Scott Simpson - Part 2 (The 1987 U.S. Open)

You join the tour in 79. And then you picked a difficult place to win your first golf tournament. Butler National, Western Open and win by five over Andy bean. That's a that's a way to start, isn't it?

Yeah, that's a great start. 79 Actually, I came in fourth at Westchester. And so I came in, I think 74th on the money list, which that wasn't top 60. So I'm still Monday qualifying each week. But at least I was close. And so I had some confidence going into 1980. And it's playing pretty good. And then one of the things about but I remember a few things about Butler first was I putted good the week before, I played a Memphis the week before. And I was rolling the ball really well, we get to Butler and the greens were dead. The grass had been killed by either either put something bad on it or something. And so they kind of put sand on it, painted it green. And so if I remember correctly, did you play there, Bruce? I did. You did. Okay, I just want to make sure before I tell my story, because you're here I am the shy guy who I walk up to the practice, for my practice round walking up to the tee. And there's Bruce Devlin, and I can't remember who else you're with. And I asked if I could join you. And I joined you. And I played the practice round with it. So here's a guy that a great player that I've been watching for years, Bruce Devlin and whoever else we were with. And I played really good that day. And so when we got that, in my mind, at least I said, You know what? I could play with these guys. I played good. I was hitting a good.

You look like while we were playing that day, too, that you you wanted to ask more questions, but you didn't. You know, you've stuck to yourself pretty much did you?

I did. I should have asked all those questions I wish I would have. Especially Yeah, I had no idea. You were such good friends with Mr. Hogan. And wow, I would have asked a lot of questions. And

I had a wonderful, wonderful seven years playing with him. It was quite remarkable. Really, when you think about it.

It's remarkable because you hear so many different things about Ben Hogan. You know, he's tough, and he's this and but then you hear the other side's great guy. Yeah. Kris Tschetter, who had such a great relationship with him. And

sure did. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. What else? I'll give you one person, little thing. You probably you probably don't know this. But when John Brodie and I were doing the TV for the first seniors golf tournament that was sponsored by by NBC and the insurance company, Liberty Mutual. The producer for the telecast that week said, I know you're very close with Mr. Hogan. Why don't you invite him to come up Sunday and sit in the towel with you and John? And I said, I will, but he'll turn me down. He said, Well, why would you do that? I said, I'll tell you what he's gonna say to me. He's gonna say to me, I'd love to do that, Bruce. But if I do that, I become the story. And I don't want that was pretty, pretty. Pretty classy. When you think about it. The first televise seen your tone with Onion Creek, and with Mr. Hogan there, you know, they'd have been asking him all the questions, and he felt like he'd take away too much of what was happening in that week. So that gives you an idea of how he thinks. Yeah, that

doesn't sound surprising. Such a great champion, and yeah, he always seem humble, in a way. Yeah. And yeah, had had some great ones there. He and Byron Nelson, then. Yeah, Byron became a hero of mine, especially after winning the Byron Nelson because we got to, hey, I got to at least meet him. And I know that was so fascinating. Yeah, just the champions and then Byron in this great.

Let's, let's take you back to that practice round with Bruce Devlin. You're 25 years old, probably because because the Western open is, well you're not not quite 25 Because the Western was played in July back then probably but what were some of those questions running through your shy brain back then?

Well, one question I'd love to ask this. So you hear a lot of people talk about Ben Hogan's book, five fundamentals. And there's a lot of people who say, well, Hogan didn't do exactly what he said in the book. So he, you know, whether he really wrote it and all this stuff, and my thought was always Ben Hogan was, he's too smart, too proud. He wouldn't write a book unless he believed in it. That was always by itself. I thought, and I think those fundamentals are still hold up today. And I think they're correct. I think they're right. And so can you overdo them? Maybe. And so I, I think where people got in trouble to me is where they when they tried to copy a swing.

Instead of using the parts and doing it for yourself, yeah.

I always love Bruce's swing, because it was just so simple. You know, you know, it's kind of like just turn to the top man. But you had more of probably. I remember reading this about Gardner Dickinson, who had tried to copy Hogan and then a lot of people said, his swing was more like Byron Nelson, because he had more of a leg drive. And you know, you had the leg drive and like a lot of players back then would, you know, actually use their legs a lot. I remember. Yeah. And I think that's why they became such good players. Tony Lema. Oh, my goodness, I don't even want to play a combination of legs and when your legs drive your hips turn and you know, Hogan always talked about turning those hips as hard and fast as he could. She's watched it watch early Tiger Woods. Holy mackerel. True. those hips are repin and everything else as follows and rips through there. So yeah, I probably asked questions about the book about Mr. Hogan. So when you played with them, I mean, what do you miss shots once in a while?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. A little bit. Yeah. He always said that if he could hit six shots, the way he tried to hit them in the round. That was good for him. So he had control of his mis-hits, I think more than anybody else that I ever played with. Yeah, I did. I did. For him it was a miss hit. You know, instead of hitting it eight feet, it was 14 feet or something. It was not absolutely perfect. But he had one trait with me every time we'd walk on the first tee. And he'd pull my driver out of the bag and I gotta put my hands up here so you can see the driver and he'd go like this and he'd say ah, still using that buggy whip Course you know he had that big Apex five. tipped it was like a steel pole had some

crazy everything to stop that book, right? Yeah, yeah, I remember I read Cary Middlecoff book where he said he followed Hogan to see if he could still good enough late in his career at Colonial and if I remember correctly, he missed one green and one fairway over 72 holes and came in third. And basically was like 3-under in putts. So obviously didn't play together at all, but said oh yeah, he's good enough to win.

Well go into going back to that first win at Butler National I remember back then the superintendent who was overseeing those lousy greens you put it on was Oscar Miles and he was there a long time and I remember that year because that was a kind of an odd year for Butler because normally those bent greens put it beautifully didn't they?

Yeah, yeah, normally it's in great shape you know one of the one of the things about the course they had bent grass everywhere so you could get flyers everywhere that was the problem with Butler get small greens water and then when you get a flyer you don't know how far it's going so oh my goodness, what do I do now? And I just I just remember just playing I just played great and the advantage I had I think been putting well the week before was that even when I missed a two footer three footer which everyone's going to miss on those sand greens basically I knew I was stroking a good so I'd never questioned my stroke and so I actually put it pretty good overall and I do remember the last round and I beat been by five but the guy I really beat was hail hail was the guy right on my right on the right behind me like two or three and then we played the 12th hole. I hit in the middle of the green and made like a 30 footer for eagle to probably go like for up on hail or something like that and have member looking over and hail was so mad. He was so bad that I had just made a pot but he was the ultimate competitor as we know. And yeah, he he did not like someone else making pots. And I actually played with Joe Inman also hail a Joe. Joe, jump and Joe and Joe was so great. Joe was struggling. They shot like an ad for the day. But he was. He was maybe he maybe he wasn't a big fan of Hale. But he was so much in my corner. Like, come on, kid. Yeah, way to go scot free. But then Joe was just so encouraging. He was just great, then. Yeah. And then I think he'll made a couple bogeys to come in third. But then Hey, Andy was second. But yeah, just yeah, that was just a great week. And, and what a big thrill and to win on tour. This is my thinking again, was my thinking was one day, I'll be able to tell my kids I won a PGA Tour tournament. Yeah, because I only did I gotta do your exemption. But I had no. I didn't take it for granted. I'd be out there more than two more years. I said, but one day, I'll be able to tell them I did win on the tour was unbelievable

Well, the other thing is, if you can win at throughout. Butler National, you could probably win a U.S. Open. Golf Course. Absolutely. That's true. That's a tough course. Do you remember you remember who the golf pro was back then? It was Errie Ball. He was the Director of Golf at Butler National. He was there for a long time. Erie played in the first Masters. Wow. And he was and he would sign pictures of himself in that group shot you know of all the first contestants at the Augusta Invitational. He'd circle his head, and he'd sign it Errie Ball, last man standing because he lived to be like, 102 years old. He was the last man to survive from that first tournament. Wow.

Yeah. So we always ask our guests when we see little gaps in their, in their playing. And we noticed that 81 and 82 and 83 Scott wasn't able to win a golf time. We know life goes on. But was there anything that was mean? Had you gotten into a bad trait? Or were you just making money?

All those seconds? I wasn't 15 seconds.

Maybe Iwas getting some of those seconds. Yeah, I can't remember. I remember. I think I was playing all right. I stayed, you know, definitely stayed at the top. You know, back then. 60. And then 125. But yeah, I think I was playing okay, everything was going all right. No, I don't remember any big, giant, terrible years. Obviously, you're always trying to win. We did have our first baby in 1982. So that was a big, that was a big change. And a huge thing for us. And as much as I love playing golf, family, kind of always came first. And, and it was around that time, too, that my faith kind of grew. And so yeah, I think it was at one when we were going to have started thinking about having kids. You know, my wife wanted our, our kids to grow up in a church and I did not I didn't believe any of that stuff. That's crazy to believe in any of that things. And of those, a book that's 2000 years old. And we had a Bible study on tour that Morris Hatalsky actually asked me to come to and I went to the thing that they had the leader, they did an open discussion group where you could ask any questions you wanted about God or life. And so I went because I had tons of questions. And then I was very skeptical, didn't believe any of it. And so over a period of three years of reading and research, I, I became convinced that it was true. And so I went from not believing anything to becoming a Christian and believing that it was actually true and you know, the lives of the apostles that watch Jesus for all those years. And then he's killed and dead and they thought, Oh, Jesus, who's gonna be next and they're scared to death and and it was Jesus coming back from the dead that really changed their lives and everything I read the historical proofs, Larry said, I asked every question that he'd ever heard so over three years, and just became convinced intellectually that it was true and then it becomes a matter of your faith and, and yeah, so that was a big change. through that period of time and then yeah, then yeah did come together got

hold of things in 84 though, boy, what are you you had an ad for her? Yeah, playing in, played really well in Nagoya start with Shinichi crowns. Yeah, that'd be the most popular Japanese player that ever put foot on Earth. Aoki

I know I loved it.

I bet you did it in the playoff too.

I know I birdied the last hole and then and then to tie him and then yeah, and then he was behind me so he did not birdie the last hole maybe went to the playoff and it actually won with a par I hit that kind of scared by shot then hit it like 15 feet and he ended up missing as great a putter as he was. And he was a great putter but I put it up there for like 20 feet up there made par and then he had like a four or five footer to to for par and then he missed it. And and I and he was such a nice guy too. He saw Oh yeah, but No, he wasn't he'd won that tournament a bunch but he wouldn't have to lose it. And that was a tournament that I always seem to play good on the hard courses and that was a course it was short tight with tiny tiny little greens. And the greens were usually up almost like when you play those anthills in miniature golf with a little push away up so if you don't hit the green it rolls down and usually you don't bump your butt I mean I was I was pretty accurate with those short irons so I didn't miss many greens over there love that Golf Course.

Yeah you had another winning you have actually two more that year but I don't know if you considered to the victory in Japan or the victory at the Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic as sort of validating that first win at Butler

um I don't think I considered it validating cuz I cuz I played some good golf. Yeah, I played God just hadn't won in that period of time. But it wasn't, you know, like I went through a big slump. Thanks for Thanks for the five fundamentals, which I still have my dog eared copy of that every time I slipped through there if I was ever going down. Okay, let's get back to basics. And just love and I think in some ways that really helped me especially as a self taught golfer that I had some basics I could go to, and and when you're self taught you have to learn your own swing. You know, I have to learn what what feels I have to make it make it fade make it draw in. So that I think that helped in some ways and to not have the big ups and downs and but yeah, 84 winning at Westchester. Yeah, there again, I just it was one of those weeks. I just played great. And I'm just like, wow, it just all came together. And I guess that's what you got to do to win.

Yeah, speaking of dog eared pages in the Hogan book. The dog was one of the guys who beat Bruce

That's right. D the David dog, Jay Haas, Mark O'Meara, finished second behind you away huh?

Yeah, David Graham. They had he was a great player in what a great mind around this way I'd never was a huge fan of his golf swing. Just as he always looked like there was a lot of hand action like he could just snap hook it at any time. But he didn't. He never did. He sure had a good you know for hitting all those greens and when in the was at the U.S. Open or PGA. I think that's the open Yeah. Yeah. Medinah when you hit every green the last day and one but oh, that was at Merion, Merion Merion not Medinah Merion Yeah.

Done. It was a PGA. No.

Yeah, great player.

But Bruce, how many guys come out of the box winning their first two PGA tour events by five shots?

Not too many.

I guess it wasn't good when it got close.

I mean, that's pretty strong plan.

And he wasn't finished at Westchester that year. As you mentioned, he won the Dunlop Phoenix tournament again in in Japan and you beat a pretty good guy in the playoff there too.

I know that was a big thrill. Man, I put a great that we hash. I remember making the in the playoff with Bernhard Langer. We tied and so we go out to the playoff and I hit my drive down the safe side left side and of course Bernhard right down the middle on the green, and then I missed it in the right bunker. I just was confident though, but then I hit my bunker shot out there like 15 like 15 feet away and Bernhard you know, taps in for par for like 30 feet and I drained this 15 footer and then ended up making about an eight or 10 footer on the hole where I beat him two holes later and it just so it was such Bernhard because I remember him congratulating me it just he had this this wry smile. Like, I can't believe you made all those putts Scott. Like, how do you do that? But he is just such a gracious, you know, a loser and winner and champion and yeah, Bernhard, what a fantastic career than then wanting to do what he's done on the champions door is amazing. Actually, both those guys. So I remember riding in a car with Hale when he's probably from Hilton Head, you have a long drive from Hilton Head to Savannah. And I'm with Hale and Hale is probably like 47, 48 years old and it's complaining about his back and oh, I can't play anymore. And I you know, I'm just gonna retire. You know, basically almost like he's sick and golf and, you know, hurt. And then he wins 45 times. And Bernhard was the same way. Bernhards like 47 or eight and you know, he's got back problems, you know, who xan't putt and now he wins 45 times. That's amazing. When you get on the Champions Tour. It's like a whole it's like a lease on life or something. It's just so different and so fun in a way that man didn't really get you to get you going again, I guess but, but beating Bernhard was a huge thrill because he was definitely one of the best players in the world and Seve I think that's the third or fourth and yeah, sometimes I just picked myself I never really I'd beat these guys.

And the other thing Scott you should know is if you listen to the first episode with Bernhard, we enjoyed hearing his story about he came how he came to be a believer as well after his first Masters went right story.

Oh, I love his story because he talks about saying Jesus Christ twice in the hidden the cabin

in Butler cabin

in two totally different ways. It's so funny.

Yeah, yeah. Yes. Great story. But, but But you just you just gave us a clip that I'm going to play. Bruce, when we get back with Bernhard and Hale to finish their stories. What he said about both of them at age 47, 48 I'm going to play those clips for those guys great.

Absolutely. Both just complaining and, I'm done.

who was who would have thought that after a couple of sort of non victories in 85 and 86. Who would have thought that we'd have ended up where we did an 87? Boy, what a what a year for you. Greater Greensboro Open, beat Clarence Rose there by two. And he thought about that.

Oh, yeah, Greensboro. If I remember, right, I'd played good. I'd almost won the players the week before I had a good chance and last down the stretch, like third or fourth or something. So I went to Greensboro knowing I was playing well. And yeah, I remember a lot of times when I, for me, it was the simple. I tried to use, you know, the Hogan fundamentals for me was feeling my swing a little flat, even though my swing was upright. But to feel like I just kind of like Bruce's swing just kind of turned back, moved to my left side, keep turning through. And that keep it simple. And a lot of times it's just the tempo of almost almost a pause at the top would help and so I remember thinking about that that week, and it just played really, really solid and had a pretty good lead going into the back nine. And then all of a sudden I hit a few shots off and right and, and I went from leading to I think being tied and we had hit us and it was freezing cold too. It was a hard course I think it was I think I was five under four or five under and pain Stuart was right there. I think he might come in third behind clearance then. But I remember getting a good drive on the 16 pole and hitting a seven iron and I remember because I watched the telecast later and I can't remember who's telecasts well the smart shot here. You just got to go right in the middle of the green can't mess around with that left pin. And I remember going at that left in thinking I've got to make a birdie and A hitting a seven iron and it just got the best just felt so good. And right at the pin is about three feet away. Oh, he must have pulled that one. So well. Birdie that one. And then I got to the 17th hole, the par three. And I had to wait for about the four or five minutes because up on the green, they were shouting from one side to the other. Tastes great, less filling, tastes great. It was kind of like the Phoenix, the Phoenix Part Three without the without being enclosed. And so it was just finding admin ended up hitting, hitting some good shots right down the stretch. And I had, you know, one shot league on the last hole. And I remember because I hit a barely in the rough and talking to my caddy and I hit a five iron. And I hit it right in the middle of agreeing in about 15 feet and then ended up making that putt to win by two. So a huge thrill because that also got me in the master's the next week. And that's not that I won or anything but it was always a thrill to get to go to Augusta. So yeah, yeah, that was pretty you

were pretty great. You were you were tea for the players. So you were playing well coming in. I think we should mention to our listeners because they have no idea what less tastes great. Less filling is filler that reference. But you know, it's for the younger listeners. This was the Miller Brewing Company introduced in Miller Lite back in those days, and they had some great great celebrity commercials, didn't they? Yeah,

I did. Yeah, they were pretty funny. Had so I guess all these hobbies drunk guys were yellow on one side to the other. And that was less filling but tastes great.

Yeah, that was the whole shtick of the of the commercial back then. But anyway, all right, let's go to that 1987 U.S. Open that was contested at Olympic Club, the Lake Course. Scott Simpson wins the U.S. Open by one over Tom Watson.

That was a thrill. That was a thrill. I couldn't believe it. For me, that was probably my that was the biggest dream of all know, not only when a major but for me, it was the U.S. Open. I know now that nowadays, the masters were the champions dinner is really important. And that's a big deal. But for me, the U.S. Open was always it. First of all, it's your national championship. And then also, it's just one of the great players have always won. You know, I just think of the stories of, you know, Hogan. And going back then and watching Nicklaus and Palmer and just the U.S. Open, and it's also always on the hardest golf courses. And that to me, too, is always something that I thought was, was great, you know, think of Hale winning there, seven over and I just, yeah, I just love I just always love the U.S. Open, I think because we're just so hard that I think whoever wins really, I always thought whoever won that thing really deserved it. Because it's just such a hard week. In to win. There was just wow, what a thrill.

I read something somewhere that said that the Bible study topic that week was contentment.

Well, going into the U.S. Open. I had played the week before. And Westchester Yeah, where I'd won before. You know, of course, I love short, tight, small grains. And I played lousy. And I knew I was hitting the ball fine as hitting the ball. Good. But I was just getting frustrated. And I was getting angry, you know, and kind of like tossing some clubs in my bag and just not Yeah, frustrated. And so when I went out to the Olympic Club, where you know, now I'm, I get to play in California, and probably putting extra pressure on myself knowing that the US opens coming up, and I'm playing well and playing a great course and saw our Bible Study leader, Larry Moody, and he goes, Hey, Scott, how you doing? I said, lousy. What do you mean? I don't know. You're frustrated. I'm all you know, just probably try and do a hard. He's all lucky for you. Our Bible studies contentment this week. Oh, and so it really did help. Just get my mind back in the right place. You know, nowadays, we always talk about mindset and what you're thinking and how you think on the Golf Course and a lot of the sports psychologists there, what they do is they try to take the pressure off. They try to get you to play under the most pressure the same way you play when there's not pressure there. And so that's a hard thing to do. That's why it's called mental toughness. That took me it's just, it's not natural, it's hard. And so that week with the, with the Bible study of contentment and there was a verse Colossians 3-17, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Lord Jesus giving thanks through him to God the Father. And I saw I went after that week, and I was just thankful. So I changed my mindset. And I was thankful I look around God, you know what I get to, instead of putting this pressure on myself, like I've won earlier this year, I can I can win this thing, you know, I have to play good. I went out there said, You know what I get to play in the U.S. Open. There's 1,000s of people that tried to do this and they don't get to play here, I get to play the Olympic Club. And it just got to get some joy back in the game and it just made it fun again, and and so then word or deed is kind of like that kind of covers everything. How are you? What are you doing, you know, and so I just went out there kind of freed up to just whether I missed the cut, whether I went that's not the most important thing, the most important thing is doing it for the right reasons. And just playing my best and so my goal that week was just to play every shot as good as I could. And that and knowing that if I do that, that's good enough you know, that's that's good enough to please my Lord and and so I'd only been a Christian for a few years then. So I went out there freed up and I played good I was kind of right near the lead most every day. And you know, it had some good shots, bad shots, but I was just very calm and enjoying it. And so yeah, I remember what after I won because I went in and people you know, there's a big press room and and they said, you know, sky You seem so calm out there when you when you actually are smiling, but you have Tom Watson chasing you down? And I said, Well, that's where I shared. Well, we did have a Bible study this week on contentment, and it was just so funny because about half the sportswriters had gone. Oh, great. Neither one of these Jesus freak guys push his religion on us. And believe me, the last thing I would ever do is push religion on anyone because I I didn't believe it for a long time. And it's a personal choice whenever that anyone makes but yeah, yeah, but but that week that the mindset changed really did help me and I don't believe God made my ball go in and made Tom Watson's ball miss I don't believe any of that. And a few years later, mine missed so but but it did help me just get my mind back in the right place, I guess. And so it was really important to me. So I shared it with the press and it was just a really funny reaction. And but wow, what a thrill to actually win out there atOlympic Club.

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