When my son Tucker was born, my brother planted one of those wooden storks in my yard announcing the birth. I drove over to Preston Trail that morning, and Mickey was there. "Hey, I saw that stork out there and signed it for you," he said. Sure enough, on one side of the stork was the announcement that Tucker Lanston Wadkins had just arrived. On the other side was, "To Penny and Lanny, congratulations. Your neighbor, Mickey Mantle." Mickey knew what a personal touch from Mickey Mantle meant to people.
When I played in the Kemper Open, Penny and I used to stay with Kent Feddeman, a friend I'd met playing in the pro-am. In 1981 I was looking for some new woods, and Kent mentioned he had some old MacGregors at home. The old MacGregor persimmon woods were terrific, and while he's rummaging for the clubs, I see an old Yankee batting helmet. "I got that at a Washington Senators game when I was 12," Kent said. "They were playing the Yankees, and Mantle struck out. He was mad and threw his helmet against the fence. On impulse I jumped the fence, grabbed the helmet and ran off, with the security guys chasing me. As you can see, I got away."
I examined the helmet, and inside was a strip of white medical tape along the sweatband with "Mantle" written on it. I borrowed the helmet and took it back to Dallas. Then I found Mickey out at Preston Trail, handed him the helmet and told him the story. He lit up. "Hell, I remember that game," Mickey said. "We were all rooting for that kid to get away. I'll tell you something else: Tony Kubek struck out four times that day, which was amazing, because Kubek never struck out." Mickey took the helmet and put it on his head. "Still fits," he said. Then he took a silver paint pen and wrote on the helmet, "To Kent: Nice catch, Mickey Mantle." I can't describe the moment Kent and I shared when I delivered that helmet to him.
I'm a fast player and had to learn to deal with slow play. There are three tricks to doing that. First, get in the habit of walking more slowly to your ball. Slow play only bothers you when you're at your ball waiting to hit, so just take more time getting there. Second, don't pull the club from your bag until you're ready to hit. Standing with a club in your hand making a bunch of practice swings is not good preparation. Finally, if you're playing a match, never let the slow players know that they're getting under your skin. Once they find they're getting to you, they'll find ways to get even slower. Seve tried to slow-play me something terrible in the Ryder Cup, and so did Bernhard Langer, but I never let on that it bothered me.
- Text Size:
- Small Text
- Medium Text
- Large Text
