Curtis Strange - "1989 U.S. Open at Oak Hill" SHORT TRACK

Kathy Cornelius 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to the following year.

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

How much harder was it for you, Curtis, uh coming in as the defending champion?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Oh, it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. I wasn't playing great. Uh it was a lot of white noise around going in, you know, about defending. Um it was uh it was a really, really hard golf course in Oakill, uh, long. Uh if we didn't have all those rains uh Wednesday morning, I think we'd still be up there trying to finish that golf course. It was so hard and fast and deep rough. And but um uh nobody said anything about winning back to back. Uh I didn't know who the last guy was because nobody had done it in 40 some years. Uh Jack, Lee, Watson, Arnie, um uh the greats of the game hadn't done it. And so, you know, I just wanted to play well, you know, uh do my best, um, give myself a chance. But uh, do you think about winning again? No, I never was good enough to stand on the first T Thursday morning and say, I'm gonna win this week, or I think I can win this week. You gotta let the tournament come to you and let momentum build as the tournament progresses. And and uh it progressed in a hurry. I shot 64 on on Friday and um at on a on a golf course that I didn't think anybody would shoot 64 on. And so uh I was thrust into the lead. And so all of a sudden, Saturday morning in the papers, I'm reading, so Ben Hogan is the last guy that went back to back. And I didn't know who the hell was. So I said, Well, what the hell? And I thought to myself, you know, reading the paper, and uh that's one thing I really darely miss sitting here with you guys right now. I was reading the paper every morning, but anyway, I uh I said, Well, Ben Hogan, or what Jack, how can Jack not have done it, or Trevino or Arnie, or all the greats of the game? And so anyway, I didn't I went out there playing with Kite on Saturday, and I didn't play very well at all. I was really kind of oh, I was off, you know, and it just I wasn't off a great deal, but I was just just off a little bit, and I shot a couple over, and that's all it takes on a US Open gosh, it just it's such a tough layout and such a tough golf course and such tough rough, and you don't have to be far off to shoot two over. And I was three back going into Sunday, and uh so now the pressure was off. In fact, Sunday morning's paper didn't mention Strange going back to back against Ben the last since Ben Hogan. It wasn't mentioned, but I thought to myself, Sunday morning, you know, it's such a hard golf course. Tom Cut is not invincible, it would be nothing for him to shoot, ask him to shoot one or two over par, and for me to shoot one or two under. And so therefore, I could get part of a playoff. And that was my mentality. There was there was very little pressure, and I think I birdied the second hole and uh uh you know I got going pretty well, and then he made a triple on five and the game was on. Now he's playing back to my my strengths, and he's playing back, I'm in the lead, or or I wasn't in the lead, but I was closer. And I'll never forget uh you talk about emotional times on the golf course. I played well the front side, I think I shot one under or something, and I was within one of the lead, or maybe even after nine. And um uh I birdied nine or birdied somewhere, I don't remember, but I'm walking down the 10th fairway, and a dear friend of mine who's passed, who was the Richmond Time Dispatch sports editor, Bill Milsatz. He followed me every step of the way. He looked up at me and gave me a thumbs up, which meant I had to leave. And the game changed. Um the whole the whole mentality of of game on changed. Um it was mine now, um, if I could do my job. And and I did. I really played well after that. I tared every hole, I buried 16, and um uh I won. And uh you know, you have to be lucky, you have to play well, you have to be lucky. I was lucky then Tom Kite didn't play his best, but um, you know, I gave myself a chance, and that's all you can do at a major championship, and uh uh I wouldn't be I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you guys if it wasn't for um the ability to hit fairways, the the asshole in me enough to think I could do this again uh on the backside Sunday afternoon. Uh, because it's not easy uh uh to just have the test, I don't know, just to kind of enjoy enjoy it enough to where you think you're the arrogance that you have to have within to think you can do something like that. I don't know if everybody else you've ever talked to thinks like that, but you know, I just I just I had to believe in myself enough to be able to do something like this. And uh I always felt like uh when I played basketball in high school, I wanted to take the last shot for some reason. And I think that resonates when you come down the stretch of a golf tournament. You've got to want the ball. You kind of you can't go hide in the corner somewhere. You've got to want the ball to take the last shot, uh, to put yourself on the line to uh to uh to fail. You've got to be willing to fail.

Mike Gonzalez 6:22

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Kathy Cornelius 6:42

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. It started just like just smitched off line. It had it for two, but it bounced off nine. It went straight down the middle, quite away.