Tom: I played Augusta. As a matter of fact, I stayed in those white houses. I had a friend who was a member of Augusta, and he would pick the top ten seniors every year, and we’d get down there on Monday, the day after the tournament, and stay for three days. And we’d play the same markers — of course we didn’t go back to the championship tee, we played the membership tees — and I’ve stayed, oh, the pro shop, and I’ve stayed in a couple of the white houses along number ten, and I guess five years when I was a top ten player in the country I got the invitation. So for five years we’d go down on Monday and play until Wednesday and then go home.
You can say the Augusta National is special. Somebody made a statement when they were having a tournament, they’d pay you a dollar for every weed you’d find.
But the thing that’s exceptional was the greens. The speed of the green is unbelievable. I used to think ten — they rate them on numbers — ten and eleven is fast. But I would guess those greens are probably fourteen.
They are, not like this table right here, but there’s slopes on it. Well, number eighteen for example, Gary Player had a putt about from here to you, and he rolled it past the cup about that far [makes a distance with his hands — not too far], he had to make that to win the tournament. And on the TV watching it I thought ‘why’d he hit it so hard, why didn’t he lay up?’ Because he had two putts to win it, but he hit it and rolled it that far.
So the next day I was down there, and I said ‘I’m going to hit this putt Gary Player hits,’ and so I had pretty well memorized exactly where his ball was, and it took me five putts to stop that ball within six feet. I tapped it like I thought, and it got to the cup and it rolled, rolled, rolled. [laughter] But the first time, he stopped it that close.