Steve Jones - Part 2 (The Early Tour Wins)

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to let's get you out on the PGA tour, then uh uh Steve Jones turns professional in 1981 at age 22. He recorded 10 professional wins, including eight on the PGA tour. Of course, the highlight being the 1996 U.S. Open where he won. And we're going to talk in detail about that. But uh it's always fun to have our guests reflect on oh, sort of that first year or so on the tour. When you're out there, you're just a young guy, uh, don't know much yet. You think you do, but you don't. And you don't know where to, you don't know the golf courses, you don't know where to stay, you don't know where to eat, uh, you don't know how to get from point A to point B because there's no GPS back then. Tell us about that whole experience in your first year on the tour.

Steve Jones 1:03

Yeah, um right away, I just remember I would call the pro shop and say, How do I get there? And well, you take I-10 to exit 30 down to you know Addison Road, take a right, or whatever it is. Yeah, and you just kind of wrote it down on a piece of paper, and hopefully they gave you the right address. Um my first, I would say 82, 84, 85, and most of 86, I stayed with families because you just couldn't, I couldn't afford it. Uh and we stayed with called the tournament, they said, Hey, I'd you know, would love to have a family put me up, and pretty much 98% of the time they could. Yeah, and if I didn't, then I'd have to spend the uh$28 to$30 on a hotel room, and sometimes you could split it with a guy, you know, and get it for$15. So that that helped, but boy, that changed real quick in the 80s how prices went up.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Yeah.

Steve Jones 2:06

But it was an eye-opener, and um back then in 1982, if if you if you made the cut, um, then you would get into the next week's tournament. Right. But you'd have to Monday qualify. It was the last year of the Rabbits in 1982, and so if you qualified, you get in the tournament, and then if you miss the cut, you'd have to re-qualify the next Monday. So you really tried to make the cut, and I went to Tucson and end up, I was the only rookie to make the cut in Tucson in January of 82, and I'll never forget walking in the locker room. I mean, I'm hitting balls next to all you guys, you know, Wieskoff, and there's Wisckoff, you know, and there's all these guys, and then I walk in the locker room, and and there's Trevino holding court, you know, having beer. And I never left till he left. I just sat kind of on the side and I just listened to him. He didn't know who I was, and uh it was just surreal, it was amazing. I mean, just deer in the headlights, that whole thing. And and back then, you just didn't, there wasn't many guys that played very well. It took you three, four, five, six years to kind of get into it and learn. But it was a different, it took you all those years to learn how to uh to hone your game and hit those knockdown shots. And uh these days, I think, with the technology and the ball going so straight the last 25 years, so many guys just they just bomb it straight as hard as they can. It's just a totally different game. Totally different.

Mike Gonzalez 3:46

Well, it it certainly is a different game. As you mentioned earlier, Steve, uh, these kids nowadays that they've been so well prepared during their college years that uh they come out and they are ready to win, aren't they?

Steve Jones 3:59

Yeah, definitely. Saw that last week, didn't we?

Mike Gonzalez 4:03

We sure did, sure did, didn't we? But uh little different deal when you guys started. So, as you said, it it took it took you a while. It took everybody a while to kind of get your C legs and figure things out. Well, uh it was, I think, at the 1985 Texas Open that you finally got your first top ten. You remember that one?

Steve Jones 4:23

I remember I think the last hole at at Oak Hill. Oak Hill? Is that Oak Hill? Yeah, par three. Yeah, okay. And uh I was very nervous, but I I think I made par in the last hole somehow, and if I birdied, it would have been like seventh or eighth place or something, or one couple places better. I can't remember what I finished even. Um but very tight golf course for me. Uh but um that's the only thing I can really remember was it was a tight tight golf course, but I must have been putting good.

Mike Gonzalez 4:59

You remember how big that check was?

Steve Jones 5:02

I don't. Are you gonna tell me? It was probably probably about$2,500 or$3,200 or something.

Mike Gonzalez 5:13

Yeah, well, it was real money back then, though, wasn't it?

Steve Jones 5:16

Yeah, well, it's you could your expenses for the week usually uh I try to keep it below a thousand dollars because you had to pay your caddy three hundred, then if you stayed in a hotel, but you could you could keep it under seven, eight hundred if you were you drive there, uh, and then you you know stayed with the family. And caddy caddy was the most expensive thing of the week, you know, two or three hundred dollars, usually forty-fifty bucks a day sometimes.

Mike Gonzalez 5:45

Yeah, yeah. I think catting at the Robinson Open in 1969 and 1970, I think um everything, including practice rounds, I think I got a hundred bucks for the week.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

Yeah.

Steve Jones 5:59

I got a funny story in 19, actually in 1982, I was injured after I dropped off tour and I was living in Boulder, Colorado. And a friend of mine said, Why don't you go down to Columbine and and Caddy for the senior event? And he hooked me up with Bob Goldby. Oh, yeah, sure. I went down there and I said, Look, I can read these greens. And he says, Okay, he wasn't the best putter, uh, but he hit the ball really nice. And uh I mean I was nine out of ten every time I was telling him right-lift, foot out, whatever. And he ended up being tied for the lead with uh actually he was one ahead with two to go. He bogeyed 17 at tie at uh, and I think Palmer birdied 18, so he was he was two behind now. All of a sudden he was one up and now he's two behind. And uh anyway, long story short, we get to the last hole, and I said 20-footer, I said it's right lip, and he he makes it, finishes second. And uh I was a little shocked at the check he gave me. I thought it was gonna be a little bit more. I was living from month to month off my dis$300 disability check from the tour because I was you know broke my thumb. Yeah. Uh, but you know, I rib him about that all the time, and um and he he ribs about uh teaching me how to caddy and all that.

Mike Gonzalez 7:31

Well, I can tell you from experience, those those people from southern Illinois, they're a little tight with the dollar.

Steve Jones 7:38

Yeah, yeah, because I I had about three caddies come up to me and they said, Hey, how about I need a hundred bucks to get out of town with gas money? I said, What are you talking about? Well, you're gonna make this much, this much. And so when I showed them the check, they just went, Oh, yeah. Of course, I wasn't I wasn't a regular, so maybe that's why I didn't get as much.

Mike Gonzalez 7:59

Yeah, maybe, maybe. Well, Bruce, he got a he got a partner victory a couple years later, didn't he? He sure did.

Bruce Devlin 8:06

He teamed up with uh little Aussie girl, right? Remember when uh JC Penny classic with Jane Crafter? That that had to be a nice start too.

Steve Jones 8:18

You know, that was uh so I'd I got married in in May of '87, and uh finally my wife started traveling with me and had a had an okay year, finished top 20, 120, 125, so I got my card. And then we went to JCPenney and got got hooked up with Jane Crafter. And you know, she was a good putter, she hit it straight. I was a good putter. I was straight sometimes. But yeah, we we we did something I never thought we were gonna do. We won the tournament, and it actually propelled me a little bit to um uh have the confidence, I guess the next year in 1988, and it wasn't a you know, it was a month and a half later when I won uh Pebble Beach, my first tournament. Yeah, so it's amazing what a little thing can do. Not a little thing, but JC Penney was big for me to you know make I think it was eighty thousand dollars or something was just unbelievable.

Mike Gonzalez 9:19

Yeah. Well, let's go to that first victory in 1988. Uh this is at the ATT Pebble Beach National Pro Am. That's a mouthful. And the fun part about this, uh if I remember history correctly, this was back when Cyprus was still in the rotation, was it not?

Steve Jones 9:38

It was, yeah. Yeah. Um, I think that's what made it more special than than ever, because we had uh Cypress Point, Spyglass, and Pebble Beach in the rotation. And I mean those are three, there's no three better golf courses combination in the world, I don't think. Um and especially back in '88. And it was uh it was a special week. I got to play with uh Bernard Langer and uh Craig Stadler, the last group on Sunday, and I had a six-hole stretch where I one putted every hole. I think it was around like eight through fourteen or something like that, and that kind of propelled me and end up winning in a playoff, making a 20-foot birdie on 17 against Bob Tway for my first victory, and then he caught fire a couple years later and won quite a few and won the PGA and did well.

Mike Gonzalez 10:38

Yeah, yeah. Well, this win in 88 came a year after uh a lot of people remember the win uh that Johnny Miller would have had then in uh in uh 1987.

Steve Jones 10:49

Yeah, I didn't pay attention back then. I told my wife I'd been to Pebble Beach before. I said, look, we're gonna go one time. It's it's wet, it's mushy, the greens are really terrible. That Poan when it gets wet, spike marks, and you just balls bouncing everywhere. And I was a low ball hitter, and I just could not, I'm not gonna play there anymore. Let's just go there. We're gonna go there one time, experience it, and we don't have to go back. And of course, we go there and I win, and I've been back pretty much ever since.

Mike Gonzalez 11:23

Yeah, I guess so. Most people would think it's very hard to stay focused on three just spectacularly beautiful golf courses. Yeah.

Steve Jones 11:35

Yeah, I think it maybe uh distracted you a little bit away from your game, which is probably good what I needed. Uh you know, you really only need about 30 or 40 seconds to hit a shot. Um, but you kind of know you're gonna have a wedge shot coming up or whatever, but you're looking around and you just have to smile, you know, of God's creation.

Mike Gonzalez 11:58

Yeah, yeah, beautiful. Who did which uh and any famous amateurs that you would have played with over the years there?

Steve Jones 12:07

Um boy, that's a good question. I my memory served me. I didn't really get into that celebrity area very much. Um I did have uh my my amateur was a uh dermatologist in Carmel. He was a four-handicap, and we ended up winning the team championship the next year. So I was pretty happy about that. And he he became a celebrity after that.

Mike Gonzalez 12:35

Yeah, Bruce, I don't know if you ever win, ever won there, but uh back in the old clam bake days, you had you used to have some fun there. Oh yeah.

Bruce Devlin 12:44

Well, I I had I had a pretty uh pretty fancy partner there, Gene Martin. Uh that you know, he and I played there for 10 years. Uh we never looked like we were ever gonna win, but I did end up winning the Pro Am there with uh the guy by the name of Jackie Lee, who used to be the quarterback at Cincinnati, who was behind Lenny Dawson when uh Kansas City won the um the Super Bowl in New Orleans. So you and I both won the Pebble Beach Pro Am. There you go. I mean the the team competition.

Steve Jones 13:17

It's great. Yeah, and uh I just watched Dean Martin and uh uh Katie Elder show last night with John Wayne and Yeah, he was one of his brothers and uh watched a lot of Dean Martin stuff growing up, obviously in Westerns or whatever, but uh that was the coolest thing I think. Yeah, in the 80s we still had, especially the Bob Hope. The Bob Hope was such a special tournament, and the ATT were the two biggest celebrity tournaments, and being in California, but I mean you met everybody. I mean, you met yeah, you know, oh boy, I just I mean you just go right down the list to movie stars and and played with Mike Ditka at the Bob Hope and uh so many different movie stars. I can't even think right now, it's going around in my head, but you you saw him, you met him, you'd go up and say hi to him. And uh I never did meet Dean Martin, but I I met Sammy Davis Jr. out in Hartford when he had that tournament. Yep. And uh it was it was it was fun to be able to shake his hand.

Bruce Devlin 14:32

You get to win another tournament in uh 1988, the Colorado Open. Any any memories about that?

Steve Jones 14:42

Yeah, it was uh it was pretty cool because I had lost it uh obviously in 1980 as an amateur, but I came back with more firepower, let's say. Uh my guns were blazing. I had I was on a mission. Uh a friend of mine in college in 1980 was in a car wreck from Yuma, Colorado, and broke his neck. So he was at Craig Hospital, Rehabilitation Hospital, and Craig was one of the main sponsors of the Colorado Open. And he actually came around. My other another friend of mine drove him, Barry Bowman. He drove him around in a golf cart. We strapped him in a golf cart, and he it was crazy. I mean, they bounced him around all over the place for several days there at the end, and uh I ended up winning the tournament on behalf of him, and he was a good friend, and uh he ended up dying about I think about 1990-92. Um, but it was a special moment and ended up giving him the trophy.

Bruce Devlin 15:49

You uh uh you remember who finished second there that year.

Steve Jones 15:56

Boy, I you know what, I was all focused on Greg, and I I really don't, but I I know it wasn't Jimmy Blair, was it? No, it wasn't it. But you was it?

Bruce Devlin 16:05

88, no. Uh I I was talking to a young man uh the other day who finished second there. He said that he thought he was gonna win the tournament, and then Steve Jones made two or three birdies the last nine holes to beat him. That that young guy happened to be my son, Kel, who finished second to you there in '88.

Steve Jones 16:26

Or I knew that that's why I thought it was you at first. I'm like, because of Devlin, but yeah, that's right. He was boy, he was young, wasn't he? Yeah, he was.

Bruce Devlin 16:37

Yeah, well, he what would you mean? He'd have been 20, he'd have been 28 then, though.

Steve Jones 16:46

Okay, so we were we were born about the same. Are we the same age?

Bruce Devlin 16:54

Uh you you would he was born in uh December of uh 59, uh December the 25th. You were born December the 27th in 58. So you were uh you were just uh 363 days older than him.

Steve Jones 17:14

Christmas baby.

Bruce Devlin 17:15

Wow, are you how'd you how'd you do that? I don't know, but he just wanted me to say uh hi to you. I know he saw you many times out on the tour when he was with either Spalding or anyhow. Yeah, he said had fond memories of you.

Steve Jones 17:32

Yeah, you had a great time there.

Bruce Devlin 17:34

Thank you.

Steve Jones 17:35

Yeah, I that's it's amazing how uh certain tournaments you remember, but sometimes you were so I usually I was not as focused. I usually kind of have fun and I'm all over the place and say hi to people, and I remember a lot of that stuff, but boy, that week I just remember it was like this is the only tournament I want to win. This is like a major for me, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 18:01

Yeah, especially with your friend there, yeah.

Steve Jones 18:05

Yes, and that was that was probably the biggest motivation, and um it was it was nice to get that win and beat your son.

Mike Gonzalez 18:14

Yeah, yeah. Well, it it wasn't winning the Colorado Open, but it was winning at ATT that got you in the tournament champions the following year.

Steve Jones 18:23

Yeah, that that got me there, and it was uh it was funny. I was talking to a friend of mine in December, and I told him, I said, you know, I really the old bank account, you know, back then there wasn't there wasn't a lot left after some of the stuff we did with it. Um, but started in 1989, we didn't have really that much money at all. And uh it was kind of nice to start the first couple weeks off with wins.

Mike Gonzalez 18:55

Yeah. Now this was back when they were playing that tournament at La Costa, right? Yeah. So you took care of Frosty and Jay Haw, is another that was that was Bob Golby's nephew from Belleville, Illinois. You beat those two guys by three shots. What do you remember about that win?

Steve Jones 19:11

Oh boy, I I tell you, it's a the funniest thing happened on the first day on number number seven. I think it was a par four or seven, eight, nine. Might have been six. But anyway, I I had a downhill putt of about um I don't know, maybe an eight-foot downhill par putt. It was slick. So it's one of those you just have you hit about a you know a foot and it goes eight feet. And and when I I got over it, I always had a just a frozen left elbow, frozen left side, and I just a little jabby stroke like that, and I didn't I didn't break down. But for some reason I kind of flicked it up, flicked it just a little like like that. I kept it square, but I just flipped the putter up, just kind of boink, right at the end, and it kind of kept it going straight, and it went in. So I kept doing that, and uh I putted really well. I won that week, and then the next week at Bob Hope started off bad, but I ended up winning the Bob Hope 2 using the same technique, and then I went to Phoenix Open and shot like five under or something the first day, and and then I hit a spike mark on Friday, day two, on number two, and it I missed a four-footer because it bounced off, and then up missing a cut. But I I went to ATT, finished sixth, and then I won the team championship with my partner. So it was a good three, a good four weeks. It was incredible.

Mike Gonzalez 20:52

Yeah, so uh you mentioned back to back uh this is now the 1989 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, uh played in the desert across a number of golf courses. Uh uh you won that in a playoff with Paul A. Zinger and Sandy Lyle to give you two straight wins.

Steve Jones 21:11

Yeah, it was it was a crazy week. Uh, I I think I have to go back and the week before uh La Costa, I was in Scottsdale, obviously we're at TPC, and and Hal Sutton was out there and he was practicing, and and he gave me a tip how to keep my left knee almost straight at impact. And as you go through it, just turn around that left knee. Because I was sliding, I always slid, and boy, when I got under pressure, I could hit some really bad duck hooks or pushes. So he told me to just try to keep that knee straighter and just turn, turn around that knee. And Dale Douglas gave me a bunker, uh, a bunker lesson because I wasn't playing very good. From the bunker, and Dale was out there, so he gave me a bunker lesson. So I went off of those two tips and went to La Casa. And then when I flicked that putter, so I had three tips I was using, and I won those two weeks in a row. Uh but it's funny how that that happens. But at the Bob Hope, you know, I shoot 76 the first day, and you can't win. You can't make the cut shooting 76 out there. And on the I was turned at four on to four over, my first nine holes. Like, okay, whatever, I'll go to Phoenix early. I popped it, I topped a T-shot on number one at Bermuda Doom's behind a tree 80 yards off the T. And I duck hooked a two-iron out there and then hit driver on the front of the green and two-putted for par. So I stayed at four over, and I ended up shooting even the rest of that day. Anyway, I end up shooting a 63 at El Dorado and you know, end up getting in a playoff, which I was playing for second. Mark Kalkovecki and I were playing for second. I birdied 16, and he looks at me, and I because I went one ahead of him, and then on 17, he chips in and I'm pointing at him like, you dog. Now we're now we're tied, but I have a chip shot, and then I chipped it, and I made mine. Oh boy. And then I looked at Kalkovecki and I'm like, I got you. And then we get up to the next T and we're thinking, Hey, I'm I'm only one shot behind Azinger now. I was three shots behind him. Now I'm one shot behind him. And Calc's two, so he's got a chance. And uh Paul just kind of messed up in the last hole, made bogey. I'm I lipped a birdie or something. And then the first playoff hole, I hit a seven iron about four feet, and it was over.

Mike Gonzalez 23:50

Well, as you mentioned earlier, and Bruce recalls such a fun tournament to win with all the stuff going on around the tournament, all the celebs and the the Bob Hope girls. Of course, Bruce won this tournament 19 years before, and uh we spoke about Dean Martin earlier, but Bruce, uh, you win, you get done with your press stuff, I guess, after the 1970 Bob Hope, and then you get a phone call, didn't you? I did.

Bruce Devlin 24:15

I got a I got a call from my buddy from Dean Martin, and he said, I I got a plane coming into town there to pick you and Gloria up. Uh you can come up and watch my opening at the hotel tonight in Vegas. So that was quite a quite a celebration after winning the Bob Hope to go to Vegas and watch him perform. That was uh quite a quite a remarkable day, really.

Steve Jones 24:41

That's amazing. I've watched so many Dean Martin roasts on the TV, still watching them. I got we have a we have an antenna most of the time on my TV, and we we get all these Dean Martin stuff and Johnny Cash and we still watch a lot of the old shows and and he was he was a beauty.

Mike Gonzalez 24:59

Yeah. There's probably a lot of dean martin stories that we're just never gonna hear from Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 25:06

Ah, yeah, we can't tell all the stories.

Mike Gonzalez 25:08

Not allowed to.

Steve Jones 25:13

He's still got people, right?

Bruce Devlin 25:15

Yeah, that's right.

Steve Jones 25:16

Well was funny. The funny thing is when I won uh in '89 that uh it was the pop-up Chrysler classic, they they made it look like you got a car when you won. So they gave you the keys and they took a picture in front of the Chrysler, and uh they said, Oh, this is just for the year, it's a lease. So it was a Chrysler uh what was it? What was the top of the line carp trying to even think what it was?

Mike Gonzalez 25:42

Chrysler uh probably wasn't a LeBaron, was it?

Steve Jones 25:46

It was something like that, but anyway, it was a nice car. So I gave it to my mom, and my mom proceeded to put about um might have been a New Yorker, maybe. I think it was a New Yorker, but she proceeded to put about 70,000 miles on it in 1989. So so when we we we brought it back to them, they're like, What the hell is it? This car is worthless. What are you saying, well, yeah, my mom drove it. So in 1990, they started giving the cars away. So they're not gonna lease them anymore. Like, we just gotta get rid of these things. They're not what are we doing? Just give it away. And then I remember in in 1990, 1998, when I won the John Deere tournament uh in Illinois, I said, Hey, you guys should give the winner a lawnmower, a riding lawnmower. I mean, you should give them a little tractor, you know. And of course they didn't give me one, but the next year they started giving them riding lawnmowers away to the end.

Mike Gonzalez 26:58

I thought you were going to tell us that Chrysler stopped their sponsorship of the event after that.

Steve Jones 27:04

Yeah, really.

Mike Gonzalez 27:06

Well, uh a great event to win, uh, but you weren't done in 1989. Uh you went up to Canada and won what uh you know a lot of people back then thought might have been a fifth major winning the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.

Steve Jones 27:20

Yeah, that's uh that's a story in itself. Um my uh my father-in-law had died a couple weeks before that, and so there was a lot on my a lot on my mind. We played the US Open in uh Rochester in uh 89, and then we were going on up to Canada. So when I got up to Canada, I had been in contact with Willie Wood, and uh Willie Wood's wife Holly uh was dying of cancer in Houston. So I told the sponsor, I say, look, I said, I I I've got to go to Houston. So my wife and I flew from Toronto to Houston on Wednesday morning and went down there to see Holly and spent some time with her and talked to her and and then flew back on Wednesday night, and then I didn't care about the tournament. I really I could care less. I was our hearts were going out to Willie and Holly, and um lo and behold, I ended up winning the tournament somehow. Um, but I it wasn't on my mind. So, you know, my father-in-law had died a few weeks before. Now Hollywood was dying, and it was sad for for Willie. Um, so you know, there's so much, so many more things more important than golf and our businesses, as you guys know. You've we've we're old enough to understand that you know this life is gonna be done soon, and and for me, being a Christian since 1984, uh God totally changed my life, and my priorities have changed, and you know, I'm not perfect, I'm just forgiven. Yeah, and uh, and that's what I try to tell people all the time where I'm at, because you know, this stuff's gonna pass away, and we're gonna live in eternity if you choose the right way.

Bruce Devlin 29:18

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 29:20

Well said, and and uh uh of course, as a Christian, you might have been involved in the tour Bible study group as well that Larry Moody used to do. Were you part of that group?

Steve Jones 29:30

Yeah, at night, so on November 11th of 84 is when uh I made my decision to follow Jesus, and I just said, hey, I don't know what I'm doing with this golf stuff, but if I don't make tour school, I'm going to Asia. So I ended up, I didn't care where I was gonna go. I just was so happy like to be, you know, born again as as a lot of people call it. My my life has changed. I was I did, I was uh I drank a lot, I was did a lot of things I wish I hadn't done, and my life was pretty much a wreck. And then I accepted Christ uh in '84, and it just just like a light switch, just my life changed. It was incredible. I I literally, I was the biggest cusser, biggest drinker, and both of those things just I didn't even try to do it, they were just gone. I didn't need them anymore. Yeah, and so in uh January of 85, uh, that's where I met Larry Moody, Scott Simpson, Larry Mice, Larry Nelson, Don Pooley, Morris Atowski. You know, I met all these guys out there. We had a Bible study. I said, Oh wow, you got a Bible study on tour? Uh started by Jim Hiskey and his brother, and I think uh Wally Armstrong back in 69 or 70. And it was just something I really needed every Wednesday night. Um, and to this day they still have them, and Larry's out on a champions tour now. Uh, it's just been a staple in my life, and um incredible guys and relationships that I've had with these guys and uh keep you going the right direction.

Mike Gonzalez 31:13

Yeah. Well, I think it was in April of 85, uh, right after uh Bernhard won his first master's and used the name of the Lord in vain on the CBS broadcast in Butler Cabin, uh that he proceeded to the heritage at Hilton Head the next week. Bobby Clampett, I think, was playing a practice round with him, right? And convinced him to to to he and his wife to come join the Bible study group. He did that, of course. You know, we've all heard his story as well.

Steve Jones 31:42

Yeah, yeah, and he he shared, let's see, what was the can't think of the what was the year, second masters he won? What year was that? Yeah, uh 95.

Mike Gonzalez 31:52

I want to say 90, you might be right. I was wanting to say 95. 94, 93, yeah.

Steve Jones 31:58

93. Okay, yeah, I was hurt for 92, 93, 94, so I wasn't out there, but you know, and then he he went from using the Lord's name in vain in 85 uh and then 93. He thanked the Lord Jesus Christ uh for changing his life, and he's been doing it ever since. And it's a real thing. I mean, uh only God only God can change your life for for good, permanent. Um, but uh it was it was exciting to see that, and he uh you know that Bible study changed his life and he learned the truth.

Mike Gonzalez 32:33

Yeah, yeah. Well, we we go back to that Canadian Open, and and while you had other things on your mind at the time, uh it's still important to realize that back then, particularly, uh a win at the Canadian Open, their national open, uh, was a big deal. And uh in that particular tournament, you uh uh you bested uh three guys by two shots, uh, one being Calc, who you'd mentioned uh you went toe-to-toe with in the Bob Hope. Uh Mike Hulbert was in there. And and uh was this uh an Ohio State guy, Clark Burroughs? Did he come out of Ohio State? Oh that's a good question. Um I want to say he did.

Steve Jones 33:09

I did I remember playing down the stretch with him, and I uh the day before I I had uh tripled uh par five. Let's see, was it 13, 14, 15? One way you got across the lake. Yeah, I tripled the par five and he made Eagle. So I made an eight and he made a three. So he got me by five shots. But you know, when you're playing good, you just that stuff doesn't affect you. I knew I was playing well, and I just that stuck out in my brain, but it honestly it's like, oh my gosh, he just lost by five in one hole, he must be devastated. It didn't affect me because I said, look, you got to go forward, right? It's your most important shot's the next one. Yep. And that's what I was thinking about. And I just I knew I was playing well. I had made a mistake, I shouldn't have gone for the green from that far out. Um, but then the next day I I had a great shot. I birdied, I think I birdied 17 and ended up winning by I think it was one or one or two. I can't remember exactly. Two. Two occasionally. So I couldn't couldn't, I birdied 17 to go up by two, which helped, and then I didn't birdie 18, but didn't want to make a bogear double either. Um didn't didn't remember a lot from that week other than it was you know, focus was on Willie and Holly.

Mike Gonzalez 34:31

Yeah. Thank you for listening to another episode of 4 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 34:56

It went smack down the fair way.