Nick Price - "Winning the 1994 PGA at Southern Hills" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Two years later you go to Southern Hills and uh you must have been uh well I don't know you you tell me how comfortable were were you on the Sunday and and when did you get comfortable after winning by six over Corey Penny.

Nick Price 0:28

Well I took a week off after the open, which was uh what was there, a month in between, I think. Hang on, no, they were three weeks, two weeks in between. Uh anyway, I went uh I took a week off afterwards and because I was drained after that open, and then went to see lead. And I said, Led, you know, w what what's going on here? What had happened? And we looked at some footage and whatever and figured the few things out. And then I went to Memphis in between, um, and I think I missed the playoff by a shot. I ended up finishing fourth there. Um and I played so well from T to Green. And uh one of the significant things about Memphis was that uh I was on the putting green and uh Bobby Grace had the fat lady out, and I was hitting it uh hitting some putts with it on Tuesday in the afternoon Tuesday afternoon, and I just loved the feel of this putter. And I previously I'd been using that uh zebra um which Ram made, that was who I had my contract with, but anyway, I won the British Open with that. Uh and I didn't putt very well on Friday, Thursday and Friday. And I was, I don't know, 20th back in there, and so I said to Squeak, let's try that putter. You know, and anyway, I just putted so beautifully on Saturday and Sunday, nearly won. And then went back home, putted with that putter for a long, worked on my game a little bit more with lead, got to Bellreef, and from Monday to Sunday, I I had arguably one of the best ball striking weeks of my life. Uh it was like it was TPS, uh when I won a TPC in n in '93, it was that kind of uh week. And and then you couple that with the way I was putting with this putter, and it just was it was bombs away. And it was it was so much fun. Because every time, you know, I'd hit sort of like a weak iron shot, you know, where before I'd be trying to lag up or whatever. I'm standing over this 25, 30 footer trying to make it. And I made a few of them, you know, uh, and uh, and that was it was just uh a great week for me. And uh one of the one of the things I'll never forget was on the 17th hole, um, I'm walking up there, it's a short part four. I hit an iron off the T and now I've got a wedge on the green, and it had my name up there. And it had uh on the leaderboard, it had uh uh Corey underneath, Corey Paven who was chasing, and then underneath it had Hogan, Nicholas, uh, you know, Jones. They put all these great names up there with with mine, you know, and that was such a wonderful thing for those guys to do. I never forgot that. Um and then the Walk Up 18, you know, uh there was the one time where I've now got so much of a lead that I can actually enjoy the last two holes. So uh, you know, that that was on top of the world, I guess that was it, because I did. I went from you know second on the world ranking. I couldn't kick Greg Norman off the off that plinth of his, you know, that he was up there the whole time uh for so many weeks, and uh and eventually, you know, it took me two majors to dethrone him, which anyway, he was very happy with it.

Mike Gonzalez 3:41

Led wire to wire, led wire to wire that week uh with a score of 269, which was a new record at the time. You led by five after two rounds, uh your lead was up to seven at one point on Saturday, and uh uh you were also the first to win the open championship and the PGA in the same year in seven decades. The last person to do do that would have been Walter Hagan back in 1924.

Nick Price 4:05

Yeah, well pretty much. Like I say, I it was a very special time for me, and I felt like you know, uh all everything that I'd worked on, everything that I'd done, all had just come to this this peak. And you know, to win two majors in in uh in eight weeks or six weeks, whatever it is, is you know, it was it was I I mean yeah, we were flying back and I just I just kept saying to my wife, you know, this has been the most amazing thing. And you know, she had been with me through the lean time, so she she could appreciate it. You know, it wasn't like she married me when I was playing well. I mean, she we got married in eighty eighty seven, but eighty five, you know, she went through all of the trials and tribulations with me, so it went straight down the middle. It was crack times.

Mike Gonzalez 4:56

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 5:20

It went smack down the fairway. When it's time to slice, just make you fly. When it's mid a little fly away.