Bruce Devlin - "Bob Hope & Dean Martin" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to The next one had to be fun for a number of reasons.

Mike Gonzalez 0:19

It was the 1970 Bob Hope Desert Classic.

Bruce Devlin 0:24

Yeah, that was fun. And uh yeah, that was fun. Of course it it it went over into the evening, that particular tournament. Uh I uh I got to um the 17th hole playing with Lee Trevino and we both drove it in the fairway, and I fortunately drove it a few yards past him and my caddy and I were getting yardage, and um I think if I remember correctly, I had like 145 to the front, 157 to the flag and I'm thinking in my mind, you know, what am I gonna hit? Because I know there's a I know there's a boundary at the back of the 17th hole at La Kinta. And um I Treveno hit his shot on the green and I walk back, I'm talking to my caddy and say, Well, what do you think, Smitty? Emil Smith was my caddy back in those days. I said, Smitty, what do you think? And I looked down at my bag and all I all I could see was one iron that had a seven on it. Uh and right next to Smithy was Lee Trevino. So I gather that there was a a little bit of uh you know, the only place you can lose the golf tournament was if you hit it over the green, and you can't hit a seven iron that far.

Mike Gonzalez 1:54

So it was your selection was settled already.

Bruce Devlin 1:58

My selection had already been settled, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 2:01

And it worked out because uh did work out. You you won the tournament, of course, uh this is the tournament that Bob Hope uh put his name to several years before, and and uh at the time I think you were the first and and really the only non-U.S. winner uh up until the year 2000 when Jesper Purnovic won the tournament.

Bruce Devlin 2:18

Yeah. Yeah, so the so the uh the extra story to that is uh when I had finished in those days, I was I had a partner at the Bing Crosby now called the ATT, but at the Bing Crosby in those days, my partner was Dean Martin. And uh in the clubhouse after the after the tournament, uh I got a phone call. And it was from Dean who was opening in the I can't remember the name of the the uh casino in Vegas, but he said, I got a plane coming down to pick you up, you're coming up for the opening. You and Gloria coming up for the opening. So he win the tournament, hopped on the plane, and flew to Vegas and sat right underneath him when he opened his show. That was that's a pretty special thing to happen.

Mike Gonzalez 3:14

You could get used to that kind of story, couldn't you?

Bruce Devlin 3:17

That was that was pretty special. He was because uh I mean I I know my wife loved him. He he was uh he was a sweetheart guy too.

Mike Gonzalez 3:27

Quite quite an entertainer. And and what so did you play every year in the Crosby Clan Baker?

Bruce Devlin 3:31

I played uh I played 10 years with him.

Mike Gonzalez 3:33

Oh, that had to be so much fun.

Bruce Devlin 3:34

Yeah, that was fun. That was fun, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 3:37

I can only remember watching his you know uh variety show program on television. Quite a quite a talented guy uh uh and part of the rat pack, obviously. Which of the rat pack I'm sure you met all those guys.

Bruce Devlin 3:48

I didn't met all those guys, I met all those guys, and I met all the guys that used to look after them, and it was a fun time, really.

Mike Gonzalez 3:58

So uh, you know, back in the day of playing the hope, I mean you must have played with or met former presidents uh who played in that tournament, and then it was of course star-studded because it was a uh sort of a pro am format, wasn't it? Over five days?

Bruce Devlin 4:12

Yeah. Yeah, five days. Yeah, that's uh of course that's that's changed now. It's back to the four-day deal. But um Yeah, well, well, we had we had uh four courses in the rotation back in those days.

Mike Gonzalez 4:29

I think the year you wanted it was El Dorado, Berma, Merbu, Bermuda Dunes, Indian Wells, and uh and then as you mentioned, La Quinta.

Bruce Devlin 4:36

Yeah. Yeah, that was uh host club that year, it was La Quinta.

Mike Gonzalez 4:39

So what was more fun, the the golf part of it or the evening festivities?

Bruce Devlin 4:43

Oh the evening festivities were great. We got up there in time to have uh a bite to eat with him before he started his show. And uh when uh when we walked into the theater uh to you know just before he started to perform, there were two vacant chairs right right down in front of me, right underneath the mic. And of course, he he was nice enough to introduce us before he started the show, which was pretty special too.

Mike Gonzalez 5:12

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. 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 long, everybody.

Intro Music 5:35

It went smack down fairway. Macedys, as long as you're still in the stage, okay. When it's mid down the middle five.