Jerry Pate - Part 3 (The Majors, Team Play and Life After Golf)

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

Okay, we're joined uh by our guest today, Jerry Pate. We've had a chance to talk about his early years and also about his professional wins on the regular tour. Let's uh turn our attention now to the major championships. And for uh Jerry Pate, he had quite a record in each of the majors, but let's start with the fun one, Jerry, if we can, because uh uh if we start with your best finish. Although I I I think we should have you uh just touch on the fact that you were low amateur in 1975 with Jay Hobbs at Medina when Lou Graham won, but you won the following year in 1976. Atlanta Athletic Club on the Highlands course by two over Al Geyberger and Tom Weisskopf.

Jerry Pate 0:54

Yeah, I think I I sort of uh ran with my confidence from 75. I played with Hale Irwin and Gary Player in 75, and uh birdied the first hole at Medina and the fourth hole, and I get on the fifth T, there's par five, and I look at the big marquee, and there's my name. It says Pate, and I'm leading the U.S. Open. And I mean, Bruce, I thought I was gonna go to the bathroom in my pants. I was that nervous. And I teed off, and the hole went this way, and I hit it that way, and I believe I made about an eight, and I shot 78, and I was like in tears, and we walked out of the scoring tent, and two things happened, and I'm sure this will go down in history, and Hale won't like to hear this. I've told him the story, and he said, I don't remember that, but Hale Irwin came up to me and said, and of course I'd already played about five times on the PJ tour and made the cut. And so now I was a known entity out on that PJ tour, even though I was still an amateur. And um, Hale said, You little college kids, if you had to play for your own money, you couldn't beat anybody. And so now I'm really devastated. And Gary Player puts his arm around and goes, Laddie, he said, You're a hell of a player, just don't worry about it. You know, you'll bring it back tomorrow. So I shoot 69 on Friday and I make the cut. And as it turns out, the last three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I beat everybody in the field other than Lou Graham, who tied my halfy. And I tied his score. So technically, I beat everybody in the field, and then they played off for the win. So I go to Atlanta the next year, and now I'm on the tour, and I thought to myself, God, in the U.S. Open, if you can just shoot 71, 70, shoot around par. Parr was always like 70, 69, you can win this thing. You know, one or two underwins the U.S. Open in those days, and sure enough, I shot, I bogey the last hole in Atlanta, and that's a great story. The first round, I maybe I I might have shot 71. I can't even remember the score, but I do remember Penn was in the front, and and I think I hit a five iron, and I hit the ball, and it came up short on the bank and it rolled down, and I could see the ball sitting in the long grass. So we walk around the lake, and there's all of my friends and fans and family and Susie and a lot of people, and they go, Oh my god, oh my god, a frog jumped on your ball and knocked it in the water. I go, No way. And I looked and there it was about two inches under the water, and uh I saw it sitting up, so I knew it didn't go in the water, so I called an official, and the official comes up and said, Well, did you or your playing partner see it? I said, No, we were walking around the lake, and everybody acknowledged that the frog, which was an outside agent, knocked my ball in the water, Bruce. As you know, you'd get a free drop. Yeah, and they said, typical USGA, play it. So I take off my shoes and socks, and I get in there and I blast it out of the water up on the green. And when I am getting ready to play it and getting my foot in footing, and it was a straight slope, I hit the ground with my left elbow, trying to keep from falling in the water. I had to lean against the bank. So now I blast it on the green, I knock it and I make a five, and that's not a bad thing. I shoot maybe 71, whatever I shot. I go in the scoring tent, the same official comes up to me and says, We've got a problem here. We think you tested the hazard. I go, What? They said, Well, you touch the hazard with your body. I said, Look, I'm gonna fall in the lake. I had to fall against the bank. I mean, how what does that have to do to constitute it in a shot? So they looked at the rule book, says no, no penalty. But that alone just really kind of disturbed me. So it ended up, I got paired with uh um uh uh gosh, Rod Funcett on Saturday. And uh, you know, I'm hanging in there, and and and uh the funny thing about Rod Funcett, he never warmed up, he just showed up on the first T and I found out during the round. I said, You didn't hit any balls. He said, No. He said, he said, a couple years ago I was warming up on the tour and I got the shanks, and I couldn't ever warm up. I'd start shanking the ball and I'd take it to the golf course. I mean, it's a crazy story. It only would have happened 40, 50 years ago. You'd never hear a player today do that. And so he goes out there, he couldn't have been nicer. And I think when I finished, I birdied, I think I eagled 12, which was a 11 was a hard par four down the hill, like a driver in a three would, and then I eagled 12. So and I ended up shooting maybe 68 or something like that, and it got me back in the tournament. Shot again, shot like 32 the back nine on Saturday. Uh I can't remember, you could look it up. But as it turns out, I'm paired with my halfy, and we go neck and neck the whole way around the golf course. And uh oh, I know what happened on Saturday. I three put one and three, and then I hit it in the water on four, and then I start rolling off all these birdies. So I was like three or four over par the first three holes. So I was out of it, and then I just didn't give up. I just stayed focused on my game, one shot at a time, as my dad always told me. Brought it all the way back around and shot a low score of the back nine and put me back in contention, paired with my halfy. He played brilliant, didn't make a lot of putts, but in the end, you could see he was getting nervous like everybody does. And he had just lost the year before at Medina, where he held the lead every round and he lost to Lou Graham. So now he's held the round every year in Atlanta. Here comes me, and he pars 15 or 14, and I make bogey, so he takes it like a two or three shot lead over me. And Weiskopf and Guyberger, who are really fine players, obviously, are ahead of us. Both of them can birdie any time. And I remember I birdied 15, and I think John might have made bogey. Uh, he hit a bad shot on 16. I hit it there pretty close. He three putts, and then we get to 17, and he hits it long over the green because there's water in the front. The pins right on the front, so we took too much club, and he hits it down uh way past the hole, chips it down or putts it down. He might have been short. I just remember he made bogey, and then I had a super fast putt, and I put it past the hole about five feet, but straight in coming uphill, and I made it. And then John hit this flared out driver, short drive on the right on 18, and I hit it pretty good. I thought I was in the right side of the fairway. It was really a terrible hole. It was a blind shot over a hill with a lake on the left. You couldn't see the lake. So you just had to pick a cloud or a tree in the sky and drive it out there. And knowing if you hit it in the water, you were dead. Uh, and there was a tree on the left side of the lake between the second shot and the and the green that could actually block you out. There was a little peninsula. They left a pine tree on it. And so when I got up there, I was shocked. I was way past Mahaffey, maybe 30, 40 yards. But I was in the rough, and when I got up there, Bruce, my ball was sitting up like an Easter egg, and I go, Oh my God, this is my day. Mahaffey had, and I saw his ball as I walked by. He was at least, he was at least in the bottom of 10 inches of rough and Bermuda rough. No, I mean, Tiger Woods today, nobody on tour, none of these strong young kids, you know, any of them could hit it out of this rough. And sure enough, he took a four-wood out, which I thought was crazy, hit it in the water, and that was into him. And uh I asked my caddy, I said, How far is it? He said, 190. And John Continent, who I just retired this year, he's been working for me for over 45 years in some capacity, even either in my business or or a caddy. And I said, It's the perfect four iron, 190. That's how far I hit a four iron. I hit a five iron, 180. He said, No, you're pumped up, and this ball's gonna fly. You need to hit a five iron. I said, Are you sure? And I go, yeah. So, you know, I'll pull the five iron out, hit the five iron right at the pin, and I could just see it. And it was late in the day because we had all these rain delays and that white ball against that gray sky in Atlanta, and I could just remember it vividly, just up in the air, and I'm thinking, oh my God, I hope it's enough club. It was right at it. And sure enough, you know, I hit it two feet, made the putt for birdie and won by two. But the scary part was Weiskopf and Guyberger, we had to wait on them. Both of them hold long putts on 18, and I thought they were for Birdie. And I asked the official when I walked around the lake and I had a two-footer, I said, Do I need to make it to win or two putt? He said, No. And I said, Well, what did they make? They said they made pars. I said, They weren't birdies. He said, No. So then I got nervous. I was never nervous, Bruce, ever playing golf. And I've never was nervous a time after that, really. I mean, I've been nervous on some putts when I kind of had the semi-yips, but never hitting a ball. I've never had a day's nervous hitting a ball. I've always had a lot of confidence in my ball striking, kind of like Ben Crenshaw on a four-footer. I mean, he's gonna make it, or Jack on a 20-footer, tiger on a 20-footer. But I would get a little nervous on some putts. But when I came around there and I saw my wife, she was standing there crying. And uh you know, I saw that putt and I thought, oh my god. Yep, two-footer. And uh, you know, even though it's 45 years ago, it's still emotional.

Bruce Devlin 9:53

Yeah, sure. It brings back a crazy memory, Jerry. Absolutely. That that golf course, uh, as you mentioned, that really played very, very difficult that week. That was uh that was a hell of a score you made.

Mike Gonzalez 10:07

Guys, weren't there so wasn't there a little bit of whining that week from some of the players about the course conditions, particularly about the fairway mowing height? It was brutal.

Jerry Pate 10:17

Well, the fairways were long. Uh, Bruce, and I first time and the only time I think I've ever heard, maybe before, because I've been in the agronomic end and construction and design of golf courses, just like you have. But there was a term called gibrilic acid, and I heard they had put gibrillic acid on the rough, which made it grow like a week. A week or so before, they had been pumping ammonia nitrate in those days. You could just buy ammonia nitrate straight 3600, but like putting sand out there, and it would grow grass like crazy. And we had all this rain all week, thunderstorms in in June in Atlanta. We had rain delays, and of course, uh it's 95 degrees, and the grass is growing an inch a day. So the fairways would get long and during the day, and you'd hit a lot of flyers, and the rough was extremely difficult. But you know, I I had that old McGregor driver with an aluminum insert, and that's a whole nother story. And I could drive that ball long and straight. And I remember Tony Penna coming up to me right after I won the open. He was somewhere and pulled my driver head cover off, and he saw that aluminum insert, and he was the guy that built it for McGregor many years before. And he looked at me and said, You're the smartest guy on the tour. I said, Why is that, Mr. Penna? He said, These guys don't realize a metal face driver will go hotter and straighter and longer than any of these other inserts. I said, Are you serious? I said, Well, you know, I had an old McGregor MT when I was 15, 16 years old, and I love that driver. And I actually won the U.S. Amateur, believe it or not, with a Tony Penner driver. And then I had McGregor make me that driver in Albany, Georgia with the aluminum face. And that driver, Bruce, hit spitters off there, just low hot spitters, and it went straight. And Tony said, you know, we we found out in the 50s that a metal head would go farther. Is this crazy?

Bruce Devlin 12:03

Oh boy.

Jerry Pate 12:03

And I remember when Ely Callaway came out with the first ones and Gary uh uh Adams with Taylor made, yeah, and they had those metal metal heads. The the first one, I guess, was the the old like a clique or something they had, some kind of crazy uh fairway wood. I remember Jim Simons having it like a five wood with the with the runners on the soles back in the 80s. But you know, Tony was right, and I mean I could drive it long with that club and straight. So and again, like at the players, when you can drive it out there pretty good distance. I mean, not as long as Wyiskoff, or but you know, I could hit it as far longer than Floyd, longer than Trevino, longer than player, Palmer. Uh that time I could hit it almost as long as Jack. Jack was really long, but Jack was getting older. And uh, but I could hit it out there within 10 yards of Jack and farther than Crenshaw, Kite, or Litchkey off the T. And I think a lot of it had to do with that aluminum driver, and it used to blow people away because they would say when I started playing the Wilson ball, and I had hot balls and illegal balls. And people said Jack had an illegal McGregor ball and Arnold had an illegal Palmer ball. But you know, they were they were long hitters and and and could really hit it out there.

Mike Gonzalez 13:17

So he wins the U.S. Open at age 22 as his first victory. Uh just uh for your recollection, it was 71, 69, 69, 68, 277, 300.

Jerry Pate 13:34

That was pretty good for 22 years old and not knowing much. So uh I was just lucky. It was a Georgia thing, you know, Coca-Cola in Georgia, my family, Atlanta, the whole deal. So it was karma. Yeah. Uh and it was a God thing. God had a plan for me. And uh who would have thought I would have been done at 28 after having such a stellar start of my career. But you know, God has a way of putting you where you need to be at that moment. Like today, he knows I should be right here, and I'm blessed to be here with you guys.

Bruce Devlin 14:08

Well, thank you for being here.

Mike Gonzalez 14:10

Jerry, was 1979 the other time you you probably thought you had a real chance at Inverness?

Jerry Pate 14:16

Well, I did, and I'm I'm I can't remember who I played. I played actually I play with Weisskoff now that I think about it. And he had on Leroy Schultz, uh, who caddy for him many years from Augusta. He was one of the old Augusta caddies, and Leroy, when I would make a putt, he'd go, Go on, Jerome, go on, Jerome. And uh, because my real name's Jerome, not many people knew it. All the caddies, especially the black caddies, called me Jerome or Gyrone. Raymond Floyd's got about 50 versions of Jerome today. Uh they call me Tyrone, you know. I've had so many names, Baldy, uh cotton top when I had blonde hair, the lip, you know. Uh Jack used to put it on me all the time. And Arna would say to me, How the hell do you know all that stuff? Because I was a good talker and we'd talk about business or whatever. And I said, Well, I have smart parents, you know, and I read, I read. And uh Arnold would always pull his pants up and say, Is that true what you just said? And I remember working at ABC Sports as a whole nother part of my life with Judy Rankin and Rossi, and we were the on-course commentators, and I would come in after a round and I'd have some nugget, as Jim Nance used to call him at CBS. I work with Jim also, and I'd have a nugget on somebody's life or whatever. And Judy said, How do you know that? And I said, It's not true, Judy. I just made it up. And I had Judy believe in one whole year that all these things I was saying were just made up. I said, Oh hell, nobody knows that. I just make it up. It sounds good. And finally, halfway through the year, she said, Are you serious? I said, No. I said, That's true. I actually interviewed the player, you know, off the course, and I talked to their wife or I talked to their father, and this is something that happened in their life that's true. So, you know, a little studying never hurt either as a broadcaster.

Mike Gonzalez 15:57

No. Let's talk a bit about the uh about the open championship, if we can. I think the best finish you had was probably at Turnberry. That's the year that uh Watson had his famous duel in the sun with uh Jack Nicholas. You didn't play the Open Championship quite as many times as the other uh majors, but that was in an era when uh probably the the money didn't even count as official money yet. It cost a lot to get over there. And yet you said that you made the commitment early on to go over to Carnusti, I think it was, and qualified the year before you played in your first one at Burkdale.

Jerry Pate 16:30

Well, I was I was a left-to-right ball striker with my irons, and I had a steep swing. Steep swings hitting down on the ball, cutting the ball in the air, unless you're really hitting a release cut, does not work in the wind. And I'd had uh you know a hard time playing in the wind at St. Andrews at the Walker Cup and didn't hit the ball as well as I should have, hit a lot of what you'd call upshooters. And even though I was a good ball striker off the tee, which you need to be on a links course, but uh I loved playing the open championship. You know, when I stopped playing, it was after I got injured. And 82 was I think the last time I played. I I might have gone back and played again or qualified, but at Trun, after I got hurt in May by hitting one iron, I had Creamy Caroline, Bruce. It was Arnold Palmer's old caddy from Mamarinick, New York, and it was one of Creamy's last events, and he caddied for me. And I had friends and family flew over to watch me, and you know, I was I think I might have been leading the money through that part of the year, and uh had uh you know a couple of three seconds and a win, and the players was 90,000, so that gives you a pretty big jump on the money. And I go over there and I play nine holes and I turn the turn at 10, coming back in into the wind, and my shoulder was just killing me. And I walked in from the 10th hole, and that was the most devastating round of my life was was the first round at Trum. And so I withdrew, which I didn't want to withdraw, and I kept trying to play on and off. So if you look at my record, you could say, well, he tried to play. And I actually had a couple of tournaments where I would shoot 67 the first round and go in the press room, and then by Saturday, I was done. I was taking every kind of painkiller, every kind of muscle relaxer, every kind of anti-inflammatory drug, no working out. People didn't know how to exercise, and I had this torn cartilage that was impinging my joint. So when I would make a backswing and lift my left arm up, my left joint, it would impinge that cartilage was float, floating in there or torn, and it would just get inflamed. And I was good for about three or four days, and I had to take, you know, quit. And it was tearful, I promise you. And then after about three or four years of trying it, I had a 10-year exemption, believe it or not. I win the win the players, I'm granted a 10-year exemption, and I rarely even though I played the Bob Hope or the Bing Crosby every year, which became the ATT Pebble Beach, I uh I didn't play because I was hurt.

Mike Gonzalez 18:59

Yeah, yeah. Uh PGA championship, you had a wonderful record in the PGA championship. Uh matter of fact, uh four straight top five from 76 to 79. There was a there was a stretch there for about seven years where your lowest finish was 11th. Uh of course the closest call was 1978. You were second in a playoff at Oakmont with uh Mahaffey eventually winning, and Watson was in that playoff. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?

Jerry Pate 19:25

Well, Watson's beaten everybody all week, and he comes to the eighth hole, I think, at Oakmont. I may be bogied there, but he had about an eight-shot lead, and I I think he did. If you go back in time and go reconstruct the round, I was a couple of groups, I was a group ahead of him, and uh we were playing faster. And I'm playing with Peter Jacobson again. No, I'm playing with Joe, yeah, Joe Enman and Craig Stadler. I'm playing with Joe Enman and Craig Stadler, and we come to 17, and I'd heard all week that Ben Hogan in 53 or whatever to win the open drove the green on 17. And they moved the T up a little bit. It was about 290 up that hill. And I've swung as hard as I could, and the ball hits right on the green, rolls in the front bunker. I blast it up, I make easy three. I drive it right in the center of the fairway on 18, and I and Stadler and Joe Emman have already hit their shots, and I asked my caddy what yardage, and again, I got like 185, perfect five iron. And I hit the most beautiful five iron straight at it. The pen was up on this little shelf in the center, and the ball rolls back down. So I got a 30-footer and I hit the first putt up, and it's and it's again it's getting late in the evening. I think we had a rain delay. The weather in Pittsburgh in August was rainy, and I leave it about three foot short, and I hit what I thought was the most perfect putt in the left center, comes in the hole, horseshoes back out about three feet back. Almost I had to step back. And my wife was pregnant with my first child, Jenny, and I heard this. Oh, and it sounded like somebody had shot my wife, and I could hear her voice in the gallery. It was that loud. And so I knock it in, and Mahaffey and Watson park. So we go to the playoff on number one. Both of them hit it in the rough. I drive it right in dead center to fairway. Both of them have to lay up. I hit it right on the green with a six-iron going down the hill on Oakmont. I got about a 20-footer. Mahaffey and Watson both make like, I don't know, I think one of them putted before I even put it and hold the putt. And I laid down, no, actually, maybe I was out. I laid down for a gimme par, and both of them have to make 15, 20 footers for pars, and they damn if they both don't hole them. And we go to the second hole across the bridge, a little short four. Watson and I hit one iron off the tee, Mahaly hits driver. Uh, we miss our putts, and Mahappy makes about a 15-footer and wins. So, I mean, no, at no time did I think I was going to lose, but I just kind of let it slip away on 18. But if people always talked about the putt I missed at 18. I'm telling you, Tom Watson, I swear had an eight, six, or seven or a seven or eight shot lead. It was huge. And he just started making bogeys and he let everybody back in the field. But uh the drive I hit on 17 was kind of a uh a memory. You know, to be able to drive it that far and that straight, you know, when I needed to. And I saw the replay later with the ball had rolled up just almost on the green and into that front right bunker. The pin was on the front right. But uh that was one I let go. But you know, moving forward, I went to work at CBS in 1995, and we would start doing all these events on tour Durral. We did Pebble Beach, we did LA, you know, San Diego, the the Hope uh was done at NBC. But but so I'm working with Jim Nance, and he was a guy that loved to see the stats. And every week he would go, Jerome, did you know you finished that? Did you I didn't know you won this tournament? And I remember we came to the PGA. He said, Did you remember your record at the PGA? I said, Yeah, I finished second. And I said, Well, wait a minute. I had a shot to win at it at uh uh uh uh in Washington in Gresham in Stockton. I hit it to water the last hole there, trying to go for the back left pin with the one iron main bogey, and I got beat a couple of shots there. And I said, Well, wait a minute, I had a shot when Landy won in Pebble Beach. Wait a minute. And and Nance says, Yeah, you finished second, third, fourth, and fifth your first four times in the PGA. I said, I did, and you know, I didn't, Bruce, I swear to you, I never counted. If I didn't win, I didn't care. I didn't know how much money I won or how I finished. And so later on, somebody told me, Did you realize you had 15 seconds and eight wins in seven years until you got hurt and 77 top 10 finishes, which was averaging 10 top 10s a win a year, 10 top 10s, and I said, I had no idea. And I said, All I knew is I just wanted to go out there with my wife and have fun and play and meet people like Bruce Devlin and the and the older guys that really I could learn from. And you know, Bruce, I learned from you. You had the most beautiful, calm uh backswing, and guys like Chi Chi and Trevino and Gary player showing you how to hit little wedge shots and shots around the green and out of the bunker. So uh playing a major was easy for me because I could hit it straight and I had a good short game and I was a good iron player. I I wasn't just necessarily the, you know, I didn't putt like Greg Norman or Nick Price or Crenshaw or Jack or Ray Floyd or Watson. I mean, those guys were like unbelievable how they putted. Uh I was a good putter, a very good putter, but those guys were great putters. And you look at Jack and you look at Tiger, they're the greatest two putters that ever played the game. I don't care. You can throw Crenshaw and Watson in there, but they were the greatest two putters. And Watson in his heyday in the 80s, I mean, it was nuts how 70s and 80s how Tom Watson could put. He could knock a 40-footer in, you know, he'd hit it in the junk, hit it out of the junk, hit it on the green of the wedge, and knock a 40-footer in for par. And I'm going, you gotta be kidding me. So that was the the great equalizer on tour was the putter.

Bruce Devlin 24:46

Yeah. So, Jerry, you also you had a you know, you had a pretty good uh record at the masters as well.

Jerry Pate 24:53

Yeah, I think I finished third, fourth, and sixth about my first five or six, six times. So um, you know, I made the cut every year. In fact, Bruce, interesting. When I went to work at the Masters, gymnats said to me, Do you realize, Jerry, in the modern era, you have the third lowest stroke average at Augusta National? I said, There's no way. I had no idea. And I'll give you another little record at Augusta. I think Art Wall and I are the only two guys that birdied all four par threes on Sunday. Now, think about Sunday at Augusta. I made four twos on those. And uh another Augusta National story is I'm the only guy to win the three-par championship that wasn't a competing uh player. I won it uh the three-part, I won it once and finished second twice, and I won it when I wasn't competing as an honor invitee. So that was pretty cool to go win the three-part contest on Wednesday. But I should have won the Masters a couple of times and let it slip away. But Bruce, you got to think about it. I mean, I was done at 28 years old. Can you imagine?

Bruce Devlin 25:52

Yeah, yeah, that's that's uh that was tough, boy.

Jerry Pate 25:55

Yeah, it was tough to swallow. It was a humbling experience. I had to get my priorities right. I had to put my faith first, my family second, and my career third. When I was young, it was about my career first and me, my family second, and my faith was last. And believe me, that is the recipe for failure. And when I got my faith right with God and my family, second most important priority of my life, and having children, having a wonderful wife like Susie, who is the finest Christian, Catholic. Oh my God, I mean, my wife is the greatest, uh, that helped me recognize where my priority should be in life, not being a taker, as I said, and a consumer of success and failure and celebrityism, but being a producer that you can do things great for people and give people opportunities by being a giver, you know, providing scholarships for people, giving people jobs, helping people with surgeries if they don't have the money, you know, bailing out people out of jail. I mean, I can't tell you how many caddies I bailed out of jail, never saw a penny of it, you know. Uh loan people that I grew up with in college and high school, money that fell on hard times, that went through divorces, loan them$10 or$20,000. It didn't matter. Never saw it, never heard anything back, don't care. Uh just just wanted to be a giver. And so to me, that's more important than any of these stories for my life story.

Bruce Devlin 27:22

Yeah, well, you've you've you've you've been a very good friend to a lot of people.

Mike Gonzalez 27:28

Jerry, let's uh let's touch on the Ryder Cup because uh, you know, looking back on that era of the Ryder Cup, but particularly for our younger listeners who probably weren't following golf back then, uh the Ryder Cup was different. It was coming of age, if you will, after years and years of domination by the United States team. Uh and in 1981, you look back at that team that you were a part of. I don't know if there was a better team of players assembled for one U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Jerry Pate 27:59

Well, that was a dream team. You had Nicholas Watson, Trevino, Johnny Miller, uh Floyd, Kite Crenshaw, Bill Rogers, Larry Nelson, uh, Hale Irwin, and me. And Bruce Litsky, my brother-in-law. Everybody in that group are all Hall of Famers today, other than Bruce Litsky, who's deceased, my brother-in-law, Bill Rogers and me. And uh, you know, there's some pretty, you know, Bruce, Bruce, unbelievable career, you know, won a senior up, won about, I don't know, 15 times on the tour. But uh, and I didn't play long enough to be a Hall of Famer. You know, again, I was 28 and done, but I had enough, you know, today I have enough credentials as far as how many wins and majors and whatever to qualify to even be looked at, but I would not be deserving of a Hall of Fame because I didn't have a Hall of Fame career because my career wasn't long enough. But that was the dream team. And so Dave Maher was our captain. He said, Look, you guys just pair up whoever you want to play with. These guys can't hang in there with us. And uh so Bill Rogers and Bruce, roommates in college at Houston, they play together, they get beat, I think. I picked Crenshaw, we get beat. And of course, Floyd and maybe Nicholas played together, or Floyd and and and uh and Irwin or somebody, they want, they won, they those guys won. But but after the first day, we're losing. And I mean, Dave Marr, God bless him, he's got two drinks going and two cigarettes in this little room trying to figure out who he's gonna pair whom with. And Trevina walks in and says, Yes, let me handle it. You know, Lee is. He took over the whole room and said, Look, Pate can't beat anybody. He lost all four points at the Walker Cup, and now he's lost with Crane Shaw. Hell, they can't beat anybody. I'll take Pate. And then I want Nicholas and Watson to play together. That's an automatic point. So he started pairing everybody up. So Lee says, and I want to go first out. I don't, I ain't waiting on anybody. So I got the orange ball, drive it right down the middle. Lee hits on first hold at Walton Heath. Lee Lee hits this little skanker to the right, and it's a blind shot over the hill, and then you go up the hill to a blind green. Well, Faldo and Sam Torrens, the best two players on their team. That's who we were paired with. First out. So they're gonna get another point, they think. So we get out there, and I'm trying to look for the rabbit scratch or the little dandelion in the fairway where I have my yardage. They didn't have sprinkler heads or yardage books. So I'm trying to figure out how far I have. And Lee walks up to me, and it's it's Sam and Nick's shot. I've hit the longest drive. I'm using an orange ball right dead center, never forget it. And uh Lee says, Hey, Bubba, what you got? And I go, Where'd you go? He said, Don't worry about me, Bubba. I picked up. I said, No, really, where did you go? And he says, Here it is. He reaches his pocket and he gives me the ball. I said, Oh my god, you picked up because I'm thinking I'm gonna ride Trevino and finally win a point doing something. He's picked up and he yells out across the fairway real line, hey Bubba, they can't beat you. You're the best player of the tournament in the field. He says, Hell, they can't beat you on your own ball. And they look over and give us a dirty look. And they hit it on the grain a little long. The pin's kind of front of the green, so it's 190. And I said, He said, What you got? I said, I got 190. I'm gonna cut this three iron up in the air. He said, You put that damn three iron in your bag, and he slapped me in the hand as I'm pulling out. He said, Don't you pull one club till I tell you I'm the best caddy in the world. I'm gonna tell you what to hit. So I hit this four iron and he said, and don't hook it and don't cut it, damn it. He said, Nobody hits it straighter than you. And he said, just hit it straight at it. I'm always trying to play a little shot, you know. So I hit it straight at it, and it's looking right at the hole. We walk up on the grain, it literally is six inches. He looks over at them, and they give him the you know, the nod, it's good. He picks the ball up, Lee does, bends over, you've got that duck butt walk of his, and he throws me the ball and he says, Hey, Bob, I told you, baby, they can't beat you. It's like an abominable league deal, right? And they're pissed already. And of course, they both missed. We're one up. I think I buried two, and Lee burdy three, and I've already four or five. Long story short, we beat them seven and five. I mean, it is a record win. So we get over there on like the 12th green, and Clive Clark is on the ground with BBC. And Peter Allen says, let's go down to Clive Clark because I have a copy of the interview. We have the young Jerry Pate who's just played spectacular with the great Lee Trevino. Lee, what do you think about this? And he's going, damn, I'm telling you, I just witnessed some golf today. I mean to tell you this boy right here, and he puts his arm on my shoulder. He's the greatest player in the world. And a man, my chest is blowing out. He goes, From the neck down, he's the dumbest sum of gun I've ever played with. He can't pull a club. Hell, I can make more money, just cat him for this guy. And so I reached for the mic. I go, give me the mic. He says, You just shut up and do what I tell you to do.

Bruce Devlin 32:36

And it is the funniest energy ever seen.

Jerry Pate 32:40

And that was the start of us from then, we dominated the rest of the matches. But to think about those kind of players, to play with those players on a on a rider cup, and to think that I got to play at Walton Heath, South of London, unbelievable venue, and to play at St. Andrews on the Walker Cup and play at Casa de Compo, where I still go today. In fact, we're in charge of all five golf courses now that Pete Dye has dying. My company has. And the guy that I played my second pro tournament with at Pebble Beach, Alfie Fan Huho, who owned Casa de Campo, who's been my lifelong friend for 45 years. He's 84 years old, to be able to play a World Amateur, a Walker Cup, and a Ryder Cup on those three kinds of places and have the teams like Curtis Strange and George Burns and Gary Coke and the Walker Cup team and the Ryder Cup. I mean, these are like make-believe stories. And I was just a nobody kid studying business going to sell Coca-Cola's. And here I, you know, made a golf career out of that.

Mike Gonzalez 33:38

Yeah, it was quite a Ryder Cup. You know, that was Jack Nicholas's uh final Ryder Cup. He went 4-0. Larry Nelson, who had just won the 81 PGA, he went 4-0. I think Nicholas won a couple of majors the year before. Lee Trevino 4-0. Watson, as you said, on the team. He had won the Masters that year, won the Open Championship the year before. Bruce Litsky comes in with three wins. You know what Buck Rogers did that year, player of the year. It was quite a team. But uh Jerry, just help us with the context a little bit because you know the Europeans were just added the the Ryder Cup before, weren't they?

Jerry Pate 34:13

Bernhard Langer was a young, blonde-headed German, probably 20-something years. I was the youngest guy on our team at 27. Bernhard had to be 21 or two. Had this little light white mustache and his kinky kind of afro curly hair that he has. People don't realize that. And that was the first time I met Bernhard. We've been friends ever since, very good friends. But Sevi had a mat on at the at the uh European tour, and he didn't play because he wanted to get paid. And so he didn't show up. And uh, but they had some good players. Sam Torrance, Oosterhouse, Faldo, uh, Eamon Darcy could really play from Ireland, Des Smith, um, and Mark James. Uh, they had some Manuel Pinero played from Spain. So they had some really, and Bernhard Langer, they had some really good players, but uh uh it was a memory I'll never forget.

Mike Gonzalez 35:01

Yeah, I mean that that that sort of ended the era of U.S. domination, didn't it? Uh because it got a little it got a little tougher at PJ National the next time.

Jerry Pate 35:08

Well, Trevino and Nicholas and I quit playing, so that's what what hurt the Americans there at Go.

Mike Gonzalez 35:15

There you go.

Jerry Pate 35:16

That's yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 35:17

So you you you uh uh you did play in the World Cup back in 76 uh with uh Dave Stockton, didn't you?

Jerry Pate 35:24

That's a great story, too. So at that time I'm probably playing better than anybody in the world. And we get paired with Sevi and Manuel Pinero. We're playing at Mission Hills. Bruce, you're very well aware of that where they play the dinosaur. And we're about on the fourth or fifth hole. It was it was it was either December or January, I can't remember, at the end of the year, maybe December, and the ground was really wet, they had overwatered the ryegrass, and so uh uh uh Manuel had hit a shot on the collar just to the right, and Sevy had missed the green to the right, so he asked Manuel to mark his ball. Manuel picks his ball up. And I've got about a four-shot lead on the field, I'm gonna win the medalist. So he flips the ball over to his caddy, his caddy cleans the ball, and I walk over there and I said, you know, Manuel, I'm sorry, but you know, your caddy just cleaned the mud off your ball. I don't think you can do that. Well, oh my God, all hell broke loose. They went into full-blown Spanish, couldn't speak a word of English. And so Fred Corquin and Jack Tudhill were running it. Fred was running the International Golf Foundation, and Jack was the head official, which was from my home club, and they came out and said, do not create an international incident. I said, Well, let me ask you something. Is either the rule or it isn't? And they denied it. And boy, I went ballistic. So I go like three putt, three putt, three putt, four putt, and shoot a million. And I finished runner up to Sevi, I think won the medalist. And for years, Sevy and I were always good friends, but I was kind of like mad at Manuel Pinero. And we come to the is either the 80 or 81 Brazilian Open, might have been 82, I can't remember. And we got to playoff and I beat him down at uh at Sao Paulo in the in the Brazilian Open. And when I shook his hand, I thought I broke his hand because I was so mad because he had lied about it, and he was a good guy, but he was representing his country, and and he didn't want to feel like that he let anybody down. I get it. He was a young guy. I mean, hell, I was only 20, I was only, gosh, I was 23 then. Uh Savvy was 20, probably, or 19 or 20, and Manuel couldn't have been 21-22. And uh, I mean, I had a dead lock on the win of the World Cup, and Stockton and I didn't win, which was kind of embarrassing because the U.S. had always won it. And uh, and Dave was so mad at me because I blew it, even though I shot a lot better score than Dave did, but I had I was the strong player of the two uh at the time, and I let it get to my head and my ego and my emotions, and I shot a million coming in the rest of the round. I can't remember what the score was, but it was all about a guy, and I've never called a penalty on anybody in my career other than one time, and after I did that, I said I never will again. And I've seen infractions in the game of golf, they're petty. A guy used to tap a spike mark down or move his coin or ball on one side of the other coin to avoid a spike mark. Thank God they changed the rules. You can tap down spike marks now today. But I mean, you saw a little pettiness. You you never saw anybody like change the score or roll it over in the rough. I never saw that, but you saw little things happen on the green, little gamesmanship. But I would never call a penalty because that was really it hurt me more than it hurt him. And I was trying to be honest and just was kind the way I said it. I said, we might want to call an official in. And then a caddy went in, and he was a local caddy from LA. I remember the guy's name was Vic. And Vic says, Man, if I tell on him, he's not gonna pay me, you know. And I said, Don't worry, they'll pay your caddy fee, but you gotta be honest. And this went on for 20 minutes, you know, on that green. And we were the last group off, and so it was a mistake I made. I let my ego and my my emotions get in the way of something. I should have just let it go and I would have won, and America would have won the World Cup. But I I blew it because I got mad at somebody that had a rules infraction and I and they didn't they didn't fess up to it. So anyway.

Mike Gonzalez 39:24

If we fast forward 27 years, uh you're now 50, and you must have worked pretty hard to get your body in shape to uh compete again.

Jerry Pate 39:32

Well, when I went back and had rehab uh after I had surgery right before I turned 50. I just actually went to Jim Andrews and said, I want you to operate on my shoulder, take all the stuff out of my joint. I've got monofilament line in there that take the motion out of my shoulder. He said, What? I said, Oh yeah. And when I had the surgery, uh Frank Job has passed away. Jim's 78, so I'll tell the story. He said, Don't tell Frank this, but but he gave me a whole jar full, looked like tennis racket stringing. He and I told Jim, I said, I can feel it going, ee, ee, ee, ear, this monofilament line, it was on my head of my humeral head, trying to create a cartilage, and it just was inflamed all the time. So Jim fixed it, and I started rehabbing after that surgery um to get well in Birmingham with a guy named Kevin Wilk. And I've had three surgeries with Jim, shoulder surgeries, uh, that one and two more in 2006 and 2008. I spent eight hours a day, four days to five days a week for four months to rehab. And that was the only way. My shoulder, my upper body was so strong. It wasn't strong like bench pressing, like I looked like a linebacker, but I was pretty strong. And so when I came on the senior tour, uh Tom Perch, I believe, was one of the longest hitters. And I, if I wasn't second, I was close to it. And I was known when I turned 50 as one of the longer hitters, and it was because of the rehab, and I'd done so much strengthening, and my swing had gotten better. I uh Bruce, I'd gone to a flatter swing instead of upright. I was more a right-sided hitter instead of a left-sided puller. And so instead of trying to cut every shot with a with a hang-on cut, we'd hit kind of up and hold on, like Jack kind of hit up to cut it. I released and covered the ball more, more like a Bruce Devlin would do, or you know, or Peter Thompson or Gary Player from Europe. They they had to cover the ball, playing in that weather, the wind. And so I was more of a cover up, coverer of the ball. And I can promise you, today at 68, I probably hit the ball better than I did when I was 22, 25, 28, winning the U.S. Open or the Canadian or the players. I absolutely, and I was a really good ball striker, but I absolutely know what's going to happen with the ball today. And I rarely play, but I had to totally change my swing and rehab and work out to come out and win tournaments. Now, the flip side of that, because I hadn't played in almost 20 years, I absolutely had the yips. I went cross-handed. I never used a long putter. I went to the claw, and I probably blew 10 or 15 champions tour events in that four or five year period, including another PGA where I three-putted the 18th grade at Laurel Valley. I had a five-iron into the green. My caddy convinced me to hit a layup on the lake. I had 182 and six downhill, Bruce. 182 and 6, almost a six-iron. He said, lay it up, just hit it on the green, two-putt, you win. So sure enough, I lay it up, I hit it past the hole, I leave it short, I three-put. In hindsight, I could have hit it in the water with the five-iron and still got a par. So I made a uh really a strategic mistake and never laid up in my life. The only time I ever laid up, but that was at the PGA at Laurel Valley, and I blew it on the senior tour. But but I had a great career on the senior tour, winning a couple of times when you think back that people like uh Norman or or Curtis or Bill Rogers, I don't think one, or Crenshaw, or uh guys that could really play didn't win on the senior tour that were in my era. So for me to take that many years off and come back and win, uh, Faldo, I don't believe, won out there. I probably already mentioned him. So that was a big deal to come back and have the courage to get my game back and win at 50.

Mike Gonzalez 43:06

So we could probably do a full episode just on your broadcasting career. Did you guys overlap a little bit uh as broadcasters?

Jerry Pate 43:15

Not really. I did work with Bruce a couple of three events. Larry Cerillo was the producer of NBC Golf and did a great job. Bruce was was there with Golby and some really good announcers early on, and I guess in the late 80s and uh early 80s. And I did a few events for NBC, and then ABC hired me in '88 to '94. I quit working for ABC. Uh we had some life-changing events in our family. Both my wife and I decided to uh uh quit drinking. Susie uh uh decided that was a problem with her and her family. I thought it was. We changed our whole lifestyle, so I got out of television and and uh uh and and changed, made some great changes with our family in in '92. And then CBS called me in 95 and said, look, we're going to retire Ken Venturi. You and Jim Nance are going to be our guys. So I worked one year at CBS and was on the road. Ken still stayed there. And I just, you know, my wife didn't like me being on the road 25 weeks a year, no kids out there, no wife. And I told CBS, Sean McManus was actually my agent who negotiated the deal at IMG. The next year he becomes president of CBS Sports. Now he's the president of CBS. News and 60 Minutes of Sports. And his father was the famous Jim McKay, who I was became good friends with when I worked at ABC, was uh Margaret Jim uh McManus. You know, uh Jim McKay's name is actually McManus. He changed it to McKay, it was his stage name. So I was on the end. I mean, I was set for life to do television at CBS unless I, you know, said something or did something crazy on air. And I was going to carry forward with Jim Nance. And then Lanny Watkins called me one day and said, Look, CBS has asked me to work. He said, You had the job. Why did you get fired or why'd you quit? I said, Nanny, I just don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to be on the road. I want to be home with my wife and family where I can make a difference on my family's life and others' people's life, other than being a celebrity in golf on the road. So I gave up a great announcing career, and Lanny did a great job. And then Nick Faldo came along, again, an IMG client. And of course, they signed Nick to the role that he has today. And Nick has done a terrific job. And Lanny went to the golf channel, he's done a terrific job. But it was something that it was my choice. It wasn't the network's choice. Both cases, I decided, you know, it was more important to support my wife and my family than to support the world of golf as a as an announcer. So and that's in a nutshell of my golfing career on on uh on uh television.

Mike Gonzalez 45:45

Yeah. So we're we're gonna give you we're gonna give you one career mulligan, Jerry. Where do you take it?

Jerry Pate 45:54

Oh it's hard to say. Probably um I wouldn't have it any different other than some of my personal lifestyle. When I was a young guy on tour, I would probably change the way my higher power led me down the road of success. That's changed, but you know, in 19 uh, and and a lot of people know this. I've built 55 golf courses, I've had a construction company, I've owned sewer and water plants, I've owned country clubs, I've run golf tournaments, I've been involved in running the Pensacola Open, celebrity events. I've had a college tournament for 36 years. That the most famous guys on the tour today have all played in it. I've had a Boy Scout tournament now, just had my 49th Boy Scout tournament, 49 straight years. That's a long time. And maybe it was the 48th, is 48th or 49th this year, 48th. And uh so I've given back to Boy Scouts. I've always been involved in Boy Scouts. Now my grandson's in Boy Scouts. I couldn't have done this if I'd have stayed on the tour. I I got involved in build in building a business that was the smallest Toro distributorship and had about 30 employees, and we've grown it to a very substantial business. And now I have my kids in the business. I've been able to enjoy going home on the weekends instead of being a celebrity and a golfer, and instead of being the show on the weekend, I now can go home with my family and watch the show. And so that's my mulligan is God had a different role for me and a different plan. I was able to do something that I can give back to my family, give back to 250 people that work with us. We all work together as a family in our company, and be able to distribute uh Toro, irrigation, and equipment, and club car, and echo and shindao products and over 14 in 14 states. And uh, and so and we're growing. So it's something I've enjoyed doing. So I've gone backwards to where I originally thought I was gonna be when I was 17 when I went to college. I thought I was gonna be a business guy. I thought I was gonna be at Coca-Cola instead. I ended up in another red brand, and it's called Toro. So uh God's been good to me, and that's my mulligan. You know, I don't want a mulligan. I'm happy that God gave me a mulligan to use, to go back in and use my business degree and skills that I learned from my parents and my grandparents. And I tell this to all young people today: find something you're good at and stick with it, but always have a backup plan and never forget where you came from and always listen to older people and learn from the older and who are the best. Hang around successful people that are honest and have great character. And when I grew up on the tour to hang around a person like Charlie Cootie or Bruce Devlin when I played the U.S. Open and wanted as a rookie, couldn't have done it without their support. So, you know, that's the important thing of life is what older people have given back to me. And now that I'm almost 70 years old, I'm trying to give back as fast and as hard as I can to anybody I can give to and anybody that'll listen.

Mike Gonzalez 48:56

Well, Bruce Devlin, I think that's a great place to leave it with our visit here with uh Jerry Pate. What a great champion.

Bruce Devlin 49:03

Yeah, it's been uh it's been an absolute joy, Jerry, having you with us.

Jerry Pate 49:08

Uh thank you, Bruce. All the best to Gloria and the kids. And uh I'm happy you've landed where you have all throughout the trials and tribulations of life. And you've got a great family, and that's the most important. And I'm happy I've landed where I am today. I'm happy with me right now today. There you go.

Bruce Devlin 49:25

Thanks a lot, pal, for being with us.

Jerry Pate 49:27

Good to see you.

Mike Gonzalez 49:29

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, tell your friends down the middle until we tee it up again. Good of the game, it's gone.

Intro Music 49:49

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. As long as you're still in the state, you're okay. It went straight down the middle, five away.