Fuzzy Zoeller - Part 2 (The Tour Wins)

Fuzzy Zoeller, winner of the 1979 Master and the 1984 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, relives each of his regular PGA Tour wins and describes how he overcame physical challenges to excel at the game of golf. He acknowledges the "Showbiz" aspects of professional golf but respects the traditions and values of the game as well. Fuzzy regales us with his tales, “Fore the Good of the Game.”

Transcript

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Well, welcome to another edition of For the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. Our guest today probably will have no recollection of the time that he and I had a brief encounter. This goes back to the 90s, which we'll talk about. I'm sure he won't remember it, but I sure do. But I'm really excited about the guest we've got uh with us this morning.

Bruce Devlin 0:33

Well, he's a pretty special guy. First time he ever played at Augusta, a winner. Outside of uh 34, 1934 and 1935, he's the only man to win first time at Augusta, uh U.S. Open champion, uh is in the vodka business, and at some point in time during his career, he was a sponsor of the IndyCar racing team. So welcome, Fuzzy Zella. It is great to have you with us, pal.

Fuzzy Zoeller 1:04

Well, Bruce, thank you very much. Mike, it's good seeing you again. I I really am sitting here thinking about back in the nineties, uh, and God knows what you're gonna throw at me, but I'm ready for it, gentlemen, so let's get on with the program.

Mike Gonzalez 1:17

Well, let's get going. I'll just explain myself. Uh it was at the Masters, par three tournament. Every year in the 90s, my dad and my my two brothers would go to the par three tournament. We'd sit behind the hole, right behind the pin on number two. Sixty-eight yards as I recall. Might not have been that far. So it was a probably a sand wedge which you one hopped a strict son right into my lap. Yeah. Well, that was just like it was yesterday. Did I give you the ball? I gave you the ball after the ball. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Uh you you signed it, you gave me the ball, you signed it, and I gave it to a little kid that was sitting next to us all day, so appreciate that. No, I appreciate you giving it to the little kid. Yeah, I'm sure he still got it too. But hey, uh great to be with you from uh from a guy that was kind of back uh from your neck of the woods. I grew up in southern Illinois, so it wasn't too far away from uh uh where you were in southern Indiana. So much to talk about today. I think uh what we ought to do is just get right into your professional career if we can, and then if we have time, we may talk about earlier life and how you got into golf. But uh you turned professional uh, if I got this correctly, back in 1973 at age 21, is that right? That's true. I did. Let me ask you this. Uh the last Robinson Open down in Crawford County, Southern Illinois, was contested in 1973. Did you uh did you play in that tournament?

Fuzzy Zoeller 2:48

I was invited to it, but I couldn't make it. And I was very upset. Robinson tournament was one of the one of the big tournaments back then. Uh, but uh I was unable to attend. I had to uh just tell them I was sorry I couldn't make it. But uh that was that was a great tournament. Everybody, top amateurs in this area, played the Robinson tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 3:12

I think that tournament ended in 73. Dean Beaman won that event, I believe. And Bruce, you might recall Dean sharing with us that it was after that tournament, which was right after he recovered from his hand issue, that he said, okay, I've accomplished all I'm going to accomplish as a player. I'm ready to say yes to Joe Dye and the and the board about taking on the uh the job of commissioner.

Bruce Devlin 3:34

That's that's absolutely correct. And you know, uh I must say one thing about Fuzzy and his career in golf. Uh I mean, we highlighted the masters in the open, but Fuzzy Zeller won more tournaments on great golf courses. The percentage of tournaments that he won were on fabulous golf courses, and and I think that's a that's a good insight into how talented this man was.

Fuzzy Zoeller 3:59

And you know what's amazing, Bruce? I I felt like I should have won a lot more. I had opportunities to do it, but somebody always beat me by a shot or two. But uh I always played the the hard golf course as well. Now why that was, I don't know. Could have been my patience level. Uh God knows there was guys out there that had a hell of a lot more talent than I did. But uh, you know, I l I loved the game. The game was great to me when I was playing it competitively, and now I'm so glad I'm retired, away from it. Don't have to chase those errant T-shots getting out of the rough, hands hurting, back hurting. I don't miss those pains anymore.

Bruce Devlin 4:44

I must say though, uh one one of your greatest attributes was uh your ability to be s to stay level throughout the whole situation. You were never a uh uh I mean you you love to joke and all the rest of it, but but from a playing standpoint you're very, very steady.

Fuzzy Zoeller 5:04

Well, uh yeah, I guess I I inherited that from my dad because that's the way he was always uh that's the way he taught me as I was growing up, you know, to just play the game. It is a game. It's a hard game, but it is the only a game.

Mike Gonzalez 5:20

Yeah. Good point. You know, Bruce, your observation about uh his wins on the PGA tour, even aside from the from the majors, uh is a good one. We didn't compare notes beforehand on this, but I had the same thought as I went through which we will do, uh some of the significant wins in in Fuzzy's PGA career. I looked upon it as great tournaments. You've got a different perspective because you've played most of these golf courses, but either way, uh I'm sure any pro would love to have this collection of of wins in their body of work.

Bruce Devlin 5:53

Absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 5:56

Let's just talk about a brief overview. Nineteen professional wins by Fuzzy Zeller, including ten PGA Tour victories. Two senior uh PGA Tour wins, including a major. Let's just talk about the PGA Tour. We'll we'll get to the two majors. Those are obviously the highlights for everybody, but as we talk about these other wins that Bruce alluded to, maybe start uh going back to 1979. I believe that was the first one, which was the Andy Williams San Diego Open invitational at Torrey Pines by five over four other golfers. What do you what's your recollection about that first win?

Fuzzy Zoeller 6:32

Well, that uh recollection was 16th, we had to take shelter in a big truck that had the tower on it with the TV camera that gives you those beautiful air views because of uh a sleet storm. It was cold. It was windy. Uh I had like a six-shot lead on Billy Kratzer, if I'm not mistaken, going into sixteen and seventeen and eighteen, which are not the easiest holes in the world. Eighteen maybe is a little sh you know, it's a little longer today. It's probably a hundred yards longer than what it was when we played back then. But uh you know, again, uh my goal was to get it in the house. I I kept telling my caddy Mike Mazio, uh I said, I don't care how we do this, we just gotta figure out how to make parts for three holes, and this this will be our victory, which I was able to do. And then of course uh Andy Williams handed me the trophy was fun because uh I'd played in a couple pro ams with him. Little did I ever think that he'd be handing me his trophy uh of his tournament. And that was nice.

Mike Gonzalez 7:36

Uh we'll skip to the next one, which is one that uh Bruce knows quite well. It's uh it's a great tournament to win. That's the Colonial Invitational uh at Colonial Country Club by four over Hale Irwin.

Fuzzy Zoeller 7:49

By four? Was it by four? No. It was by four. I had kind of forgotten that. I I do remember getting beat by Jim Cobert uh what two years later in a playoff where I hit it under the bridge there on to the right of eighteen. Not once. I got to do it twice. So the old wooden driver didn't work too good. Yeah, that was uh you know, Colonial again, um a great golf course. You got to drive your ball, you got to put it in position in order to uh in order to get the ball on the greens. And those greens are not real big, but uh it was a fun course to play. I mean if you put it the ball where you're supposed to, it kind of opened things up.

Mike Gonzalez 8:33

Yeah, uh Bruce, they changed the course at some point. Remember our discussion with Dave Stockton uh when he won it, then the next year they changed the changed the golf course. When was that?

Bruce Devlin 8:43

Oh gee, I I'm not sure of the exact year, but uh I don't know if Fuzzy uh I don't Fuzzy never played it when the uh atoll was a little shortish par three that was sitting right on the right of the trend. Yeah, sure did yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 9:01

Yeah, and they changed uh what was it, 10, 11, 12, 13 to par three?

Bruce Devlin 9:06

Right.

Fuzzy Zoeller 9:06

I think it's thirteen, they changed that to make it a little longer, par three, with that big oblong green on it. Uh right. Yeah. But uh now they've added uh what a bunch of length to the golf course, which uh in today's standards uh they needed it. Because the way the guys hit it today, it's uh I have a hard time relating to it. I can't know Bruce does because Bruce can't he can't see that far.

Bruce Devlin 9:30

So no, I cannot see that far. I promise you, you're right.

Fuzzy Zoeller 9:36

I hate to tell you, I'm taking notes because I can't see that far either. But it is it's uh it's just uh unbelievable what these uh young men and even the ladies today, how far they're hitting the golf ball.

Bruce Devlin 9:48

That's true. And Fuzzy, they're about to uh I believe after the tournament next year, uh Gil Hans is gonna go in there. They're gonna uh redo the whole golf course again. So uh it'll be interesting to see what happens after he's finished.

Fuzzy Zoeller 10:02

Yeah, I hope they don't lose the character of it, though. I mean, uh that is a hard-driving golf course. Uh that's that's what you have to do there, is put the ball in position.

Bruce Devlin 10:13

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 10:14

Of course, Bruce, you won there in 1966. I I went back and looked at uh uh the fellows we've talked to already. Uh our previous guests have won eleven colonials, believe it or not.

Bruce Devlin 10:26

Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?

Mike Gonzalez 10:28

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 10:29

Said I was just happy to win one. Oh yeah. Just overjoyed just to win the one. And to have the opportunity to put that jacket on. I know you probably still got yours, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 10:39

So I do, I still have it, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 10:42

Yeah, Bruce had Bruce had a problem with his uh years ago. He turned up at some event uh for what past winners, Bruce, and they wondered where your jacket was.

Bruce Devlin 10:52

Yeah, it was interesting, Fuzzy. They uh uh the club sent my jacket to Australia. And I never received it. So uh when when uh when Glory and I moved back to Texas after being in uh Arizona for a while, I went to the champions dinner and I didn't have a jacket, so I had to I think I borrowed uh I think it might have been Baker Finch's. Anyhow, uh they said, Where's your jacket? And I said I don't have one. I never did get one.

Fuzzy Zoeller 11:28

So you you had one on the 18th hole, just never received it at the end of the day.

Bruce Devlin 11:34

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And so that so they built me a uh new one. Uh and and I don't you probably don't remember. I don't think yours was, but it was a green tartan originally. Now it's a red tartan. They changed it.

Mike Gonzalez 11:50

I had I've got the I got the red.

Bruce Devlin 11:52

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 11:54

Buzzy, what's your recollection of of Ben Hogan from then and and even prior? Well, you know, uh Mr.

Fuzzy Zoeller 12:01

Hogan, I got to see him every year at the champions' dinner at Colonial. And uh the story I always tell is that from the Augusta dinner with Herman Kaiser, Hermie'd always walk up to me and say, You tell Mr. Hogan, he'd always call him Mr. Hogan, tell Mr. Hogan thank you from Hermie. So every year after 81, um I always walked up to Mr. Hogan and I said, Uh Herman Kaiser says thank you. And he'd look up and those little crooky old fingers his go, he's never forgotten. And what it is, and what it was, it was a story from 1938. Of course that was before my time. Um Herman Kaiser was broke, didn't have any money to make it to the next tournament. Mr. Hogan loaned him fifteen hundred dollars to get to the next week. And then Herman won and paid him back uh all in a week's time, paid him back the fifteen hundred. And they have never forgotten that story. So that's what the story was, and every year I went uh to the colonial dinner and saw Mr. and Mrs. Hogan before dinner, I'd always walk up and say, Hermey says thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 13:16

That's kind of neat, yeah. That's a great story. So let's move on to the next win, then, fuzzy, 1983 Sea Pines Heritage at Harbortown by uh by two over Jim Nelford. Of course, this is near and dear to uh Bruce and I's heart because it's just down the street from where I live and where uh Bruce uh built a pretty nice golf course.

Fuzzy Zoeller 13:37

Now Hilton had again is one of those courses like Colonial where driving is the uh is the key to it. It's a tight little golf course, not long. Wasn't long, what sixty nine hundred Bruce I remember right, seven thousand maybe. Uh but boy you better put the ball in the right area, or you just you can make bogies, double bogies, triple bogies so fast it make your head swim.

Bruce Devlin 14:03

Well, the other the other point that you made about colonial uh certainly applies at Hilton Head, and that is the greens, uh rather small, particularly compared to uh most golf courses that we played.

Fuzzy Zoeller 14:15

Oh, no kidding. Looked like a little postage stamp sitting in there and always sloping away. That's kind of yeah, that's uh it was a great, great test, great uh you know, uh a fun tournament to win because of all the activities you get to do uh the following year with shooting off the canning, hitting the golf ball into the sound. Yeah, that's uh very special moment. I got to do it twice. I got to do it twice, so um very, very lucky.

Mike Gonzalez 14:45

It's it's a special tournament down here. Of course, uh this goes back uh 38 years, you know. So you fast forward to 2021, you let the course grow up a little, let the trees come in a little bit more, and you can only imagine how tight it is today. It is a difficult, difficult golf course.

Fuzzy Zoeller 15:01

Yeah, it is. No, it is. I watch it, I watch it on TV every year, and uh I just shake my head. You know, well that gap used to be a little wider, it's not very wide right now. But again, it goes back, you know, with the kids the way they're uh and the guys the way they're hitting the golf ball, you gotta tighten things down for them.

Bruce Devlin 15:19

Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 15:20

Let them hit that little area that we all used to swing at and hit at.

Mike Gonzalez 15:24

Yeah. That golf course was a collaboration, of course, with Jack Nicholas and and Pete Dye, so it was early work for Jack, and uh it sure has stood the test of time. I think Arnold Palmer uh won the first event, and I remember uh I've got a picture upstairs of him on the on the last screen putting out, and in the background is the under construction light tower there, which had not yet been completed.

Bruce Devlin 15:48

Yeah, amazing.

Mike Gonzalez 15:51

That's a long time ago, Bruce. That's before our time, Bruce. Yeah, I know it is. Uh 1983, Panasonic Las Vegas Pro Celebrity Classic. Boy, this is, I tell you, by four again.

Fuzzy Zoeller 16:04

Holy smokes. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like to have pressure on me coming at last toe. You know what I'm saying? Nothing right. But uh, you know, Las Vegas, that was the uh first tournament that they had had in a while because they had been off the tour for a while, and then they came back with the largest purse on the PGA tour. Right. Um, and again, it was in Vegas, which was an appropriate spot for it. Uh very good times. Uh I remember uh hitting the uh second shot over the lake there at the uh country club, and I was so glad it cleared the lake because I was kind of at a marginal distance, but I had a four-shot lead. I figured I could with the adrenaline pumping, I could squeeze five extra yards out of a three wood. So uh but uh it was fun. Uh very exciting. Again, uh you're playing different golf courses. Uh courses today that aren't even there that we played. Yeah, so was a Desert Inn course one of those? DI was one, yes. Yeah, that's that's not there anymore. No. Uh what's this? Showboat showboat or the yeah, show something, showboat. It was set out of town just a little bit. That was one of the other ones we played. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of neat. It's a different format, uh, long week because you played with amateurs, uh, but it was still a very enjoyable week.

Mike Gonzalez 17:25

Purse was 750,000, and the next year it went to a million, as you said, the highest purse on the PGA tour at the time. Uh second place finisher, Rex Caldwell. What do you remember about uh Rex Caldwell?

Fuzzy Zoeller 17:38

Who sexy Rexy? Oh, yes. Rexy, uh, I had big old tall boy, look like a big old Texan, uh, but he's from Florida, if I'm not mistaken. But um Yeah, he was I played a lot of golf with Rex, played a lot of practice rounds with Rex. Quite a character. I remember I remember Rex at Augusta one year. He hit it left on number two down there in that little creek.

Bruce Devlin 18:02

Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 18:04

That's when he he was playing with those pain irons. And he got down there, he thought he could hit it out of the creek. Well, next thing after, three irons went ping, ping, ping, ping. Without making contact with the golf ball, uh he finally decided he was going to drop it. That's my that's my one story with Rex Caldwell.

Mike Gonzalez 18:25

Well, uh you guys will remember this. Which major, I want to say it's the U.S. Open, but I'm not sure, which major was he in contention uh going into the last day? You recall?

Fuzzy Zoeller 18:36

You know, I can't remember that. Um I don't know. He had a couple years there where he ran pretty well. He was always a good putter, good short-arm player, good putter. Uh do you know what it was, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 18:49

No, no. Fuzzy. If you can't remember at 70, I kind of at 84, fam.

Mike Gonzalez 18:56

I'm sorry you brought that age stuff up. Well, what I was thinking about, this came up in a previous episode, one of our guests. I can't remember. Marion's on my mind, but I'm not sure it's the year necessarily that David Graham won. But uh uh he was in contention, might have been leading, uh, was a bit cocky with the press the night before the final round. And uh I remember Dan Jenkins' uh uh article uh wrapping up the tournament, and uh of course Caldwell had a difficult Sunday, didn't finish at the top, and and Dan Jenkins said something like uh they don't have enough mustard in America for this hot dog.

Fuzzy Zoeller 19:38

Oh, Lordy. Yeah, there are some there are some guys, some players out there that got caught up in your ego, but uh I guess if you didn't believe in yourself, who are you gonna believe in?

Mike Gonzalez 19:50

Yeah, yeah, that's true, especially at at the level that you guys were playing. So this next one, I suppose, is one that uh you would and any any uh PJ professional would really cherish winning, and that's winning Arnie's tournament.

Fuzzy Zoeller 20:06

Well now that uh that was uh one of the wins that I'll never forget. Um you know I had just come back after six months after back surgery, uh and it was it was a long haul. I'm not gonna lie to you. It wasn't anything easy about it. I had to teach myself how to walk. Uh for s what was it, six weeks I was in the hospital in uh up in New York. And the last three weeks of those six I was walking, trying to walk, learned how to walk, pick my feet up, uh, just do things. Because they weren't sure after the the surgery that I had that I was going to be able to do that because there was a lot of nerve damage and stuff. But uh when I came back and I had practiced like uh a month before I'd got to Arnold's tournament, uh, and one, it proved to me that I was back. I said I can do this again, which was great, because you know, there's always uh anytime you have a major injury, there's always that doubt in a player's mind until you get back out and get the flow going again and then uh eventually beating the best at what they do.

Bruce Devlin 21:14

Well, especially back injuries. I mean, that's uh I mean if you if you want to stay away from one injury, that would be the one to stay away from.

Fuzzy Zoeller 21:22

Yeah, uh well, back wrist injuries for golfers are always bad because they're they just never heal. Uh you know, the back injuries, uh I got to a great doctor, Dr. Ralph Markov up in New York, who has since passed, but uh he performed a surgery on me that uh I don't think he would ever try it on anybody else. I mean what he did, he went in and uh and it was all calls from cortisone, but he went in and de roofed my lower spine about three inches. So I don't have any lower spine. Just took the top of it off. Uh the reason being is the cortisone had fused all my lower vertebras together and it was like concrete. He couldn't break it away. So he just cut it off. And that's the reason why I was in the hospital so long.

Mike Gonzalez 22:12

Was this uh did it result from a uh uh an injury at some point or was this just sort of a progressive thing you know that old saying white man can't jump yeah it was it was from a basketball injury I had gone in for a layup and one of uh our arch rivals here in t in uh southern Indiana decided to take my legs out and they did.

Fuzzy Zoeller 22:36

I made like a three quarter flip landed on the back of my head and then ripped all the muscles out of my back and the doctors told me then that I was going to have spinal you know um problems later on in life but golf is what I wanted to do so I just kind of grinned and beared it uh until 79 up at a guy up in uh Mearfield when uh I guess the disc or disc two I'll make them plural uh finally ruptured and then they they had to take me to the hospital and that's when they shot me with the cortisone so you were a regular friend of cortisone for a few years before the surgery then well I thought it was supposed to be a miracle drug but in my system it didn't work. It's supposed to j it's supposed to gel in a person's system and in my system it hardened. So there uh that's that's what caused all my problems.

Mike Gonzalez 23:31

Boy. There were other guys uh famous for their back issues Fred couples Dave Stockton who we just talked to a couple weeks ago did you compare notes with those guys in terms of treatment, exercise whatever on how you could just live with this butter?

Fuzzy Zoeller 23:45

Uh no we really didn't we didn't talk about it much. You know everybody would say they ache they pay I had pains and stuff but the hell I I had pains every day. You just kind of throw it out try to think of something else. You know it's like they tell pregnant women when they have a headache I can't take anything so think of being on a nice place on a beach. You know think of something else to get rid of the pain. So it's amazing what your mind can do.

Mike Gonzalez 24:11

Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 24:12

Let's move on then to the following year uh where you won the ATT Pebble Beach Pro Am in nineteen eighty six by five over painster you didn't have any one stroke victories did you I didn't want them to be close I wanted to come to 18 that if I did hit an air and shot I had some space in there you know what I mean so now I was who'd you partner with back then the I was with Mike Evans and Mike used to play the tour came back and got his amateur status back and played uh that year as a two handicapper which was about right for him but uh you know it was one of those where if I didn't make birdie Mike made birdie if I didn't make parr Mike made parr. You know it's uh we just hammed it all the way around there and just had a a a great week. And Payne Stewart finished uh uh second in that tournament Andy Bean was Andy Bean was up there too yeah all I remember um let's see I can't remember yeah it was number nine number nine hole I had hit a driver and I had hit a three wood and then I still had 125 yards short of the green so my goodness the wind was howling I it was one of those beautiful uh days at Pebble Beach that was the first year without the Crosby name wasn't it uh you you probably played in a few before uh uh ATT took it over was was Mike your regular partner or did you partner up with a few other guys? Oh I partnered up with uh anybody they put me with but Mike had called me and asked me because he was from Selena there and asked me if he could get in and I said well I don't know we can call and ask and uh they were nice enough to put us two together and the rest is history I guess we're on the yeah we're on the board of shame out there at Pebble Beach so there you go and that was back when Cyprus was in the rotation wasn't it Cyprus was in the rotation yes yeah you know that to this day I've never laid up at sixteen now I've made a couple sevens there but I never laid up I took that driver out if I had to and hit it. I love the challenge. Now you know Johnny Miller never he never went for it he always laid up with a full arm to the left over by the cypress tree then hit it on the green. But uh I always went for it. I loved that challenge. Isn't that the way Hogan played the hole too didn't he lay up left?

Mike Gonzalez 26:45

I don't I was before my time I don't know yeah I I always heard that story that that was the way he played the the 16th at Cypress Point was laying up left. Well you know the worst score you're gonna make is four pretty good idea not just a bogey you can recover a bogey but it's hard to recover from six and seven right yeah yeah so that that same year uh you come back to Harbortown and uh finally you eke out a victory by one over Chipek Mr.

Fuzzy Zoeller 27:19

Norman and Roger Mulpey Yeah that was uh that was a good one I buried uh I buried the last so on him and Greg Norman first one up to me you know he said you did it again to me God love you know over the years we had some great battles Greg and I didn't know soap and uh there at Hilton head and then he got me down at the TPC you know and shoot twenty under par and I lose by four yeah that's a bu that's when you run into a buzzsaw and that was a buzzsaw.

Mike Gonzalez 27:53

He could he could put up some numbers uh I know some of our guests uh have not more than one of our guests have talked about his uh was it a 63 at Turnberry in tough tough weather one year uh just an incredible round and and kind of lapped the field uh in terms of the guys that played in that half day when the weather was bad. Oh yeah.

Bruce Devlin 28:14

Probably the best at that time probably the best driver of a golf pool that uh was playing golf to be honest yeah and that was with the old wood clubs. Right. Right yeah the old wooden clubs how many of those do you still have Bruce uh fuzzy I pull one out every now and again and look at it and I wonder how the hell we ever played golf with that golf club. Yeah did you pull the uh did you pull the irons out and see how short those irons were yeah how big they are yeah how did we ever make contact with those little things yeah I don't know but yeah you know what's very interesting I I do a lot of work with the Hogan Foundation here and w when we have a little uh outing to raise money for the foundation we always take one of Mr Hogan's drivers and and put it on the first T and allow everybody to hit the driver and then they they lay zero. Well where do you think most of the drives go that people hit with each driver?

Mike Gonzalez 29:20

I'd say short right yeah way right yeah yeah unlike today and I'm sure we'll get to this because you've alluded to it fuzzy about how the games changed but uh unlike today with these guys much like pitchers you see pitchers now they're more throwers it's maximum effort every pitch and back when Bob Gibson pitched it wasn't maximum effort uh necessarily these guys were actually true pitchers and and you guys had to be pitchers in a way because if you were swinging a hundred percent it was probably going to be a little bit difficult to find the sweet spot on those small clubs.

Fuzzy Zoeller 30:00

Oh I'm telling you I I look at them uh every once in a while even though I've retired from the crazy game and I said there's no way you could hit that follow it and I you know I look at the one arm think of that the one iron and that one arm looked like a a butter knife sitting there with a very small head and I used to just crush it with that one arm. Yeah could I do it could I do it today?

Mike Gonzalez 30:25

No chance yeah how how it's changed. Let's uh wrap up regular season tour wins by talking about the 1986 Anheuser Busch golf classic on the river course at Kingsmill this is by two over Jody Mudd.

Intro Music 30:45

But I think I shot 64 that final round there and got in and posted that score which uh which held up but Jody Jody was a hot player on tour back then thank you for listening to another episode 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 and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game so long everybody smack down a fairway it went smack down a fairway and it's time it just less just smidge off landed for two but it bounced off many as long as you're still in the stage you're okay when it smit down the middle file