The Iowa Amateur switched from match play to medal play in 1960. The timing couldn’t have been better for Marshalltown’s John Liechty, a nine-time major champion during his career.

Between 1960 and 1971, Liechty won the title in 1964 and 1971 was a runner-up four times (1960, 1966, 1968, 1970) and never finished lower than a tie for fifth. In that remarkable stretch Liechty played 44 rounds and had a 70.13 stroke average.

His first Iowa Amateur crown came in 1964 at Hyperion. Liechty’s winning score of 8-under-par 279 was a scoring record at the time. He shot 68-71 in the first two rounds. Back then, the field played 36 holes the last day. Liechty’s last day got off to an ominous start when he drove it out-of-bounds on Hyperion’s first hole. But he scrambled to bogey the hole, then ran off three straight birdies in a third-round 68. He closed with a 71 for a two-shot victory.

His second Iowa Amateur came at the University of Iowa’s Finkbine course in Iowa City, where Liechty played his college golf. He shot 275 but needed some good fortune to win. He trailed Brad Schuchat, another former Hawkeye, by a shot with two holes to play. Liechty, playing in the group ahead of Schuchat, saw Brad hit his second shot to 20 feet on the par-4 16th hole.

“I watched Brad’s second shot on No. 16 and told my caddy that I was going to have to shoot a hole-in-one (on the par-3 17th) or at least a couple of birdies to catch him,” Liechty said. “Then I turned around and Brad was still up there putting and I couldn’t believe it.”

Schuchat would four-putt the hole, giving Liechty a one-shot lead. John then birdied the 17th and was back in the winner’s circle.

Liechty’s nine major titles came between 1960 and 1971. He returned to Hyperion to also win the Sani Invitational in 1964.

“I think they ought to play all the tournaments in Iowa at Hyperion,” joked Liechty, who added a second Sani championship in 1968.

He was a back-to-back Iowa Masters champion in 1972 and 1973. He rallied from a five-shot deficit heading into the final round in 1972 to catch Cedar Rapids pro Don Bergman, and beat him on the second hole of their sudden-death playoff. He added a Northwest Amateur crown in 1960 and won back-to-back Central States Amateurs in 1960 and 1961. He also won the 1966 Fort Dodge Amateur and lost a playoff to Max Shelton at the 1960 Sani.

Liechty, a second-team all-American at Iowa in 1958, was the Iowa Golf Association Player of the Year in 1960, 1971 and 1972. He also won the Iowa Junior Amateur in 1955, the Broadmoor Invitational in 1963 and played in the 1960 and 1963 U.S. Amateurs and the 1964 U.S. Open. His Iowa career ended when he moved to Leawood, Kan., in 1974.

 

• 1955 Iowa Junior Amateur Champion
• 1960 Northwest Amateur Champion
• 1960 Iowa Player of the Year
• 1960 & 1961 Central States Champion
• 1963 Broadmoor Invitational Champion
• 1964,1971 Iowa Amateur Champion
• 1964, 1968 Herman Sani Champion
• 1966 Fort Dodge Amateur Champion
• 1972,1973 Iowa Masters Champion
• 1971, 1972 Iowa Amateur of the Year
• 3-time Letter winner at Iowa from 1957-1959
• GCAA Second Team All-American -1958
• U.S. Amateur Qualifier in 1960 and 1963; U.S. Open Qualifier, 1964.