Fuzzy Zoeller - Part 3 (The 1979 Masters and the 1984 U.S. Open)

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it's not a good thing.

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

Let's uh let's jump to the majors if we can, and uh we'll just kind of take them in chronological order as they fall in the year these days. Uh in the Masters, 31 starts for Fuzzy Zeller, 18 cuts made. He had one top five, of course, that was the win in 1979, two top tens, ten top twenty-fives. So a really good record in the Masters. I mean, aside from the win, uh, it must have been a course that you uh enjoyed playing because you certainly played it well. Your best finish, obviously, was the win in 1979. This was uh uh in a sudden death playoff. The first one at the Masters, I think, was uh the first sudden death playoff of the Masters with with Ed Sneed and Tom Watson.

Fuzzy Zoeller 1:00

Yeah, first playoff ever. Yeah. Sudden death playoff. Now I had a lot of first that week. I mean, uh going down Magnolia Lane with my mother and dad on a Monday morning. Oh my playing the back nine with Hale Erwin on Monday. Hale showed me every monument there was on that golf course off the back nine. He said, Well, you need to see this, you need to see that. It took us three hours to play nine holes, but I know I knew where every monument was and what they meant and what they stood for. So I I appreciate Hale taking that time to do that with me. And then uh having uh the first round of golf, uh the first round tournament round with uh playing with Lee Travino was a treat. Uh I mean totally a treat. It relaxed everything. Uh but the golf course set up for my eye pretty well, and I was hitting the ball well when I came there, and as a result, uh I finished on top. But it was in a playoff. Ed Sneed had a he had a few leaky systems there. He had some air letting out of his tires, which Bruce will tell you it happens. You don't know why it happens. It just happens. You hate to see it happen to anybody. But uh Tom Watts and I were the recipients of it, so we went for the extra holes and uh won it on the 11th hole.

Mike Gonzalez 2:17

You started that final round six strokes back of Ed Sneed, and as you said, he had a tough stretch. He he bogeyed the final three holes in regulation. Whatever happened to Ed Sneed after that?

Fuzzy Zoeller 2:27

You know, he's uh he's up in Columbus, Ohio. I think he's still in the insurance business. Of course, Edgar uh I guess would be what seventy-eight, seventy-nine right now, probably somewhere in that area. Ed Sneed.

Bruce Devlin 2:40

Yeah, late 70s.

Fuzzy Zoeller 2:42

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 2:43

And cur and career-wise, what uh what did he do after uh after that masters?

Fuzzy Zoeller 2:48

He won the Houston Shell Open after after Augusta, so uh but uh as far as that he retired and I think he went back to the insurance business.

Bruce Devlin 2:58

Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 2:59

What a good guy, great person, really well.

Bruce Devlin 3:01

Good really good person.

Mike Gonzalez 3:04

So how do you win in your first masters? You know, a lot a lot of people would think, boy, you it it's gonna take years to learn the intricacies of this golf course.

Fuzzy Zoeller 3:13

Well, I tell you, I had a caddy, Jerry Beard. Everybody called him Jariah, I called him Jerry, uh, that we just got along. We got along from Monday all the way through to Sunday. Kind of he led me around that golf course. He would tell me before um I'd get to my T shot or get to my second shot where he wanted me to hit the next shot. And don't miss to the right, don't miss to the left. You know, you short side yourself, you're dead. And he is true. He led me right around there, and I was able to put the ball in the areas that he was telling me to to hit it. And then also I had a hot putter. I was I was putting very, very well from that money range that you know the I'm gonna say eight foot and under. Because you have a lot of those putts at Augusta, whether they be for pars or bogies, birdies, uh, and you need to be making those because those are uh stroke savers. Had you played Augusta before the Monday when you arrived that week? Just only in uh only in pictures, only in the mind uh that I had seen. But no, that was the first time. It uh Monday was the first time I played it, uh, got to see the back nine. I played eighteen holes on Tuesday, and then again on Wednesday, but that was uh the first time. So you've been to probably what, about forty-one champions' dinners? Yeah. It's uh it's an entirely different golf course than what it was when we played. Again, they've added the length to it. Uh I'll give you an example. My uh last year that I retired that my daughter caddied for me. It's kind of a cute story. We got up on the first throw in a head up, about a 20-mile an hour north wind blowing right into our face on one. It was right at 42 degrees. It was cold. And I stood up, they announced me, and I just ripped a drive. Well, I mean, I thought I ripped it. So I'm walking up the hill there, and Gretchen's got the bag, and she's hoofing it up there, and she's walking up to the yardage. She comes walking back to me, she goes, Dad, you've got 235 to the front edge plus 30. Now you add that up. 265 yards. My job just went about 220. And I looked at her and I said, Do you understand why I'm retiring from here? I got you. I said, I don't have a club in my bag. I reached that hole. She finally got the hang of it. Uh, we got to number 11. I hit another nice drive out there, and she came up to me. She goes, She got uh 260 and 25. And I went, I don't have those clubs, honey. Those days are gone. I'm not sure I ever had those shots.

Mike Gonzalez 6:00

Now, was this your final masters 2009? Is that uh what you're referring to?

Fuzzy Zoeller 6:05

That's about right, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 6:07

So you were 57 or so, maybe? About that, yeah. Yeah. That's it, yeah. Well, it it was always a big golf course, even when you guys played it, but it's especially a big golf course right now, isn't it?

Fuzzy Zoeller 6:20

Oh, it's a young man's paradise, is what it is. I mean, you know, the thing TV doesn't do it justice. Uh you don't see the the hills and the valleys. You know, once you leave number two T and number 10 T, the rest of that golf course is all uphill. I don't know if anybody's ever hooked back to the clubhouse from down in the valley. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 6:41

Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 6:42

That's a hall. Uh but it's all uphill from there. And uh yeah, and don't forget where Amen Corner's at, because Amen's corner is big time. That is big time.

Bruce Devlin 6:52

I got a question for you, Fuz.

Fuzzy Zoeller 6:55

Go ahead.

Bruce Devlin 6:56

You play before Augusta, and then you get to Augusta. Did you ever end up with shin splints?

Fuzzy Zoeller 7:04

I've had shin splints from walking that golf course.

Bruce Devlin 7:08

Uh I tell you, I did every damn time I went there. I had the same thing. Oh man, what a difference. Is that painful or what?

Fuzzy Zoeller 7:17

Yeah, it's true. I can't really say I ever had chin splints, and I had a lot of back pain because of the up and the undulations and all up and downs and the awkward type shots that you had to play. But uh I'm not sure I ever had chin splints, but those were painful. I had those when I played basketball, and I didn't like them a bit.

Mike Gonzalez 7:40

So as you mentioned, you you wanted in a playoff uh uh first sudden death playoff with the Masters. You start on number ten, all three of you. What happened on ten?

Fuzzy Zoeller 7:51

Well, ten again is a big sweeping dog leg left hole. Uh back then with the wooden clubs, we were all using hitting drivers. Now the kids were hitting one iron and three woods, and it's it's amazing the difference. Um But you know, I I wrapped it down there and then I had 161 yards to the flag on ten. I remember the numbers only because I hit an eight iron just to keep the ball below the hole. I was trying to get the uphill putt, which is uh things that you tried to do at Augusta. And I came up about uh fifteen, twenty feet short of the hole, but it was a very makeable putt. So I and uh Tom and Ed hit it beyond the hole, which is a downhill, left to right or difficult putt. So the advantages were kind of in my favor. And I hit the uh the putt just outside the right of the hole, uh, but I hit her just a little firm, uh, didn't take the break, which I was a little frustrated, because I understand that if you give the best players in the world a little space, they're gonna take it and jump in with both feet. So I kind of figured it might be over, but I was very satisfied with where I was because I was in for next year, which was great.

Mike Gonzalez 9:08

Yeah.

Fuzzy Zoeller 9:08

I mean that was that was one of my goals for that week was to get in for next year. And then uh Tom and Ed both missed. We all made pars, and then we went to the 11th hole. And the 11th hole's a big sweeping uh dog leg to the right. That I don't know what my T shot hit, but I drove the guys by fifty yards. You know, I might have hit one of those little hillsides that kind of shot the ball forward. Uh they're back there hitting uh three irons and five irons, and I was up there just chipping an eight iron to the back left hole location. So, you know, and Bruce will tell you I used to hit the ball right to left, and that was my favorite shot. It's a little draw, and that with that back left pin, yeah, it was it was in my alley. I felt very, very good there. Yeah, knocked it in about what, six feet or so, and uh Yeah, it might have been closer. It was only about four feet. I mean, I know on TV it looks a little longer, but I I mean I took one little half step and I was at the hole getting the ball out. So but yeah, it uh but I'll tell you how good Jerry Jerry Beard, my caddy. Well, after I hit the shot in here, he said it's a right center putt. Concentrate on your speed, right center. Oh my god. He told me before I left my second shot, where where the putt was breaking. Right center, right center. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 10:25

Yeah, that's great. So what's your uh uh just uh looking back on all those champions dinners that you've uh uh been able to participate in, what are some of your favorite memories from those times?

Fuzzy Zoeller 10:37

You know, it was all just seeing the older players. And when I say older players, guys that I didn't get the opportunity to play with, you know, your Claude Harmons, your Gene Saracens, and becoming friends with those guys while they were still living. Uh that's what is very special about that champion's dinner. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of BS that goes on and war stories that they tell and all that. I mean, the Herman Kaiser story came from that Augusta dinner, because I always sat next to Hermie. I always took care of Hermie because Hermie and I uh well he was from Akron, a friend of Eddie Elias's, our agent. And we were all in the same gene pool, so uh I they I was always told to take care of Hermie. He got away from me one night and fell asleep on the toilet, but that's when he was in his That's when he'd been sitting there at Augusta since uh one o'clock in the afternoon. He wasn't he wasn't drinking orange juice, I can tell you.

Mike Gonzalez 11:41

It happens, it happens. Yeah, so uh uh Ben Crenshaw sort of taking over for Byron Nelson, I guess, as the as the MC of the evening, is that right?

Fuzzy Zoeller 11:51

Yeah, General Ben does a nice job. He does. I mean, he doesn't have uh the accent that Byron had, you know, Byron would always say back in 1930 and six or thirty and eight. Ben doesn't quite do. He'll say thirty-six, thirty-eight, you know, like kind of normal people, but uh, he's done he's done a nice job keeping up with the history of the game, and uh he comes and gives you facts and figures. It's kind of a neat piece to do.

Bruce Devlin 12:19

One of his favorite things.

Fuzzy Zoeller 12:21

Oh, yeah. Well, Ben's perfect for it too, Bruce. I mean, what a a uh historian, I guess we'd say, of golf. Ben's Ben's the guy.

Bruce Devlin 12:30

Absolutely. Yeah, he loves it.

Mike Gonzalez 12:33

Yeah, but you know, we t we talked to Ben uh not too long ago, and and somehow that we gave him on the subject of Bobby Jones and and um and uh the Eisenhower trophy, which uh Bruce played in the inaugural in 1958 at the old course at St. Andrews. And he was lucky enough to meet Bobby Jones there, who gave a pretty famous speech in town. Uh Bruce can tell us more about it. And and uh Ben was he kind of stopped in his tracks. He says, You were there. He said, I have that speech. And he starts he starts reciting the speech word for word, and he says, You were actually there. How cool is that?

Bruce Devlin 13:16

Yeah, that was pretty cool. They uh they gave him the key to the city that night. It was before the inaugural Eisenhower Cup meeting, because in those days he was in the wheelchair when they wheeled him up and he stood up out of his chair at the microphone and and gave that speech, and uh it impressed Crenshaw to a point where he remembered word for word exactly what it was. So uh like you said, he's a historian of the game.

Fuzzy Zoeller 13:44

Oh, he is, he is. He might be the only one that I know of uh that is like that out there on tour. I mean, there are a couple guys that'll throw some wild stuff at you, but Ben, it's facts. It's all facts with him, and he knows it.

Mike Gonzalez 13:59

He knows his stuff, no question. Uh I suppose if you had to pick one major, because you want a couple of them, um would the masters be the one you want to win?

Fuzzy Zoeller 14:11

Yes. By all means, you want that green jacket. You do. Uh that green jacket's worth probably uh ten times what the other the other ones are. So it's it's amazing. Once a master's champion, always a master's champion.

Mike Gonzalez 14:28

It's like the gift that keeps on giving, too, isn't it? That's true. That is true.

Fuzzy Zoeller 14:33

No, and people just don't forget. They don't forget. They know you have that green jacket. Um and it's it's just like magic. I mean, it is magic.

Mike Gonzalez 14:45

Well, pretty special that uh you win in your first start at the Masters, as Bruce said at the at the top of the show, only two others. Uh Gene Sarazin in 1935, and that was the the second year of the event uh before it was even called the Masters when he made it his alabatros on fifteen, and then Horton Smith in the inaugural event in two in in nineteen thirty-four. Those are the only others that have done that, so quite an impressive feat. And now you think about it, Mike, that's amazing to me.

Fuzzy Zoeller 15:14

And I know it probably is to Bruce. You think of all the talent that has gone down Magnolia Lane as a rookie. And there's just three of us that have ever done it. I'm in a very, very select group.

Bruce Devlin 15:29

Very select.

Fuzzy Zoeller 15:31

It blows my mind to think of all the talent that has zipped down Magnolia Lane and come out licking their wounds. Um it's crazy.

Mike Gonzalez 15:42

They can never take that away from you. No. Let's talk U.S. Open. Uh, 22 starts, 14 cuts made, two top fives, five top tens, eight top twenty-fives. Again, a great record and a very, very tough major. Of course, uh the most famous uh finish of all of yours was the win in 1984 at Wingfoot, another great, great track in an 18-hole playoff with Greg Norman. And uh that had to be a lot of fun to win that one.

Fuzzy Zoeller 16:14

Well, it was. Um, just being on a great golf course. Now, I had played Wingfoot uh when I was 19 years old in an amateur tournament with my older brother, so I kind of somewhat remembered the golf course, even though we played both courses. Um but again, uh one once I got up there, um the key to it is being is playing well and having a golf course that kind of meets your eye from the T to the fairways. And uh Wingfoot did do that. It met my eye. The the shape of the holes, uh except for one or two of them. I I felt very comfortable with hitting a driver being aggressive only because my ball moved right to left and a lot of those holes moved right to left. Yeah. But again, it it's uh not all open courses are are courses that you can go out and just beat, play well. They're gonna beat you up because they uh you're fighting the angles. And uh, you know, like I say, I was a right to left golfer, so if I didn't like the looks of it, then I'd back down to a three-wood and trying to just put it in position to where I could play from. But what a great, great week that was. Again, and uh uh another one that was in a playoff. Of course, uh the great uh Sharky there, he was trying to make me stay in New York for an extra day. That's that's that's very expensive, but it was well worth the stay. That's all yeah I had a good time. Gregory Gregory hit uh a couple wild shots on the front nine that we had a hard time finding. As a matter of fact, uh this T-shot on two. I didn't even know there was property that far to the right where he, you know, he he always had that tendency to hit that one shot out in right field. Well, he did it with the driver this time. Uh but he was in play. He got it back over, but he made six. And then I made that, I don't know, sixty-something footer. It was just a great leg putt to win in the hole by total mistake. I was just so happy I was gonna make four. But you know, I guess uh when you're gonna win, good things happen. You know, and uh good things happened to me that day.

Mike Gonzalez 18:28

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say it was a 70-footer on the second hole in the playoff. That was a three-shot swing. It was a long run.

Fuzzy Zoeller 18:36

I guarantee you it was out of my eyesight. I was just looking at those bumps and humps I had to go over, and uh when it went over the last hump and it was peeling back to the right at the hole, I said, Well, okay. I got her down there pretty darn close, and it just kept rolling and rolling. And I said, Well, you can stop any time, ball, and it did. It stopped right in the hole.

Mike Gonzalez 18:57

So Yeah, I mean, to your credit, uh that one, as did many of your putts that week, good pace and center cut.

Fuzzy Zoeller 19:04

Yeah, center cut. Again, uh those money putts, like I say, those eight footers and under, uh again with U.S. Open, those are critical that you're making those. Because those uh those are the ones whether, like I say, for parr, for birdie, for bogey, or double bogey, uh, those are the ones that save your tail. And yeah, that saved me. It saved me a lot because I had a a good field of very fast greens. Uh they've always had fast greens up there at uh at Winkfoot. So yeah, it was just it was a great week. I it was a very memorable week.

Mike Gonzalez 19:38

Yeah, we'll we'll come back to the playoff, but let's just go back earlier in the in the uh in the regular rounds. Second round of sixty-six had you one back of Hale Irwin. Um and you were then one back uh of Irwin after fifty-four, but Hale had a difficult time in the final round, didn't he?

Fuzzy Zoeller 19:54

Yeah, Hale was uh he was like a baseball pitcher that his stuff was so so, but he knew deep down in it wasn't good enough to win. I mean, that's just kind of the way it was. Uh you know, he was he was doing a lot of great things. I mean, he always drove the ball well very accurately, but his iron shots weren't quite crisp, and they weren't quite on target. So he was left with those longer putts, and uh you know, those longer putts will eventually eat you up if you have enough of 'em.

Bruce Devlin 20:26

Way out.

Mike Gonzalez 20:27

Yeah, they will. Let's talk about the Sunday round. Uh you were actually up by four after six holes on Sunday after you birdied three, four, five, and six.

Fuzzy Zoeller 20:39

Damn, that was a that was a round, wasn't it? I don't remember that, but uh I do remember I was playing Wolf, but hey, you know what do you do? Uh we get back to the let's go to the back nine where all the stuff happened, you know, where things really got close. Well Greg was uh let's see, what was it, sixteen he made a long putt for par, seventeen a putt for par, and then eighteen, that monstrous putt that came off the top of the hill, which must have had fifteen foot of break in it, going straight downhill through a valley, up and in the cup. I thought it was for I thought it was for three. I'm not gonna lie to you. I was in I was right in the middle of the fairway watching it. I saw him hit his three shot. I saw him putting. Now what am I supposed to think?

Bruce Devlin 21:29

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 21:30

Yeah, you're you're back in the fairway, and you're thinking, okay, this bomb's for Birdie. Uh it's gonna be a good two-putt, right, from where he was at.

Fuzzy Zoeller 21:39

A very good two putt. Yeah. Oh yeah, because it was straight downhill. And it had like fifteen foot of break in it, through a little valley, and then back up to the ridge. Yeah, it's I don't think he can make it again. I put him out there all day and let him try all day long, and I don't think he'd get it. But he did it. Great players do great things at odd times. I mean that's So he kind of accepted, and uh that's just what happened. Great pla a great player did a great thing. I looked at my caddy Mike Manzio and I said, He just beat us. He goes, What do you mean he just beat us? I said, He made that putt for three. Now where the pin was, I had 176 yards, you know, which is just a nice six-iron back then. Um I couldn't get my ball close to the hole. There was no way I could do it. I mean, because I mean my six iron crowd traveled 170, 72 yards. That was a maximum six for me. So I got 176. Well, if I hit in front of the hole, it's gonna go down the valley and up on back ridge. Well, that's just what it did. That was a shot that I had. I had no other shot, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 22:46

But uh I guess what happened is uh Greg actually hit it in the stands, didn't he? And and so he had to take a drop or something.

Fuzzy Zoeller 22:55

Yeah. He mattered fact he drove it right about where I was at on the hillside out there. He had about the same yardage than I had. Uh he did park it over in the right field line over there. And I don't know, Bruce. Uh like I say, he did it at Augusta, too. He'd always have a tendency to hit that wide right shot. Now I don't know if it was because he tried to take a club less and hit it harder or what it was, but he always hit that one wild shot to the right. And he did it there. He was lucky though, his putter saved him.

Bruce Devlin 23:32

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 23:33

So he makes that putt, you think it's a birdie, and out comes what? Well, you know what I said.

Fuzzy Zoeller 23:41

Well, I could say this. It's on a podcast, right? I said, God damn, he just beat us by one.

Mike Gonzalez 23:46

I said, How's this happening? You know, but uh But you pulled out the white towel at that point, didn't he? Just sort of infane. I know surrender.

Fuzzy Zoeller 23:54

Yeah, it's crazy, but like I say, we're good people, great people, great golfers, do great things at odd times. And uh That was just an odd time for him to make that putt. But I I stayed the extra day. I went and I even bought him uh wine at dinner last the night before uh that evening there at the hotel. He had his gurus, he had like twelve people over there, and they were drinking wine, so I told him to fill them up and see, get them whatever they want. I was sitting there with Barry Turgison, my agent. Uh we had our nice little dinner, nice quiet little dinner. Uh waited till the next day at one o'clock when we teed off.

Mike Gonzalez 24:36

So in the playoff after uh after the second haul, which was he said I I think you and Bru I mean uh uh you and Greg both birdied the first, so you came out firing, and then and then boom, you you make that bomb for Birdie, he doubles, it's now a three shot lead. At what point between the three shot lead and your eventual eight stroke victory did you start feeling comfortable?

Fuzzy Zoeller 24:59

Uh I don't think I ever did until I got to eighteen. I I had to pedal down to the metal, and it was full steam ahead, but I never laid back, laid up or anything. I played the course just like I played it the first four days. Hard. You know, concentrated on every one of them. But uh I think the putt that I made at uh or the two iron that I hit at eight, which is a long sweepy dog leg to the right, uh about eight feet and made it. I think that's the one that kind of broke the camel's back. Uh yeah. That's when I kind of knew I had him, but I wasn't sure because it is golf and it is a US Open golf course. It's uh one of the toughest formats of any, unless you get the British Open or the Open with the weather, then uh that's tough. That's the toughest.

Mike Gonzalez 25:48

Yeah. Of course we've I've heard you say this before, Fuzzy. I've I've heard Bruce and our guests talk about this. If there was one important characteristic to have in the U.S. Open particularly, it was patience.

Fuzzy Zoeller 26:02

Yeah, your patience have to be has to be at a high level. If you're just a bit Yancier or yippies, uh it'll really it'll show. Yeah, I mean it will show.

Mike Gonzalez 26:14

Well, Fuzzy, we certainly appreciate the time you've been able to give us today. It's been fun to reminisce particularly about your PGA tour wins and your two wins in major championships. So much more to talk about. I hope we get the opportunity to get together again with you.

Fuzzy Zoeller 26:28

Well, Mike, let me tell you something. My phone is always available. You know how to get a hood of Michelle, and Michelle knows where I'm at 24-7. So, like if it's from here in Indiana where I'm sitting right now, or at my home in Naples, don't hesitate. Call me. I mean, I know Bruce is not doing anything. He's always available.

Bruce Devlin 26:48

Yes, I am, and I want to thank you too, Fuzzy. It's been great having you with us and uh tell all your friends about for the good of the game. I will do that. Thank you, sir.

Mike Gonzalez 27:01

Thank you both. I appreciate it. Thanks, Fuzzy. You bet. Then it started to push thank you for listening to another episode 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, but it went. Tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 27:27

SmackDown the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. Just smidge enough line. My hand is as long as you're still in the stage, okay?