Golf Confessions

My how time flies, 26 years ago I was getting ready to caddy for Sam Snead in the first Players Championship played on the new TPC course at Sawgrass.  I was more nervous than if I were teeing it up myself.

Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer had been given a special exemption to play in the tournament to dedicate the new course.  When Sam got into town on Tuesday he went to his nephew’s home, J.C. Snead.  I was over at J. C. ’s when Sam got in.  After eating a bite and shooting the bull which Sam had no equal, he stood up and said that he was going over to the course and get registered and find a caddy.  For some reason I stood up and said, Sam I’ll caddy for you.  Sam looked at me in that special sort of way and said, can you carry that bag around the course.  Well I had a confident, well hell yes.  He said okay you got it.

Wednesday morning we went to the course for a practice round and my first experience at caddying for a legend.  I had played a lot of golf with Sam and J. C. but to be caddying on this stage was quite different.  I had no clue what I needed to do.  I found the caddy master and he filled me in, got me registered and told me what to do.  I found one of the regular tour caddies and bought a yardage book, which at the time looked like Greek.  We went out and had a good round and were ready for the opening round.

The first two rounds we were paired with Bob Murphy and Lee Elder.  I met Sam coming down the long ramp leading from the club house to the practice tee on Thursday morning.  Sam had a look and air about him that I had never seen.  He was very quite and had a special walk.  After we had walked about half way to the practice tee, Sam said, did you see what those B_____,_______, had in the paper this morning?  No I guess not, what are you talking about?  Well they had me a 1000 to 1  to win this ______ tournamnet.  He then said, I wish I were about 20 lbs. lighter and about 10 years younger and I would show those______ a thing or two. 

Sam made reference to that article several times during the round that day.  You could tell that he had a lot of pride and wished  so much that he could be competitive.  One time he said when he got home that he was going to really practice and get his butt into shape and he would show them a thing or two.  Keep in mind this is a man that was 69 years old at the time, but he still wanted to win.

Both Palmer and Sam missed the cut, Arnold shot 72-77 and Sam shot 77-81.    Guess who shot 79-80, Fred Couples.  Sam beat Fred by a shot. 

It was a great pleasure to be on that bag for those two days.  Sam showed me just what being a competitor was truly all about.  He tried his hardest on every shot.  Sam was the ultimate when it came to being a great champion and he played the game to win.  I will cherish forever the opportunity I had at the TPC that year and I was so fortunate two weeks later I caddied for Sam at The Master in his last official Masters as a player.

This year the winner of The Players will win $1,710,000 and last place  is worth $19,000.  In 1982 the winner, Jerry Pate, won $90,000 and last place won $1,ooo.  Compare that to Sam who leads the PGA with 82 wins and his official money for his career was $668,000.

The tournamnet has been moved from its traditional spot in March to May.  The move may help miss some rain but the wind may be a huge factor this week.  TPC at Sawgrass is projected to be hard and fast.

Phil will have an opportunity to show case his great short game in these conditions.  Over the past couple of years Phil has spent a lot time working on his full swing and neglected his short game.  But recently Phil has gotten back on his short game agenda and is hoping to see some positive results this week.  This tournament is very special to most of the participants.  There is a lot of prestige in winning The Players Championship.  The golf course is one of the toughest the tour plays all year and the field is always one of the very best.

None of the majors has as tough of a field as The Players.  The Masters has one of the weakest fields all year.  The field only has about 90+ players versuses a usually field of 156.  The field is made up of several amateurs and other tour leaders from around the world.  Then the cut is around 50 players.  The PGA has several pros from that are non tourning players.  The US Open and the British Open are open to open qualifying and this brings in a lot of non touring pros and seldom do many if any of these qualifiers make it to the weekend.

This should be an exciting week for the golf fan.  If the tournament is close come Sunday afternoon then watch for the treacherous 17 to offer some drama.