What separates major winners from guys who don close the deal?
Some of it is luck a good or bad bounce from the golf gods. Also, Nicklaus, Watson, Trevino they weren’t locker room guys. They showed up, did their job, left. Mike was happy telling stories in the locker room at regular events. But regular events are very different than a Masters or U.S. Open. You’ve had enormous success on the Champions Tour, including nine wins in 1997. If you’d played the PGA Tour in ’97, at 50-plus, how many times would you have won? At least a couple. I was playing the best golf of my life that year. [Tom] Kite was the 1997 [U.S.] Ryder Cup captain. When he was considering captain’s picks, I played with him and two team members in a practice round and beat all three of them. I said, “Tom, I’m playing the best golf of my life.” But he didn’t pick me. Maybe he felt pressure to pick younger players. Why were you better at age 52 than at age 32? I learned to play more shots better. There was no shot I feared. I went after tight pins. It all came together. My game ope
