Shaun Micheel - Part 3 (The 2003 PGA Championship)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

I know our listeners are anxious to hear about the 2003 PG Championship win at Oak Hill Country Club. This was the major championship uh win by two over Chad Campbell, shooting a 400-276. Of course, Oak Hill, most of our listeners will remember uh famous uh uh venue for a number of championships, including uh Curtis Strange, his second consecutive U.S. Open.

Shaun Micheel 0:42

Yeah, yeah. And uh I I referenced Carrie Middlecoff. He won a U.S. Open there. Um so um Oakill and Memphis Golf, that's a pretty good ties. But yeah, it it's uh uh I you know I kind of mentioned that story earlier with Rich Beam and coming off the elevator and type of thing.

Mike Gonzalez 0:58

You know, that's bulletin board material.

Shaun Micheel 1:01

Really in jest. It really was. I mean, I think we both kind of laugh at that now, and I think he does as as well. But but um yeah, we're playing pretty good golf. I uh was was uh was in uh in the PJ, out the PJ, in the PJ, but what solidified it was some of you mentioned Jay Haas. So a few weeks prior to that, I played with Jay on Sunday at um uh in um uh uh Connecticut. I guess it was Cromwell, was it TPC Cromwell or whatever the course was called? And I finished uh played well on Sunday with him, uh finished 10th, I think, and that solidified my uh participation in the PGA at Oak Hill. And uh let me tell you something, when I got up there, I was like, there's no way. I think the goal was to make the cut. It was the one I had played some tough courses. I played some tough courses on tour, but it was brutal. Uh rough was deep, it was hot, uh, fairways were narrow, a lot of a lot of elevation changes, the the course moved around a lot. Um, and it was my first PGA. At that point, I'd only played three major or two majors. There was two U.S. opens, one in '99 at Pinehurst and one at 2001 at Southern Hills that I both had qualified for. So didn't have a lot of experience in major championship golf. Just happy to be there. Um, but playing, playing good, playing well. Um, you know, the first day was went off as usual and and played pretty solid. And, you know, the more you play these courses, and when you when you're able to kind of hit the shots under the pressure, you start to feel good about yourself. You're like, you know what, I can I can do this. I mean, my game feels good. I mean, you you know that. You know when you're playing well, and you know when you're kind of fluking it around. We've all been with guys that hit it in the trees and the ball bounces out in the fairway, they make birdie. Then the next hole, they hit it in a bunker under the lip, they hold it, and you're like, but you can't you can't live by that. You that that that's gonna go away. But when you're playing well and you're playing really well, you get surprised. What you get surprised by is when you mishit a shot. You're like, where did that come from? And that can unravel you. If you've been going so anyway, that never happened. I was just playing great golf, and as the as the week went along, I got more and more comfortable. I was leading after Friday night, and I remember just kind of doing my interviews. It was a long night. I learned a lot about kind of the media. Um, I learned uh, you know, a lot about how I was gonna handle uh kind of being in an unusual situation. This was uh really something that I'd you know, you dream about, you read about, you see it on TV, you've been watching your whole life about these major championships. And uh it was important for me to get off to a good start on Saturday. Had a great pairing, played with Billy Andre, and and uh found myself leading after that day. And uh I did bogey the last three holes. I mean, I was playing great golf, and then all of a sudden, a couple of missed fairways led to three bogeys. And one wasn't for bad play, it was just three missed fairways in a row, led to three bogeys. And I'm like, wow, that's that you know what I'm gonna do. And and uh and answered questions about that, you know, on Saturday night, and then and Sunday had a great pairing with Chad, and you know, we got off to a great start and and uh survived and got to the end. And you know, uh people remember that last shot, like you said, but but uh there was there was a lot of great golf, you know, in in between there, uh on a beautiful course, a tough course, um, you know, uh a lot of encouragement uh that I received out there. Um you know, I I've I've referenced this a lot um over the years. Um well two things really. Uh when I got to my locker on Sunday, uh Sunday morning, Lauren Roberts, well I didn't know who at the time, I had uh there was a note on my locker, which I still have. Um and it said, uh Sean, uh you're as good a player as anybody out there. Uh go out there and win. Lauren. Lauren Roberts wrote me a note and stuck it on my locker on Saturday morning before because he was playing in front of me a few groups, and I got to the locker, I see that note, and I'm like, wow, that sure was nice. Uh you know, and and uh thought it took a lot of a lot of guts and a lot of uh kind of love, if you will, to to write a uh a quick little note to somebody that that uh was trying to win his first tournament and being in contention for a major championship. That stuck with me that day. Stephanie was with me, she was six months pregnant. But the second thing that I I take away, besides, of course, the last shot and the way I was feeling, was uh Chad and I had walked off the 18th T-Box uh there. And to my right, a woman's voice yelled, it's nice to see some up-and-comers. And uh, you know, obviously, when you're looking at the era of Tiger Woods and Ernie Ellis and Phil and all these great players that were winning majors and and uh competing week in and week out, we're basically the superstars of the tour. The fact that someone would acknowledge Chad Chad and I in that way, uh, you know, I I I think about her. I I've never met her, I don't know who she is. I've I've I've sent out this story numerous times, uh, you know, but it's something that I remember. And uh again, uh, you know, when you you you hear enough things from the crowd, uh, it certainly was nice to hear something like that, and that was a very encouraging thing to hear, uh, and something that I will remember till the day I die.

Mike Gonzalez 6:28

Yeah. Well, little did she know that at age 34, you'd been out there grinding for a while. Yeah. You weren't just some new kid that just showed up. You'd been practicing your craft for a long time.

Shaun Micheel 6:41

Yeah, yeah. Uh, you know, I I like I said, I love playing, love playing golf. I'd certainly had my card, lost my card, you know, and been contention to win. The year prior at the BC Open, I had a three-shot lead on the last round and and I bogeyed the last two holes. I mean, 18 was really a bogey because I had a birdie. But my friend that I grew up playing junior golf with Spike McCroy shot 65 and I finished third. So that was my really biggest disappointment. Uh, but that just shows you that I was playing some pretty good golf, and that that that uh uh there's a process to playing major championships. I mean, there's really a process for getting to the tour, there's a process to succeeding on tour, and there's a process to winning majors. And you don't win majors by going the way that I went. Um, you know, I'd had some decent success, I'd kept my card, I'd been in contention and those types of things, but when you think of major championships, uh usually those people people want to think, and even the journalists, they they they want to think that the major is uh is a reward for all of the other wins. It was just your time. I consider it just another 72-hole tournament, and maybe that's what they won. I'm not trying to take away from the historical significance of major championship golf because they're typically against the best fields on the best courses and the toughest conditions, those types of things. Um so there's a lot of pride I have with that. But it really was just a seven, it's a 72-hole tournament. Um and in a way, I think to go back to some of the struggles I had. I almost feel like people wrote about that I kind of demeaned the tournament, that uh I took away from the PGA because I and I was easily quickly to be forgotten. That's the way I felt um, you know, afterwards, the way some of the people had written. I'd actually have I've you know, I had some couple contentious interviews with people with a with a particular writer who we've now become really good friends because of something that he wrote about in that event. And so, yeah, I mean, the the the battle of myself of trying to win, trying to be a consistent player on the PJ tour was always, it always started uh at the first tournament, like I said earlier, it always started at the Sony open because I was it was like, okay, I got to keep my card. What do I have to do to do that? And then to be thrust into the limelight like I was, uh, yeah, I mean, it was tough. I mean, uh, to have a lead after Friday, and I take an incredible amount of pride and the confidence in the game that I was playing because I had the lead after Friday. After Friday night, I birdied the ninth hall, which is my last haul today. Uh, went in and did two hours of interviews, Jim Nance, everybody in the media center, and everybody, nobody ever cared about my story. Didn't even know what to share with them. I've gone back and I've I've looked at some of the stuff, like, God, that didn't sound real intelligent. You know, I sounded like I was begging for airtime. I was talking and I was answering questions, and I never would shut up. And because I felt like, well, maybe this is my one and only time. I could care less about the 15 minutes to frame cliche that people talk about. They don't have a clue the people that write about stuff like that and talk about. But to go out and then and to to win and to not lose the lead the next two days, uh, I take I remember that uh very well. And I take a lot of confidence and uh a lot of pride in my ability to kind of grind it out when things maybe weren't going so tough. I mean, it's a it's a battle, it's up and down. It's you're worried about yourself, you're worried about the other players. I mean, is he gonna bird it is? I mean, there's just so much stuff. And the fact that I never won. I remember when I when I when I when I uh uh was standing on the side of the green or the side Chad Chad had to putt first or an 18. He had he had about a 15-18 footer for Bertie. Um and whether he made it didn't was didn't didn't matter, I was gonna win. And I told my caddy, I said, Bob, you know, I can't believe I just won my first PJ tour event. He said, Sean, this is a major. And I looked across the green and Stephanie was standing over there in a pink blouse. And you know, so um, yeah, lots of lots of lots of good things about that week, not just that one particular shot. Uh I love reliving it. Yeah, uh, I'm always amazed that uh the ball ends up where it does. I mean, you know, to be two inches from the hole on the last hole of a major championship. I mean, Jerry Pate can relate. I think he's he hit one at the U.S. Open at uh Atlanta Athletic Club with a five-iron. I think he was using an orange ball. He was, he was, absolutely was. So I think about that. Jerry and I have talked about that. And um it's it's difficult to describe. You hear about uh guys that hit hit home runs, walk-off home runs, guys make a half-court shot or make a make a free throw or whatever it is to win, uh a long pass in the Super Bowl. The things that people remember, and it it's because it was the last thing of that event that people remember. Had I hit that shot on 18 on Thursday, oh that was another birdie. What a great shot. But to do it that way is just kind of the coup de grace. Uh it's just it's almost like that's that's the moment that I was born to be known for. And if I didn't win anything else, um too bad for them, but good for me.

Mike Gonzalez 11:43

Yeah, yeah, it was cool that it was shot number 276 out of 276, but there were two seventy-five shots that preceded that, and they all counted just the same.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.

Mike Gonzalez 11:57

Let's let's look at the back nine for a second. So Chad Birdie's 13 to narrow your lead to one. And there's several times you had to step up. So on 14, you stepped up because you answered the call with the birdie. He bogeyed. Now you got a three-shot lead. Okay, okay. You're probably feeling a little bit more comfortable, I guess, with uh with four to play. But then uh 15, uh quick turnaround. You know, you bogey, he birdies, it's back to one.

Shaun Micheel 12:25

Yeah, yeah, there was a it's a it's a roller coaster out there. Just uh uh well, yeah. 14, I drove the green. We both took driver out. I drove it onto the green, Chad drove it into the bunker. All right. Um, and I didn't hit a very good first play. He had a terrible bunker shot. He told me he was just trying to hit like a little, instead of a blast shot, he was trying to hit like a just kind of picket a little bit, and he just hit it fat. So yeah, that and that's the hole that I thought I was gonna win. I knew I was gonna win on 14. And then 15 to par three. We both have similar putts. Ball broke probably 10, 12 feet. I ended up three putting, but he made his putt. So yeah, down to one. Then I birdied 16, and then you know, 17 T-Box, a guy runs by me, he goes, Don't pull a Vandevel.

Intro Music 13:09

Oh boy.

Shaun Micheel 13:10

Um, on the behind me on the 17 T-box. So I hear that. So uh Jean and I are good friends. I'm I'm actually going to play in one of his tournaments in two weeks. So um, yeah, it it uh it's fun. It's funny to look back. And and it at any point during that four, those four days, I could have lost the tournament. I mean, golly, I mean, I made I put it so well. I made 21 birdies. 21 birdies at Oak Hill. I don't think I could go to the Bob House a lot of birdies. I keep calling it the Bob Ho, Palm Desert, and make 21 birdies. Maybe I could and make four birdies over or 21 birdies over four days. But, you know, it's just the way I played. I mean, I made a lot of bogeys too. Uh, but I was you know, I was playing a little bit more aggressive, but but uh yeah, like I said, any any one shot or or one kind of slip up and and you can lose a major championship. It it doesn't take it doesn't take long for it to unravel, and it can and it can and it happens quickly.

Mike Gonzalez 14:06

Yeah, yeah. Well, you had another close call in 2006, but before we get there, uh back in 2005, uh uh you started having some health issues. You were you were diagnosed with uh with a condition that uh essentially was low testosterone that uh you had to treat. So take us through kind of uh from from 03 and then what started happening health-wise and and game-wise.

Shaun Micheel 14:27

Yeah, well, I mean, 04 I had a I had a really good season. Um I was disappointed not to be on the Ryder Cup team. Uh, you know, we obviously know that September 11th happened in 01, so it moved the Ryder Cup to even years. Um you know, we're back in the odd years now, but uh I think I made 21 out of 25 cuts in 04. Um my only top 10, however, was uh ninth at the players' championship. So back in the day, they only had uh only had top only top tens counted for points. You you couldn't accumulate points if you finished 11th.

Mike Gonzalez 15:00

Interesting.

Shaun Micheel 15:00

So so I I missed out. I got fit for close. I was disappointed in that and not getting to be able to play on the Ryder Cup team, but I played well. And then my son was so my son was born in August of November of 03. So he's about to be 21 here next month. And um, you know, there was a lot of newness. There was, you know, first of all, I won the last major. So there was there was a significant significant amount of time between August 17th and the first day of the master's. So I had I had to live with that for a lot. But three months later, my son was born. I'm a new dad in '94. My my family was traveling with me. My wife was uh uh has been a lawyer forever. Uh she decided to to kind of quit her work and start traveling with me. And uh, so my son was everywhere we went. And that started to catch up to me, I think. Um, you know, just the uh the late night, the crying, the feeding that needed to happen at night, just the you know, trying to care for a newborn, a new child uh was different, was di difficult, you know, and it's difficult in regular circumstances when you're just at home, you know, trying to manage, okay, is it my turn to get up? Is it your turn? What whatever the case may be that you have with your with your spouse. Um, but them traveling with me, and I always traveled by myself. I was always alone. And uh I was a new major winner, I was a new winner on the PJ tour, and I was a new dad. And I didn't handle all that very well. I think ultimately what happened with this low testosterone diagnosis, I think was more probably more stress related as I as I go back and think about it. I did go in, I had a really low testosterone count. I remember talking to my doctor without without saying, oh, maybe go see a therapist or something like that to go talk about distress. He said, Let me check one thing. And he, and I'm not saying he was wrong because he was right, the blood test confirmed, but was there another reason for that? I had so I I battled through that, and uh, once I got kind of on this medication and I got my levels back up, I was, you know, I was I was okay. It took me a while, it took me about a year to kind of get it going. But um, yeah, that that that's uh uh was really how that low testosterone testosterone thing came. I was I played well in a tournament, somebody asked me about it, they looked like hey, you look like you're playing better, and I just mentioned it, and it kind of took off like wildfire. Um, you know, and then and then of course, you know, fast forward a couple years later when the PGA Tour implemented the drug policy in 2009. I had my battles with the tour with that. But but uh yeah, it it's uh just the newness of being a major winner uh for players like myself that didn't have any uh other significant accomplishments really uh uh to the fans or to the media. Uh it was just difficult. It was just difficult on me. It took its toll. Um I just kind of found myself playing practice rounds alone late in the afternoon when there weren't very many people out there. Started playing with Joey Sindelar. Joey Sindelar loved to play late in the afternoon, and so he got to be my playing partner um for a lot of the practice rounds because we both like to play late in the day. You could play in the summer till nine, and when I was by myself, you know, I I could I could play till eight, nine o'clock. I could just grab something to eat at the club or you know, whatever. But uh yeah, so uh you know 04-05 was was uh still a lot of newness, getting into some of the new majors, having fun with that, uh still working hard, trying to really, I think, validate the win that I had in 03. And it just it was almost insurmountable because I changed the way I practice. I went from playing a lot of golf to uh hitting a lot of balls. Um I became obsessed with the camcorder. I was videotaping my swing. I've got I look at it to this day. I go back and look at these videos on this cassette tape. I'm like, golly, what was that was the dumbest thing I ever did. Probably the biggest regret I have is is showing up at TPC Southwind with a camcorder.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Yeah.

Shaun Micheel 19:06

Uh totally derailed because it it was totally opposite of what my college coach told me when I left to turn pro. His advice with me was stay off the range. That that's that was uh one thing that I I remember that Sam told me before when I turned pro and uh didn't listen very well. Uh, you know, he uh he he was pretty wise and everything. But yeah, it it that was self- it was pretty self-destructive, really.

Mike Gonzalez 19:31

Yeah, so you you talked earlier about about the the nature of you pros, which sometimes is forgetting the eight birdies you made, you're focusing on this silly double that you you you made. And I guess looking back, uh you know, I hear you talk a lot about what you heard, what you read uh about others talking about you or how they felt about you. Do you feel looking back on that that you probably were a little too focused on that, maybe should have just been able to shut some of that out and just focused on what you were doing?

Shaun Micheel 20:01

Yes. Uh in Chicago, I think it was 2005, um we played at Cog Hill, and the the the clubhouse was a decent ways away from the range. Now you could walk to it if you wanted to, but they always had shuttles out there. So I'd taken a shuttle down. It was just a tournament day. Don't remember what day it was. It was a nice day. Took a shuttle down there, get off. There was always people waiting. And the fence, you know, the there was a big fence around, big high fence with these wooden poles that held up the fencing and stuff. And uh I'm go walking by and people were asking me, I said, No, no, no, I can't sign, I'm getting ready to play. And a guy to my right said, Well, you suck. We don't want your autograph anyway. It's the first time. I'd heard that before. I'd heard other things, not just about me, but I've I've you hear things in the I stopped. It was the first time, and I was thinking, and I wasn't thinking, because I should not have done what I did. But I went over, I didn't use any profanity, but I was like, What gives you the right to speak to me that way? I'm getting, I told you, and if you've watched me any other day, I'm kind of paraphrasing, but this is essentially what I said. If you watched me any other day, so this was on the weekend, that I've signed every single autograph after the done. I said, I tell everybody I'll sign when I'm done. And I learned that from other players. Um, and it's the first time that the guy didn't even know what to say. But to your point, I should have just kept on walking. But that it just set me off. And I told my dad later on in my career, I said, Dad, I said, you know, I hear these types of things. I want to sign, but I'm afraid that if I stop and sign for a young person, I'm gonna get bombarded with other people. And I'm like, I don't mind in the practice rounds, but I don't like it in the tournament days. And I just I just it I just wish nobody would ask me for it. And he said, Sean, I'm gonna tell you something, young man. One day they won't want it. And that's all he said. And I was like, oh man, that it makes a lot of sense. But I don't think he understood where I was coming from. I don't think he understood How kind of devastating it was to me to hear hear something because you you don't you don't know me and I'm in my mode. I'm I'm this is when I leave the clubhouse and I get my shoes on, I'm not I'm fun Sean McKeel. I'm I'm you know, everybody would everybody my wife would say the same thing. She goes, You walked right by me, didn't even see me. You walked right by your dad, didn't even say hello. And it's like I don't see you. You know, it's like I have blinders on. I just I'm it's like I have tunnel vision and I it it's it's a horrible way to be. And I said, if so for the fans that are listening to this, understand that that that players, it's not like we don't care. We do care. I do care. But because I've chosen golf as a way to make a living, it's the way that I and it's way different now. The money is really astronomical. Um I I gotta be focused. This is unfortunately how I did it. I'm not Lee Trevino, I'm not Arnold Palmer. Those guys had a gift to be able to give and to still play at a high level. I couldn't do that. I'm a nice person, like most people are. But I but but when it's time for me to go to work, I mean I can't come into your place of business and you're trying to uh sell your board of directors on uh, do I give an extra five million to the FedEx tournament when the writers don't write good things about the tournament? I I saw that firsthand. I mean, I don't get to come into your boardroom and say, I hey Mike Glenn, I need your autograph because I need your autograph for my kid over here. We all we all appreciate where we came from. We none of us forget. It's just we all operate in different ways. And that hurt me. It really did. And it hurt me when my dad didn't understand what I was going through because he said, Well, one day they won't want it. And I'm like, Well, okay, well, maybe that's not gonna be a bad thing because no one's gonna take away from what I accomplished. But then you start thinking about it, it's like, well, what's my lasting thing? This this golf thing is not gonna last forever. And then what happens afterwards? If I've treated people like complete garbage just because I'm focused, well, what happens when I'm no longer playing? Would anybody want to hire me? Would I would anybody want to have me do a junior clinic if they know the things? Now I've not been perfect like nobody. Nobody's perfect. Everybody's done something. You've threw a club, I've thrown a club, I've kicked a bag, I've been fined twice, which actually isn't that much compared to some of the people I played with. But you know, those types of things, kind of you you you think about them, uh, and you're like, well, maybe I should have been a little bit different of a player, but you can't change who you are, but you have to kind of think about some of the things you say and some of the things you do. So I kind of gone on a tangent because it still bothers me to this day. I think that I should have just kept on walking. Yeah, and I didn't do it. And uh, you know, I think a lot of players could say the same thing. We see in them, there's lots of videos out there of players that gotten into with other players and on the course and you know, different opinions back and forth, and now of course everybody argues amongst on Twitter and everybody's got an opinion to say and everything else. So, but uh but yeah, I think by me reacting uh to that, it it did hurt my feelings a little bit when he said that because you know he didn't know, doesn't know me, didn't know me at all. He just he didn't get his gratification when he wanted it. And I think it just I wasn't trying to put him in his place, but I just had enough. It just caught me at the bat. I had just hit rock bottom and I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't. And so um I kind of kind of lashed out a little bit.

Mike Gonzalez 25:40

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. It's along everybody.