Sports

He is the player who almost slept through his tee time before winning the FedEx St Jude

Nairavoice · Aug 11, 2026 · 2 min read

We have seen plenty of blown opportunities and near misses in golf history.

Greg Norman’s 1996 Masters and Jean Van De Velde’s 1999 Open Championship collapse live long in the memory as examples of players throwing away their final day leads.

Jon Rahm was forced to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament after he tested positive for COVID, giving up his sizable lead. But never have we seen a player simply not show up for their tee time on Sunday while leading a tournament.

But that’s nearly what happened to Bert Yancey at the 1966 Memphis Open Invitational, as he nearly lost a chance to win after sleeping in too long.

Why Bert Yancey nearly slept past his tee time at the 1966 Memphis Open

Yancey was one shot back of the leading Gene Littler at the 1966 Memphis Open, later renamed the FedEx St Jude, heading into the final round. But he nearly blew his chance to win it all.

He was awoken by a phone call from his caddie, who wasn’t actually on his bag that week, but had noticed he hadn’t arrived on the putting green for the final round.

Yancey either wasn’t told, or had forgotten, that the tee times for the final round had changed for TV coverage. So while he was asleep in bed, he was set to tee off in just 10 minutes.

A panicked Yancey bolted out of bed and headed straight to the first tee, which was a short trip from where he was staying. He arrived with eight minutes to spare. If he’d have shown up much later, and he’d have been disqualified from the tournament.

But maybe this was the preparation he needed, as Yancey went on to shoot a final round of 66 to win the Memphis Open.

Yancey carded five birdies and only one bogey while Gene Littler began to fade on the back nine. His four round total was the lowest score posted on the 1966 tour to that point, earning him one of seven wins in his PGA Tour career.

For all the work that goes into preparing players for their rounds in modern golf, perhaps Yancey showed everyone that all you really need is some adrenaline first thing in the morning!