Speaker 1: Welcome to the Player Series. I'm Gary Player, and throughout
Speaker 1: the series we're going to take you through incredible stories,
Speaker 1: conversations with legends and current players, perspectives on current events
Speaker 1: in and around golf, and much more. Well, I'm joined
Speaker 1: by my dear friend, Sir Nick Falder, one of the
Speaker 1: great players of our time, and very excited to be
Speaker 1: speaking to him. His knowledge is fantastic. He has had
Speaker 1: an awful lot of experience, particularly when it comes to Augusta.
Speaker 1: And Nick, what I want to know is, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of excitement coming up to Augusta. What do you
Speaker 1: see happening? What's exciting from your point of view, Well,
Speaker 1: there's so much excitement. I mean, obviously we're coming off
Speaker 1: a November Masters, which was obviously very unique and um,
Speaker 1: you know, the golf course was soft. Dustin john Some
Speaker 1: played great. He was he was the favorite that week,
Speaker 1: probably the most comfortable, you know. I was able to
Speaker 1: walk the range and it was obvious there was a
Speaker 1: lot going on last year. Bryson's Chambo, bryson d Chambo,
Speaker 1: I should say it was was there with carrying all
Speaker 1: the attention of now hitting the golf ball miles three
Speaker 1: hundred I was there on the range watching him get
Speaker 1: two hundred miles and now ball speed and then carrying
Speaker 1: it three seventies six, which is basically was in the
Speaker 1: bushes at the end of their wonderful practice facility. So
Speaker 1: we had that going on at the same time. I
Speaker 1: walked down the range to Dustin Johnson. He was like,
Speaker 1: what's going on up there. That's how he's hitting at
Speaker 1: three seventy through the air and he Dustin say, I've
Speaker 1: got a forty seven at forty eight inch drive. He said,
Speaker 1: I can hit it three forty through the airs, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I just like to hear him
Speaker 1: it didn't because it's dinky. I like to dink it
Speaker 1: out there three twenty three. And I'm like, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: me so. And I could tell he was confident, and
Speaker 1: I challenged to his brother it was a great line
Speaker 1: from him, and I said, I actually asked him what's
Speaker 1: he working on and then you know his short game,
Speaker 1: and he said to me it was quite a statement.
Speaker 1: He said, you know, he's he's the best field player
Speaker 1: on tour. And I thought, wow, that's quite a statement.
Speaker 1: So he said, I can give him a bad yardage
Speaker 1: and a bad club and he can land that wedge
Speaker 1: in the right place. And so I thought, I thought, wow,
Speaker 1: that's that was an interesting call. And sure enough he
Speaker 1: then went on and he looked good and once he
Speaker 1: found his rhythm, especially on that Sunday, that Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: he came out like anybody, a little little shaky for
Speaker 1: a couple of holes. Once he belted one drive and
Speaker 1: got the rhythm going then and that was it was
Speaker 1: his Master's So that was special November. We've only had
Speaker 1: five months in between it. Um, So off we go again,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be kind of similar story is
Speaker 1: you know the Masters is um, you know we were
Speaker 1: we would deem that you've got to be a the
Speaker 1: longer golfers are going to have a slightly advantage of
Speaker 1: the tea. You know, if they're longer down there, you've
Speaker 1: got less club anything. Any time you're getting less than
Speaker 1: a you know, eight times in your hand, then you
Speaker 1: can stop the ball how, how and where you intend
Speaker 1: to That's that's the Masters. If you're six isnes of
Speaker 1: fire bind in your hand, then you've got to look
Speaker 1: for a different landing spot and a different where it's
Speaker 1: going to finish. So it will make a huge difference,
Speaker 1: so that the longer hitters are going to have an
Speaker 1: advantage on their strategy and everything. So and there's plenty
Speaker 1: of them, Gary, as we know, there's there's many players,
Speaker 1: even the skinny ones. You know, you can hit it
Speaker 1: out there and get it to run, and get it
Speaker 1: to run up to three fifty. That is the amazing thing.
Speaker 1: So that's what's really change the game. But as we
Speaker 1: know the Masters, if the golf was, if the greens
Speaker 1: are firm, then even even with a short line in
Speaker 1: your hand, is still going to be sensible. So it's
Speaker 1: we love it. We love the test that they present
Speaker 1: for us every year with Nick. If you look last
Speaker 1: week and I think, and you know, I'm a great
Speaker 1: fan of deschambro He's a gentleman and a lot of
Speaker 1: people were very critical of him. Here comes the kuk,
Speaker 1: here comes the scientist. Now that Sho was on the
Speaker 1: other foot, this guy's got a wonderful golf swing and
Speaker 1: a wonderful short game. And the Arnor Parmer Tournament so
Speaker 1: much was spoken about. In fact, the whole show was
Speaker 1: about his long hitting. And yet Westward, who put his
Speaker 1: ball in a divot in the last hole and couldn't
Speaker 1: shoot at the fat made a five on a part
Speaker 1: five with a seven nine in his hand on he
Speaker 1: lost by one shot. And I said to this one guy,
Speaker 1: well here, how far was he had driving westward? By
Speaker 1: said ninety yards? Well, I said, the way you're talking,
Speaker 1: he should have beaten him by twelve to fifteen shot,
Speaker 1: but he didn't. So it's still to me, Yes, long
Speaker 1: hitting is a great asset. W nobody would ever deny that.
Speaker 1: But if we look carefully, why deschambro One that week
Speaker 1: was not because of his long hitting, was because of
Speaker 1: his patting. He holds, so he puts, and he's got
Speaker 1: to have a great mind. Nick. As you know, superstars,
Speaker 1: and I think, personally my own personal opinion, you've got
Speaker 1: to win six majors to be a superstar. People use
Speaker 1: the word superstar too lightly. All of those guys had
Speaker 1: a special mind, a very very special mind. There was
Speaker 1: something called it. And can you just just defying it? No?
Speaker 1: Can an analyst, can anybody? And no, it's it's something
Speaker 1: that is just what's words indefinable? Is it indefinable? I
Speaker 1: think so it's gonna be interesting to see. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of guys I've got a good chance. I'd
Speaker 1: love to see Rory come out and win the grand
Speaker 1: stand would be very very good for golf. Um. You
Speaker 1: know Justin Thomas, I love the way he gets through
Speaker 1: the ball. He's a wonderful golfer. You've got then you've
Speaker 1: got Dustin Johnson who feels very confident there. So there
Speaker 1: are a lot of fellows that can win. So is
Speaker 1: going to be a very very exciting Masters. You're right,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of players who carry you. Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: looked very impressive some of those swings he made. I
Speaker 1: mean TPC saw grasses are very narrow golf course. It's
Speaker 1: very small greens and you know some of those shots
Speaker 1: and it's amazing. And they don't know when the last
Speaker 1: time you played TPC, but you know the ninth Old
Speaker 1: Gary for us in my day was was a drive,
Speaker 1: good drive and the three iron over to the right
Speaker 1: hand tree and you had to get the right angle
Speaker 1: to get aware. You're a chippy nine nine on you
Speaker 1: for your third in the cross Breeds and now they
Speaker 1: now they go, I mean it's a hitting the tittinger
Speaker 1: iron over the trees over the left entry, same as
Speaker 1: they do it hilt in the head. Now the same
Speaker 1: what is that? That's the same whole fifteen hole at
Speaker 1: hilt in the head, the same style a whole. They
Speaker 1: now hit that. Those trees are even higher and it's
Speaker 1: like never in a million years, but it was a
Speaker 1: three shop five for us. And now they get there.
Speaker 1: You can't believe they can get iron over those trees
Speaker 1: at times. So so that's the that's the change of
Speaker 1: the game. Equipment, the golfer, the golfers. It's a true athlete.
Speaker 1: I mean, Gary, you started this a million years ago
Speaker 1: pumping iron down in you know, weightlifting, when people said
Speaker 1: you can't be a weightlift you know, and you you
Speaker 1: took a huge to be honest, you took a huge
Speaker 1: risk because we didn't have the science there and we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't. You just did it. You did it to
Speaker 1: just get strong. Now they know how to the science
Speaker 1: to get spitter, faster, stronger. That is the huge difference
Speaker 1: now we know you Nowaday, we were all told against
Speaker 1: because of our equipment. People don't realize why didn't we
Speaker 1: hit it further well with an old persimmon head, chunk
Speaker 1: of word, a steel shaft, a rubber golf ball, um,
Speaker 1: which wasn't always round. You know, people don't realize, they
Speaker 1: don't realize that wow, even you know, even I carried
Speaker 1: a ring gage the double check that quote somewhere of
Speaker 1: somewhere knock round someone was slightly bigger than the others,
Speaker 1: you know, so we had to double check, and we
Speaker 1: didn't know the science in our equipment. Then it felt good,
Speaker 1: It looked good and felt good, but we didn't know,
Speaker 1: and we adapted to the club. That's and now you
Speaker 1: used to hit a driver and you go a little go,
Speaker 1: a little right up, and it looks good. And the
Speaker 1: guys I don't want to reach shafted again because if
Speaker 1: I cracked their head, you know I could. And he said,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll use it. I know when I get nervous,
Speaker 1: this one will go a little to the right or
Speaker 1: and so you compensate. We learned, you know. So now
Speaker 1: you stand up, make swings, and they build the clubs
Speaker 1: to you absolutely perfect, and you don't have to know
Speaker 1: diddly about your golf clubs. Your technician will give you.
Speaker 1: You'll hit the balls, a technician will tell you what
Speaker 1: to do, how to do it, and you walk away
Speaker 1: with a set of clubs that matches you and your
Speaker 1: swing absolutely perfectly. So and the kids can get this
Speaker 1: a college. Now, that's the other amazing thing that the
Speaker 1: rubbish we used in our early days apps at rubbish
Speaker 1: the clubs were compared to now. Yeah, so that all
Speaker 1: those things have made a huge difference to the quality
Speaker 1: of the golf and why we've got you know why
Speaker 1: the golf is the way it is in Well, there's
Speaker 1: I played yesterday and I'm playing with the man and
Speaker 1: he's hooking the ball. He takes out a spinner and
Speaker 1: he changes fade. Yeah, I was, I was hitting balls.
Speaker 1: I went to I went to Taylor Maid and I
Speaker 1: did you know just exactly what you can do? I
Speaker 1: go and I said, look, I haven't got anything that's
Speaker 1: fit me for a set of clubs they fit. So
Speaker 1: I've got a fire wood that just keeps going left.
Speaker 1: And the guy just goes and puts a little moves
Speaker 1: the center gravity around inside it for me, I mean
Speaker 1: moves moves that and then I now so and then
Speaker 1: hit a little face. I had a fight. Would I
Speaker 1: couldn't it would just I said, how come I hit
Speaker 1: shot good? Shot? Three? Would? And then I would left
Speaker 1: I would left foot and he goes, it, gives it
Speaker 1: to me about and then goes and it goes and
Speaker 1: I go and it. Next thing, I went to p
Speaker 1: h G and I was trying to hit the ball
Speaker 1: with the draw, which I have to in my age,
Speaker 1: and Ill kempt in in the board the cut and
Speaker 1: the next shot you start drawing. Actually it's hard. You
Speaker 1: can never explain to people the equipment we use. And
Speaker 1: that brings me back to Bobby Jones. Bobby Jones must
Speaker 1: have been the most incredible golfer. He played with a
Speaker 1: walking stick with a shaft, no grooves of the club,
Speaker 1: a golf ball. They win eight yards list. They never
Speaker 1: changed the pending. Every day you rate the bankers with
Speaker 1: your feet. They never had most to cut the green
Speaker 1: in the fairways. And what a golfer he was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw a swing I love looking at obviously Twitter
Speaker 1: or TikTok or whatever. You know, they had a swing
Speaker 1: of Bobby Jones the other day. And because of because
Speaker 1: of Hickory, you know, you've got to wait for it,
Speaker 1: have you, and you get this wonderful syrup swing and
Speaker 1: if you pull up, I was gonna blurt. U was
Speaker 1: doing the commentary yesterday. I was going to blurt out
Speaker 1: into the kids, pull up the old the old foot is.
Speaker 1: Pull up Walter Hagen. Walter Hagen swings a hundred years
Speaker 1: old now and please tell me if you come if
Speaker 1: it's not good or better. But what is different to
Speaker 1: today's golfer? Put Walter in um put him meant some
Speaker 1: polyester with a white belt and they look fantastic, you know,
Speaker 1: And you know, honestly what I really it's one of
Speaker 1: the most irritating things that occur with me at the
Speaker 1: stage of my life. I keep hearing young players say
Speaker 1: we're working on the modern swing. I'm dying to hear
Speaker 1: just one thing anyone. I'm not. That's what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean. Well, look, pull out Walter Hagen
Speaker 1: and tell me I would you can't. I can't falt it,
Speaker 1: gets gets the left heel loft the ground. You know,
Speaker 1: he's got his long, beautiful back swing. He's got almost
Speaker 1: like he's elite travin no extension through I mean, and
Speaker 1: chases after it does a Gary player walk through. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a vision. But Nick, what
Speaker 1: is it that they think that there's that's a modern swing?
Speaker 1: Everything They tried, was tried a hundred years ago. There's
Speaker 1: nothing that they didn't try a hundred years ago. Nothing. Well, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree a dent because you know, if
Speaker 1: you you know, as I as you get older, you
Speaker 1: know I did obviously, Look, I did a lot of
Speaker 1: work with my golf swing, you know. And when you're
Speaker 1: when you're talented and you hitting gold pools every day,
Speaker 1: you can you are fine tuning, and you come up
Speaker 1: with statements what I'm working on this, working on that,
Speaker 1: But when you look at what you're actually physically trying
Speaker 1: to do. I mean, if you take a stick, just
Speaker 1: a stick, and there's a daisy six inches off the ground,
Speaker 1: and you say right and not the top of that daisy,
Speaker 1: you'd go without thinking of it. You just go smack,
Speaker 1: you smack all of all the petals. And if somebody
Speaker 1: filmed that, they said that's a gold swing. But then
Speaker 1: somebody will then go, well, you've got to keep your
Speaker 1: right elbow into your body and you've got to do this.
Speaker 1: You've got to do that. You've got to and you go,
Speaker 1: hang on a minute. If I just stand out and
Speaker 1: whack a stick, you know, and just whack something for fun,
Speaker 1: what does it look like? And so I think that
Speaker 1: I think it's you know, every coach wants to come
Speaker 1: up with their own interpretation, their own you know, they're analyzed,
Speaker 1: you know, as as we're saying, it's just say, if
Speaker 1: if we had a hundred coaches analyze Walter Hagen swing,
Speaker 1: you know they're going to come up with was a
Speaker 1: hundred different ways of presenting that too, you know, and
Speaker 1: some of these strong believers and one thing and someone strong.
Speaker 1: But then you go, that's what I learned from pictures
Speaker 1: because I didn't I didn't need works. I used to
Speaker 1: go through the golf books and I never I never
Speaker 1: forget the golf magazines, and I never forget. They showed,
Speaker 1: they showed all the European golfers at the time when
Speaker 1: you're playing the European Tour, and they were impact in
Speaker 1: a certain position, and and and I thought, and then
Speaker 1: you turned the page and there was Byron Nelson at
Speaker 1: impact and it looked different. And there's Barron Nelson with
Speaker 1: fifty wins and these guys having up five wins between
Speaker 1: all of them. And I thought, I'm gonna look at
Speaker 1: Baron Nelson swing rather than these guys swing. So I
Speaker 1: learned from I learned from I learned from pictures. I
Speaker 1: mean even great Hogan books and Jack's books and everything
Speaker 1: and your books. I just looked at pictures and thought,
Speaker 1: oh if I get in that position, and I translated
Speaker 1: it myself rather than reading the words, how somebody is
Speaker 1: because everybody says some things like you know, Jack says,
Speaker 1: I play with my hands. Now even Jack said that,
Speaker 1: so you go, Jackson Hampet. Of course Jack felt like
Speaker 1: he played with his hands because his body was body
Speaker 1: action was so perfect. So when your body action is perfect,
Speaker 1: you can forget about it because it's it's doing it automatically.
Speaker 1: So you then and think, oh, I just played with
Speaker 1: my hands. So when I read that Jack plays with
Speaker 1: his hands, well that's not right. That that see you
Speaker 1: steer you in the wrong direction. So hey, I I
Speaker 1: learned from seeing. Seeing was believing from you know, Jack's
Speaker 1: legs always measured twenty nine inches his thighs, what he's
Speaker 1: in My waist was nine, So we said, we used
Speaker 1: to always bring out the tape and never joke about that.
Speaker 1: But do you know that Jack Nique a drive in
Speaker 1: Ohio N one and a long driving competition that would
Speaker 1: and that both three hundred and forty one yards. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well yeah, when you look at something again, they put
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't have speed monitors or whatever. You go. Um,
Speaker 1: you know when they put again back to back, they
Speaker 1: put Jack swing in a Brison swing, and wow, it
Speaker 1: was in. Jack was keeping up, but it was the same,
Speaker 1: it was the same speed coming down. So we all
Speaker 1: know that Jack had under his shirt he believed he
Speaker 1: could have got up to hundred with a piece of
Speaker 1: a cemet which was unhurt. So that's why Jack was
Speaker 1: had that ability when he won. And again, but with
Speaker 1: the equip we played within ourselves. We were all told,
Speaker 1: whether rightly or wrong, because you know, play at eight percent,
Speaker 1: stay under control. I always said, if I want if
Speaker 1: i'm if it's a seven one and I need to
Speaker 1: and I want to hit it further, I've got a
Speaker 1: six in the bag, I don't crunch the seven. Well,
Speaker 1: now now you crunch the seven. You you have. You know,
Speaker 1: some guys have different speeds, or some guys go at
Speaker 1: one speed. You know, so because again the equipment, they
Speaker 1: might say just go with one speed, just go with
Speaker 1: one swing. Because the clubs do an awful lot of
Speaker 1: work for you. You know, invariably people say the Masters
Speaker 1: is the greatest sporting event in the world today, and well,
Speaker 1: you know, the great thing about the Masters is, um
Speaker 1: the quality of everything. Um. It really is prist in
Speaker 1: every single inch inside the roads and even outside the ropes.
Speaker 1: I mean even you know, it's expanding. You can even
Speaker 1: when you drive the the boundary road outside the golf course,
Speaker 1: everything is in place. There's never a piece of litter
Speaker 1: or anything or wire anything out of position. It's still
Speaker 1: it's manicured from So that is what makes it so special,
Speaker 1: in the quality everything they do. Burtman's if you ever
Speaker 1: have given get the opportunity. It's a big corporate ticket,
Speaker 1: but Burtman's is the most amazing set up, the most
Speaker 1: amazing experience that I've ead. You know, the quality of
Speaker 1: the mask is obviously very different, and then you go
Speaker 1: to the ruggingness of the Open. The Open is on
Speaker 1: a piece of links land on the coastline when it's
Speaker 1: blowing and everything, and that's sort of and it's a
Speaker 1: completely different test. Yet and we're obviously being a British
Speaker 1: lad you know, the openers obviously arias to me, but
Speaker 1: the Masters, because of the timing of you know, we
Speaker 1: finished normally finished in the last major used to be
Speaker 1: the PGA in August, and then he went all the
Speaker 1: way from August April thinking and talking about the Masters.
Speaker 1: So it was it's the It's even in my day
Speaker 1: when I first remember my dad said, do you know
Speaker 1: when you won the Masters? That was in five thousand
Speaker 1: different newspapers across the world. So it's the publicity wise,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's the biggest one. But you know, in tradition,
Speaker 1: obviously open is older and what happ is so they're both.
Speaker 1: They're both very special to us, and they and meeting
Speaker 1: President Eisenhower and Bobby Jones, who I admire so much,
Speaker 1: and Clifford Roberts and as you say, it's without a question,
Speaker 1: the best run tournament in the world. But you know,
Speaker 1: Bobby Jones was he had a great command of the
Speaker 1: English language. And I'll never forget us cutting his meat
Speaker 1: because he was riddled with our writers and Augusta and
Speaker 1: I put the fork in his things like this, and he,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of jabbed the meat and nice said
Speaker 1: Mr Jones, I'd love to ask you a question. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I can never birdie the third hole He
Speaker 1: put his head down and he said, you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to birdie the third hole, you know. Of course they
Speaker 1: put that flag in that position. Now he beat as
Speaker 1: they stay in Scotland, turning in his grave. Now they
Speaker 1: take a three wood and they hit it on the green.
Speaker 1: But Nick, we haven't. This is only to start they
Speaker 1: in an extra amount of years time. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long I've gone profess that, but they're going to
Speaker 1: carry the ball past where deshambro lies lands now or
Speaker 1: ends up. Now, you've gotta have coming in because of
Speaker 1: the longevity of golf million dollar first prize. Every week
Speaker 1: you can finish thirtieenth and make sixty grand. And they're
Speaker 1: going to have these big football players come out like
Speaker 1: Lebron James, And I promised you they're gonna whip it
Speaker 1: way by where deschambro ever did, unless unless they come
Speaker 1: to their senses and do something about the ball. Well,
Speaker 1: anything I'm worried about that, Gary, is that as you
Speaker 1: get older, we we traditionally sit next to each other
Speaker 1: at champions dinner, and we've done that for moons. Now moons,
Speaker 1: am I going to have to cut up your meal?
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to cut up? Am I gonna? Am
Speaker 1: I gonna have to cut up your shrimp? Shrimp? I
Speaker 1: can still manage to put my mouth on it without cutting.
Speaker 1: He did, he did. He choked to that a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. He's swallowed. He's talking like he does swallowed.
Speaker 1: You are right, Gary, Oh my god, As long as
Speaker 1: I but as long as I can remember you, that's important, God,
Speaker 1: Dave I Gus. You can remember my name and what
Speaker 1: you're eatings are shrimp, then you'll be fine. So what's
Speaker 1: your what are you? What is your favorite holder on golf? Oh?
Speaker 1: Number eleven, white dog? Would you know? Nobody? Nobody? I
Speaker 1: got the rare distinction that you know, to win back
Speaker 1: to back was I was only the second man after Jack,
Speaker 1: So that was great and so obviously and to win
Speaker 1: and the playoff is gonna is obviously never happened before.
Speaker 1: And to win on the same hole in a playoff
Speaker 1: will never and now it will never, never, ever ever
Speaker 1: happen again because they played they played the tenth in
Speaker 1: the eighteenth in the playoffs. So I've got that. So
Speaker 1: it's very special to me. And the and the funny
Speaker 1: the funny thing is, you know, now I'm in commentary,
Speaker 1: and how we we always put up, you know how
Speaker 1: they played the whole throughout the week. So they put up.
Speaker 1: And when I went te Dolph in eight nine, they
Speaker 1: put up my scores bogey bogey, bogey bogey. So I
Speaker 1: boged it. I boged it every day. Oh so what
Speaker 1: what chance have I gotten? If I was doing the
Speaker 1: comment chart and I would have said, out walk in mate,
Speaker 1: there's no chance you can win. And I make a three?
Speaker 1: Did I make a three? I might hold up hold
Speaker 1: the greatest long part of my the sweetest, the sweetest
Speaker 1: long thirty foot of my life. And again it was
Speaker 1: a driving the three iron. It was wet, It was wet,
Speaker 1: It was wet and dark, and I hit a three
Speaker 1: iron out my boots and I saw this thing turn
Speaker 1: and it was so dark I honestly couldn't see the
Speaker 1: I couldn't see the ball on the green at about
Speaker 1: sixty yards short of the green. And then I got on.
Speaker 1: I got on the green there and my Caddy Andy
Speaker 1: Project from Watford comes down to me and I said
Speaker 1: to me, what do you think, Project? And he said, oh,
Speaker 1: it all looks a bit of a blur to me. GV.
Speaker 1: So I said, so all right, you get up there
Speaker 1: and hold the flag. You get out home. And I
Speaker 1: stood over the part and I was squeezing the blood
Speaker 1: out the grip. You know, I said, relaxed, let go,
Speaker 1: And I had a really technical thoughts that week. I
Speaker 1: took it back with the left hand and hit it
Speaker 1: with the right hand. I just went left right and
Speaker 1: it went shook and it was in. So that was
Speaker 1: that was a very amazing special moment for me. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I get I get very emotional, you know, I was.
Speaker 1: It comes what's it was thirty years celebration last year,
Speaker 1: so I got one of my twenty. Now it's twenty
Speaker 1: five years since my last week anniversary and this is
Speaker 1: my sixtieth anniversary. Wow, So you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: wonderful thought. But the leventh hole has had a lot
Speaker 1: of very interesting things happen. If you look at Larry
Speaker 1: Mys and Greg Norman, what happened there that was really
Speaker 1: the mat And you the reason why I like a
Speaker 1: leven because you stand on the fairway there in this
Speaker 1: beautiful elevated tea shooting down between the pines, and then
Speaker 1: you stand there and you see this een with water
Speaker 1: on the lift. But at the same time. You see
Speaker 1: number twelve and all the gallery on the right. It's
Speaker 1: actually a site to behold, isn't it. It's a great spot,
Speaker 1: it really is. Well, let's go to the twelve hold
Speaker 1: now and think what that coal has done to people's careers.
Speaker 1: I mean J. C. Sneed lost the Masters because of
Speaker 1: the hole. I think Weiskoff made a seven order and
Speaker 1: eight Molinari, who, funny enough, we haven't heard of a game.
Speaker 1: Strangely enough, he was the leading player in the world
Speaker 1: at that time and the guys making three of them
Speaker 1: making a five. Yeah, I mean, and then what happens
Speaker 1: with Tiger? That was just you could sense it was
Speaker 1: going to happen. That was you know, Tiger was the
Speaker 1: old war horse at that time, and and you know
Speaker 1: I felt if he could just hang behind everybody and
Speaker 1: wait for them more suddenly to think, well, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to win the Masters, and it happens exactly that, and
Speaker 1: and you know it's and this is a brutal game,
Speaker 1: because you're right, Mulinari was the most consistent, had the
Speaker 1: most wonderful year before Wednesday Open. When's the winning point?
Speaker 1: When's the winning points? At the Ryder Cups as a
Speaker 1: fantastic five points at the Ryder Cup. Everything's going great
Speaker 1: and then it's literally one shot, one bad experience, and
Speaker 1: it just knocked him for six and still and it's
Speaker 1: still knocked him for six. He's not the same goal
Speaker 1: for he's trying to come back again. But it is
Speaker 1: ridiculous how one one poor shot or one great shot
Speaker 1: can turn your whole career. And that's that, that's the
Speaker 1: harshness of a game. But you know, we love that
Speaker 1: whole it's it is. It's a hundred fifty two yards
Speaker 1: of scare factor because anything can happen. It is and
Speaker 1: you know, to describe it to people never been there,
Speaker 1: it is really three greens. It's obviously left section, as
Speaker 1: a middle section and a right section. And the secret
Speaker 1: is whichever section you're playing for, stick stick to that.
Speaker 1: Don't change your mind because if you go for the
Speaker 1: middle for safe when the pin's left and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: and you change your mind, I still like to go
Speaker 1: for this, well, then you've got the wrong yardage, wrong club.
Speaker 1: You go long. If you go in for the middle
Speaker 1: for safety you think we'd love to go for the right,
Speaker 1: then you don't have enough yardage and a short and
Speaker 1: you come up short. So that's that's the hardest. It
Speaker 1: is discipline. Um, the easiest one is that the left side,
Speaker 1: because you're forced to go for it. The middle one
Speaker 1: is very skin it's only eight yards deep in the
Speaker 1: middle between the two bunkers, and so that's nothing when
Speaker 1: the winds swirling. And of course the right one. It's
Speaker 1: the most wonderful thing about the Masters is you know,
Speaker 1: every we've all seen success and tragedy on literally every hole,
Speaker 1: every shot. So when you look at that right hand pin,
Speaker 1: you also always there's a moment ago and I remember
Speaker 1: so and so coming up short and long and daddy.
Speaker 1: So you have to you have to fend up not
Speaker 1: even your memories other pictures from the past in a
Speaker 1: way to go, yeah, this is this is scary, I
Speaker 1: know this is this is a this is a risk
Speaker 1: going for this. So am I going to take it on? Well,
Speaker 1: if all the if all the numbers compute, then you
Speaker 1: go for it. If it's but if it's if you're
Speaker 1: an in this, if you're suddenly in decide some indecision,
Speaker 1: you've got to find a yard is is that you
Speaker 1: are in decisive about moving your targets and That's again
Speaker 1: a tough discipline when you're looking at fact thinking I
Speaker 1: really want to go for it, but now I can't.
Speaker 1: I've got to got to steer away, come up with
Speaker 1: a whole new number, whole new shot, and then go
Speaker 1: for that and then be happy with it. So that's
Speaker 1: that's what you go through each time when you're playing there.
Speaker 1: That if it's all, if it looks good, feels good,
Speaker 1: you go for it. But if you're in doubt, then
Speaker 1: you've got to be how do you deal with playing
Speaker 1: with that? Moving your target? That's that's that's the skill
Speaker 1: of strategy there, you know, Nick, the twelfth hole, I
Speaker 1: don't even remember. I might have been in fifty two occasions,
Speaker 1: I don't remember knocking it in the water. Always made
Speaker 1: sure there because the winds were swirling and when the
Speaker 1: flag was on the right, I always aimed at on
Speaker 1: the right edge of the green and made sure I
Speaker 1: had a draw because you don't cutting the ball into
Speaker 1: those little trade winds as we call it. You know
Speaker 1: you're going and I mean, look what happen Defred Couples.
Speaker 1: That was a miracle. What happened to Fred couple sticking
Speaker 1: on their bank. Once you start your mental preparation for
Speaker 1: the Masters. Um A bit like TPC. It's such a
Speaker 1: great hole that seventeen hold you. You start once you
Speaker 1: get start driving to jack Jacksonville, you start thinking of
Speaker 1: the seventeen and you think, how am I going to play?
Speaker 1: You ever say, no, my wages at nine ees are great.
Speaker 1: You don't think of it. But if you to go
Speaker 1: and blow me I've pulled I've been pulling my nine eine,
Speaker 1: then you have to go and practice it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I you have to mentally prepare yourself for that. And
Speaker 1: it's and it's not just the shape of the shot,
Speaker 1: you know, it's picking the right club, it's the strike
Speaker 1: you missed. Hit it a hare and it goes up
Speaker 1: and floats in the wind. And even worse, you do
Speaker 1: everything perfectly and then the winds. You obviously can't judge
Speaker 1: the wind a d percent what it's doing up there.
Speaker 1: If it's swirling, I've seen the ball just stay in
Speaker 1: the air for Curtish Strange well, that one when it
Speaker 1: stayed in the air forever and ended up halfway up
Speaker 1: the bank. And then the next day you almost hit
Speaker 1: the same club and you can come up short. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what So that's the other scary thing as well,
Speaker 1: because I did everything right, I hit it perfect, and
Speaker 1: it still comes up wrong and causes or costumes steally.
Speaker 1: You know, the first time I ever played that tournament.
Speaker 1: I'm watching Hogan and Snead debatably the debatably too well,
Speaker 1: you've got to rank him up with anybody they've ever lived. Basically,
Speaker 1: they went to war for five years and never played
Speaker 1: in majors in their prime, and then they had the
Speaker 1: car accident Hogan, So Hogan never played in his prime
Speaker 1: thirty majors. Can you imagine what he would have done?
Speaker 1: His hands, unfortunately, really don't mean much. But Hogan hit
Speaker 1: first and hit the seven nine and went to the
Speaker 1: back of the green, and Snead took an eight iron
Speaker 1: and went in the water. As you say, those wouldn't
Speaker 1: swirl there. And there's no question of all the holes
Speaker 1: on that golf course. Number twelve gives you the creeps
Speaker 1: because you stand on you stand on the tea and
Speaker 1: you look at the eleventh hole, which is adjacent, and
Speaker 1: you see the flags going downward, and yet the flag
Speaker 1: it rolls into the wind. Yeah, well, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you had to. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to think.
Speaker 1: You know, I used to try obviously take hitting lower
Speaker 1: in there because it stayed on a better trajectory. I mean,
Speaker 1: as soon as it gets up, then it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's in the swirling breeze. So um, yeah, I did
Speaker 1: reasonably well. I made I made my grades is up
Speaker 1: and down. I've been talking to bunker play. My best
Speaker 1: bunker shot of my life probably I plugged it in
Speaker 1: the back bunker in the last round and you know,
Speaker 1: with the pin and looking back, I've got plugged like
Speaker 1: flag water and I managed to just give it a
Speaker 1: pop and it came out just to three yards, just
Speaker 1: just staying on the other side of the green and
Speaker 1: then I hold the part. So that was probably my
Speaker 1: best or one of my most memorable bunker shots that
Speaker 1: I managed to managed to pull off. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's a great hole. And that's that's the the great
Speaker 1: thing about again. We're all into the length. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you can design a hole like that which creates
Speaker 1: a bit of fair factor with a nine or seven
Speaker 1: nine for these you know that we don't need length,
Speaker 1: and we don't need length, but if it's just a ballpark,
Speaker 1: they're just hitting it into well, then we do need length.
Speaker 1: Nick I played the twelve hole, uh, and I buried
Speaker 1: the ball in the back lip, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: call for an unplayable line at the Harvey Rainer was
Speaker 1: rules official at that time, and he told me where
Speaker 1: I had to drop it, and I didn't like it
Speaker 1: made it worse, so I try to just chop it
Speaker 1: into the bunker and then try to get up and
Speaker 1: down the next one. And it came at a bit fast,
Speaker 1: balanced in the banquet, hit the lip, bounced up in
Speaker 1: the air, went in the hole. Your yours were skilled,
Speaker 1: Mark was luck. Don't forget to subscribe to the Player
Speaker 1: series on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.