and the ones that seemed to do the best in terms of recovery were the ones who had the best attitude. They remained positive. What I did was try to maintain a really good, positive attitude and put my head down, bear down and deal with what I had to do. There wasn’t much for me to do as far as the surgery, but the recovery from that and dealing with chemotherapy and so on, it was all about attitude for me.
16 Leading up to the Olympics, didn’t you have some doubts about the
return of golf?
I didn’t have doubts about golf returning to the Olympics and being a good event. I had doubts about them selling it as a way to grow the game. From my perspective, the Olympics aren’t going to grow the game because it’s a game that takes time commitment and takes money. I don’t care how many Chinese golfers win gold medals, they don’t have a true middle class in China, so they aren’t going to have a whole new wave of golfers taking up the game.
17 Do you see something in Tiger Woods’ swing that has led to his extensive
injury problems?
I don’t think it’s just Tiger’s golf swing. It’s the swing that’s being taught by a lot of teachers over the past 25 years. We went away from the classic swing with a lot of foot action and knee flex, and they said the reverse C is going to create back problems. So then we went to keeping the feet planted on the ground and creating a lot of torque, and that is causing a lot of issues. You see guys like Justin Rose, Jason Day, Tiger and others now dealing with back injuries. I think it’s the overall message that’s being sent with the quote- unquote “modern golf swing.” I’m not a huge fan of it, quite frankly. I’m more old-school in my approach to how you should swing a golf club.
18 In your golf experiences with celebrities and presidents, is there
one that provided a special memory? I was scheduled to play golf one day (in
1990) with President George H.W. Bush at Cape Arundel in Kennebunkport, Maine, which is where I started in the golf business. He called me and said something had come up, so if I had other commitments and couldn’t wait around for him, he would understand. I told him I had cleared my schedule and didn’t mind waiting. Right after I hung up, I looked up at this little TV in the golf shop and there was a news alert that the president was getting ready to make an announcement. So he walks out in front of his house at Walker’s Point and announces Operation Desert Shield (in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait). Afterwards, he got into his motorcade and they drove straight to the course. He thanked me for waiting and said he really needed a couple hours of golf as kind of R&R to clear his mind and think about something else for awhile other than world problems. That’s one that always comes to mind when I think about experiences with celebrity. n
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azgolfcentral.com ANNUAL 2016 | AZ GOLF Insider | 25
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