Golf story-hour beckons. This particular one is rooted in the days of persimmon and balata, though the moral to the story is very much timeless.
Standing on the first tee, a couple of young professionals were listening to the framework of the wager that would be in play for the pending game. Grizzled PGA Tour veterans Andy Bean and John Huston laid the foundation of the bet against Chip Johnson and Paul Azinger.
But as play was set to commence, Bean added, “Oh, and we’re playing air presses.”
Johnson, a Massachusetts kid who had plenty of game but lacked a little veteran savvy, tossed a quizzical look at Azinger. “Air presses?”
Azinger, who also had plenty of game and even more fire in his belly for the action, told his partner you could apply a press when the opponent’s ball was in the air.
Somewhere that day, Johnson remembers hitting a bad shot on a long par 3, “probably like 250, 255 yards.” No worries, because his partner striped a fairway wood “that was all over the flagstick.”
“Air press,” barked Bean and Johnson was stunned.
“I mean, this shot was flushed. I couldn’t believe Andy called ‘air press.’ So, I asked him why.”
We’re talking more than 40 years ago but Johnson can remember Bean’s answer like it was yesterday. “That was a 247-yard carry,” he said slow, Southern drawl, “and that club ‘Zinger hit maxes out at 243.”
Sure enough, the shot by Azinger plugged under the lip of a bunker, probably a 243-yard shot.
Advantage, Bean. But to this day Johnson, a longtime member of the PGA of America who is the esteemed head pro at Hatherly CC in Scituate, Mass., considers it one of the most educational lessons he ever received.
“He knew the yardage and knew Azinger’s capabilities, even in an age without all the statistical data,” said Johnson.
You know of the celebrated Bobby Jones quote – “There is golf and there is tournament golf. And they are not at all alike, inside.”
Well, Johnson definitively learned that day that within the borders of being a touring professional, there were different levels of talent and when you bumped into that special tier . . . well, you could be in awe.
“I remember in 1986, Greg Norman was starting to play more in the United States,” said Brad Faxon. “I was playing with him at the Atlanta Classic at Atlanta Country Club. Even then, he was bigger than life. He was ‘The Shark.’
“On the long, par-4 15th, a dogleg right with a creek all the way down the right, I aimed so far left to avoid the creek and of course hit a slice into the crap.”
Hitting next, Norman never saw the left side of the fairway nor the creek on the right. He ripped it down the right and around the dogleg. “So I’m thinking, ‘I’m the worst golfer in the world,’ ” said Faxon. “I think it was my ‘Come to Jesus’ moment.”
Don’t laugh. It is a reality of professional golf life that competitors have to embrace the landscape. “You’re a fool if you don’t realize what your limitations are,” said Olin Browne, who remains one of the most satisfying work-your-ass-off success stories in PGA Tour history.
Golf was never part of his life in those junior days, but he blossomed in college, turned pro at 25 and after scoring four wins on the Ben Hogan and Nike Tours, predecessors to the Korn Ferry Tour, he won three times on the PGA Tour, including the 2005 Deutsche Bank Championship at the age of 46.
Faxon agrees with Browne, that you have to understand your shortcomings, but in no way did either of them think it precluded them from finding success. So despite being in awe of Norman that day in 1986, Faxon sized himself against the best putter (Ben Crenshaw) and the best short game (Seve Ballesteros) and was confident he could find his way, which he clearly did with eight PGA Tour wins and two Ryder Cup appearances.
“It was one of the things (Dr. Bob) Rotella would tell me. ‘When you learn to keep your strengths strong, you’ll compete out here,” said Faxon.
It was Curtis Strange who made an impact on Browne. “I think his quote was something like ‘Everyone can hit it good. But the successful players are willing to try and hit it when it matters,” said Browne.
“I was so late to the game I think I reveled in improving. I don’t think I ever wanted to admit to myself that I couldn’t get better.”
There are countless stories of those moments when a player with pro dreams saw the future and decided it wasn’t to be. Like Ted Scott, who was in the caddie ranks but was still determined to grind away on the minitours.
One week he finished 36 holes at 9-over, missing the cut by a mile. He could easily have slipped out of town, but the fact that some guy had fired 17-under to lead by nine after those same 36 holes tugged at Scott’s curiosity.
He just had to see who this guy was.
It was Scott’s first introduction to a lefthanded freak of nature who ripped moonshots down the right side of the fairway and bent it back into play 300-to-350 every time. Bubba Watson was his name and not too many years later Scott would caddie for him in two Masters wins.
Just as Watson brought a skill set to the golf course that Scott couldn’t fathom, Bill Haas got a taste of that unmatched fire that burned with the incomparable Tiger Woods.
It was 2004 and Haas, though not an official PGA Tour member, was playing nicely and got paired with Woods in the Deutsche Bank Championship. Having met Woods several times and played alongside him in a U.S. Open practice round, Haas felt comfortable standing on the first tee. So he asked the icon if he was looking forward to the Ryder Cup in a few weeks.
“The only thing I’m looking forward to is kicking your ass today,” Woods said while his icy stare remained frozen on the first fairway.
OK, then, Haas probably thought to himself, so this is the way the great ones go about their business. Not that Haas didn’t belong (he has gone on to six PGA Tour wins and owns a FedExCup championship), but again, like Bean knowing how far Azinger could hit that fairway wood, Woods was demonstrating one of the intangibles that made him who he was.
“It’s what I love about golf. It’s what we do,” said Browne. “We tell stories and people write stories about people. Sometimes it loses something (in print), like 3D vs. 2D.
“But these are the things that happened. It’s what makes the game so great.”
