you can make a shot, and you know that the odds are such that you will, and you won’t make a lot of mistakes, that’s what you should try to do.
What advice would you give amateurs? Exactly that. Most amateurs—if you take an 18-handicap—most 18-handi- caps want to play like I do. Actually they do now. But most of them try to do things they can’t do. So I think an 18-handi- capper isn’t supposed to make pars, isn’t supposed to hit any greens in regulation. So if you use your head and say “OK, I’ve got a par 4, I am going to say it’s going to take me three shots. What are the three shots that are going to put me properly, smartly on that green without doing something stupid like hitting the ball in the water or out of bounds?” If I’ve got a hole that’s 450
yards, I know I can’t get there in two. So does taking my driver out, swinging hard and hitting it out of bounds do me any good? No, but if hit a 2-iron or 3-wood off the tee, and I hit a 4-iron or 3-iron down the fairway, I’m 50 yards short of the green. If I pitch on, I’m on in three, and I’m not supposed to be any better than that. If I do that every hole, I’m going to make a lot of pars and occasionally I’m going to get lucky and hit a ball on the green anyways. You’ll find that your 18-handicap will get down to a 12 pretty fast.
There’s a famous photo of you from the 2000 U.S. Open final round on the 18th tee. You were sitting on the fence looking out to the ocean. What was going through your mind? Well, I said this is going to be the last hole I ever play in the U.S. Open. And I know that if I go back and sit on that thing with the bay in the background, someone is going to take a picture of it. I’ve never done that in my
life, other than going over the Swilcan Bridge, which everyone gets their picture taken on when they’re finishing. I thought, “I’m going back there and sitting there
SPRING 2014 /
NCGA.ORG / 61
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