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Living Golf
Crenshaw's Best Augusta Moments; Alister MacKenzie's road to Augusta; Secret behind the "Bubba Long"; Building Augusta's Iconic Brand
Aired April 13, 2014 - 03:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
SHANE O'DONOGHUE, CNN HOST (voice-over): It's April. It's the Masters and all roads lead to Augusta.
Along the way we'll be meeting the man who, 30 years ago this month, won his first Masters title.
BEN CRENSHAW, MASTERS CHAMPION 1984 AND 1995: To have that coat ready for you, it's pretty magical.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): We'll be tracing the journey of Augusta National's legendary designer, calling in to get some driving tips from 2012 Masters champions Bubba Watson.
BUBBA WATSON, 2012 MASTERS CHAMPION: It's a simple game, isn't it?
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): And in a rare interview, once we reach Augusta, meeting the man who runs the masters, Billy Payne.
BILLY PAYNE, MASTERS: God, I was so nervous I didn't think I was going to be able to talk.
O'DONOGHUE: Well, as we head south and east from California to Augusta, we've just turned in off the Pacific Coast Highway here to Newport Beach, south of L.A. We're here because there are nine winners of the Masters at this Champions Tour event ahead of the year's first major.
Among them, a man who won his first green jacket 30 years ago, a legend with the flat stick, the one and only Ben Crenshaw.
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O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): We recognize that stroke anyway. A very famous stroke.
Ben, Shane O'Donoghue --
(CROSSTALK)
CRENSHAW (voice-over): How are you, Shane?
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Fantastic.
When did it first begin for you, that fascination with the verdant pastures of Augusta National, Ben?
CRENSHAW: 1972 was my first year. Incidentally, that was the -- I never got to shake Bobby Jones' hand because he had passed away just at Christmas previous. But I -- stepping out on that place, there's nothing like it.
O'DONOGHUE: I know your dad one day you were going to win this. But like when did it really kind of take root, the confidence to know that, you know, you had the stuff to do it?
CRENSHAW: I thought I had the ability maybe after the first 3-4 years that I really wanted to win this tournament. And I thought that I was capable. But I had gone through, you know, up until the time I won in 1984, I had had seven or eight brushes with a major championship and never pulled it off.
And a golfer never knows, really. And the fascination of playing that course if that it tempts you like no other course.
O'DONOGHUE: What was it like to slip on the jacket?
CRENSHAW: Well, it just felt -- it -- just sublime. It was sublime. When you see them, to have that coat ready for you, it's pretty magical.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): '84 was a special one, though. And I mean, what's most curious about it is the amount of stress that you were obviously under as well in your personal life. And you were there. You didn't quite feel bulletproof that week, but something started to click.
And was it all the years with Carl Jackson?
CRENSHAW (voice-over): Carl, I knew Carl was so special. I was bent on his every word. He knows that course so well. But coming into that event, I was playing well. I had played well at Doral (ph) in February. I'd gotten a new set of clubs and I played a very good Greensboro (ph) tournament right before it.
And I -- my game was kind of on the up. And I just -- I just let it go. I felt wonderful that week.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): In '95, you went the entire tournaments without a 3 putter. But it's such an unusual thing. But that week was kind of strange, wasn't it? I mean, it was throughout.
CRENSHAW: I was tapped on the shoulder that week. One of the great teachers of all time was on people's minds and Tom Kite and I had just -- had just buried him that week. He was such a wonderful man. He helped so many people.
O'DONOGHUE: What was it like internally during that final day?
CRENSHAW (voice-over): Amazing thing, that I didn't dwell on the fact that it was Harvey and it was this week. My favorite tournament in the world. Somehow, those thoughts didn't come into my head. I was just -- felt like a little kid, playing the course. And the only time I started thinking about the ramifications of when I finished 17, thank God, I made that birdie at 17 and then I teed off at 18. And I got very emotional. And I -- Carl, he did say, so we got some golf left to play. And then I got it in. But I was breaking, it was really breaking.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): As well as playing on the Champions Tour, Crenshaw's also carving out quite a reputation as a course designer.
CRENSHAW (voice-over): I feel so lucky that when I was 16 years old, there was a lot of firsts for me, played in the country club in Brookline, Massachusetts. It started me off on golf history, golf architecture and playing the game on a national level, all in one week. The frameworks of what makes the -- a good test of golf is right -- it's right there. And golf history and grew (ph). And it's been the foundation of my learning.
I can't tell you in words what it means for the champions to go back each year. But yes, I'll go back every year I'm alive. I'm just blessed. And I've had the chance to play this long. It'll be 40-45 years.
O'DONOGHUE: Thank you so much for your time.
CRENSHAW: You're welcome. My pleasure.
O'DONOGHUE: Enjoy the 2014 event.
CRENSHAW: My pleasure. Thank you.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MARK O'MEARA, MASTERS CHAMPION 1998 (voice-over): One of the greatest memories is when I played there in 1980 as the U.S. amateur champion. I didn't play very well. I was way out of my league. And my dad was obviously concerned for his son because I didn't play very well and he was like, you know, Mark, are you OK? And I said, Dad, you know, I'm fine. And he goes, well, I know you didn't play very well. And I said Dad, look, no matter whether I ever make it as a professional golfer or not, at least I got to play in the Masters one time. I was here. I know I didn't do very well, but I was here.
And then you know what? Eighteen years later, 41 years of age, after playing in the Masters, I think 13 times, it was my 14th Masters, I still on the 18th green with a putt to win and luckily it went in and I won. That's what I remember most about the Masters.
O'DONOGHUE: Next on our journey to Augusta, the man who designed the iconic course on which all green jackets have been won.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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O'DONOGHUE: Welcome back to LIVING GOLF on the road to Augusta. Now this Pacific Coast certainly inspired the great golf course architect Alister MacKenzie (ph) to design such classics as Pasatiempo and Cypress Point (ph), so much so that the cofounder of the Masters, Bobby Jones, asked MacKenzie (ph) to create Augusta National. It was to be his final course.
His journey to Augusta began long before he came here to California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
NICK LEEFE, ALISTER MACKENZIE SOCIETY (voice-over): Well, welcome to Alwoodley (ph).
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Alwoodley Golf Club Yorkshire, Alister McKenzie's first design. He was a surgeon. He'd never designed a golf course in his life. But when he and some friends from Leeds set up this club, he managed to convince everyone that he was the man for the job.
LEEFE: Your first drive on the first hole that MacKenzie ever designed, well done.
LEEFE (voice-over): I think he had a strong personality and with the help of Arthur Sykes (ph), who eventually became treasurer, they persuaded the committee to gather that he could design a golf course much better than the ones currently in play in the Leeds area.
So he was determined with the concept of playing a natural course rather than with sort of rectangular shaped greens, that he could design something better and the committee gave him permission.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): To be fair, he was a very enthusiastic amateur. When Ogilvy (ph) brought up the claimed golf architect Harry Coles (ph) to give a second opinion, Coles (ph) was surprised to find MacKenzie's house full of golf books and designs rather than surgical instruments.
MacKenzie had also picked up a very useful skill while serving as a surgeon in the Boer War in South Africa. He'd become an expert in camouflage.
O'DONOGHUE: Now he has not designed the course before starting this project here at Alwoodley. But camouflage certainly plays its part and in particular on this hole.
LEEFE: This is the 13th. It's -- but as you look down there now, you wouldn't believe that this hole has got more bunkers than any other on the course. But when you look back, it's just a tranquil heathery scene.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Nick, this is classic MacKenzie, because now we are on the tee. We're looking at the hole. We can see everything, all of the bunkers, all of the trouble is there presented in front of us.
LEEFE (voice-over): All 14 bunkers, and you couldn't see one from the other at the other end. It just looked like a peaceful scene.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Alwoodley was MacKenzie's first course, Augusta his last. But despite their many differences, they're linked by MacKenzie's famous 13 principles of golf design, his emphasis on beauty, playability for all handicaps, strategy and there's also the occasional startling visual similarity.
O'DONOGHUE: Nick, one thing that I noticed in the aerial photographer of the course, and it was strikingly similar, the 10th hole a par 5, very, very like the 13th at Augusta National. Now this was his first design. Augusta was his last.
But you can certainly see the inspiration and you can see that sign of the way his mind was working and --
LEEFE (voice-over): Yes, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): -- standing on the tee now, there's -- it's eerily similar.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE), 160 miles to the west of the windswept coast of Wales, after Alwoodley, MacKenzie worked mainly on courses in the north of England and Scotland. But it was here that he was inspired to create one of his most famous designs on the California's Pacific Coast.
WILLIAM SWAN, SWAN GOLF DESIGNS: While visiting the Northwest with a friend from Edinburgh, MacKenzie visited here and played golf on the point 11 and went away inspired to recreate or create his own golf course in a similar clifftop setting. And it's understood that that was the seed that led to Cypress Point (ph).
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): As MacKenzie's fame spread, so did his work, from Lahinch to Crystal Downs, California's Pasatiempo to the Jockey Club of Buenos Aires, Adelaide to Royal Melbourne and then of course, to Augusta National.
The legendary Bobby Jones, Grand Slam champion and cofounder of the Masters, would hit shots on the dirt. MacKenzie would tweak his design for the hole accordingly.
But MacKenzie never saw it grassed, let alone the first Augusta Invitational in 1934. The Masters as it was soon to be renamed. He died two months earlier, virtually penniless, still waiting for Augusta National to pay him.
His legacy, his courses and the underlying philosophy, still inspiring and guiding golf architects across the generations.
SWAN: It's almost 100 years ago that he set out his famous basic principles of design. And really if people in my position creating golf courses today, if they stuck to those principles and nothing else, the results would be fantastic.
We're creating features by (INAUDIBLE) that we have to make them indistinguishable from the natural features are here. And he was almost the trendsetter for stating that beauty is critical to the golf course. It's not just the playing characteristics. It's about creating somewhere where people want to be.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
SANDY LYLE, MASTERS CHAMPION 1988 (voice-over): At the time it was probably sheer purgatory because, you know, he was trying to hang onto what was a lead and I lost the lead and then, you know, I'm finding myself at level with Calcavecchia playing the last hole. You know you talk about holiday team fee (ph), you don't really think about birdie. You think about survival. I had this sort of horrible thought of putting it in the bunker, and if I did, not really think I'm going to make birdie from that bunker and then holding it -- into about 15 feet and as you saw, the putt went in. But I was absolutely shattered by the end of that. So you know when you freeze that 18th hole at 72 holes, if you win the Masters ever, you know that anybody wins it, you know, you've earned your green jacket.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): Next up, driving with the 2012 Masters champion, Bubba Watson, and then to Augusta and the man who runs the Masters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'DONOGHUE: Welcome back to LIVING GOLF and the Masters. As we continue on our road trip to Augusta, we've taken a slight detour here at Florida and Doral to meet a former Masters winner who knows a thing or two about driving.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE: Bubba Long has been a very well-known phrase in professional golfing circles for a few years, Bubba Watson being the Masters champion from 2012, you obviously enjoy the thrill of hitting a long booming drive from the --
WATSON: Yes, you know, at the junior ranks, I was the longest junior. I was hitting in college, pretty far in college, I hit it -- now it hit long in the pros. So yes, it's been good.
O'DONOGHUE: And shaping it as well. Has that always been the way that you played golf at tee?
WATSON: Yes. You know, I love moving the ball. I see movement. I see it aimed at trees and cutting here and drawing it back to the fairway.
O'DONOGHUE: We're going to try a few different varieties of drive here. Is there any one that you like more than others?
WATSON: The fade's the best, where I started down the right and just hope it goes in the center of the fairway.
O'DONOGHUE: OK. Let's go and see it.
WATSON: OK.
Right down the tree line and drifted back to the center of the fairway.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE: Most people would play a draw shot to get more length. You play a fade and you get as far, if not farther than most.
WATSON: My talent, luck, whatever you want to call it, I hit it far enough. I'm not trying to get more distance. I'm trying to just get it in play, get it -- keep it in bounds and hit it in the fairway. And so for me it's about accuracy and constituency.
O'DONOGHUE: What about trying to play a draw shot from the tee here?
WATSON: You know, again, this is -- it's going to be like closing my shoulders and my stance and then it -- really my biggest thing at impact, we're going to roll the wrist over, even with this wind, we'll just turn it over a little bit.
O'DONOGHUE: Amazing. And that's just moved about 10 yards. That's just perfect.
WATSON: Yes, because the wind's hurting it a little bit. That probably would have been about 20 yards to roll, but yes. In the dead center fairway.
O'DONOGHUE: This is too good.
What about a straight one then, Bubba?
WATSON: Oh, the easy one.
O'DONOGHUE: Unbelievable.
WATSON: Simple game, isn't it?
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): OK, let's call this the Bubba challenge. I'm going to try and hit one of those shaved shots, I mean, for me, my natural shot would be a draw right to left, so.
WATSON: So you're going to aim it down the right and then just draw back to the center of the fairway?
O'DONOGHUE: I will attempt to that.
WATSON: OK, perfect.
O'DONOGHUE: First shot I've hit today.
WATSON: Good shot, right down the middle.
O'DONOGHUE: I don't think I could play a fade, though. I mean --
WATSON: I can teach you. It's easy.
All right. Open your feet, open your stance a little bit. There you go. And now just swing away and think fade.
That's pretty good.
O'DONOGHUE: It was the tiniest of fade on that, was there?
WATSON: Yes, but the wind's coming from this way, so.
O'DONOGHUE: Yes.
WATSON: I'm a pretty good teacher, is what I'm saying.
O'DONOGHUE: You're the main man.
WATSON: Thank you.
O'DONOGHUE: What about trying to hit my driver?
WATSON: I can do it. You want me to hit it past you or just short of you?
O'DONOGHUE: Oh, be kind.
WATSON: Not break it, is that all right?
O'DONOGHUE: That's OK.
(LAUGHTER)
WATSON: This one is (INAUDIBLE). I don't want yours.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE: You have set yourself a big challenge here. What are you going to do?
WATSON: Yes, so this group of trees right here, we're going to go around it, slice it into the water. You can see in the distance, roughly, I don't know, 90 yards slice.
O'DONOGHUE: You need to slice it 90 yards.
WATSON: Roughly.
O'DONOGHUE: Sounds easy. That can be done.
WATSON: We'll see.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(LAUGHTER)
O'DONOGHUE: Unbelievable. How do you do it?
WATSON: Lucky.
O'DONOGHUE: Bubba Watson.
WATSON: Thank you.
O'DONOGHUE: You're the man.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE: Well, this is it for most of the year. This is pretty much an ordinary Georgia town. But for one week in April, it's the center of the golfing world.
The Masters is run by the club Augusta National and Augusta National is headed by one man, Billy Payne, who rarely gives interviews. But he did agree to sit down with us to talk about his role as chairman and the Masters unique place in American sport.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) Payne, fantastic to have you on LIVING GOLF on CNN --
(CROSSTALK)
BILLY PAYNE, CHAIRMAN, AUGUSTA NATIONAL: Thank you. My pleasure.
O'DONOGHUE: It's amazing to think that the club is still so young and yet it has established an iconic brand.
How have you managed it at Augusta National?
PAYNE: Well, I think our brand was established truly at the beginning of our tournament 77 or 78 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) Bobby Jones gets away at Augusta, Georgia.
PAYNE (voice-over): Mr. Jones, of course, brought great golf celebrity to the tournament, a wonderful reputation as a player and a gentleman. Mr. Roberts was obsessive with detail, insisted upon perfection.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): President and Ms. Eisenhower arrive in Augusta, Georgia, his favorite golfing retreat, for a short vacation. The president and first lady are greeted by old friends and their host, Clifford Roberts, chairman of the Augusta Country Club.
PAYNE (voice-over): What you see in the reflection of the Masters brand is an attempt to create an experience that's -- that just as it's designed for the players, we put equal emphasis on how the fans can enjoy the tournament.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Fans see the masters miss and they see them sink some beauties, like this 10-footer by Byron Nelson, who finished eighth. It makes them wonder why they can't do it the way Cary Middlecoff of Memphis does it, a 17-foot putt. Yowza!
PAYNE (voice-over): There's nothing new at Augusta to attempt to discover ways that we can give back to the game. We have a great tournament; we're very successful. We explore, we deliberate. We have that 77-year history of contributing to the game in various ways.
We thought of this Drive, Chip and Putt championship to involve young boys and girls and we hoped and in fact believe that when we do this television show with these, I think, 88 finalists, boys and girls, it's going to be seen by a lot of kids around the country and it's going to bring some of them to the game of golf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Oh, what a great up and down. Hideki Matsuyama.
O'DONOGHUE (voice-over): You've seen initiative with the Asia Pacific amateur championship, which has been an incredible success in five short years. And you know, we met with you in Buenos Aires there in January and it was the launch of the Latin American amateur championship.
What's next? Are we -- ?
(CROSSTALK)
PAYNE: Oh, no.
O'DONOGHUE: -- will we see you in Africa?
PAYNE: I mean, you know, I don't know. We haven't thought that far down the line. Those are nothing more than a continuation of what our intention and, in fact, our actions have been for over 70 years. We're always searching for ways to get back to the game.
O'DONOGHUE: Just very quickly, your own favorite moments from the Masters, are there any standouts?
PAYNE: I remember the first time we did the honorary starters, God, I was so nervous, I didn't think I was going to be able to talk, because I -- you know, I was in the presence of two -- then two of my heroes and it's fun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): On the 18th, the whole job with a 2 under par, 70 to win. His total ties the mark for the Masters. Bobby Jones presents Harmon the trophy, new master of the Masters.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BERNHARD LANGER, MASTERS CHAMPION 1985 AND 1993 (voice-over): Yes, the Masters really stand out of all the majors because it's at the same course, at the same venue year after year after year. All the other majors move around. So as a player, you get to know the course better; you get to know a lot of things about every course. You come back there every year. And just to me now it feels like going home almost. I feel very comfortable. You know, I know what to expect. I know where everything is but everything is just first class, you know, and they really run a great show.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'DONOGHUE: Our journey done. Now we just have to wait and see what drama unfolds on the back nine on Sunday and who will slip on that precious green jacket. Don't forget all our reports are online. And you can keep across what we're up to on Twitter, but for now, from Augusta, on this, the 80th anniversary of the very first Masters, goodbye.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
END
