Nick Price - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game. And Bruce Devlin, our guest today, first of all, is one of the youngest guests we've had. And secondly, he uh he may be at least the second former member of the armed forces we've ever had, so we're gonna talk to him about that as well.

Bruce Devlin 0:31

Yeah, no, well, he's he's got a further record than that, though. Uh he was recognized by his peers as one of the greatest strikers of the golf ball that ever played the game. Uh, case in point, 48 victories around the world, and I gotta tell you, it's a great pleasure to have Nick Price with us today. And Nicky, welcome aboard, pal.

Nick Price 0:54

Thanks, Bruce. Thanks, Mike. Good to be with you guys.

Mike Gonzalez 0:58

Yeah, great to have you. And as always, Nick, uh, as we try to tell your story, uh, we generally start at the beginning, and I think with you uh growing up where you did, there was some interesting history uh from your um uh country of nationality, I guess, uh uh Rhodesia, Zimbabwe. Uh maybe start just with your early memories of growing up in that part of the world.

Nick Price 1:25

Well, you know, I was actually born in South Africa. My parents had uh emigrated to South Africa, they had met in India um during the Second World War. My mom served in the Indian Army as a theater sister, and my dad was a major in the artillery, and then in 1947, when Pakistan got its independence from India, they uh they left and uh were on actually they're on their way to uh the Sudan and they had an uprising in the Sudan, so they stayed on the ship and got off at Durban. And uh my uh middle brother, or as I called him, uh was born there. My oldest brother was born in Karachi, and then my middle brother was born in Durban as I was. And then we moved up to Rhodesia um in 1962, uh just before my uh my fifth birthday. So I don't really remember too much about South Africa, but um, you know, growing up in Zimbabwe was a very simple life. I guess you could sort of compare it to a small Midwestern town here in the US where um, you know, the schools had uh we had great schools. Uh we had fantastic weather, we 5,000 feet above sea level. Um, and we never it never got very hot. And when I say never got very hot up on the plateau where we were, you know, a really hot day was in the sort of like the low 90s, and then in winter time we'd get a little bit of frost at at night or you know in the morning. Um, but it it would warm up, you know, during the day to sort of high 60s to 70s. So it was very temperate climate and it was conducive for outdoor sport, which is what we were all hooked on. I mean, I had two older brothers who and my dad was a huge cricket uh uh fanatic. Um and so all of my brothers, uh my brothers and I, you know, we started playing cricket and you know, putting comic magazines in our long socks as pads when we were like four or five years old. Um and and and you know, we were playing tennis in the I've been playing cricket with a tennis ball in the garden because we've broken so many windows. But anyway, you know, we grew up playing so many sports. And uh I I started off, you know, junior school playing soccer, cricket, uh, played a little bit of field hockey, um, and then you know, like everyone else, we swam in summer, did the a lot of swimming and athletics, um, and then and then when got to high school, we were we were allowed to play rugby. I started playing rugby then. So I was really lucky. I got a really uh good grounding in all sorts of sports. And I and I guess uh um, you know, when when I started playing golf, I just gravitated toward the game. But it was a very simple upbringing. Um my family didn't have much money, but in those days it didn't cost a lot of money to play golf. Um in fact, uh the club that I did ended up joining as a junior member, it cost a dollar a year, and we had 10 cents green fees for 18 holes, so it was it was relatively cheap. And we all carried our own bags, or we had, you know, some guys had um golf trolleys or golf carts, you know, that you would drag behind. But uh it was great fun. It was a wonderful place to grow up. A lot of discipline in the schools, which was great. Um, you know, we were we we we had uh we could get into trouble for for for what looks like when you look back on the on menial things and that, but it was a great uh a great grounding for us.

Mike Gonzalez 4:56

Do you remember much, and then we'll I'll get off the politics, but just uh uh Rhodesia um independence in 1965, then they went through a period uh through 1980 uh before the they became Zimbabwe. What what are your memories of that? Because you must have entered the military sometime toward the tail end of that, I suppose.

Nick Price 5:16

76, 77, I did my military um we I started in I think it was March of 76 um and finished in uh October of 77. And we originally we it was national service, you had to do it. And uh my eldest brother did six months, he was 11 years older than I was. My other brother, who was seven years older than I was, he did a uh nine months, and when I got in, it was a year. And we were halfway through basic training, which most people who've been through that will tell you it's not much fun. And they locked on another six months. So there were 92 of us in my intake. Well, sorry, yeah, 102 of us in the intake, and you've never seen 102 more glum faces after they announced we had an extra 180 days thrown in. But um, you know, we had a war going on there that was it was it was terrible. Um, it was a communist-inspired war. Uh I mean look, we can talk about the politics of it as ad infinitum, but um, you know, we didn't really have, we didn't have apartheid written into our constitution in Zimbabwe. We were in Rhodesia at the time. Um, and you know, it just we never really felt like there was uh there was racism in our country. I mean, there were pockets of it, but you know, my mom and dad taught us respect and to respect everyone, and we did. Um so you know, uh, I think we had uh wonderful uh racial harmony in our country, certainly when when I was growing up. Um and then, you know, like I say, there was a there was a war that started back right after independence. You know, you can sort of look back and question how it started and that because it was on the heels of us unilaterally declaring independence from Britain, which the US did. It just so happens about 150 or 200 years earlier. But uh we were for some reason we were picked on, which was kind of sad.

Mike Gonzalez 7:14

What's the big deal, right? Everybody does it.

Nick Price 7:18

Anyway.

Bruce Devlin 7:19

Even the Aussie's Yeah, exactly.

Nick Price 7:22

Yeah, we don't we didn't fancy being, you know, told what to do from four and a half thousand miles away.

Mike Gonzalez 7:28

So well, at your induction examination entering the Rhodesian Air Force, you are purported to have made some comment about uh skin problem. Do you remember that?

Nick Price 7:39

That was a buddy of mine. That was a buddy of mine when we when we were well, it wasn't really he became a friend of mine, but when he going through the through the uh the uh training, the uh the the basic training, you had to have a medical. And you know, your first day you're there you you have a haircut and whatever, and and the guy in front of us went to the medic, the medical officer and said, uh, the medical officer said to him, you know, have you have you got any reason why you shouldn't go in? And this is when a conscientious objector would sort of say, Yes, I'm a conscient. And so uh he said, uh I've got this problem skin. And of course there was a deathly silence behind us, and then the guy said, What's wrong with your skin? He says, Bullets go through. And he said, get in here. Get in here. Get in here.

Mike Gonzalez 8:26

Yeah. Well, let's let's go back to uh uh just your introduction to the game of golf, I guess at age five, that would have put you uh either just uh still in Durban or just uh just having moved to Rhodesia, right?

Nick Price 8:40

I had as I said, I had two older brothers and uh my middle brother Tim, who actually uh was a wonderful sportsman, a jack, jack of all trades. He could play every sport. Um he was seven years old, and I was about eight years old when he he asked me with uh three of his friends, they were going off to sneak onto this golf course, and they said, Don't you want to come with us? And I thought, well, this is the first time these guys ever invited me to do anything, you know, because normally they they would leave me behind, you know. So eventually I realized when we snuck onto this golf course that I was the caddy, I was the designated caddy. Okay, so and I remember they had bought a set of clubs in this um old canvas bag from a second-hand shop that must have had, I don't know, 30, maybe 32 clubs in it. And there was an assortment there. There was two left-handed clubs, there was uh hickory-shafted drivers, there was, I mean, plastic-coated wedges, I mean, just a real um oleo hodgepodge of of clubs. And so uh I was left-handed at the time. I battered in cricket left-handed and played every two-handed sport left-handed, but this bag had uh the strap had worn, and there was a piece of rope that was a strap. So you can only imagine the weight of this thing. And so I'm putting this thing on my shoulder because the boys had showed me how to do it. And uh, you know, I'm walking, this thing's cutting into my shoulder so bad, eventually I started dragging it down the middle of the fairway. So uh, and of course, these guys, the two the four of them were there were two left or three left and one right. They were all over they were all over the place, you know, and losing balls left, right, and center.

Mike Gonzalez 10:16

But uh they should have paid you by the mile.

Nick Price 10:19

Yeah, they didn't pay me at all, you know, but that didn't surprise me in those days. I was just happy to go along. But but you know, the first time I got on this golf course, which wasn't one of the one of the really good courses at home, it was a um it was a a very uh what's it like a daily fee sort of golf course um that you would have here. But uh I got on these fairways and then these greens. I had never seen you know uh grass that beautiful in my life. And so I was I I remember that um, you know, if any if you ask me what my greatest memory of that first day was, was how beautiful the greens were and how manicured. Uh because we'd never seen anything like that. I guess you know, it's like Australia, Bruce. You know, you get all get away from the ocean and the grass is as rough as a goat's knee, you know.

Bruce Devlin 11:06

Or you could have started uh like I did up in Yas, a little town outside of where I lived. And we, you know, sand greens, you know, forget the greens. We had smooth sand to put on.

Nick Price 11:17

Yeah. With oil mixed in, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 11:18

Correct, exactly, yeah. So it wouldn't blow away.

Nick Price 11:21

Yeah. Funny. So yeah, we snuck onto this golf course, and I'll just go back quickly, just tell you how it started. But we snuck onto this golf course a couple of times, and we eventually got caught by one of the one of the members there, you know, and uh he was really nice. He said, Listen, you guys don't need to be sneaking on the golf course here. You can go up to the golf, you can join this club, and there's a they have a junior golf program and all this where um the my uh uh province I grew up in was Mishonland, and the Mishoneland Golfers Junior Golf Association had uh during this, during our holidays, um would have uh Monday to Friday, they'd have a little junior tournament every morning. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And it was at a different course every day, which was great, you know. Um so we could get out there and play, and it used to cost us, I think in those days, it was like 20 cents to to play. Um so our moms would drop us off at the golf course, um, and we'd spend pretty much the whole day there, or the other mom would pick us up. But it was uh it was a wonderful way to to spend your your holidays, you know. I mean, we're all sport mad, and of course there wasn't a lot of sport in the holidays, the cricket or rugby and that, because we'd have the break, you know, from from uh school. But uh the golf was a great, I don't know, uh escape for me. You know, it was uh and I had a wonderful group of friends. That was probably what did it. You know, I had like five or six really good buddies who we used to play regularly in all of these events, and of course the comp the you know the competitiveness amongst us was was unbelievable because we were all competitive at sport. So and so that's basically how I got started. And I I switched over from left-handed because I couldn't find left-handed clubs to right-handed, uh, probably when I was about nine, ten. So I'd played for a for quite a while left-handed. Um, but you know, we couldn't get left-handed clubs in those days. You probably remember, Bruce, in the 60s, you know, the left-handed clubs were hard to come by.

Bruce Devlin 13:24

Yeah, and interestingly too, Nick, I don't know if you know this, but David Graham originally was a left-hander.

Nick Price 13:30

Oh, I didn't know, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 13:31

Yeah, and the guy that uh the guy that he worked for at uh the pro at the club that he was with in Melbourne, he said to him one day, you know, David, you need to you need to uh turn around and play right-handed, and and you know, just like you, I mean two two left-handers turned into major champion right-handers. That's pretty fancy.

Mike Gonzalez 13:52

We talked to Curtis Strange recently, too, and and uh he shoots a gun left-handed, he shoots pool left-handed. Uh, he does a lot of things left-handed, but uh he ended up playing golf right-handed, and we asked him if he could play on both sides, and he said no.

Bruce Devlin 14:06

No. Yeah. And you know, Nick, there's one other thing, too. Uh, talking about Curtis Strange, when we had him on, he was he was he was relating the same sort of story you did about playing all the different sports, and he felt like that was a very important thing for him. Right. That uh, you know, he learned how to play all the different sports, and uh his hand-eye coordination became very good, and of course that's what you need to play golf.

Nick Price 14:36

Oh, for sure. I think uh I think just you know, any ball game that you play, whether it's tennis or squash or cricket, you know, where you have an an implement, whether it's a squash racket, a tennis racket, a cricket bat, or a golf club, that gives you such, you know, that gives you a great grounding for golf. You start understanding about spin, what gets the ball to spin, obviously playing cricket, um, you know, and that sort of thing. So um and I think that all, you know, you when you start playing golf, you're trying to hit all the shots, you know, you you you read all the magazines and you and you watch some of the better players at the club, and you just, you know, you try and emulate what they're doing. So you learn very quickly as a youngster. We didn't have obviously the media that is available to the youngsters today, which I think is you know accelerates their progress because they can split their swing, put their swing up on a split screen next to a Tigers or next to a John Rom or next to a uh uh Rory McElroy. And uh, you know, I think that because kids are great mimics, and and if I'd had the opportunity to do that when I was a kid, I think you know I would have probably had in the early days a much better swing than the one I started with.

Bruce Devlin 15:51

Yeah, but you ended up with a great one, pal, I gotta tell you about. Man, what a swing.

Mike Gonzalez 15:57

Well, who were some of your key mentors, uh Nick, uh, in helping you develop your game at a at a young age?

Nick Price 16:05

Well, my brother, for sure. Um, you know, Tim was, as I say, he he started playing, what was he, he was about 15, and by the time he was 17, he was a scratch player. So he he progressed very quickly. Um and he loved the game as well. So I learned a lot from him. In fact, you know, we were going probably through a learning curve together at that stage. Mine was I couldn't quite absorb as much as he did, but he taught me so much about the game. Um and then, you know, watching a lot of the players uh around I guess when I was before I was 15, 14, 15, I watched a lot of the the good players. We didn't have much teaching there. In fact, I only ever really had one lesson. Um when I was about 17. I had I had the shanks, and uh I went to uh the local pro there to give me a lesson and he kind of helped me a bit. But um, you know, the next lesson I had was with Ledbetter in like 1982. So uh very self-taught. And I'm all of us were down there. You know, Dennis Watson was a was a uh compatriot of mine, so was Mark McNulty, Tony Johnson, who now comments commentates for Sky, but also you know very successful in Europe, won the British PGA. Um but we you know we had some really, really good players come out of our country. And and it we should have because the the the conditions, the weather, the the uh inexpensive or the the you know uh the low cost of playing golf was there. So it didn't matter what background you came from, you could play. Um so it was uh it was uh it was great fun. Um and you know, we had our nose buried in golf magazines and golf books, and when you know every drawer in my house or desk had a golf book or magazine on it. And of course, you know, you'd you you'd try these things. Unfortunately, that's the hard thing about reading and learning the game from a golf magazine or book or pictures is that they're static. You don't actually see the movement. So that's um you know why I uh I I think you know my swing was a little bit short and fast, but uh I I only really got to see a lot of golf uh because we didn't have any golf on TV in those days. But the only golf, the only golf we got to watch was the cigarette companies, which obviously we grew a lot of tobacco in our country, they would bring these promotional films from you know The Masters, from uh the the British Open from uh Piccadilly World Matchplay, which was a big event in those days, and they'd have two screenings of it at our club. And that was the only time we ever saw you know motion in golf swings, other than the guys that were at the club, the good players. So um my sort of my sort of mentoring to answer your question in a long way, but my mentoring sort of came from I guess my uh watching the watching the the the great players or the good players at our club and the good amateurs at home, and then obviously my brother. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 19:06

That's an interesting observation that uh uh a lot of what you saw and were exposed to was static, meaning golf magazines. That's kind of like uh the way I learned as a kid. Uh we had we didn't have a pro, it was just a little nine-hole course with no bunkers, and so you just uh pulled out all the golf magazines and I clipped all the articles out, uh, you know, the one-page lessons on this and that. But it was it was all static, although in the U.S. we did have the the opportunity to see a little bit more on television back then, so you could uh maybe go a little bit beyond just that picture. Yeah. All right, let's talk a little bit more about uh junior career then, because uh you had some success. You played uh played on the school golf team.

Nick Price 19:48

So was that a high school sort of uh team at uh yeah we didn't really have golf in school until the last year I was there. Um it was it wasn't uh uh the headmaster we had at the time didn't like individual sport, but because we'd had so much success as a uh in a national team, the Rhodesia Junior national team, we'd beaten South Africa, who had an extremely strong team. Um uh but we beat them back in I think it was 73. So my last year at school, one of the teachers had started the golf the golf team. So but it wasn't it what didn't really catch on at that stage. Um so most of our golf was played outside of school um uh time. You know, we'd play on the weekends when we'd have some of the provincial amateurs or the uh uh you know the interprovincial, which was was great fun. Um and at that stage, you know, not only was I playing junior golf, but I also got into um you know the provincial team on the senior level or you know, the the the amateur level, which was great. So I was keeping busy.

Mike Gonzalez 20:58

So your your trip to San Diego for the world uh junior world championships at age 17, was that your first big trip outside of the country?

Nick Price 21:05

Yeah, it was. My buddy Fred Beaver had come back the year before, and there was no way, I mean, we could ever afford a trip to go to uh California, but he had told me that, you know, they gave money, the uh junior world people gave money to each country to go. And so that paid for my air ticket, which was terrific. And uh, you know, they they didn't I s we were billeted out with people, and uh stayed with a guy called Doug Clark, who was a very, very good player at the time in uh '74. But an interesting happen, an interesting thing happened um that uh about six months before I left, or seven months before I left, we were playing the small ball. And Bruce, you probably you grew up playing the small ball as I did. And all the amateur tournaments were with the small ball. And uh I switched to the big ball because. I knew I was going to go and play in America. And I thought, you know, there was right at the time when the British Open had just changed to the big ball. I think 74 was the first one. I think Gary Player won with uh Weisskoff was the last to win with a small ball in 73, and then Player won in 74 with a big ball. And so I started playing with the big ball. And of course, it was a handicap in those days, especially you know the amateur tournament. So my my amateur performance for a while sort of went backwards. But when I got over to San Diego, I had no transition playing to the going to the big ball. So uh it was great. And and that, you know, that was like a dream come true for me to to win there. Uh I mean it just I didn't know how good I was. And my mom thought this would be a great trip because if she if I did think I was good, it was gonna get knocked out of me while I was over. Sure. So but then I ended up winning, you know, and uh and then uh obviously that it was it was they got the full support of my family after that. But um it was a trip of a lifetime for me. And uh and then I went back again. Actually, Gary Player had a junior tournament in South Africa that I was invited to. And here I'd never traveled more than maybe a thousand, eight hundred miles from my home. And I go to America twice in one year, um, and uh played at the Orange Bowl in Miami and met David Abel, who became he and I became great friends. But at that stage there were a couple of guys, youngsters that I was there who were playing in the Orange Bowl, who were really good 17-year-olds, and David Abel had just got there and at uh and he'd just got into the 15 to 17 division, and I played with him and he beat us all by nine shots.

Bruce Devlin 23:50

Oh my.

Nick Price 23:50

And I thought, well, you know, maybe San Diego was a bit of a fluke, you know, but so uh anyway, it was it was uh it was a great experience for me to do two trips in one year to the States. And I fell in love with golf over here because it was it was similar to you know what I'd grown up with. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 24:08

Do you remember some of the fellas that uh played back then uh in those tournaments? Any names we'd recognize?

Nick Price 24:16

Hal Sutton, John Cook, um let's think who else was there? Uh trying to think there were quite a few guys, none of them really got on to the tour. Um Dave Navart, he was the guy who won the U.S. Junior that year. But there were a lot of good Hawaiian players um, you know, playing then. Um there was a guy called uh Clyde Rigo, uh, who actually was at uh college at um North Texas State with Jimmy Johnson, my old caddy, and my old friend. They were roommates. Um but you know Gary, I th I think Gary Harburg was just coming into the fray then. So I think he might have played in that orange bowl.

Bruce Devlin 24:59

He was a good player, too.

Nick Price 25:01

Yeah, he was a great junior and a college player.

Mike Gonzalez 25:03

Were you able to come over and have a go in uh uh any of the other major sort of amateur events uh in the US?

Nick Price 25:11

No, no, I didn't I didn't have enough money, to be honest. Uh you know, uh I did go to Europe for about three months in '75 um and traveled with three other guys, and we went on the very lowest budget of tours. But uh we we had four of us sharing rooms and all sorts of things. I mean, you know, anything to get over there, but we had a great time. And I actually, in that time, I managed to get to the quarterfinals of the British Amateur. I was bit beaten by Mark James, who was then beaten by Vinny Giles in the final at Hoy Lake. And then uh the highlight of my year was to qualify for the British Open at uh Carnoustie, the one at Tom Watson, where he beat Jack Newton in the playoff. And Simon Hobday and I qualified over at uh at St. Andrews. So here in a space of like 10 days, I've played, you know, arguably one of the greatest golf courses, or certainly the most uh historic golf course. I played four rounds on that, and then I got to play um two practice rounds at the uh open and then two uh tournament or championship rounds, and I missed the cut. But uh what an experience that was. I mean, just for an 18-year-old, it was something very special.

Bruce Devlin 26:35

That Carnousti is a brute, isn't it? Woo man, what a tough golf course.

Nick Price 26:39

Carnusti was yeah, it was was too much for me. I think I think I shot 154 and um 152 and and missed the cut by about six shots. But I don't know, I didn't, you know, it was I was in awe. In fact, I I remember, you know, being on the practice team, and and you'll probably get a kick out of this, but um, you know, here I am, 18, and I've got all of this crappy equipment, you know, I don't have very nice clubs, but in those days, um, you know, the caddies used to shag balls, yeah. There was no range. Right. And so I find the spot on the range and my caddies out there like that. And the next thing, here comes Roberto Di Vincenzo. Oh boy, and he starts hitting balls next to me, and then next to him, uh just next to sit to the other side of me, here comes Trevino.

Bruce Devlin 27:22

Oh boy.

Nick Price 27:23

So I called my caddy in.

Bruce Devlin 27:25

I'm not hitting any against.

Nick Price 27:27

There's no way I'm gonna be hitting balls between these guys. So uh I just moved my clubs to the back of the range, and of course, then a whole lot of guys came on. But uh uh Dale Hayes was was there. I played a practice with Dale, he was always really good to me, um, and and and Simon. So uh it was uh I was lucky I had good good good uh friends on the South African tour.

Mike Gonzalez 27:51

Let's just touch on one uh at least one other thing from your amateur career because I noted that um you were able to represent Rhodesia in 1976 in the Eisenhower trophy.

Nick Price 28:04

Again, that was I was in the military then. Um so I think it was uh September maybe, somewhere around there of 76. So I'd been in the military for about six months, and um the selectors, uh one of the selectors phoned me and said, Do you think you'll be able to, you know, get some leave? Yeah, and I thought, yeah, you know, I don't really want I said, Well, send me a letter, you know, and I'll take it to my boss. And I was in the communication communications in and my my boss looked at this and he said, Well, I'll have to go to someone, you know, a little more superior. And uh, because if you guys do really well over there, someone's gonna ask, how the hell did he get out of the military for two weeks? Because that was the trip. Um, but anyway, they let me go and we had a great time. In fact, uh I played with Jim Nalford there. That's where I first got to meet Jim. Um another guy, Doug Roxborough, who was in part of the Canadian team. Um didn't really know the US team that well there, but um, you know, what an experience again. You know, uh 19 years old and playing with three of my buddies uh and uh we actually we actually did okay. We were, I think we finished like eighth or ninth, which for our country was pretty good.

Mike Gonzalez 29:19

And uh we we tell the story on occasion uh Bruce Devlin played in the inaugural Eisenhower Trophy in 1958.

Bruce Devlin 29:27

I didn't know that. Yeah.

Nick Price 29:28

This is a good piece of trivia.

Bruce Devlin 29:30

Where was it? At St. Andrews. Uh, okay. Mobby Jones was the captain of the U.S. team, and I don't know if you remember, but uh they gave him the key to the city. Uh it's not called that, but that's basically what it was. And he he got out of his wheelchair on the Wednesday night and gave a speech. Like uh, I mean, uh you it was hard to believe to think that this this guy was there and uh was the captain of the uh uh inaugural team for the United States. It was a fabulous week. Like you said, you know, I mean uh I mean what an opportunity. That was my first trip out of Australia. Yeah it took me 52 hours to get to Scott in one of those uh six-engine super constellation planes. Man, I've got to tell you, that was that was a tough trip.

Mike Gonzalez 30:24

And who won, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 30:26

Well, the Australian team won, if you can believe how about that, huh? Yeah. And then then, of course, we got to go uh we got to go to the United States uh for the second Eisenhower Cup match, was played at Merion. And of course, Nicholas made his debut there and and slaughtered everybody, but uh as defending champions, we got to go to the White House. We got invited to go to the White House with the American team and got to meet uh President Eisenhower and it was it was quite a quite a remarkable three two years actually to be in both of those. That was fun.

Nick Price 31:02

And who was on your team then?

Bruce Devlin 31:04

Uh I had we had a guy by the name of uh Peter Tugurd, uh Doug Backley, and Bob Stevens from Adelaide. Uh that were that was the team that won, and then in uh in 60 we had uh Teddy Ball. I don't know if you ever met Teddy Ball.

Nick Price 31:22

Yeah, Ted Ball, I remember him.

Bruce Devlin 31:23

Teddy Ball. Uh uh Jack Coogan was on the team, uh second team, and I'm having trouble with the other one.

Mike Gonzalez 31:32

Oh, that's okay. Yeah, I know. And the the U.S. team in 58, uh Bruce, Charlie Coe, Billy Joe Patton, Bill Hinman.

Bruce Devlin 31:41

Yeah, Bill Heinmann or Heinmann I mean, uh Yeah, that they were uh they were a good team. Of course, they you know they were supposed to win easily, but uh the Aussies sort of shocked them, I think. Which was good.

Mike Gonzalez 31:55

And Nick, I think uh when the tournament started, uh Bruce was 19 years old. That's the age that Bobby Jones was when he uh played uh in the US Open uh I mean the British Open for the first time at the old course, uh, age 19, 1921. But uh Bruce opened with an 81 and clawed his way back to tie for first in the medalist. So he did okay.

Nick Price 32:18

You know, the first time I went to Australia, uh Bruce, I I played down uh I can't remember, played down the South Australian Open, down in Adelaide. I played uh the Lakes, uh the Australian, I played so many of the courses. So your great courses in Australia. Obviously, Royal Melbourne, one of my all-time favorites and certainly a top three of all time for me, Kingston Heath. I just absolutely love that golf course. You know, not as visually striking as Royal Melbourne, but uh um just the kind of course you could great, great golf course. But I was surprised when I went there that you Aussies didn't win the British Open more often because the conditions, and I said this to Baker Finch and Grady and all the guys, my buddies from Australia. I said, I just can't believe you guys don't win the British Open every year, because you know, the conditions, uh Lynx golf and uh the the the courses, especially ones on the sandbelt, uh well, not only those ones, I mean Royal Adelaide and uh a couple of others have ball run like crazy there, you know. And so um uh anyway, but you guys have had a good success rate in the British Open, I must say.

Bruce Devlin 33:28

Oh, you mentioned something there about the sandbelt for for our listeners, it might be interesting to say this. You could you could stay in a little motel about 15 miles southeast of Melbourne and stay there for a month and not drive more than 10 miles and play a championship golf course every day. That's how many great golf courses there are in that sand build area in Melbourne.

Mike Gonzalez 33:53

Nick, tell us a little bit about the uh the thought process you went through as you contemplating turning professional back in 1977.

Nick Price 34:03

Well, you know, I didn't play very well through that military period of mine because I wasn't playing a lot. And you know, when I when I came out of the military, about a month before I finished, you know, my my my dad had died when I was uh uh younger, when I was ten. So my mom and I, you know, sort of lived together because my two brothers were older, but we spent a lot of time, you know, uh talking. She's a great, wise old bird my mom was. She was a wonderful, wonderful person. Um and she said to me about a month before I I got demobbed, she said, um, you know, what are you gonna do? And I and I thought, you know, well, I don't know. I mean, I thought about golf, but to be honest, I'm not sure because I'd done those three months in Europe on the low budget tours, I didn't really think playing golf for a living was much fun. You know, because the uh you know, because of the experiences we had and you know, catching trains, getting off the at the airport, getting on a tube train with your golf clubs and suitcase, because we didn't have enough money to get rent cars and that, you know. And I I was a bit disillusioned about traveling, I must say. And and of course the weather in Britain wasn't what I was used to either. Um in fact I traveled with more sweaters, I think that first three months than I'd owned in my entire life, you know, just playing that that six or that three months there. But anyway, um, you know, so my mom said, You've got to give it a try. She said, you know, you really have to try. Uh and if it doesn't work out after two or three years, you know, uh you can go to college, you know, get a degree and or whatever, get qualified to do something. Um, but you really should try. And so, you know, I I mean I I wanted to try, but I I I guess I needed a little more uh little push convincing or co yeah, a little bit of a push, which my mom definitely gave me. So you know, October 77, when I finished, I turned pro about a week later and went down to South Africa and started playing the South African tour.

Mike Gonzalez 36:13

So you played South Africa. I'm sure you had some success down there, uh went to Europe and played the European Tour, and then uh uh it wasn't until 83 then that you came and played the U.S. Tour. Was that uh pretty much for good then, coming over that time?

Nick Price 36:27

Yeah, again, uh my first I played four and a half seasons. The 1982 was like a half season for me in Europe. But uh 78, 79, 80, I got better and better and better. And and I think I finished up 12th or 13th on the money list in 80, won the Swiss Open, had a lot of top 10 finishes. And I guess if they'd had a world ranking, you know, I'd won a couple of times in South Africa that year. I might have been in the top 60, maybe top 50 in the world, but they didn't have world rankings in those days. And I was so wanted to come and play in America. Obviously, I'd had the taste of success at the junior world, but also coming to the Orange Bowl, you know, uh the weather in Europe was was awful. I mean, and a lot of the golf courses we played um were in terrible shape. Um, you know, when we went on the continent. I mean, uh, fairways weren't really fairways, a lot of them. I mean, I'm talking back, you know, late 70s. You could hit flyers out the fairway because they just, you know, they had a short winter and a few or short summer, short growing season. And um anyway, uh I I I decided after I came to see Ledbetter in the beginning of 82 over here that um I was gonna um I was gonna try and get my card in America. And so um I went through tour school in uh uh the fall of 1982. I went through two tour school two schools, the first stage which was actually here, not in Palm Beach, and I got through that and then went to finals at uh TPC Saugrass. And we played Sawgrass and the TPC, the stadium course. Six rounds, and that was the first year of the all-exempt tour. Um so I had my playing privileges in Europe, so I you know had a little bit of a buffer that if I didn't get my card, I didn't have as much pressure as the other guys who were playing solely to get their cards in America. I had to go, I uh you know, I could go back to Europe, and um but I finished third at tour school, so I got card number three, and then went back to South Africa and won the money list in South Africa, the order of merit, which got me into the US Open, got me into the PGA championship, got me into all the premier events, the memorial tournament, all of the limited field events in my first year. So 1983 came along, and I just, you know, I had it was it was perfect year for me to really um to build on.

Mike Gonzalez 38:54

Let me recount uh Nick's professional record for our listeners. Uh 48 professional wins, including 18 PGA tour victories, which by the way ties him for 46th on the all-time list, seven wins on the European Tour, two wins on the Australasian Tour, and four senior PGA Tour wins. Highest world ranking number one in 1994 for 43 weeks. And uh uh at least at that point uh until recently, I don't know if it's uh changed at all, but only Tiger Woods has had a better run than that at number one, uh, which was pretty impressive. Uh let's have you talk a few things uh before we get into some of your key wins that we're gonna talk about the majors. Talk about your caddy, squeaky.

Nick Price 39:39

Oh yeah, shame. I miss him so much. He was um uh I'll go back to 88, 89 around there. He was caddying for a lot of guys, um Jeff Sluman caddied for Mahaffey, um, caddied for Fred Couples. Never really got um into one bag, you know, uh, or had one guy he carried for full-time. Mahaffey probably was the guy he caddied for the longest, I think full-time. Anyway, my old caddy Dave McNeely was leaving. He was going back to Ireland, so I started looking in in uh 1990. And uh anyway, I asked Squeak, you know, if he'd caddy for me and toward the end of 1990, and he said, Well, he said, Tom Watson just asked me about two weeks ago. I thought, oh well, I better start looking for someone else, you know. Anyway, uh the next thing, you know, he phones me up and he says, Yeah, I'm gonna caddy for you. So I said, Well, that's great. And um, so we started at the beginning of '91 together, and the next six years from 91 through 96, um I don't know, we just had a friendship. Uh we worked very hard on just getting better. That's all we try to do was just get better. Every week, every every day, every week, every year. I mean, uh, just to get better. Because I had all the ingredients and I was a lot of seconds, a lot of thirds, but I just I couldn't get over that hurdle and and and win, you know. And within three months of him being on the bag, I won the Byron Elson. And, you know, we'd started I I think this sort of gelling of two character two personalities um just it took off. And uh the confidence that he gave me, the confidence that I was getting from playing well, you know, the floodgates burst basically. And they, you know, they they burst in big time in 93. But 91, 92, I had really good years. I finished uh seventh on the money list in 91 and fourth on the money list in 92, um and then and then uh won the money list in 93 and 94. So, you know, that was a a great period for me. And uh Squeak and I used to play we used to have these games, you couldn't talk in negatives on the golf course. If you said anything negative, like if you mentioned a hazard, a bunker, or uh a water, if you said, Oh, there's water to the left, fine. You you know, you'd find if you said it's a 125 to carry the bunker, fine. We'd have 125 to the front edge. So everything that we did was, you know, if there was water left or out of bounds left, you'd always say plenty of room, right.

Bruce Devlin 42:25

Yeah.

Nick Price 42:25

So we never we never had a negative uh connotation in our in our speech at all.

Bruce Devlin 42:30

Very interesting.

Nick Price 42:32

And and it was it was a great thing, you know. And I try and tell a lot of the young guys now, you know, uh that I play with, I said, it's so important because um, you know, that that planting the seed, whatever it is, of negativity, uh is is a is a bad thing. Um so it it helped me an awful lot, and we had a lot of fun doing it. And uh, you know, the highlight for me of our time was the way uh I won the British Open at Turnbury in '94, because I was always a good front runner, uh, probably because my putting was never my strength. It's hard to come from behind and and and you know, uh and win from behind if you're not a great putter. So that's the way I played. I put my nose in front or I'd be around about the lead. But uh that day, that British Open, that back nine, I played I played my tail off and I made some, you know, obviously the one on 17 everyone, a lot of people remember, but it was an amazing uh day of putting the game.

Mike Gonzalez 43:33

We'll come back to some of your major successes. Um uh the other thing I remember about Squeak is uh um I think it was coming up to the PGA in ninety one at Crooked Stick, and uh your son Greg was about to be born, as I recall. Uh so you withdrew from the tournament to be with your wife, and uh Squeak's left without uh anybody to carry for, and who does he end up with?

Nick Price 44:00

John Daly. Yeah. It was uh freaky. Well, it was uh it was, you know, I don't know if I played with John a couple of times that year, uh, and uh I think even in 1990 we'd had a practice round somewhere, but he'd played in South Africa. A lot of the guys over there said, Oh, you've got to play with John Daly, he's gonna get on the tour, he's amazing. And uh I actually did play with her a practice round. In fact, funny enough, it was at the Byron Nelson the first time, but not not the one I won. But anyway, uh cut a long story short, Sue was late. The doc said, you know, don't make any plans this week. So oh my god, so this is the PGA. So on a Tuesday morning, Tuesday lunchtime, I I withdrew uh because I felt that I'd have to give someone a chance. Uh well in fact, Sue had gone into the doctor. We went in together, I think, on that Tuesday morning. And then coming back, I said, I'm gonna withdraw from the PGA because you know nothing's gonna happen. So and I've got to give a guy a chance to get up there and have a practice round. I mean, you know. And so uh John Daly phoned me. Um and he was in in those days we didn't have mobile phones, but he had a phone in his car, and one of those, you know, the ones that were attached. And I said to him, Where are you phoning me? He says, No, I'm driving. I'm driving up there. So I said, Oh, okay. He said, Yeah, uh, you know, you are you sure you're not gonna make it? I said, No, no, I've withdrawn. You've you know you're good to go. And I didn't know that he was second, third, fourth, fifth alternate, whatever. He just phoned. And so I said, Listen, please, will you have you do you have a caddy? And he said, No, no, I don't. I said, Look, Squeaks, my caddy was from originally from Gary, Indiana, which you know is really close to where Crooket stick was, or not far away. And uh I said, Squeaks been up there for three, four days, just you know, pouring over this golf course. Because um, you know, I was playing really well. I mean, this is it was uh we were playing really well together, and you know, we'd had some great finish, really good strong finishes. And so he says, Yeah, I'll get him, I'll get him. So, and he knew who Squeaky was, and the rest is history. Yeah, and so I'm watching on Sunday, him coming down and John Daly's doing this, and uh I'm thinking, There goes, there goes my caddy, I'm done. I'm gonna have to look for another one. And uh anyway, the first thing he did when he phoned me uh to Squeaky after they won, he said, Don't worry, Nick, I'm not leading you. Because I think everyone had asked him that, you know.

Bruce Devlin 46:29

Yeah, probably.

Nick Price 46:30

So you know, thank goodness.

Mike Gonzalez 46:32

Yeah, I think for Squeak guiding John Daly around that golf course that week had to be a little different experience than guiding Nick Price around, huh?

Nick Price 46:40

He drove the ball, uh I mean, magnificently that week. And uh dro wrong and straight.

Mike Gonzalez 46:47

Uh you mentioned uh David Led Butter earlier, and I was surprised that you hooked up with him as early as you did. Uh and you were with him for a while, weren't you?

Nick Price 46:56

Yeah, David and I we grew up together. He also grew up in Rhodesia at the time, and uh he was in between, age-wise, between my middle brother Tim and I. So David's like three and a half, four years older than I am. So but I played golf with him first when I was about eleven.

Bruce Devlin 47:10

Okay.

Nick Price 47:10

And David was a really good junior golfer. Um and, you know, in fact he became a a really proficient player, but he could never string three rounds, four rounds together. That was a problem. He'd shoot 68, 77, 71. Well, you know, he'd always throw in a bad round there. And uh he eventually turned to teaching. And I remember Dennis Watson coming back, who had played his first year here in the U.S. in 81, and he'd started working with David. David had made his way over to the States here, and I said to Dennis, I said, Man, your golf swing looks unbelievable. You know, you're set up everything. He said, Well, I've been working with David. And I'd had a pretty miserable 81 in Europe, so I phoned David up, and he was here in Florida, and uh I said, I've got to come see you. If you can help me, anyway, so sure enough, as soon as the tour in South Africa finished in uh February, I made my way, March, I made my way over here and spent six weeks with David. And to be honest, I'd never I know this is gonna sound really strange, but I'd never seen my swing in slow motion on video. And you know, I'd seen it on TV and I'd seen it, you know, uh clips of it. And when I first saw it in slow motion, I wanted to throw up because there were so many angles, so many extra moves. And you know, there I am thinking I'm swinging the club. You know, I knew I had a a loop or dropped the club inside, but this was so pronounced. And obviously, because I played poorly in 1981, it was more pronounced. So anyway, David and I started, and he helped me a lot, you know, uh getting the swing plane right, getting my you know, I was on a parallel track understanding what the swing plane was, but I wasn't on track, and he helped me to get on track. And from that day on, well, the first week I worked with him, I knew that uh I was gonna learn an awful lot and I was going to make very good progress. And you know, three months after four months after working, starting work with him, I nearly won the British Open at uh at uh Troon in 1982. And so that was uh that was a huge, huge step for me.

Mike Gonzalez 49:26

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, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 49:47

It went smack down the fairway. And it's time to slice, just smit you line. You had it for two, but it must offline. My hand is as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.