Bill Rogers - "1981 Open Championship - The Final Round" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to So what's it like stepping up to the first T at Royal St. George's on the final day of the Open Championship with a five-shot lead?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Well, I would tell you on the way to the golf course, I absolutely sensed that I felt different. Uh and not uh everybody would. And I had a five-shot lead. Uh, it's mine clearly to win, it's mine clearly clearly to lose. And that's a precarious situation, but I never let anything by five shots. But uh I knew I felt different, but that was okay. You know, I I expected uh, you know, that there was gonna be some adversity. I and not that I'm going over this uh like you know, kind of mentally a mental exercise. I I knew that, you know, it heck, it's another round and it's um, you know, it's for all the chips, and I'm just gonna uh continue doing what I've been doing, but uh my uh it just didn't feel quite the same. And I was uh somewhat, I would call it more of a a defensive type mode and very careful, trying to be very careful. I was playing not to make a mistake rather than playing like what I had been the previous three rounds. Uh that's a bad place to be. And it took me to the seventh hole where uh where that really showed up. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 1:36

Yeah, so take us through uh seven, because really, I mean, and and and I think uh in in in retrospect, it became interesting, but it was only interesting for a short time. It may have felt like forever for you. But uh, you know, you hit you hit a th a third shot into that seventh screen. Why don't you just take us through that shot? What what was going through your mind and what you thought you had to do with the ball?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I was a par five, and it was the uh arguably the easiest hole of the week, and I'd uh hit a poor layup, which was kind of on the uh outer lip of the fairway bunker on the left side, and it was a little bit of a funny lie type deal and funny stance, but no, no, no big deal. I chose the wrong club and knocked it over the grain. Uh chunked chili dip.

Mike Gonzalez 2:20

You had to take relief from that little uh scoreboard behind the grain, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I did, which was no big deal and probably benefited me, but hit a, you know, uh just flat out chunked it and then hit a you know oak okay type chip and then missed the putt. So I I I mean it's a double bogey foot before you can even say hello, you know. And and then it's on because I know uh uh a hundred percent that everybody else is back in the tournament. And but um, you know, I'm I I really take great pride in in when when I do have opportunities to speak to young players and about adversity and uh experience and being able to handle adversity, you know, you have this great impulse to uh panic, speed up, and you know, blurred thinking and your your pace speeds up a hundred miles an hour. But uh I was able to have um drawing experience and able to right the ship and have uh presence of mind, good clear thinking. You know, one hole is not gonna ruin this tournament for you. You've still got a one-shot lead. Uh you the next shot is all they're gonna let you play. And I just had a real great presence of mind to slow myself down and to know that the T shot on the eighth hole, maybe the most difficult hole that week, was uh of utmost importance. So I it was kind of uh able to gather my thoughts, but never uh never gave in to the panic or the uh the the uh you know the the desire or the uh potential to speed everything up. So I always remember that very clearly. And I always say it uh when you watch tournaments on the last day, be it major championships or regular tournaments, watch how somebody adversity can be the best thing that can happen to somebody the last round because it is a wake-up call. You may be gliding through, but a lot of times adversity will snap you into a uh presence of mind that I better better kind of lean on focusing on what you know this one and uh whatever m else might be influencing you for the day.

Mike Gonzalez 4:39

So anyway, that's a well and and and so at at the time you see you as you said, your your lead goes from four to one. As you were hitting your fifth shot, which would have been that second ship from behind seven green, uh uh uh right at about the same time. I think Raymond Floyd and and uh Bernard Longer was playing together. Bernard probably made about a 10 or 12 par saving putt to stay even, as I remember. And uh and Raymond made his third birdie in a row to get to one over. And then you go to the eighth T. And as you said, uh, you know, you you take us through sort of those next three holes. You really did write the shift, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

I did. Thank God you don't have a video monitor to see what everybody else is doing. You know, it's just completely unnerving. I can't watch the video replay of the video today because I get to see it now. But uh one of the beauties of the game, but I will tell you, uh, yeah, I I I did again hit a good T-shot on eight, long hold, hit three iron uh to 40 feet, maybe even 50 feet, left uh left that putt three feet short and hit a very good putt that went in for parr. Had I missed that putt, uh boy, um I'm not so sure that my presence of mind would have been so good, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 5:57

So didn't Sevy have a comment about that too?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Two weeks later he walked, three weeks later at the uh maybe it was four uh when we were at the PGA, he walked up to me and looked at me and shook his finger. Before he said anything, he says, two putt at number eight, you it was what won you the championship. And he was right. Uh I missed that second putt. There's no telling what would happen. But then I birdie hit really uh played two really good holes in a row, row nine and ten, made birdies, hit it hit it in close on both holes, and and then birdie 12 uh kind of got my feet under me in a good way and and and then kind of fell into the routine. I felt felt like I uh knew what I was doing from then on.

Mike Gonzalez 6:42

Yeah, so that that traditional uh uh what happens typically on a Sunday at the Open Championship is that they lose control of the crowds on 18 as you're approaching the green. Uh uh you had well, as as most people do, you had a little bit of a struggle getting through that crowd, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, it it's wild. It really is. And I mean, uh there are people flailing, running past you, and all they want is a frontline seat, you know, or or position on that line up there, and they don't know uh where you are, what you they're just running. And I can remember getting bumped a couple of times, but then I get up to the the the mass of people and start trying to break my way through it, and and not it not not exactly easy, but I'm in a good frame of mind, mind uh certainly. But uh I I eventually get to the front and bust out and a and a Bobby puts his hand in my uh right on me and says and as if to say, I don't think he said anything, but what are you doing here? Yeah, he did get back in line. That's right, Bruce. He said, What do where do you think you're going? And I I said, please let me go finish out. I just have to hit two more, three more shots, and I'm okay. Just let me finish the tournament here. But he didn't know he didn't know me from John Smith and the crowd.

Mike Gonzalez 8:02

So uh I just got an eight, ten footer I need to I need to make to win the open championship. No big deal.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

No, no, but he is good good humored about it, and we it was fine.

Mike Gonzalez 8:11

Well, you finished it in style because you did leave yourself what eight, ten feet on that last with your approach and and and made it like a true champion did. That what take us through the feeling that was going through at the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Well, it was every every player would tell you they like to finish well, and making a uh a good putt for either part, Bertie, it really does feel nice. But I've often tried to explain it. I think that there is such an overwhelming feeling of relief, but at the same time, there's an overwhelming feeling of exhilaration, and uh there's no wonder that that singular moment is what people hang on for a lifetime to experience, and it was just a uh it was just special. Uh the only way I can say it's just a flood of emotion on both sides, relief and exhilaration, and uh it kind of manifested me in getting my ball out of the hole and I wheeled around and threw one up in the crowd and uh threw the ball up in the crowd, of which interesting, two years ago, the fellow that caught that golf ball sent it to me.

Mike Gonzalez 9:18

Is that right? That's great.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah, he did. He did it. Wilson Pro Staff, but he he he wrote a nice note, had tracked me down address-wise, and said, uh, I think you'd probably want to uh want this more than I would. But he was the guy that caught my ball at the great, great, great little memory there. But uh man, it's it was it was it was uh it was good good stuff, it's heady. But as soon as I made it, the life is life as I knew it changed right there. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 9:50

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Intro Music 10:15

It went smack down the farewell. Just smitch off line. As long as you're still in the stage, you're okay. It went straight down the middle.