When the conversation arrived at the intersection of Jack Burke Jr. and Billy Harmon, the hook was set. These are two who embody the soul of golf, so with delirious ferocity, the story tugged at me and so Harmon went on and explained.

Nine years earlier, the 90th birthday celebration for Burke found Harmon sitting next to one of Burke’s daughters. Knowing that her father, the 1956 Masters champ, was a golf icon, and that Harmon’s father, the 1948 Masters winner, was royalty, the daughter asked if it ever bothered Billy Harmon that people only looked at these men as golfers.

Profound, he thought, but then she surprised even further. She told Harmon that she had learned something new about her father a few days earlier when Jack Burke Jr. said he was going to church at 11:45 a.m. There are no Masses at 11:45, she told him, and he said he knew that. But church is where Jack Burke Jr. had been going every day for 50 years, just to be alone and to think, sometimes needing just 15 minutes. News to her.

So, she asked her father: What had he thought about that day? “That we only have two feet,” Burke told her. “But it doesn’t mean you can’t leave more than two footprints.”

Harmon loves that story because it encapsulates philosophies and thoughts that are his moral compass. “The older you get,” said Harmon, now 71, “the more you ask yourself, ‘What are we here for? What is the end result of life’s work?’ ”

Should you prefer your inspirational characters to be saturated in integrity, to have seized ownership of their flaws, and to have lived a colorful life that delivered them to a place where they could make others’ lives better, then offer good cheer to Billy Harmon.

“My life has never been as good as it is right now.”

He presents that with great pride, though it has zero to do with golf and the teaching he does out in Palm Springs, Calif., and in Colorado during summers.

Sure, he still is a Harmon, which means that he and his older brothers Butch and Craig – and throw in the late Dick Harmon, whose memory still burns – know more about teaching the golf swing than the next six dozen instructors combined.

Billy Harmon, left, and his longtime friend, Jay Haas.

But the wonderful harmony to Billy Harmon’s life these days is owed in some part to his recovery from tongue cancer, but in a massive way to his wife, Robin, and the Harmon Recovery Foundation to which they have dedicated themselves since 2010.

“Addiction and alcoholism ruins families,” said Harmon, “and if we can help one person, then it’s all worthwhile. It means more than all those Golf Digest rankings.”

Fact is, the Harmon Recovery Foundation has helped a long line of people and what remains motivation for Billy and Robin is that “a mother and father might get their child back, or brothers and sisters might get a parent back,” he said.

It's a “mom-and-pop operation” that has raised over $2m in donations from great friends who know Billy to be as trustworthy and loyal as you could want and Robin to be the engine that makes it all work. Certainly, she is a hero to Billy for all she has meant to his life since that 1985 Bank of Boston Classic when he became smitten with this beautiful volunteer who was doing the scoring on the 10th tee.

Only Billy concedes he was a bit stubborn at the time, more than content to be a grizzled caddie for Jay Haas.

“I ran fast. I didn’t have a residence. It was all me and the money I had in my pocket, which wasn’t much,” said Harmon, who concedes that he was torn. Robin was beautiful, “but I kind of liked that lifestyle and had no intention of settling down.”

He did settle down, sort of, when he became head professional at Newport CC. But the demons are dogged and when in 1992 Billy did something “for which I should have been fired,” what came his way instead was an offer from two board members that changed his life.

“They asked if I would agree to go to an AA meeting and not drink,” said Harmon. He said yes and yes and “I’ve kept my promise ever since.”

Robin has been alongside every step of the way – when he was early in AA, when he was starting the Harmon Recovery House, when he was at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in 2016. “She was a quintessential New England girl,” laughs Billy. “The nicer I was to her (early on), the more guarded she was.”

You can’t blame her, and Harmon certainly didn’t. Fact is, only one person gets the blame for the road he was on many years ago.

“Everything negative in my life I created,” he said. “There’s a lot of freedom in (accepting) that.”

Offering advice and guidance on the golf swing is in his DNA. It can lower scores. Offering advice and guidance on drug and alcohol abuse defines who he is. That saves lives.

To know Billy Harmon is to know which task ignites a greater passion in his life.

A year ago, Harmon underwent an MRI because a small spot was spotted during a cancer checkup. Fortunately, it was benign. But during the MRI, “I got to thinking, what do I do if I get another mulligan (against cancer)?”

The answer hit him when he remembered the Jack Burke Jr. story about “footprints” and lying there on the MRI, Harmon decided to direct foundation money to help former PGA Tour winner David Ogrin’s driving range and upstart junior golf tour.

“If you know who you are, you give. If you don’t know who you are, you take,” said Harmon. “Well, I don’t want to be a taker.”

So, he gives and he gives. And when this junior tour gets off the ground, Harmon suggests a name for it. “Call it ‘The Footprints Tour.’ ”