Andy North - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Intro Music 0:10

It went straight down to mid up. Let it start it.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE of the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. We've got a golfing grade from the Badger State with us this morning.

Bruce Devlin 0:23

We certainly do. Gentleman that's played in the World Cup and been a participant in the Ryder Cup, and history will tell you that this man has won two U.S. Open Championships, and we are so glad to have him this morning. Welcome, Andy North. Glad to have you with us, pal.

Andy North 0:43

Thanks, Bruce. It's great to see you. Our history goes back 40 years, probably. Maybe a little longer. So yeah, maybe a little longer than that. From playing to some doing some TV together and some other stuff like that. It's great to catch up.

Bruce Devlin 1:00

Yeah, well, thank you. Thanks for joining us. I know Mike's got a lot of questions, and uh we we're just uh we're thrilled to have you with us. Well, thanks.

Mike Gonzalez 1:12

We're here to tell your story on For the Good of the Game, and so uh the the way we typically do that is just go right back to the beginning. Uh born in Thorpe, Wisconsin, which I know is up between Eau Claire and Wasaw, but uh that's not really where you grew up, is it?

Andy North 1:27

No. Uh my dad, uh my mom and dad were teachers in Thorpe um at the time. And uh my dad ended up changing uh jobs. He was also a football and basketball coach and changed jobs and went to Toma and then ended up in Madison. I guess I was in first grade when we moved to Madison, and basically have lived there ever since. And uh, you know, it's you know, the normal, normal kid growing up, you know, played a million sports and tried to figure out how to sneak by school the best you could and and stay out of trouble, and you know, just basically had a good time. Uh, you know, as every kid, you know, growing up in our era, if you weren't outside, you were locked in the house. You know, I mean, everybody went out and did stuff from the time the sun came up until your mom called you home at nine o'clock at night that you'd probably eaten one meal during that period of time. But you know, it was just it was all about doing stuff outside and having some fun with your friends, and that's basically how I grew up.

Bruce Devlin 2:35

Yeah, no kidding. Oh boy.

Mike Gonzalez 2:38

And certainly no social media. W was yours a sporting family?

Andy North 2:43

Yeah, my you know, I said my my dad was a coach, and and so you grew up in that environment that you know you're always around sports. Growing up as a kid, we had uh great access to University of Wisconsin stuff. We had tickets to, you know, football, basketball, and stuff. So you're always engaged in that stuff. So I've been a big Badger fan from the time I was a little kid. And you know, the the heroes you had as a kid, uh a lot of those guys you became friends with later on in life, you know, which is pretty neat. I grew up in an era when the Packers were hands down the best football team in the world at that point in time from the those early 60s, the Star and Taylor and Horning and uh Nitschke, that whole group of guys. And um, my dad sold insurance in the summer um with uh a guy named Ace Loomis, who was a Packer. So we had we were lucky enough that we'd have access to going up and watching them scrimmage and stuff when no one else was there, and that was the greatest game in of the years when they'd go at each other. Uh you know, Taylor and Horning going at Nitschke and Nitschke, and they'd pretty much every time we went up there, somebody was on the sidelines where they'd just pull them off so they wouldn't hurt each other, that kind of stuff. So it was it was it was always a lot of fun. And you know, just it was a it was a great childhood, and and uh, you know, I was exposed to a lot of really neat things.

Mike Gonzalez 4:12

Yeah, you you mentioned insurance and the Packers. Uh when I was a little kid, I've got a picture here I can probably find somewhere of me and Henry Jordan. I don't know, I was uh just a young kid, and he must have he must have somehow been involved in the company my dad was with selling insurance maybe in the offseason, but what a what a gentle giant he was.

Andy North 4:33

Yeah, a lot of good guys. And you know, you you forget that these guys all had jobs. Uh you know, they they're making five to ten or twelve thousand dollars a year playing football, and they had to have jobs the the the rest of the year. And um uh Ron Skaronsky, who was a uh part of that team, that was a really good became a very, very good friend. Um, he worked for Joston's Jewelers. So he was he he sold the championship rings to the pack. He said, I made way more money selling the rings than I did actually playing for them. And you know, he's a Hall of Famer, so yeah, um yeah, it was it was a different time.

Mike Gonzalez 5:14

Well, Henry Jordan actually I've got a diagram too. Henry Gordon uh Jordan diagrammed the Jimmy's the Jimmy Taylor sweep play for us.

Andy North 5:23

Yeah, seal it off two places and get him out there on the edge, absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 5:28

Exactly, yeah. So when did you come upon the game of golf as a young man?

Andy North 5:33

Well, it's I got involved in the game in kind of a strange way. Uh you know, I was playing football, basketball, baseball, running track, doing, doing all that stuff. Um, and in seventh grade I had a bone disease, uh, osteochondrios disicans. Um, it was an area in my knee that was degenerating because it wasn't there wasn't blood supply. And uh basically I had this, I had the choice that they decided was best for me was non-weight bearing for two years. So I spent seventh and eighth grade on crutches. Um and I had a doctor that didn't know anything about golf, and I took him a list of all the sports I could find that I could maybe play. And uh we got to golf. He said, you know, if you ride a cart and you use your crutches and you, you know, you keep as much weight off as possible, you know, well, I'll let you do that. So basically I threw myself into golf. It's the first time I'd played it, and you know, it was fortunate enough that I had something to do because you know, I don't I can't imagine what would what I would have been like if I wouldn't have had something to throw myself into during that two-year period. And I improved quickly, and I end up winning this uh the state high school my sophomore year, and uh, you know, things kind of moved from there.

Bruce Devlin 6:49

I had not heard the story about Andy's uh bone disease that he had. It's quite a remarkable story, and uh to have played all the sports. Do you do you think playing all I know? We've had a couple of guys on who said they played all sorts of sport, and that actually helped them in golf. Do you believe that to be the case too?

Andy North 7:10

Absolutely, Devil. I think that uh from from learning how to compete, uh, you know, you you being a golfer or a bowler or someone who doesn't have to deal with teammates, uh, that's that's its own set of issues, problems, benefits, whatever. But to be part of a team is really important. And you know, to dive on the ball, dive on the floor after loose balls and break a finger, and to to you know, do the things you have to do competing as part of a team, do some dirty work that maybe you don't particularly like. Uh, I think that all helps mold the competitor in you. And I and I think it makes uh playing an individual sport so much more uh you you you're I think you're a better competitor uh than the guys who have never been able to do that. And uh, you know, you understand about going out in bad weather and and you know having to play a football game or whatever out in snow and sleet and mud and you know, all that kind of stuff. It you know, hitting a golf ball is pretty easy compared to some of that stuff. But uh I think that I think that the the thing that's so important is that you just you learn to compete. You know, you learn to compete. And I think that's uh I I when parents ask me, I said, Man, you make sure that they play as many sports as they possibly can play. Because at 12 or 13 or 14, you have no idea if you're any good. I mean, I had no idea I was any good at golf. You know, I stumbled onto it by accident that if you get exposed to uh some other things, you know, who knows? Um we've got an 11-year-old granddaughter that during this whole last two years, she's had volleyball seasons canceled, basketball season canceled, soccer seasons canceled. And one of the only things she could do, she found uh she knew someone who's doing some karate, and she's gotten into the martial arts, and she absolutely loves it. And it's it's a wonderful sport and competition that you learn about yourself. You know, you learn about competing against yourself and trying to make yourself better at something and learning the self-discipline of it, which is only is going to help her in every other sport she takes. So all the stuff intertwines. Uh, and I think if uh we've got a basketball coach and a football coach here at the University of Wisconsin, they don't want to recruit single sport guys, they want their players that have been well-rounded athletes that they believe that those kind of kids will improve more once they get focused on one sport.

Mike Gonzalez 9:46

So, who were some of your early influencers uh as it relates to learning the game? Did you learn it out of a book or did you have some people there that could show you?

Andy North 9:53

No, I was uh I was really fortunate. Um my at the time that I had this problem, my dad um, who had played some golf years before, uh, had gotten away from the game and uh was overweight, uh type A, smoking, you know, all the things that were normal 50, 60 years ago. And the doctor said, You need to lose some weight, you need to get out and get some exercise, you need to stop smoking, and and he was crazy enough that he did it all at the same time. Um and because of that, he sort of relearned the game while while I was learning the game. And we we joined a club in Madison, and there's the pro there was a guy named Lee Milligan, who was the only teacher I ever had. Um, he unfortunately passed away a few years ago, but you know, he was my guy for 50 plus years. Um and he he went before the board at the club we had joined and convinced them that they should let me drive a cart, which there's not a lot of clubs that are gonna let 13-year-olds out there driving around in a cart. And that basically got me going. Um, I spent literally every day at the golf course from the time any time I could play. You know, most clubs have certain times the juniors can't play. And uh, we had a bunch of really good players, uh, a group of about 10 or 12 older guys that were really good players, business guys in town, that they took a liking to me. And I would play in the morning, then I couldn't play from you know noon till four or something, and I'd go right around and watch them play, then I'd go play another 18 holes after I'd watched those guys play. And I learned, you know, these are guys that won state championships and were really good players. And, you know, you learned a lot by watching them, uh, which was really fun. And uh but Lee was the guy that you know really changed my life. He he fought hard for me to be able to have that advantage of using the cart. And then he worked with me and basically he left the the club in Madison and went to a club in Chicago about three years later and and basically offered my dad and myself that you know if I'll work with Andy as long as he wants to work with me, as long as as long as he keeps you know getting better. If I give him something to work on and I see him the next week, he better have worked on that. And you know, it it became a great relationship. He and his wife were like second set of parents to me. I'd I go down there and spend you know multiple days at a time or a week at a time and practice and play and that sort of stuff. And uh, you know, it it changed me completely.

Mike Gonzalez 12:40

That's great. Where was he at in Chicago?

Andy North 12:42

He was at Barrington Hills Country Club, up on the northwest side, a really, really a nice, quiet place that no one knows much about, but a wonderful golf course, and he was there for 35 plus years.

Mike Gonzalez 12:54

Yeah, and uh just that part of Chicago, at least that's a lot closer to you than had he been somewhere else.

Andy North 13:00

Well, I I used to, I mean, literally, I'd get out of class at three o'clock and uh on a Tuesday and tell the golf coach I was skipping practice, I was gonna go get a lesson. I'd drive down there and we'd hit balls from you know 6:30 till eight o'clock. And as soon as it got dark, we'd go back to his house, his wife would feed me, and I'd get in the car at 10 o'clock and drive home, go back to school the next morning. And I I probably did that every week, you know, for for a couple of years. And uh, you know, it was you know, not only is he a great teacher, but he is a great friend and a really a mentor and and and a wonderful human being.

Bruce Devlin 13:38

Yeah, I think that helps a lot too when when you get that close in a relationship with somebody that's helping you with whatever sport you have.

Andy North 13:45

Well, you know, I think Dev, what was really interesting in today's world, and I'm you know, I'm torn a little bit on how much these guys rely on their teams and having, you know, eight people around them all the time. Um, I thought it was really a wonderful that he taught me to own my golf swing. He taught me to understand what it was. He used to make me go down and sit with him while he gave lessons to bad players. And in the middle of the lesson, he'd ask me questions about what do we what do we need to do to fix this? You know, so I learned I learned about what causes things in the golf swing, and and everybody's different. But I think that was important. And then uh he gave me the tools to try to fix my issues in the middle of rounds. Um and you know, that's not easy to do, as you know. And and I'd get on the phone with him in the evening and I could talk to him for five minutes, and you know, usually, you know, gosh, you know, I it sounds like the you know, the ball's an inch too far forward, or or you know, try making sure make sure you got your shoulders square and not open a little bit, which it was of a tendency I would have, or whatever. And you know, you could you'd the next day you'd go out and think about a little bit of what he talked about and you'd hit it perfectly, you know. So um, you know, it was a great relationship that he really understood what I needed to do to play well, and I uh and I learned a little bit about what my game was all about, and uh, you know, it was a wonderful relationship.

Bruce Devlin 15:21

So after after your high school uh playing, Andy, uh you you ended up going to uh Florida for for your college career.

Andy North 15:31

Yeah, I I was um I got back into playing basketball. Uh I play after the the knee issue, I never could play football again, but went back and played volleyball and basketball. And uh the one of the hardest decisions I had was what sport I was gonna play. Um I was recruited as a basketball player. Um having grown up in a household where your dad was a coach, that you know, you're around it, I loved it. I still love the game of basketball. And uh it was really uh that was a tough, it wasn't as much which school to go to for golf, it was uh, you know, which which sport do you play? You know, so I kind of got it down to one or two schools for basketball, one or two schools for golf, and uh ended up picking Florida, which was uh uh you know a great decision. Had a uh Buster Bishop was the coach there who was a wonderful guy, and and he he he treated you like men. Uh he recruited players that could play golf that weren't projects that were uh guys who could do it in the classroom, and he just turned us loose and let us do it. Um he didn't try to change swings, didn't try to, you know, you've got the reason you got you're good enough to be recruited there is because you're working on something that's good. You know? And he was smart enough to not get too involved in it, and he was a a great manager of our guys. Um, and we loved him and had a blast with him, and and we had a lot of success there.

Mike Gonzalez 17:05

So, what what part of your game advanced the most during your college years, would you say?

Andy North 17:10

Oh, you know, I don't think I mean the trajectory I was on, everything just kept getting getting better because I hadn't played the game for so long, so I was learning constantly. I think the biggest thing that that going to Florida helped me is understanding playing different grasses and and different conditions. You know, you'd grown up in the Midwest on Bent, and you know, I'd played a lot of bad weather and I'd played a lot of wind and played a lot of cold and that because you had to. But when I went down there and started playing in Bermuda, it was like mind-blowing. And I think there are guys that probably wondered, why did we recruit this guy the first month I was there? You know, you're you're struggling in the wind, you're struggling on the greens. And this was, you know, Dev, this is back in the late 60s where it was common Bermuda. It was none of this refined. The grain on the greens was an inch long, and you'd play a six-inch break on a four-foot straight putt if the grain was sideways.

Mike Gonzalez 18:08

Right.

Andy North 18:08

Yeah. So uh, you know, it took a little while to kind of figure that out. And um, you know, I was lucky enough that he threw me right in the lineup, and I played every tournament that I was I was at Florida um from my freshman year on. And uh Steve Melnick was a senior. Uh he was uh the best player in the country at that time, and uh, you know, to be able to play against him every single day was great.

Bruce Devlin 18:34

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:37

Just for our listeners, uh Andy North, three-time All-American, uh, 1970, 71, 72 at University of Florida, and uh also a Hall of Fame inductee in the University of Florida. Um and boy, you talk about some big names in that program. I'm sure you got to know most of these guys. Tommy Aaron, Andy Bean, Frank Beard, Gary Koch, Steve Melnick, as you mentioned, Bob Murphy, Doug Sanders, Dan Sykes, just to name a few.

Andy North 19:06

Yeah, it was a it was a it was one of the first of all, the the most important thing, I I picked Florida because they had a fantastic business school. Um and that that was important. Uh and and then uh you know, you you you make the decision based on the coach a lot of times, and and Buster was a terrific guy that we really liked. And um, you know, it was a great experience. And uh to have, you know, I had great teammates while I was there, from Coke and Bean and Mike Killian to uh you know, guys that the these are all guys that played the tour or played Walker Cups or whatever. So uh, you know, there's Fred Ridley was there, who was the National Amber champion at the time, um, and struggled to make our our traveling team. Isn't that amazing? And then went and won the the National Amber. So, you know, you it was a great group of guys that we had a lot of fun and and uh we've been able to stay close for a lot of years.

Bruce Devlin 20:02

We also might mention too that uh Andy talked about uh business, and he was a uh he got a bachelor's degree in business administration from Florida too. So uh, you know, this is this is not your uh only golfing person that we have with us today.

Andy North 20:23

Well, that was you know, growing up in a household of educators, it's pretty important that you couldn't slide by on that part of it. So uh no, I was I was very pleased that you know went to Florida, graduated, great degree, and and and did it in four years, which you know that was I was proud of that.

Bruce Devlin 20:43

Nicely playing golf, too, because that takes a lot of time away from uh a lot of the schoolwork.

Mike Gonzalez 20:50

Back in that time, you also uh won the Western Amateur. This is back in 1971, I think was the first year at Point of the Woods, wasn't it?

Andy North 20:58

Uh I don't know if it was the they had it there and then they moved it, and then I think then that was they went back there and then they stayed there for forever.

Mike Gonzalez 21:08

Yeah.

Andy North 21:08

Um yeah, I had a I had a great probably the best year of golf I I've ever played was my junior year in college. Uh I really, really uh played, I mean, unbelievably well all year long. I won a a handful of college tournaments, won the Western Amateur that summer, finished second in the Porter Cup, and won the Williams, which was a team event that Mike Killian and I played in. That was a really big two-man event up at at Oak Hill in in Rochester, which uh, you know, you win any events on a course like that, that's special. I had a really, really great season. And then I I after there I had a week off in between uh it was was a Porter Cup and the US Amateur, and I went back to Chicago. And ended up uh tearing my shoulder up. Um just a freak deal that I tore the labrum and dislocated it and all kinds of stuff. And I didn't I didn't tell anybody. I just went and went and played the national amateur the next week and didn't play particularly well, finished maybe 25th or 30th or something. But uh I never really hit it again like I did that year before I tore my shoulder up.

Mike Gonzalez 22:26

Now by this time, as you're as you're wrapping up your college career, had you met your wife Sue yet?

Andy North 22:31

Yes, yeah. We we actually started dating last year in high school. She's a Madison girl. Um so we uh she'd moved down to Florida in the middle of my college, and and uh so we as soon as we as soon as we I graduated, we got married. Um and you know, it's it was the start of you know the rest of your life. You know, you're you're turning pro, you're getting married, you're trying to go through the Q school. You know, there's a lot of moving parts at that point, just trying to figure out um what you're doing, and and uh you know, all of a sudden the six months runs by that you get married, you graduate, you go through the Q school, now you're starting your life on tour. You know, so it's like a couple of couple of 22-year-old kids that don't have any clue what they're doing, and now they're they're going out there to chase their dream, you know, which is pretty neat.

Mike Gonzalez 23:23

Was it pretty set in your mind after that junior year you had that you were going to take a whack at the professional circuit?

Andy North 23:29

Yeah, that was I think that was probably the year that I I really figured that you know I can play against these guys. And I I'm you know, I I I was lucky enough that every level I went through, I I was able to compete immediately at that next level, which a lot of times doesn't happen, um, where I was able to raise my my game every time I I got to the next level. And uh, you know, I just thought that, you know, we we kind of talked about that if if you figure out a way to get on tour, and if you go out there and play for three or four or five years, maybe that would be a successful shot at it, and then go get a job in the real world um in finance or marketing or whatever, you know, at that point in time you thought you might want to do. And you know, 50, 60 years later, you still haven't left the gotten a real job, you know. So so you know, you never know. Um you know, we had crazy stuff that happened as devil. You know, everybody has these crazy things that would happen to you while you're out there playing. And there'd be days you'd wonder if you'd ever play decent again, and then the next week you'd play great. And then you'd go through periods of time where you thought you'd got it all figured out and you'd go shoot 77 the next day. So uh, you know, it's it's an amazing business, it's a great sport that we're all involved in, and and you know, been fortunate enough to figure it out once in a while.

Bruce Devlin 24:54

And it's in pretty good shape too today with all these young players. So we've got a lot of really good players that are coming up.

Andy North 25:01

Absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 25:02

So you turned professional in 1972 at age 22, right out of college, went to Q School, had a pretty good class. Uh Tom Kite was in that class, Jim Simons, Lon Hinkle, who would become famous uh years later at Inverness.

Andy North 25:19

It was we had a good solid class. And back then, uh, I think I think we only had 18 spots that we played for that year. They they would determine it based on I don't know what, but uh, you didn't know until literally the second round, you know, maybe the second of the six rounds, they'd announce that we're gonna have 18 spots we're playing for, or 20 spots. Devil, you never had to go through the Q school, did you?

Bruce Devlin 25:45

No, I was really fortunate I did not. Uh when I first came over in uh in 62, I I got some sponsors exemptions because I got an invite to Augusta. So uh, and my money ran out after five tournaments, so I you know cotailed it back to Australia. And then uh uh I won a couple of tournaments in in Australia at the end of that year, and then then came back uh in in seven in uh 63 and uh I I lasted a little bit longer in 63. I got through about 10 tournaments, I think, before I went broke. And I headed back to Australia again and won a couple of tournaments and won the New Zealand Open and uh and very fortunate for me. I came back uh came back to Florida the next year, uh, played at St. Pete, got a lesson from Jack Nicholas, and then beat him to win the tournament. So that you know, from there on the I didn't have to go to Q school, thank goodness.

Andy North 26:48

Yeah, because that was that was uh you know a stressful week. Luckily, um I was lucky enough to go through the Q school with Silverado. It was we had it the week after you guys actually played the tournament there. Um it would have been in the the 70, it had been October of 72.

Bruce Devlin 27:09

Right. Yeah.

Andy North 27:10

And you guys had played the week before, it'd been rainy. Um they hadn't literally they couldn't mow the golf course, they could mow the fairways, they could didn't mow the rough, so the rough ended up being about eight inches deep there. Um that that that week, uh I I broke my driver and my three wood both broke in practice rounds. So I've got backups that I'd never used. I basically one-ironed it the whole week. Um I could keep it, I'd hit it far enough with a one-iron, I could keep it in the in play, and I actually I pretty much played the whole week in the Q school without a driver and a three-wood. Um, but you know, if you put it in the fairway there, the golf course wasn't that ridiculously long that it was, you know, if I could hit a 220 with a one-iron down the middle of the fairway, that was probably better off than a lot of the guys.

Bruce Devlin 27:59

So isn't it interesting?

Andy North 28:01

It was an interesting week. It was cold and rainy all week. It was just miserable. But, you know, sometimes that helps separate the guys who can make it from a guy who just has a good week.

Bruce Devlin 28:11

Right. And how many, uh, how many people today do you think are using one iron, Sandy?

Andy North 28:16

Well, they all are, but they've got threes on the bottom of them.

Bruce Devlin 28:22

You're absolutely right. Yeah, they're bigger heads, they got less loft, and they constantly in the face, and they hit it, hit it in the air like like we'd hit a driver, basically. Absolutely. It's crazy, crazy, isn't it?

Mike Gonzalez 28:37

Yeah. They were like butter knives.

Andy North 28:41

They weren't very big. They definitely weren't very big. No, they weren't.

Mike Gonzalez 28:45

No, there wasn't much to them. Um, so uh you get on tour, you're newly married, uh, the pressure of Q school is behind you. What was life like those uh early months on the road?

Andy North 29:00

Well, I I think that you know, the first thing is that uh the system that we grew up in, that you you got through the school, but that didn't guarantee you getting into a tournament. So you still had to Monday qualify. I was really fortunate, and probably one of the best things that had happened to me. Um, I went, we had actually had two tournaments after the Q school at the end of 72. One was Hilton Head, um, which was a fairly new event, about the second or third year at Hilton Head. And I went up there and shot 73 in the Monday qualifier and then lost in a playoff and didn't get in. And thought, well, shoot, that you know, we had about 60 spots and I couldn't get in with 73. So this is I need to up this. The next week was Disney, which was the last week of the year. And I ended up qualifying and then played decent, made the cut. So by making the cut at Disney, it got me in LA next the next the first tournament the next year, which was such a big deal because going to the West Coast and trying to Monday qualify was just about impossible. I think at LA they had 400 guys trying to play for five spots or something. So it, you know, there were the odds of getting in weren't very good. So I got in LA, and I I uh this is this is this is how my first week on tour, my first week of my first year on tour went. We're staying at a hotel in Santa Monica, and I get up early Wednesday morning to go play nine holes before the the proam, which you used to you could do. So the guys who weren't in the plural most of them would try to go out and play, or some of us would go out and try to play nine holes just to kind of get a feel for the golf course. Well, I get up Wednesday morning and there's police tape all over our hotel. There'd be been a murder in our hotel on Tuesday night. So so Susan's freaking out completely. I, you know, you know, what do you do? You know? So I get into the tournament. The first the first tee shot at at Riviera is up on this elevated T. It's a pretty simple par five if you can drive the ball in the fairway. I hit a duck hook out of bounds, reload, another one out of bounds, reload, somehow it stays in, three wood on the green, 70 footer for a seven. You eagled with yeah, an eagle with two out of bounds, I bogey the second hole, bogey the third hole, double bogey the fourth, and bogey the fifth. So I'm standing on the six T. I'm seven over power in my first tournament.

Bruce Devlin 31:38

Got a right word. This isn't not quite, but this is not yeah, this is not going very well.

Andy North 31:46

I somehow played three under the rest of the way for 75 and then shot 70 on Friday, ended up making the cut, and played with Arnold on Saturday. So that was my first week. Murder, opening two T shots out of bounds, Arnold on Saturday. Yeah. So I I ended up, you know, I ended up playing well enough that you kept making cuts. So back then, if you made the cut, you just kept playing. Um I missed a cut. I missed the cut at uh must have been Palm Springs, then went up to Cro the Crosby and missed qualifying. But they had a satellite event then, uh opposite some of those events. So the guys that missed had a chance to go play two day a two-day tournament someplace. I went down, I ended up winning that Little Crosby, which got me in Hawaii. And then basically I I started playing pretty decent. I had a top 10 in San Diego, I had a top 10 in uh at Invery in Florida. Um but it the long story is I played the first 18 tournaments in a row that year.

Mike Gonzalez 32:53

Oh, wow, that's what a start.

Andy North 32:55

That you just kept making cuts, you kept playing. And I finally just I mean, Susan, I remember her at at m at Colonia, literally on the telephone with with Lee, begging him to make me stop that I needed time off. And I ended up I ended up uh missing the cut at Memorial and went home for a couple of weeks, and and then it's hard to get back in. You know, you you miss a couple of qualifiers and all of a sudden you're you're out for a month. Um and it it took me a little bit to get back in, and then I played okay the rest of the year and ended up uh uh missing being exempt. I'm I missed the cut at oh, it was the the tournament in in at Pinehurst. That was that two-week deal that Miller Barber won. Um I ended up missing the cut there by a shot that ended up costing me being an exempt player for the next year.

Bruce Devlin 33:52

Oh, oh boy.

Andy North 33:53

But uh the the best part of our system back then is if you finished in the top 25, that got you in that that tournament the following year. If you made the cut, you got in. So I had I think the next year I only had to Monday qualify once or twice the whole year. I was in enough and played kind of a normal schedule.

Bruce Devlin 34:10

And uh, you know, from that point on it was you could then decide where where you wanted to go.

Andy North 34:18

You could actually plan. You know, you actually could plan your schedule a little bit, you could take a week off once in a while, and and it it was probably not until toward the end of my second year, even the third year, that you sort of figured out how to play the tour.

Mike Gonzalez 34:33

So how many years as you started uh Andy, was the uh was the system top sixty versus what what it is today?

Andy North 34:42

It was pretty much my I think that didn't change. Oh gosh. I don't that was in the eighties that that changed, I believe. I mean I played most of my career who was top top sixty.

Bruce Devlin 34:58

Um Gary McCord was the guy that led the uh change in the D125, wasn't he?

Andy North 35:04

Yeah. We had some interesting player meetings then.

Bruce Devlin 35:08

Yeah, we sure did.

Andy North 35:09

Um a lot of people yelling at each other. Luckily there weren't more fights than there were. But uh yeah, it was uh I think I truly liked um how we started versus what it's become. I think in the system we played in, if you were a young player and a good player, they couldn't keep you off the tour. You had a chance to play your way on. Yeah. Where now I don't think it there's that case. I really loved the fact that you had some qualifying spots. Um that if you're playing well, you could get in the tournament. Bottom line. Uh where now you go to the Q school and that doesn't even get you on tour.

Bruce Devlin 35:51

That gets you gets you to spend a year proving that you're good enough.

Andy North 35:55

Yeah, which I don't like at all. If a guy can play, you know, he ought to be out there playing. Exactly.

Mike Gonzalez 36:01

Yeah, you know, Paul Azinger made that point with us last week when we were visiting with him, Andy. He said, these kids today, uh, it is so, so hard to make it on the PGA tour now.

Andy North 36:14

Well, once you get out there and you can play halfway decent and stay healthy, it's hard to it's hard to leave, though. I mean, once you get there, uh it's much easier to stay there than it was years ago. Um years ago, you'd you'd you know you'd have a not a serious injury, but maybe you you sprained your wrist and you had to take a month off. Well, that month was the difference of making top 60 or not.

Mike Gonzalez 36:38

Yeah.

Andy North 36:39

Um so you know, today, if and today, if once you get into a top 50 in the world kind of player, it's almost impossible to not continue there.

Bruce Devlin 36:50

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 36:52

Uh let's just recap briefly for our listeners the professional record of Andy North. 15 professional wins, including three PGA tour victories, one victory on the PGA senior tour as well. Uh on the tour, two majors. Uh Bruce mentioned that, the 1978 and 1985 U.S. Open Championships. Uh Andy once shot a 27 at the BC Open in 1975. Uh tell us a little bit about that.

Andy North 37:22

Well, that was uh that was uh an interesting golf course. Enjoy Country Club, I believe it was.

Mike Gonzalez 37:28

Was that Endicott?

Andy North 37:29

Endicott, New York, yeah. It was a it was really uh a tournament that was very much, I think, typical of a lot of tournaments back then. It was a community event. Um it was an we all we played it in the fall. It was always rainy and cold. Um it uh it was a place I really enjoyed. You you you had to get in a you had to take your car over and practice at the airport. It had that's where the driving range was at the airport. Did you ever play there, Dev?

Bruce Devlin 38:00

Yeah, I remember that.

Andy North 38:02

But the best part of the week is you got to take glider rides. You go out to the airport and get in gliders and they take you around, which is pretty neat. But anyway, yeah, I was that particular day, I started on the front nine. Uh it was a par 37 on the front, par 34 on the back. And I was one over playing the seventh hole, which is a par three. There's a lake in front of the green, and I had bailed out long left, and I didn't hit a very nice pitch shot. And I had about a 12-footer to save a par to stay one over par. And I knocked it in, and then birdie'd eight and nine, eight was a par five, made birdie, and then nine was a shorter par four, made birdie. And then on the so now we've got the par 34 coming up, and I made, I don't know, I you know, you I made a a birdie at 10, there was a par five, maybe 11 or 12. I made an eagle and made another birdie, and all of a sudden you're kind of going along. Kenny still was keeping my card. And they were back-to-back par threes at 16 and 17. So I make a birdie at 16, I get to 17, I hit it about eight feet from the hole. And Kenny's got my card, and he's writing down, you know, a lot of guys wouldn't write immediately after the hole. They might pull it out and do three holes. And Kenny, under his breath, but loud enough, I could hear, said, Holy crap, if you he buried the last two holes for 26, right? So now I hear this. I missed the eight-footer for Bertie at 17. And and ended up hitting a unbelievable drive at eight at 18 and hit a hit a fat wedge about 30, 40 feet short of the hole, and then hold it for 27. But it was uh I think I shot 39 or 40 or something on that same nine the next day. But uh, you know, it's just one of those days that I had an 11-hole stretch that was incredible. That I, you know, you played a bunch under par. And um the next I think we played the PGA the next week. Um and I I played I finished fourth in the PGA the next week. I I uh I think it shot 65 or something the Sunday. That Nicholas won us at Firestone.

Mike Gonzalez 40:20

At Firestone, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Andy North 40:22

The Jack ended up winning. That I I played a good week that next week. So that 27 helped.

Mike Gonzalez 40:27

Carried you right into the PGA.

Andy North 40:28

Get me moving up the right direction. Yeah, exactly.

Mike Gonzalez 40:33

Thank you for listening to another episode of 4 The Good of the Game.

Intro Music 40:37

And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game, so everybody just makes it fly.