00:00High school, high school, Mason going to Georgia, and he won the U.S. Amateur.
00:06Not the junior, the amateur.
00:08He could be the next Billy Andrews.
00:10He's going to be way better than me.
00:13So he's going against all the top college golfers in America, and he won U.S. Amateur.
00:17He beat them all.
00:18It's like the kid...
00:19That's amazing stuff.
00:21That is, wow.
00:22Give us some context for that.
00:23I mean, come on, being in high school...
00:26The top recruited golfers in the world who are going to whatever schools they are, Georgia, and Georgia Tech, Oklahoma
00:33State, and Wake Forest, Florida State, and he's beating everybody as a high school kid.
00:39He beat everybody in the U.S. Amateur, which is a high school kid doing that.
00:44When I was in high school, my senior year, I was going to Wake Forest, and I was on my
00:50way to Wake Forest.
00:51I missed the first week of school at Wake Forest because I was playing the U.S. Amateur in 1982.
00:56At the Country Club in Brookline, and I lost in the first round of match play.
01:01I played well in the qualifying.
01:02It was 36-hole qualifying, 200 players down to low 64.
01:06I was one of the top for the first two days, shot a couple of 71s or something, and I
01:11played Randy Reifers, who was Kyle Reifers, who played the tour for a long time and went to Wake Forest.
01:17I played his dad, and his dad beat me, and off of college I went.
01:21So I lost in the first round.
01:23This kid won it all.
01:24He beat everybody.
01:26And I think he also played on the Walker Cup team, and not too many high school kids play on
01:31the Walker.
01:31The Walker Cup is the equivalent to the Ryder Cup, but it's for college.
01:35It's for amateurs.
01:36It's not a pro thing.
01:37Ten players.
01:38He's one of the ten best amateur golfers in the country, and now he's got the opportunity to go to
01:43the University of Georgia
01:44and continue that legacy that Chris Hack has started.
01:48And I guess Chris is retiring after this year.
01:51Look at the legacy he has built there.
01:53Oh, my gosh.
01:53Amazing.
01:54Talk about the Georgia players that you're familiar with.
01:56Oh, I mean, where do you want to start?
01:59I mean, before he got there, they were good.
02:01But when he got there, you know, with Kevin Kistner, Brendan Todd, it's amazing they haven't won more national championships
02:09with the talent they've had.
02:11But Harris English, I mean, those guys, amazing.
02:14George has six players.
02:16There you go.
02:16There's your six.
02:17Harris English, Brian Harmon, Russell Henley, Sapp Strucka, Baba Watson, and Mason is playing.
02:22They're counting him as well.
02:23Yeah.
02:23Tremendous.
02:24Amazing.
02:25So tell us a little bit behind the scenes.
02:29We'll talk about stuff that, you know, you've been around because you've been so many years.
02:33And you do look great, by the way, I will say.
02:35Like, you got a good moisturizer or something?
02:38Like, your wife keeps you?
02:39You're like, you got a great head of hair and you got, like, no wrinkles or something.
02:44I don't know what's going on over there because you're not a young man.
02:46I'll just say that.
02:4762, baby.
02:48All right.
02:49Yeah.
02:49So you got me by a couple of years.
02:50So let me ask you, the rivalry, because, you know, Arnold Palmer is a good friend of yours.
02:56The rivalry of Arnold and Jack, how real was it and what was the interaction when you'd see them together?
03:01And then dovetail that into being on tour with Tiger.
03:05His rivalry with Phil, I guess it was.
03:07But to start with Arnie and Jack.
03:08You know, historically, what was that about and how real was it?
03:12Well, I think Arnold put golf, put PGA Tour golf on the map.
03:17I think Arnold, and it was at the Masters.
03:20When he was a young player in 1958, he won his first.
03:23Then he won in 60, 62, 64.
03:26And I think in 64 was when television golf became very popular.
03:31So now you've got this tournament in April.
03:33Everybody around the United States in the cold weather climates are watching the Masters.
03:37And that's what I did as a little kid.
03:39Yeah.
03:39Probably did, too.
03:40Born in Rhode Island.
03:41Yeah.
03:41And those guys, those two, Jack came on the scene in 62, I believe.
03:47And he was great from the start.
03:49So I don't think there was a lot of love, love, loss, love, their relationship was not about love.
03:56It was about, you know, who can beat who.
03:58And that happened for a while.
04:00Arnie's army looking at this kid as kind of a threat.
04:04Yeah.
04:05And he was a threat.
04:06Swashbuckling young guy with a certain.
04:08And they, you know, Arnie's fans were all over Jack for being fat.
04:12Fat Jack was his nickname, you know.
04:15So they were, it was a real thing.
04:18And then in the late 60s, they formed the PGA Tour.
04:22And those two guys got together and did that.
04:25Mark McCormick and IMG had them both there for a little while.
04:28Then Jack left.
04:28I don't know why.
04:30And then I got to know these two great players, the two greatest of all time.
04:35When I got into the game of golf, when I played in the Masters as an amateur,
04:39when I was, you know, in college at Wake Forest and Jackie Nicholas Jr. was at North Carolina.
04:45And we were friends.
04:46So I got to know the Mr. Nicholas, stayed at their house when I was in college.
04:50Stuff, really cool things like that.
04:52So.
04:54Compare their personalities.
04:55Jack and Arnie.
04:56Yeah.
04:56Jack and Arnie, as they got older, became very close.
05:00They did.
05:00And Jack had a nice eulogy at Arnold's funeral that my wife and I were at.
05:06And it was fabulous.
05:08But.
05:08But they're different guys, right?
05:10Jack, much more reserved.
05:12It's so interesting.
05:13I tell people this all the time.
05:15Jack on the golf course was very conservative.
05:19Hit middle of the green.
05:21Never.
05:21Didn't miss a lot of greens.
05:22Didn't go for.
05:23Didn't go for stuff.
05:25You know, fairways.
05:25And then, you know, greens.
05:27And he was an unbelievable putter and all that.
05:29And then, in business, Jack was, I mean, he tried to hit a home run every time.
05:34And then you got Arnold.
05:36Arnold Palmer on the golf course.
05:38There wasn't a pin that he didn't go for.
05:41I mean, he went for everything.
05:43You know, the percentages.
05:45No.
05:45Hit it over here.
05:46No.
05:46He went right at it.
05:48And he'd hit it in the water, maybe.
05:50And he'd make a double.
05:51But he didn't care.
05:52He just went for it on the golf course.
05:55Off the golf course, as a business person, he hit singles.
05:58He didn't go for home runs.
06:00And Arnold Palmer, to this day, his name and likeness and all that, that family's still
06:04making a ton of money.
06:06And it's just interesting how on the course, they were completely different.
06:09And off the course, they were also completely different.
06:11You walk in a room with Jack.
06:14Jack's, I love both of them.
06:16I love Jack.
06:17And I loved Arnold.
06:18You walk in a room with Jack.
06:20And Jack's there.
06:21You're a little bit on pins and needles.
06:23You don't know where you stand.
06:24He may throw, like, a little jab at you.
06:27And you kind of laugh and ha-ha, whatever.
06:30You walk in a room with Arnold.
06:32He wants to buy you a beer.
06:33He wants to give you a hug.
06:35He wants to sit down with you on the couch.
06:37He wants to get to know you.
06:38And he makes you, he made anyone that is, and I'm saying this, that anyone out there
06:44that has met Arnold Palmer knows this, is that he makes you feel like you're the special
06:50person, not him.
06:52And that's a wonderful trait to have.
06:54Yeah.
06:54That's an incredible testament to him.
06:56You were on the tour when Tiger was, you know, the apex, the biggest, the biggest star
07:03in the world, not just, you know, certainly in sports he was.
07:07How different was the tour when Tiger was around a tournament and when he was not?
07:12How tangible was that?
07:14I'll just start by saying I met Tiger Woods, one of the first times was at North Druid
07:20Hills Country Club when Stanford came in to play Georgia Tech in a little match.
07:27Exhibition.
07:27So you had Tiger playing against Stewart Cink, these college kids.
07:31And I went out there to watch because I wanted to see how great this kid was.
07:36I heard a lot about him.
07:37And then he left North Druid Hills to go to Augusta National and play in the Masters for
07:41the first time as an amateur, and I think that was around 1995.
07:46And then he came on the scene in 96 in the fall, and he took the PGA Tour by storm.
07:53Before he showed up, we never had security.
07:56We never had people that were escorting the players from the parking lot to the locker room
08:04to the fitness van and then to the first tee and then having security people follow him
08:09the whole round.
08:10So he changed the PGA Tour as far as security goes.
08:14So we have former FBI agents that now run security for the PGA Tour.
08:19So in the twilight of their careers, they're out there watching these great players play.
08:23So it's always the top two or three.
08:25So maybe now it may be four or five.
08:27So it might be more now in today's game.
08:29But these guys were always out there.
08:31And when Tiger showed up at a tournament, it was rock star status, standing room only.
08:36But they were only following him.
08:38We're not following the rest of us.
08:40And he knew that.
08:41Of course he did.
08:42And he took advantage of it.
08:44He was well aware of his status.
08:47Yeah, like when he putted out, everybody would run to the next tee.
08:51And then, oh, there's two other guys that got to put out.
08:53Did he have any relationships on the tour with other folks?
08:55Or was it an intimidation factor with him?
08:57I don't think he was close to anybody that was in the top 10 or 15 that are trying to
09:03knock him off the pedestal.
09:05His friends were John Cook and Mark O'Meara.
09:07And they were both 20, 30 years older than him.
09:10So he didn't want to.
09:13He didn't like Phil any less than anybody else.
09:15It was just anybody who was in his way.
09:17Oh, he did not like Phil.
09:18He did not.
09:18No, no, no, no, no, no.
09:19He was.
09:20What did he like the least about him?
09:22Well, he didn't like him because he was good.
09:24He was really good.
09:25And he didn't want him to take him off his perch.
09:28So there was no love lost.
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