Bill Rogers - "When the Fire Went Out" 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 Bill, we talked uh we talked uh sort of at the the top of this conversation about uh representation IMG. Uh something you said really uh resonated with me uh as it relates to uh what happened to you uh in terms of your mindset. And and I thought what you said was you know, anybody uh still had the opportunity to say no? And what you're talking about was all the opportunities presented to you by IMG and others as a result of your success, particularly after the Open Championship. Because you have a window of opportunity, I suppose, to sort of capitalize, if you will, on the monetary opportunities that might exist. Um and but I would say too that as a 29-year-old or so at the time, probably really hard to say no.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Oh, golly. Man, on top of the world, people telling you how great you are, and you've got uh everything to back it up, and uh man, what's not to like, what's not to go for, you know, and you think you're bulletproof, uh no doubt about it. And you never can can imagine getting physically or mentally uh tired, but um or or uh completely uh just at the end of your rope, so to speak. But uh Bruce, you we talked about uh uh Australia earlier. I can remember uh my obligations because of winning down there, I think kind of carried through 1984, 1985. Might have been I think I would still might have been playing in the Australian Open then or whatever, but I can remember and not I I was not playing well and kind of really questioning about everything I was doing. And I can remember knowing that at the completion of my final round at the Australian Open, I was flying home. I'd been down there I think five weeks for oblig playing obligations and you know, all the other stuff. And I was so um oh gosh, I mean I was I was at the i i end of my wit. I could remember uh waking up in the middle of the night and getting no sleep, but looking at the clock and watching the second hand m make its way around the clock. And I um that that's that not a good place to be. I um I was counting off the seconds and minutes and uh you know, I I was I was I was burned out. And so uh anyway, you you I don't know if you experienced much of that, but uh I went for the gusto. Uh, you know, I don't have any regrets about it at all because um I've 14 years was enough for me. I loved it, and uh I was uh very comfortable with leaving the tour after the 98 uh or the 88 sea uh season was over and on to the next chapter. So uh I never nobody to blame. Uh I did it uh how I thought uh suited me best and made some good choices, bad choices, and we all have to live with all of them at the end. So uh, but it was it was wonderful being a part of it for uh got to experience a lot of from the very bottom to the very top and all the way back down to the bottom. That's a that's a quite a ride.

Mike Gonzalez 3:36

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Intro Music 4:00

It went smack down a farewell. When it started to slice, just smitch offline. We headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My candidates, as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.