Hal Sutton - "Be the Right Club Today" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

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

Bruce Devlin 0:13

Then it started to hook I remember something that uh I guess we get to listen to it quite a bit uh at the players' championship. I remember a guy standing on at 18th grade hitting a six sign and saying, What? What did he say, Hal?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Yeah, be the right club today.

Bruce Devlin 0:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Yeah, it was I didn't need it any other time. I needed it right then. You know, the ball. You know, and you you can understand what I you know, it was just a moment of passion. It's in the air, it's right at the flag. I know I got the right club in my hand. The only thing that could defeat me at that time was something that I wasn't in control of. Yeah. You know, weather, wind, something. And uh I had done my job. And that was really what came out at that point.

Bruce Devlin 1:04

I thought it was a classic statement. Be right today, baby.

Mike Gonzalez 1:08

And I know you're asked a lot about that. Probably walking through airports, people are shouting that at you, and it just became it's become an iconic line in in the game of golf, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 1:18

It has. Well, it was a you know, probably for a number of reasons. You know, at the time, you know, it didn't look like Tiger could be beat. And uh, you know, it was one of those I had played with him the whole way, and you know, it whether it was him or our failures, you know, everybody was being turned back. Uh and I had basically played with him the whole way around and he and I, you know, matched up. I had a three shot lead when the reins came. And uh he made Eagle and I made par on sixteen is why it got the one shot lead from three. You got it to four shots, didn't you, on the first hole when you resumed? Yes, I did. I got it to yeah. Uh well I made Bertie, I think, on the first I don't remember exactly, but I did get it to four shots. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 2:12

And uh you know Did you feel like it was match play at that point with Tiger Woods?

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Yeah, I did. And I, you know, I I had made the statement to f uh Freddie before we went out there. I said, if we can get to 16 with a three-shot lead, I don't think he can beat us. And he said, Freddie said, Why do you say that? And I said, Well, because he may go for the green on 16 and I may not. And I said, that brings three into play for him, and that brings five into play for me. And he said, so we've got to be prepared for that. And if that, if we can get to 16 with a three-shot lead, even if that scenario happens, that still has me carrying a one-shot lead to 17, and he's got to play 17 and 18, just exactly like I do. And at the time I was matching, I mean, I was I hit the ball great, I hit 17 greens, you know, I was I was really hitting the ball from point A to point B as good as anybody was at that time. And I didn't think he could beat me. That was the truth. You know, it's like if we just got to match shots and your dominance with distance doesn't come into play, I don't think you can do this any better than I can. And that's kind of what happened.

Mike Gonzalez 3:24

Did the course favor him a little bit that Monday simply because it was a wet soggy course?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

It did, but we had gotten past a lot of the holes that that was gonna be the case, other than 16. And so, you know, he was able I knew he was gonna hit that two-iron stinger off of 18, and I had already told Freddie, I said, Look, I had played three-wood off of eighteen the other three days. And that was a smart play for Hal because you just put it out there on the right side of the fairway and hit that four-iron into the green. And I said, But you know, I can't out hit his two-iron stinger with my three-wood. And I have to have the last shot into the green. I've got to have the last ability to hit the shot. And so I told Freddie, I said, you know what, no matter what, we're hitting driver off of 18 on Sunday, because I want to hit the last shot into the green. And it all kind of went as planned, to be honest with you. It doesn't always work that way, but that time it did.

Intro Music 4:20

Sure did. Then it started.

Mike Gonzalez 4:22

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 with a good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 4:46

It went smack down the fairway. When it started just like just mid offline. It ended with two, but it bounced off line. My hand it, as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.