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The Characters
“I DON’T WANT TO BE A MILIONAIRE - I JUST WANT TO LIVE LIKE ONE.” -Walter Hagen
Walter Hagen was not only a great golfer, but a master at destroying his opponents mind and concentration. He won the PGA Championship 5 times, the format then was match play. One of his great feats was his lop-sided defeat of Bobby Jones in a 36-hole head to head match.
Jones was the king of the amateurs, and Hagen the king of the pros. They were to play 18 holes on each of their home courses. Hagen won the toss and said the first 18 holes were to be played on Jones’ home course. His theory was that Jones would be under more pressure playing before his home club members.
That worked and Hagen had a decisive lead when they went to his home course. Hagen put Jones out before they reached the back nine. Jones later mentioned the fact that he had out-driven Hagen all through the match. Hagen then said that he purposely let Jones out-drive him because he wanted to be the first to shoot at the greens and let Jones look at his ball on the green when it was his turn to shoot.
Walter Hagen Jr. was a member of the club where I assistant pro. He was a physical clone of his father. We played together quite often and he used all of his father’s tricks on me (most of them worked). It got to the point that he had me wondering what he was going to use on me next.
One of Lee Trevino’s favorite stories is the time Thompson sent Raymond Floyd to take on a Mexican kid at a course in Texas. When Floyd arrived there the Mexican kid helped him unload his car and put the clubs on a cart. Floyd asked who he was supposed to play. Trevino said “Me.” Trevino then went out and beat Floyd. When they were through, Floyd wanted to play another nine to try to get some of the lost money back. Trevino said, “No, I have to put the carts up.”
Doug Sanders was one of our most colorful players of a few years back. He missed going down in the record books when he missed very short putt on the 18 green at St. Andrews for the British Open. He lost the next day in a playoff with Jack Nicklaus.
Sanders claimed he developed this swing when he was younger and snuck on the golf course in his home town. If he took a full swing they could spot him from the clubhouse and then run him off of the course. They used to joke about his short swing, and claimed it was so short that he could swing in a phone booth.
He played in a tournament at my course in Florida one year and I was in the gallery following him. On the 15th hole he was faced with a difficult shot. He was obviously concerned on how to play the shot and had backed away from it a few times. Each time he backed away he would look at a man in the gallery. The wind was blowing quite hard and this man had some loose change in his pocket that was jingling (coins jingled in those days). In moments of indecision golfer’s ears are fine tuned for foreign sounds. This was one of those moments. Suddenly he stopped, reached for his wallet and then walked up to the man, handed him a dollar and said, “I will give you a dollar for all of that change you have in your pocket.” That broke up the crowd and erased all of the tension that previously bothered him on that shot. He went on to win the tournament, and I believe this was one of the deciding factors.
Losing control of one’s temper in an individual game, or sport, can be destructive. Doug could have blessed that man out, causing embarrassment and destroying his ability to concentrate on that particular shot. It could have alienated his gallery as well. It made quite an impression on me and also was a lesson learned.