Charles Coody - "My Greatest Shot" SHORT TRACK

Charles Coody is coming down the stretch of his victory at the 1971 Masters when misfortune struck at the famous 17th at Augusta National Golf Club. Hear how Charlie averted disaster and pulled off one of the must under-appreciated shots in all of major championship history. Charles Coody shares his greatest shot, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to hook just the wee.

Mike Gonzalez 0:17

I've got to say you closed this thing down pretty well because you finished Birdie, Birdie, Par Parr while I think Miller bogied two of the last three holes. Why don't you take us through just the last little bit? You you you you hit the shot, uh, you committed to your shot on 16, and so you made birdie there, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Mm-hmm. Uh 17, I uh uh the way I tried to play 17, I tried to, you know, I I wasn't really a highball hitter, but I tried to hit the I tried to tee the ball up where I would catch it high in the in the club face and uh and try to fly it over Ike's tree. And uh and of course I was uh predominantly a uh um a right to left player, but in that particular time I was I was trying to uh the way I would play 17, I would I would try to uh hit it up over Ike's tree with a little fade. And I hit a pretty solid drive, I thought. And uh one of them told me when the ball hit the ground and uh I I I I I hadn't hit it uh over the right side of the tree. I'd hit it basically over the left center of the tree, and he said when it hit the ground, it it was like it hit in a divot or hit something and just went uh 90 degrees left and went into that front bunker of on the seventh green on the right side.

Mike Gonzalez 1:39

So Bruce, you can Bruce, you can picture that, right? You've been there.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Uh sure can that for our you know that's that is if if you can get into jail on the 17th Hall at the Masters, that is jail. There is no way to go from there except to try and get a back in play, and I'm sure that's what Charlie had to do.

Mike Gonzalez 1:58

Well, and for for our listeners, I want you right now, if you're listening to this podcast on a phone or a computer or whatever, I want you to pause it. I want you to go and get a Google map or an Apple map or some sort of satellite map, pull up Augusta National, get the golf course on your screen, and you look at that front right bunker on seven and and look at what kind of shot he had. And uh, Charles, you can take us through it, but that may be one of the most underestimated golf shots in all of major championship history.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I've told I've told people that it uh, you know, as far as Charles Scooty individual is probably the greatest golf shot I ever hit in my life. And uh and when I walked over there to to where the ball was, I I was uh I first of all I couldn't believe it was there. I couldn't you know, because the ball was not hooking. And there was no way it should have been in that bunker other than that that immediate bounce to the left that uh my friend told me about. And but I was fortunate in one sense when it rolled into the bunker, it didn't roll all the way into the bottom of the bunker. I was on just just a little bit of an upslope. And when I walked down into the bunker to try to look at what I had, you know, yeah, I I I mean, you know, I've got two choices. I I can uh I can try to advance it uh up the uh fairway as much as I can, or I can just take a sandwich and and and blast it back out under the into the fairway and uh and then try to try to save par, you know, from what would be uh where your normal key shot would be. And uh but that little bit of an uphill lag uh kinda uh encouraged me to try the shot that I did. Uh I I got in there and I when I was looking at the uh at the green, I could see the pen. I could see the pen, it was on the right front of the green, I could see the pen just underneath the uh hang overhanging uh limb from the pine tree that was in front of me there. And so I had to go around that limb. And uh I decided to uh you know I I I had to make car because I figured it's you know the chances of Jack burning one of the last two holes were always pretty good. And uh and so I uh I took a seven iron and uh and somehow I uh I hooked the ball out of that lie and wound up about ten to fifteen yards off the right edge of the green there. A simple little uh bump and run shot at that time, and uh uh I I bumped it up there about three feet from the hole and made the thought for a par.

Mike Gonzalez 4:47

It seemed as though the fellas uh uh on the telecast, because people have to remember back then there weren't too many cameras. They were all stationary. There were no there were no roving reporters or roving cameras, and so the view you got from that stationary screen behind 17 Green, uh uh uh but that stationary camera, looking back toward where Charles Cootie was, you didn't know, and the announcers didn't know that you were in a bunker. But if you watch it, you'll could you can distinctly see Sand Fly, and that even after the shot, these guys, I don't think, picked up on the fact that you were actually in the bunker on the front right of seven green.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

In fact, I I think it took them a while to find me, Mike. I don't you know I don't I don't I don't think I don't think anybody had ever uh I think I'm the first uh uh person ever hit in that bunker off the uh 17th T.

Mike Gonzalez 5:39

Well, it was a great shot.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

It was probably the greatest shot I ever hit in my life, just to get it out and get it up around the green and where I might have a chance to save far.

Mike Gonzalez 5:50

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, but it's tell your friends down the middle until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 6:13

It went smack down the fairway. And it started just like just offline, it had it for two, but it left off time. Black head as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay. It went straight down the middle, five away.