When I went to the club the next day and ordered a nonalcoholic beer, my buddies roared. They really busted my chops, but underneath the teasing was the clear message that they didn't want to lose a drinking buddy. I liked those people and enjoyed the lifestyle, and all of a sudden I had to stop going to the places I went to and had to adopt almost an entire new set of friends. When you've been drinking your whole life and then stop, you don't just crave alcohol, you crave your friends, the laughter, the settings you're used to. It's a hard thing for the nondrinker to understand.
If you play golf your whole life, you'll see some strange things. Years ago a bunch of us were asked to make a TV commercial promoting the tour. The premise was, a machine would fire clay pigeons across the sky, and a group of us—Gil Morgan, Hale Irwin, Chi Chi Rodriguez and I—would take turns hitting balls and try to knock the clay pigeons out of the air. I told the film crew they had to be kidding. Hitting a clay pigeon with a golf ball was close to impossible, and we might be there all day, maybe all month, trying to hit one. Well, Gil Morgan yells, "Pull!" and knocks one out of the sky. It was a total freak occurrence, and we were almost on the ground, laughing that he did that. Then Irwin hit one, then Chi Chi. Then I hit one. To this day, I think it was a miracle.
Great players have high self-esteem. I always had the game to play the regular tour, and actually played for three full seasons, but I never felt I belonged out there. I would actually avoid warming up next to a guy like, say, Tom Weiskopf, because I was self-conscious about what the people in the bleachers would think about the way I hit the ball next to him. Then, in 1996, I stopped by Bob Rotella's place, and he told me a few things. For the life of me, I can't remember what. Anyway, I went down to play a mini-tour in Florida and won six events. My big rookie year on the Champions Tour followed. I don't win now without thanking that man, every time. He gave me my self-esteem.
The most amazing thing about hybrid clubs is that every single golfer doesn't carry at least one. I have a hybrid 3- and 4-iron like almost everybody else, but my 5- and 6-irons also are hybrids, and today I'm trying out a 7-hybrid. Every shot is like hitting the ball off a tee. The ball goes higher and stops just as quickly. You're asking all the questions; now let me ask you one: If I've made $13 million, and I'm hitting hybrids, why are you still using irons?
The secret to playing the modern game is this:
Hit your short irons and wedges low, and all the other clubs high.I'm 59, and I've got to tell you, my mind is going to hell. My memory stinks. I honestly don't know the name of one golf course we play out here. I know the names of the cities and the tournaments, but not the courses. The one here is real nice. I lost a playoff here last year. But all I can tell you about it is, it has 18 holes.
I played with Tiger Woods and Greg Norman once. It was a practice round before the 1995 U.S. Open at that course in New York, on Long Island. My Rhode Island buddy Brad Faxon set up the game. I remember Norman teasing Tiger about his golf shoes being sort of dirty and beat up—Tiger was still in college. It was fun. I made a hole-in-one. Tiger was good at that time, but Greg Norman was better.
The Champions Tour has been referred to as one giant mulligan, but it's better than that. There's no cut, so you get a mulligan every Friday night. If you have a bad week, you get a mulligan for the next week: You just go tee it up again with a check waiting for you, guaranteed. It's probably the best thing, career-wise, available not only in sports but in all of America.
I just remembered where the '95 U.S. Open was played. It was at Shinnecock Hills. Please don't ask me where it was this year.
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