fleck was the trailblazer, Iowa's first major champion. Johnson continued the legacy.

"I know there's a lot of proud Iowans that look up to Jack Fleck," Johnson said. "I'm one of them."