00:00When you got your invitation, I saw one of those invitations before.
00:05You got your very first invitation to play at Augusta.
00:09What was that like?
00:10What was that feeling like for you when you got that first invitation?
00:13Oh, I have.
00:14I still have it.
00:14It sits somewhere in storage.
00:16But no, you know, when I won at Durrell that year in 91, it was in March.
00:21So I knew I'm going to Augusta.
00:24So you knew it.
00:25But when the invitation came, you really knew it.
00:28And you're like, oh, my God, there it is.
00:31The 19-whatever, I forget what Masters it was then in 91.
00:35But you're like, oh, my gosh, here it is.
00:37And then you just saved them all.
00:39Hopefully you get more than one.
00:41I think I got 12.
00:43But it was, I don't know, it just doesn't get any better.
00:47It's like you always knew when you won, it's an invitation to Augusta.
00:50And if you finished in the top 15, I believe, you got invited back.
00:55I think that's changed.
00:56But back then it was 15.
00:58So, you know, it was always, and it's an experience.
01:01It's like most tournaments you go to, and not that they're bad, but, you know, you get on Monday and
01:07you screw around on Tuesday.
01:08You might have a program on Wednesday and you go play on Thursday.
01:11Or nowadays it's we play on Fridays.
01:13Well, Augusta, you're there Sunday getting in the house you're going to rent because there's no hotels.
01:18You can't stay in a hotel.
01:19Everyone else already got them.
01:20So you got to get a house.
01:22You got all the people you're staying with at the house with you, your friends, because everybody comes out of
01:27the woodwork.
01:27So you bring different people every time, which is great.
01:29I love that part.
01:32Then you got to get to the golf course, get situated.
01:34It's such a big place that you can't just zip to the range, zip to the first.
01:38You got to get in the cart.
01:39Now it's like a half a mile away.
01:40They changed it.
01:41It's so perfect there.
01:43Then you got to go out on the golf course.
01:45And especially your first year, you don't know what's going on because you're like, what?
01:50This is how far downhill?
01:52Where am I at?
01:53Because you can't tell on TV.
01:56And when you get there, I remember walking down 10 going, wow.
02:00It's just, it's like you're walking off a cliff.
02:04But it's, the whole week is an experience.
02:08You know, locker room people were always fantastic.
02:11The food was ridiculously good.
02:12Of course, you got to go buy stuff with Augusta on it.
02:15Got to go do that.
02:16See, that takes time, all this stuff.
02:18And then you have to play the tournament.
02:19The tournament screws everything up, if you ask me.
02:22It's just too much fun before the tournament.
02:24But it's really, it's really, now it's even gotten bigger.
02:29The players' area is like its whole pavilion.
02:33Augusta does not screw around.
02:34They make it, it's either perfect or they don't do it.
02:37And everything that I've ever seen them do is perfect.
02:39So, it's ridiculous.
02:40Cool.
02:41So, it's a hell of a week.
02:42It's a hell of a week.
02:43How about this here, Rocco?
02:45You tell me, and Gary Player made this comment.
02:47You tell me if you agree with him.
02:49That he said that this was the fourth easiest of the majors when it came to winning a major championship.
02:58Do you agree with him in that, that Augusta, like U.S. Open and the British Open are probably the
03:03hardest to win?
03:04And that maybe the Masters, because of the single track that you guys run, you think that that's maybe the
03:09easier of course?
03:11The single track has nothing to do with it.
03:13Augusta National will hold up against any major championship venue in its own way, okay?
03:18Doesn't have 12-foot rough, has the fastest, most undulating greens, probably on the face of the earth, that are
03:25playable.
03:26Augusta National is fair, you know?
03:28You look at some of those green slopes, the slopes on the greens going, what are they, crazy?
03:33Then you go up and go, oh, okay, I can see this, but don't hit it here, because we're done.
03:37Just walk in, you're finished.
03:39But the field is smaller, but you have the top players in the world.
03:44All of them are there, pretty much top 50, if I'm right or right, I could be wrong, but pretty
03:48much all of them.
03:50So you have a few less people to beat, but do you?
03:55See, I don't think you do, because 70% of the field at the U.S. Open has no chance,
04:02zero, okay?
04:03So, or any other major, because they're just not built for it.
04:07It's not a disrespect, it's just the way it is.
04:09The other players are better.
04:10So at Augusta, there's only 15, 20 guys that can win there, too.
04:16So you've got to still beat the same guys, it's just not as many can come out of nowhere,
04:20because there are nowhere, there's only 90 guys in the field.
04:22But the golf course has nothing to do with the difficulty of the championship.
04:26It is one of the most difficult major championship golf courses on earth, and you see it every year.
04:31So I disagree with that.
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