For 65 years the South Course at Firestone Country Club has tested the greatest players in the world. It all began with the 1954 Rubber City Open, and the $2,400 winner’s share won by “Terrible Tommy” Bolt. Sadly, it all ends on Sunday when the 2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational crowns its final champion.

Firestone gained national prominence over the years hosting some of the most important events in golf history. Elite fields competed in PGA Championships, World Golf Championships, and the World Series of Golf. All told, that amounts to 88 events, won by 38 major champions, 18 of whom are in the Golf Hall of Fame.

As Firestone’s long and noble run as host for a PGA Tour event comes to a close this week, here are the Top 5 Moments in Firestone Country Club history that we still marvel at today, and will remain forever etched in our memories.

5. The Big Three

While the final World Series of Golf in 1998 was the first professional event to feature a winner’s prize of more than $400,000, the first World Series of Golf in 1962 is what brought the sport into our living rooms once and for all. The inaugural edition included “The Big Three” of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus, and we were immediately hooked.

Watching the way Arnie hitched up his pants after a powerful, purposeful lash at the ball just made America’s favorite son even more endearing. Player became golf’s version of “Paladin” – the gentleman gunfighter who also dressed in all black in the television series “Have Gun – Will Travel.” And then, of course, there was Nicklaus – the 22-year-old kid who just three months earlier won his first PGA Tour event by defeating Palmer in a U.S. Open Sunday playoff at Oakmont.

Firestone would become the most televised course in golf history, and this made-for-television exhibition paved the way for the evolution of modern golf broadcasting.

4. Playoff Marathon

Tiger Woods’ dominant history at Firestone includes eight World Golf Championship victories in a 15-year span. No player in the history of golf has won the same event more times than Tiger, but Woods needed some playoff heroics against Jim Furyk in the 2001 WGC-NEC Invitational to complete his three-peat at Firestone. Furyk went toe-to-toe with the world’s best player for more than two hours of extra holes – including the shot of the day – a miraculous hole-out from the bunker on the first playoff hole to continue the match.

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The sudden-death playoff was finally decided on the seventh extra hole when Tiger made a short birdie putt for the win. “It was a war out there,” Woods said after the victory. “Neither one of us were going to give an inch.” Furyk had a number of opportunities to put Tiger away in the playoff, but instead learned a hard lesson: if you’re going to wait for Tiger to beat himself, you’re probably going to go home disappointed.

3. A Strange 10

It’s no coincidence Firestone’s 667-yard, 16th hole is nicknamed “The Monster.” There have been some heroic shots here that led to birdies, and sometimes, albeit rarely, even eagles (last year Jon Rahm became just the second player since 2008 to eagle the hole). More often than not, however, taking on No. 16 leads to horror. In the 1986 World Series of Golf, Curtis Strange recorded an ignominious 10, tying the worst single-hole score in Firestone history.

Strange knocked his drive into the right trees and then needed two wedge shots to return his ball to the fairway. Trying to get home in four, Curtis drenched his next shot in the pond, and the ship was officially sinking. After a penalty drop, Strange chipped over the green and into the lip of the back bunker. Strange’s seventh shot fired back over the green from where he just came. Another chip and two putts later, and Curtis had his 10-bagger. To his credit, however, the following year Strange bit “The Monster” back, and won this event by three strokes.

2. How About That, Huh?

It was a scene more fitting of a rock concert than a golf tournament. Thousands of fans waving lighters in the air, in flickering tribute to the shot Tiger Woods hit on Sunday at the 2000 WGC-NEC Invitational on the very last hole – in the dark. Woods dominated Firestone that week, smoking the field by 11 strokes, going wire-to-wire, and setting the tournament record (21-under par). Finishing up on No. 18 should have been a mere formality. Instead, it went down as one of the greatest shots in Tiger’s career.

Barely able to see the ball let alone the flagstick, Woods hit his approach from 167 yards out to within two feet of the hole amid a flurry of photographer flashes in complete darkness. It couldn’t have been closer if Tiger was wearing thermal imaging goggles. Striding up the fairway with television crews following his every step, Woods looked into the cameras and said, “How about that, huh?” A tap-in birdie was all that was left to put a bow on Tiger’s signature “Shot in the Dark” at Firestone.

1. Jack's Biggest Gamble

Jack Nicklaus was locked in the jaws of “The Monster.” About to throw away a four-stroke, third round lead at the 1975 PGA Championship, Jack’s tee shot on No. 16 went left and found a water hazard he never even knew was there. Nicklaus pushed his next shot (a 6-iron) into the right rough behind the huge maple tree 138 yards out, and a bogey or worse appeared imminent. What Jack did next was something he’d later describe as “my biggest gamble in a major.”

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While the announcers and fans were expecting Nicklaus to simply punch out sideways, Jack was planning to hit his 9-iron hard and over the tree – believing if he was successful his ball would clear both the 30-feet tree and the water fronting the green. He did, and it did. Nicklaus would go on to make a 30-foot putt for “your routine miracle par,” and the next day, win his 14th major championship breaking the record of Bobby Jones. “There are times you have to take a chance,” Jack said after his victory. “If I didn’t think I could make that shot I would have never tried it.” Nicklaus’ 1975 win at Firestone signaled the zenith and arguably most dominant period of “The Golden Bear’s” storied career.