WINNING THE U.S. AMATEUR
was just turning 16 when Dad died in October 1977, leaving me with an emotional void. Dad’s death at 74 was at the time considered a reasonably long life, yet it still came as a shock and was not easy for any of us. There isn’t a road map for fatherless teens or, as I told my mother years later, for widows at 43.
Golf, meanwhile, continued to be the focal point of my youth, and the experiences I’d had at the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, handing out scorecards and pencils to the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and others, motivated me to work hard on my golf with the intention of playing the PGA Tour one day.
I fell short on that front, but I did win one very important tournament, the 1981 U.S. Amateur, less than four years after my father’s death. I had been inspired by a cause greater than myself: I wanted to win to honor my father’s memory.
Dad was a strong enough golfer to have played in the U. S. Amateur, in 1940, at Winged Foot. He also played in the British Amateur one year and countless other lesser amateur competitions. I had found a medal my father had received for participating in one of them, and I wore it on a chain around my neck throughout the 1981 Amateur, rubbing it for good luck in stressful situations. My mother, meanwhile, wore Dad’s old sport coat and hat during the final match.
Dad was a remarkably humble man, and he expected the same of his kids. A reporter asked me what my father might have said had he been there to witness my victory. “Don’t let it go to your head, son,” I replied. Privately, I’m sure he would have had another reaction, one closer to that of his old road partner and golf foil, Bob Hope, 78 at the time, who was watching the telecast in the grillroom of a Minnesota golf club. When I holed the winning putt, I was told by an assistant professional at the club that Bob had cried. Hope’s emotional reaction was a testament to his long and adoring friendship with my father and his understanding of what it would have meant to Dad had he been there.