Steve Elkington - "TPC 1991 and 1997" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

So let's talk a little bit about uh your other successes and and uh I would say based upon strength of field, they've got a rate right up there with uh with uh uh some of your success, the majors, and that's your two wins with the players' championship uh wins in in 91 and 97. And and uh uh uh tell us maybe first start uh with the 91 uh win. Uh these were both a TPC, I assume.

Steve Elkington 0:41

That's correct. Yeah, 91 was a you know, that was a I just won on tour in 90, so back then they used to offer a 10-year exemption. They well they did in 97 as well. I was the last one to win that 10-year exemption, but that was that was like better than winning money, as Bruce will attest. Having 10-year job security is pretty good. But that was where I drove it on Sunday in that divot on on the 18th hole and hit that three-iron shot out of the divot. And the interesting thing I remember about that was Payne Stewart was the only guy out of the top hundred that wasn't playing that week. He was hurt, and he was commentating. And I'd hit my drive up 18, and Payne Stewart was up ahead of me, and he was looking at this ball in the divot. I didn't know it was in a divot, and he was I I started to overhear him talking, he's like, Oh, this is one of the worst breaks I've ever seen, is hit this great drive, and now he's in a divot. And um I remember that, and uh but but again, going back to Bruce and I, we've talked about it already, that three-iron shot, I was fortunate probably it was a three-iron and not an eight-iron because Sandfield divot with a three-iron, not that big a deal if you're a sweeper for me, and I was able to pinch that three-iron off the off that divot and hit it up there and actually hold the putt to beat Fuzzy and uh oh, I think a couple of guys in that tournament. I think Zinger, yeah, Zinger was. But he uh on the first tee on Sunday, we were getting ready to tee off, and he said something like, uh, well, you know, if I win this tournament, I'll be exempt till I'm fifty. You know, he must have been 40 at the time. And I looked at him and I was pretty nervous and I said, Mate, this tournament has nothing to do with you. This is my tournament. And that was it. That was the only thing I said to him. And and he actually helped me because it snapped me back into the right mode I needed to be in. Absolutely. And I actually shot at I shot the low round of the day with a three-shot lead and one by seven. So I thanked him.

Bruce Devlin 3:11

Yeah, he he give you he gave you the right injection, didn't he?

Steve Elkington 3:15

He gave me the exactly what I needed.

Mike Gonzalez 3:17

Bruce, Bruce, how would you have reacted to that if uh you know one of your contemporaries had said something like that on the on the first T on Sunday with you holding the lead?

Bruce Devlin 3:27

I may I may have added a few superlatives to what uh I think I didn't just say this being a PG show. Yeah. I think I did too. Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that one little bit because that would be most most people well I shouldn't say that, but uh I think Australians uh sort of inbred in us a little bit, maybe. Uh I'd have reacted the same way. Yeah, gotta have a bit of fight to you.

Mike Gonzalez 3:58

Yeah, it's interest interesting that it puts you in the right frame of mind for the day, right?

Steve Elkington 4:02

Because what wasn't this the day you sort of got to the course late, you were a little bit rushed anyway, and uh Yeah, well I wasn't rushed, but I I I deliberately got there only 20 minutes before my time because I didn't want to be interviewed. I didn't want to go and hear from the people telling me that I've been leading the whole week and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I I got to my spot 20 minutes before I teed off, and they said, Can we do an interview? And I said, No, I'm running late. I said that to them. You know, is it two o'clock? And I said, No, I'm running late. So I went over and I'd already been swinging in my room and I always putting on the mat. I was ready to go. I was all warmed up anyway. Went and hit 10 balls and and I had you know, one of my caddies, I had three caddies in my life, bullet, bullet bob, uh, Robert Thomas Burns, aka Bullet. He had a few rent wins with me, and then Gypsy, Gypsy Joe Grillo. Gypsy was on the bag that day. And uh I had Dave Rennick who caddied for um VJ and Jose Maria. He won with me at the at the PGA. I at the yeah, he won with me at the PGA. I I always thought it was important to have great caddies, but on that 97 win with Gypsy, we were up pretty good on the front nine and we were on the ninth hole, there's a lot of people around, and and this guy is yelling at us as we're walking off the knife T. He's going, Elk, I need you to choke about right now. He says, You're killing these guys, and I'm I got money on all these other, you know, all this. And and Gypsy, I see Gypsy cut across in front of me, and he's going after this guy. I said, Gypsy, get back over here. We're not gonna be fighting out. We're playing here. And he's like, No, Elk, I am this is bullshit. I'm going over to talk to this guy. I said, All right, whatever, go for it. So he goes over to that rope, you know. He's a big guy, and he's got a cigarette in his hand and all this. And he says to that guy, he said, Hey pal, he goes, I see you're pretty excited. He says, I'm pretty excited over here too. He says, How about we get up here at the end of this hole? We'll see who's the most excited out of me and you. He said, I said, Gypsy, get over here. We're not fighting on this hole. We're getting ready to play the back nine on this deal. So, uh, you know, that was fun. And I had some great caddies. And that, of course, was a year that I I remind my son Sam that I beat Tiger. Tiger was about 45th on that tournament, and then two weeks later he became, of course, Tiger when he won the Masters by 17 strokes or 12 strokes in 97, was his first win. So I have to remind him that he was in that tournament, by the way. As as were everybody else uh I smoked him. I smoked him in 90. I smoked him at 97.

Mike Gonzalez 6:33

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Intro Music 6:54

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. When it started its lights, just smit offline. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My head is as long as you're still in the state, you're okay.