ESPN PGA Championship 2008

Ben Hogan famously "brought this course, this monster to its knees" in 1951, giving Oakland Hills Country Club an enduring legacy. It certainly doesn't hurt to have Donald Ross and Walter Hagen as part of your history, either.

Ross, the legendary architect, designed the course. Hagen, an 11-time major champion, was its first pro. The venerable venue in the suburbs of Detroit has gone on to host numerous major championships and will again this week when the PGA Championship visits.

But its most bizarre championship has to be the 1985 U.S. Open won by Andy North at Oakland Hills in Michigan.

That was the tournament that made a little-known golfer from Taiwan famous, but for all the wrong reasons.

T.C. Chen made an ill-timed double-hit on his way to blowing a 4-stroke lead and earning the nickname "Two-Chip" Chen. Often forgotten is that Chen made a strong comeback from the gaffe and lost to North by just a stroke.

His given name is Tze-Chung Chen. He recently turned 50 and is attempting to play the Champions Tour. Early during the first round of that 1985 U.S. Open, he holed a 3-wood from 256 yards on the par-5 second hole, a double-eagle that gave him the lead and resulted in a 65 that day.

Chen, just shy of his 27th birthday, then added consecutive 69s to take the lead into the final round, where he had a 4-shot advantage on the fifth hole. That's when things began to unravel.

Chen's approach to the par-4 green came up short and right. Then he attempted a tough chip from thick grass, the shot he laments today.

"The real mistake was the third shot," he told GolfWorld earlier this year. "I knew there was only about a 5 percent chance of getting it up and down from that bad lie, but I still tried to hit a perfect shot. Today, facing the same shot, I would just take a bogey and move on."

Chen was unable to advance the third shot very far, setting up a fourth shot from heavy rough. After his wedge struck the ball at impact, the club hit the ball again as he was following through. Chen had to take a 1-stroke penalty for the double-hit, and because the ball landed in the fringe, he still had to hit another chip onto the green. He missed the putt and walked off with a quadruple-bogey 8.

"I kept asking myself, 'Why?' I couldn't calm down," Chen told the magazine.

"It was pretty amazing," said North, who is now an ESPN golf analyst. "He really had complete control of that championship. He was playing well, and he was doing everything he needed to do. Then he hit a couple of bad shots in a row before the double-hit. He had really played well all week long, and after that, it was a whole different story. He let a bunch of us back in the championship.

"All of a sudden, I've got the lead on the seventh tee. Then I bogeyed three holes in a row and I'm behind again."

Chen then bogeyed the next three holes to trail North by 3, yet still had a chance to salvage a win late in the round. North needed a strong bunker shot to save par on the 17th hole, where Chen three-putted for bogey and finished tied for second after nearly holing a greenside bunker shot at the 18th.

North shot 4-over 74 for the round and was the only player to break par for the tournament. Chen tied with Denis Watson and Dave Barr, 1 stroke back. The victory was the second U.S. Open title for North, who had won the championship in 1978 at Cherry Hills in Colorado and captured just one other PGA Tour victory in a career plagued by injuries.

"Just the fact I had done it and knew how my body might react really helped," North said. "You just believe you could do it again. I played pretty well the first three days but not very good at all the last day. I just scraped it around. I finally started to hit the ball around the 12th hole, and having gone through that a few times, you have a sense of what you need to do to keep your emotions in control and rhythm in control. And that's one of the reasons why I was able to get it back together the last six holes and started hitting some decent shots. It was a great experience."

Chen had been playing on the PGA Tour since 1982, when he earned his playing card on his first attempt. He lost the 1983 Kemper Open in a five-way playoff won by Fred Couples. He captured his lone PGA Tour title in 1987, defeating Ben Crenshaw in a playoff at the L.A. Open.

Chen had another major championship moment later that year at the Masters, where he was tied with eventual winner Larry Mize on the back nine. Chen's approach shot found the water at the par-4 11th, and he finished 5 strokes back. In 1989, he left the tour and went back to Asia, where he won six times on the Japan Tour.

At the time of the 1985 U.S. Open, Oakland Hills was one of just three courses to host the U.S. Open five times. It since has hosted another, the 1996 tournament won by Steve Jones. It also has been the site for two PGA Championships, won by Gary Player in 1972 and David Graham in a playoff over Crenshaw in 1979.

The South course at Oakland Hills hosted the Western Open in 1922, four U.S. Opens from 1924 to 1961, two U.S. Senior Opens -- won by Arnold Palmer (1981) and Jack Nicklaus (1991) -- as well as the 2002 U.S. Amateur won by Ricky Barnes and the 2004 Ryder Cup won by Europe.

"The key to Oakland Hills is the greens," North said. "There are so many greens with an upper-level hole location or a little ridge where it is so hard to get the ball anywhere near that location with an approach shot. If you get real aggressive and knock it over the green, you've got no chance to get it up and down. The smart shots leave you 40-footers and some tough two-putts. It's just a long, hard golf course with greens that are brutally difficult."

North, 58, never won again on tour but did team with Tom Watson earlier this year to capture the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, his first official win on the Champions Tour. The victory gives him a full-year exemption, but North has been too busy with his television work and has not played another tournament since.

It was at the Senior British Open two weeks ago at Royal Troon where he bumped into Chen again. North was working the telecast and Chen was playing in his first Champions Tour event, although he missed the cut.

So will the stars of that fateful final round in 1985 meet again in competition? Chen, who has a home in California, would appear to hope so, as he plans to attend the Champions Tour's qualifying school this fall.

Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.