Remembering the great Sandy Tatum

Sandy Tatum at Stanford | A Love Affair With Golf

Stanford legend, Frank (Sandy) Tatum passed away on June 23, 2017 at the age of 96.  Here's a tribute by Tom Watson shared by the USGA on Mr. Tatum's passing.

Talking with Tatum --- Hall-of-Famer going strong at 94

Read complete article about Hall-of-Famer Sandy Tatum on gostanford.com

View video interviews and Hall-of-Fame background

Talking With Tatum

Courtesy: Mark Soltau
Release: 07/17/2014

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STANFORD, Calif. - Frank “Sandy” Tatum has had a remarkable life and shows few signs of slowing down.

He earned an engineering degree from Stanford in 1942, was a Rhodes Scholar and received his BCL in engineering from Oxford in 1949, where he was the first American to play on the golf team, and graduated from Stanford Law School in 1950.

Last week, Tatum, a retired law partner with Cooley LLC, where he has worked for 64 years, celebrated his 94th birthday by playing golf. He still drives to his Palo Alto office daily to advise clients.

“I have a serious reservation to charging anybody anything for what I do,” he joked this week.

Tatum was a standout golfer at Stanford and qualifies as one of its oldest-living former student-athletes. He helped the school win back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1941 and 1942, winning the individual title in the latter. He calls it his “proudest accomplishment.”

“I played No. 3 on the team and loved it with a passion,” said Tatum, a member of the Stanford Athletics and Bay Area Sports halls of fame. “From somewhere, I got visited and I played better than I knew how. I can remember vividly having finished the final round and having won the event and finally getting to a telephone to call my father, who was my inspiration in so many ways. I barely was able to say, ‘Dad, I won.’ And neither of us could speak for a substantial period of time. To this day, I resonate about it.”

Tatum remained Stanford’s only NCAA individual golf champion until 1996, when Tiger Woods joined the club. This year, left-hander Cameron Wilson became the third member.

“It’s pretty hard for me to describe how it affects me,” said Tatum. “The history involves so many remarkable golfers, such as Lawson Little and several others. Then I was joined by Tiger Woods, and that gave it seriously effective impact. This delightful young guy (Wilson) who has real potential joined us, and that added another feature for me in a very important way.”

Tatum grew up in Los Angeles, and began playing golf at age six. He often caddied for his father, a solid 4-handicapper, at Bel Air Country Club.

“He’d take me out there on Sundays with his group and give me a couple balls and a couple sawed-off hickory shafted clubs and told me to stay out of people’s way and when I got tired to go sit in the car,” Tatum said. “I was in and out of that car maybe a dozen times before he finally came out after his game. I thought it was a swell way to spend a Sunday.”  See more --- Read complete article about Hall-of-Famer Sandy Tatum on gostanford.com

Sandy Tatum and Grant Spaeth inaugurated into NCGA Hall of Fame

Two of Stanford's all-time greats, Sandy Tatum and Grant Spaeth, were inaugurated into the Northern California Golf Association's Hall of Fame on Feb 6, 2011 as part of it's initial class of inductees which also included Ken Venturi and Jack Bariteau.  The NCGA announcement can be found here.  Sandy Tatum is also a member of the Stanford Hall of Fame.  A wide ranging video interview with Grant Spaeth can be found here.

The NCGA's press release included the following about Tatum and Spaeth:

Sandy Tatum

Frank "Sandy" Tatum

The rich golf legacy of Frank “Sandy” Tatum is crystalized by his now-famous defense of the punishing setup of Winged Foot for the 1974 U.S. Open. When he said, “Our objective is not to humiliate the best players in the world. It’s to identify them,” Tatum spoke with the passion, eloquence, clarity and vision of a man who regarded golf as more than just a sport. To him, it veered close to a spiritual experience, and he attached that kind of love to every golf endeavor, whether it was striking a 5-iron to a tightly-guarded green or serving as the president of the United States Golf Association from 1978 to 1980.

Tatum, raised in Los Angeles on the fairways of Wilshire and Bel Air country clubs, became a Stanford man, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Raised by a father who took the game seriously, Tatum could golf his ball. He was a member of Stanford’s back-to-back NCAA golf championships in 1941 and ’42, and during the latter year he also captured the individual title. For that, he is a member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. Sandy also was the first American to play golf for Oxford, where he was conditioned to understand that playing in bad weather was a fundamental part of the game.

From there, the longtime attorney dedicated his life to the betterment of of golf. Few men, with the possible exception of Bobby Jones and Bill Campbell, have done more for amateur golf than Tatum. His accomplishments ring like churchbells over the decades. From his service on the USGA executive committee during the 1970s, to his bringing his beloved Pebble Beach onto the U.S. Open rotation, to his collaboration with Tom Watson and Robert Trent Jones Jr. in the creation of Spanish Bay in 1987, and to his tireless push toward the restoration of Harding Park in San Francisco, Sandy has attacked each project with the energy of a teenager.

Today, at 90 years old, he remains one of golf’s most influential purists. His life, like that signature pause at the top of his swing, has been unforgettable. More than 36 years after his memorable words at Winged Foot,  we identify Frank “Sandy” Tatum as an inductee to the Northern California Golf Association Hall of Fame.

Grant Spaeth

Grant Spaeth

Grant Spaeth’s lifelong impact on golf actually is the reverse–the game impacted him and never let go.

From his NCAA team title at Stanford in 1953 to his eventful years from 1990 to ’92 as president of the United States Golf Association, Spaeth’s contribution to the game continues to this day. Simply, Spaeth was born  to serve the game. He was a graduate of Palo Alto High and the son of the Dean of the Stanford Law School. While his father was stationed in Montevideo, Uruguay, Spaeth was introduced to golf on a course across the street from his home. Later as a teenager, he caddied for the Stanford golf team, and it wasn’t too long before he and his Stanford teammates became national champions.

Spaeth graduated from the Harvard Law School and served in the U.S. Army followed by the Reserves. His law practice in Palo Alto was the foundation to years of public service. Spaeth was the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1978 to ’80 and also served as a Palo Alto city councilman. Then came years of work on various USGA committees, leading to his USGA presidency and a list of accomplishments to remember. He may have been the best reach-out-to-people person who ever filled the USGA president’s chair. Spaeth was instrumental in bringing the British Open back to Carnoustie, Scotland. He founded the U.S. Men’s Mid-Amateur and Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships. He created the USGA’s regional affairs departments.

Through it all, Spaeth’s affection for the game remained rich. On Sunday mornings before the final round of the Masters, he often walked Augusta National’s back nine alone, savoring the memories and the promise of what was ahead. Closer to home, he has entertained TV viewers on “Hooked on Golf”  with his articulate, entertaining and informative essays on the game and its rules. “I want more people exposed to the game,” he said recently. “Those who take to it will be lucky and should be thankful.” The Northern California Golf Association is proud and honored to induct Grant Spaeth to its Hall of Fame.

Sandy Tatum: "Trip to South Bend ‘mystical’ for 1942 champion"

As Stanford returns to South Bend recently to win the NCAA Central Regional on its way to the upcoming national championship, Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune reflects on the Cardinal's 1942 national championship triumph at Notre Dame, led by individual champion Sandy Tatum.

May 23, 2010
By TOM NOIE
South Bend Tribune Staff Writer
Here's a link to the full article.

Time may have taken his ability to hit a golf ball far and straight and with uncanny accuracy like he once did for so many years.

But when it comes to the most special day he may have ever spent on a golf course, Sandy Tatum remembers that time nearly a lifetime ago as if it was last month.

Memories of traveling halfway across the country — on money he raised — to win the 1942 NCAA men's golf national championship at South Bend Country Club remain strong.


"I can't think of any other subject on which I would rather converse," said the 89-year-old Tatum. "It was a mystical experience."

An experience that almost never unfolded.

With the United States involved in World War II, Stanford University officials were not sure they wanted to send the school's golf team to compete at the NCAA Championships. That didn't sit well with Tatum, then the school's No. 3 golfer and Pacific Coast Conference individual champion.

"When the school told us we couldn't go, I just couldn't bear it," he said.

Tatum learned the trip for the team would cost $2,500, and went about raising the funds himself. One of his first sales pitches was to the man who initially vetoed traveling to the tournament — university president Ray Lyman Wilbur.

"A wonderful character," Tatum said. "But he was a very stiff personality."

Tatum entered the president's office one afternoon, and proceeded to explain his business to a seemingly disinterested Wilbur. When Tatum stopped speaking, Wilbur quietly turned toward his desk, scribbled something out and handed it to Tatum, whose fund-raising campaign had been kick-started with a check for $25.

"He wished me good luck," Tatum said. "And I was on my way."

Tatum raised enough money for Stanford to get to South Bend. Just boarding the train in Oakland for the three-day trek east was memorable.

"It was just us, a group of college guys going across the country to play golf," Tatum said. "How lucky can you get?"

Tatum's luck would get better. Days later, he and his teammates had played well enough to earn a share of the team national championship with Louisiana State. Unbeknownst to Tatum, his game soon would fall into a groove that he had never before or since experienced.

He finished it off with a 5 and 4 victory over Northwestern's Manuel de la Torre for top individual honors among 64 golfers.

"It was stunning," he said. "I was not in a zone all week until then."
Here's a link to the full article.

Sandy Tatum's contributions to Harding Park and golf

John Upton, SFExaminer.com
October 2, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — The technology that will beam The Presidents Cup from Harding Park Golf Course into bars and homes in 231 countries starting Tuesday hadn’t even been imagined when Sandy Tatum was born in the Roaring ’20s.
In the early 1920s, the Spring Valley Water Co. built world-class links at Lake Merced as golf’s popularity grew wildly. During that era, President Warren Harding would die while staying downtown at the Palace Hotel and Tatum — the man who would later be credited with successfully restoring the course — would be born in Los Angeles.

By the late 1920s, Harding Park had been named after the golf-enthused late president, San Francisco had purchased Spring Valley Water Co. and its assets — including the golf course — and Tatum had kick-started a lifelong love affair with golf at the newly opened Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles using sawed-off clubs provided by his father.
“Golf is a game you can play all your life,” said Tatum, appearing dapper in a button-down dress shirt and slacks on a recent afternoon at Harding Park. “I’m 89 years old and I play three or four times every two weeks, and the statistics will tell you that it’s a life extender. It’s obviously a life enhancer, but its also a life extender.”

Tatum grew up playing golf and brought his passion north as a late teen to Palo Alto, where he attended Stanford University and helped its golf team win the NCAA men’s golf championships in 1941 and 1942.

After graduating, Tatum spent time in Los Angeles and served in the Navy before returning to Stanford to study law in 1946. He moved with his wife in 1950 to practice law in San Francisco, a city that he would call home for more than 50 years.
Tatum, a member of the Stanford Sports Hall of Fame, has never played golf professionally, but he has worked in the game’s highest professional echelons.

After serving for six years as an executive committee member with the United States Golf Association, which oversees national championships, Tatum was appointed president in 1978. He held the post for two years, forging relationships that he would lean on more than two decades later to support his bid to revive Harding Park.

By the 1990s, the course had become neglected and overgrown with weeds as interest in golf waned locally and nationally. To secure political support for a loan from The City’s open-space fund that was needed to help resuscitate the greens, Tatum convinced the PGA Tour to play professional championships at Harding Park — if it could be renovated.
The revived course hosted its first professional event in 2005, the same year that the octogenarian moved into a Palo Alto retirement home. Tatum, however, remained a regular fixture at Harding Park, a familiar face to golfers and employees and at the clubhouse that bears his name.

Since 2005, the course has regained its former popularity with amateur golfers, while interest in other city courses has remained low.

The City’s loan to Harding Park is being repaid largely through increased green fees paid by non-San Francisco residents, for whom a weekend round of golf costs up to $155 — almost three times what locals pay.
In keeping with Tatum’s goal of providing public access to municipal golf, San Francisco players younger than 18 can shoot a round on a weekday for as little as $15.

“I’m educated personally with regards to how much it means to be able to play a premium golf course,” he said. “Access to [Harding Park] that had been enjoyed by people from San Mateo and across the Bay suddenly got more expensive, but I couldn’t find a way around that. My focus was on San Francisco.”

To view the complete article click here. | For more background info and a video interview of Tatum click here.