1970 Bing Crosby
George Boutell's enthusiastic response to my phone call told me that he enjoyed having me out on the PGA Tour with him in 1969 and would like to have me caddy again at the start of 1970. It would be even better than 1969 since I would be able to stay out for three weeks, rather than two. The LA Open, Phoenix Open and the Crosby at Monterey, CA; pretty good duty for a 21 year old looper.
I flew to Phoenix, picked up my bags from the tarmac outside the small terminal servicing Phoenix and we were off to start George's third year on tour. It was an all day drive across the desert in George's 69 Chevy Impala with the 8 track tape player blasting Kris Kristofferson's "By The Time I Get To Phoenix." Eight hours talking golf, baseball and the tour. No girl talk though. George never did date.
The tournament was back at Rancho Park for the last time, with all of it's shortcomings in parking, driving range and clubhouse. It would move to Riviera in 1972. I carefully reviewed my yardage notes on Sunday during a practice round for the qualifier, saved from the 1969 event. It took just a few holes to figure out that the concession stands and tents I used to mark distances were not in the same position. A waste of time to save my notes and carry them around the country. A rookie tour caddie mistake.
With his finish of 130th on the money list at $11,860 in 1969, George did not have to go to the tour school to requalify, but still had to qualify week to week to get in events. With a solid qualifying round of 71 at Rancho Park on Monday he was in for the week.
His game was better in 1970 than I had seen in 1969. Maybe he worked a little harder in the off season, maybe he was more experienced. Whatever it was, he was better. George never was what one might call "driven" in the game. When home from the tour he would typically work on his game for a couple of hours at Phoenix Country Club, then go to the card room and play bridge for the balance of the day.
It was the same way on tour. He would play a practice round or tournament round, then practice for two hours at most. Successful tour players pay more dues than George chose, particularly at home and early in the week before the start of events. His swing was long, loose, but effective. However, it was not what the announcers would call "great".
He was an above average putter and during the weeks where his swing allowed him to hit greens he would shoot good numbers, but never "go low."
Thursday of LA Open week in 1970 his swing did work as he opened with 69, good for 16th place. Driving it straight, hitting enough good iron shots and putting well, it was a wonderful round. It was the best competitive round I had seen him play as a caddie.
Making the cut is always hanging in the back of the your mind on tour. Even being in 16th place after the first day, a couple of bad swings or bad holes and you miss the cut. It happens every week.
After practicing Thursday afternoon, George was confident and ready for Friday's afternoon round. By Friday afternoon players pretty much know what the cut score will be, adding pressure to the situation, particularly if your player is on the bubble. However, staying at or just under par all day, he shot 72, for a total of 141, never threatening to miss the cut. This was comfortably under the 143 cut score and in 27th place. It was the first tournament where he made the cut and I was on the bag. There is a great feeling in making the cut for a player at George's level. You belong, you are a player. I was on the bag of a player.
The same feeling was not there with Tony Lema or Tom Weiskopf when I caddied for them. Making the cut is not even a thought teeing off on Thursday, it's a given. For George, who got into 73 tournaments and only made 34 cuts in his five plus years on tour, making the cut was a big deal.
Making the cut was a big deal because it automatically got the player into the next tournament. No Monday qualifying, playing with the big guys at better starting times. Cashing a check.
As they say on tour, Saturday is moving day. A good round would move George up into contention, a bad one, well..... And in the tightly bunched field below him, 50 players within two shots behind, every shot backwards can mean slipping 20 spots or more.
Paired with tour veteran Steve Spray and good friend Bill Brask, it was another middling round of 72 as Bill slipped to 74, and both players lost ground. Bill played for the University of Minnesota and had one of the finest short games I have ever seen. He showed this coming back with 68 on Sunday. If somehow he could have driven it a little straighter, he might have been a great player on tour.
Sunday is always a tough day. It's payday and the heat is on from the first tee to the 18th green. In addition, it was the first tournament of the year after more than a two month lay off. The experienced, great players can handle it, as Billy Casper showed beating Hale Irwin in a playoff. While George seemed calm, it didn't happen and 74 drove him down the money list to near the bottom.
I was disappointed that he did not play better, but to play the weekend, seeing all the greats, made it a thrill.
We drove back to Phoenix on Monday reviewing the tournament, going over all the shots. I would not be on George's bag in Phoenix. He had a friend that had caddied for him in the past and would do so again this year. I would end up on Tom Weiskopf's bag. I have talked about the week with Tom in a previous post.
George played well at the Phoenix Open, on his home course, finishing 22nd, cashing a check for $710. More importantly he was in at the Bing Crosby. We flew to San Francisco Monday morning, rented a car and drove down to Monterey. We checked into a marginal hotel located on the second floor of a building with a quaint bar and grill down below. "This is where I stayed last year and it's ok," said George. The bar was small with wood paneling, full of memorabilia of more than 20 Bing Crosby Clambakes, as it was called. Through the week, music and laughter filtered up making it sometimes difficult to sleep.
Across the street was a Denny's type restaurant where we ate breakfast each morning. George was frugal, but not enough to be irritating. Never one I would call cheap, he was smart with his money and, with me along, his expense doubled. Our deal was that he paid for food, housing and travel, in exchange for my caddying.
As in past years, the tournament was held over three courses, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and Spyglass, with the cut after the third round. George played the Crosby in 1969 having a good tournament. With tennis great Jack Kramer as his amateur partner, he finished third in the pro am division. As a result, he knew the courses but not well. It was important to play a practice round on Tuesday and Wednesday, as Monday was the travel day.
That wasn't to be as rain soaked the Monterey Peninsula. In fact, it had rained for ten days. No golf Tuesday and Wednesday. We would go to the first tee Thursday morning at Pebble Beach with Bob Newhart as George's amateur partner, without having seen the course.
Bob Newhart was a perfect amateur partner, except for his golf. Bob was a very nice guy, acting just like he did on his TV shows, unassuming, friendly with no airs about him. He understood that George was trying to make a living and was respectful, never clowning around or bringing attention to himself. He attracted friends like Jack Mahoney, Sinatra's manager and Carol Burnett, who walked with us for two days. George later called him, "one of the greatest guys he had ever met." He was a nice person but even with his shots from a 15 handicap, contributed very little to the team. It's uncomfortable for amateurs to go from playing at their club to a PGA Tour pro am and Bob showed it.
Playing the first day at Pebble Beach was surrealistic. In the 60's there were few televised tournaments. Seeing Pebble Beach in person was like walking up the 18th fairway at St. Andrews for the first time. A site you had seen in pictures a 1000 times, but seeing it in person fools you into thinking it is a picture.
With all of the rain the entire tournament was played under the local rule of "lift, clean and place". This was a huge break for George. The player marks his ball, picks it up, cleans it and places it in a perfect lie. Every shot, everywhere, every golf course is moved to the advantage of the player. No muddy, grassless, or dig it out from down in the grass lies. And he took advantage of the break. Firing 71 at Pebble, it was a solid round of golf. Unfortunately, Bob did not add much and the pro amateur portion of the event would not contend.
With three courses to play, the field of professionals is much larger than the typical PGA Tour event of 144. As a result, the cut score is somewhat more competitive. So while 71 was a good score there was still much work to be done.
On Friday George moved over to Cypress Point GC, annually rated in the top 5 golf courses in the country. Without question the easiest of the three, it has been replaced by Monterey Peninsula GC in the three course rotation. Stunningly beautiful, it is still the only time I have seen this Alister MacKenzie gem. For George, it wasn't to be, finishing with 76. He would be forced to play well at a difficult Spyglass on Saturday or miss the cut.
There are many different breaks that PGA Tour players can get on starting times. Every year an early starter gets out and back in before a significant weather change blows up the scores. A player can be in the half of the field that is pulled off the course several times, while the other half of the field enjoys good weather. On Saturday playing at Spyglass, the most difficult of the three courses, George caught a break. Most of the Spyglass golf course is slightly inland surrounded by tall trees, while the other two courses are exposed to the ocean.
On a day with the winds, "gale force" George shot 68 on the protected Spyglass course. Winds that made Pebble Beach and Cypress nearly unplayable, George rocketed up the leaderboard to 18th place with what he called, "one best rounds I have played on tour". Again benefitting from "lift, clean and place," George was able to get away from having to hit shots from thin muddy areas shaded near trees, where the grass did not grow well.
The Bing Crosby is an unusual tournament. With three courses there was no common clubhouse, thus there was no sense of how you are doing. In 1970 it would be several hours until the player knew where he stood. No locker room to congregate in, no big scoreboard. It actually wasn't until the starting times were released that you knew where you stood. Not knowing the conditions at the other courses or what was happening, George went about his business just trying to do the best he could, shot after shot. It was the best I ever saw him strike the ball. Great driving, strong irons on the long, wet, difficult course. Only two players beat him that day.
We were in the hunt for a big check. It is fun being on a bag with a late starting time on Sunday. At the Crosby that meant seeing movie stars and athletes who made the amateur cut and the top pros. I carried George's bag to the practice tee, found a spot and set up. I put the bag down and turned around to see Clint Eastwood in the next spot looking around to see who was coming in. He looked straight at me with piercing green eyes. Never have I seen eyes like his. They were like lazers looking straight through me. It startled me. I thought I had done something wrong as I looked back at him. After a second or two I realized he was he was just looking at me for no good reason and I relaxed. I can see why he won all the gun fights in the spaghetti westerns, his look terrified the bad guys!
Tee times in California were early to accommodate the television requirement to meet a 4:00-6:00 pm time frame. Thus it was 9:50 Sunday morning when George's name was announced to "play away please". Playing with reigning US Open Champion Orville Moody and top money winner Miller Barber, it was a high profile pairing.
Another odd thing about the Bing Crosby Tournament was the crowds. Fans come out to see the celebrities. Most of the celebrities play through Saturday and miss the cut. In addition, the tournament sets the pairings so that the fans and TV audience see the celebrities play Pebble Beach on Saturday. Thus, the crowds are large on Saturday at Pebble Beach. As a result, the other two courses have few spectators all week. Thus playing in front of a small group of spectators we left the first tee with the frame of mind to go low.
George worked hard on Sunday in the breezy cool conditions. While it seemed he was playing well, the putts did not fall, as they often don't when the heat is on. We got to the 18th tee four over for the day, having slipped about 15 places on the leader board. Still with a good attitude, a birdie in the back of his mind, George hit a solid drive on the psychologically challenging hole.
At the time there was a large tree in the right center of the fairway. George's drive went slightly right, not blocked by the tree, but such that he needed to work around it. He looked over the shot, threw grass up that drifted to the right and selected a three wood. He was going to hit it at the sea wall and let the wind coming off the ocean move the ball back to the fairway.
He hit a solid shot and, while watching it fly, we were both pleading for the wind to move it to the right. It never did. Landing in the bunker that runs up the left side of the fairway, it took one bounce and rolled up against the sea wall. He misjudged the wind, played a risky shot under the circumstances and got burned.
After the longest time waiting for a ruling, which was to no avail, he decided to try hit the ball off the wall back into the fairway. Another high risk play but one that almost worked. Unfortunately, the ball did not carry quite far enough and it plugged under the lip of the bunker.
He then blasted it out onto the fairway. If he could get it up and down, now from about 80 yards, it would be a bogey. Not great, but not a disaster. Ah, but the golf gods did not see it that way. George hit it on the green and, being a bit disconcerted with the events of the hole, three-putted for an eight. An entire week of work blown up in one hole. Sometimes the game is very cruel.
George signed his card and we headed to the locker room and parking lot. Not a lot to be said. The next morning I figured out how much money he 'spent' because of that last fateful hole. While not a lot in today's dollars, losing $800 from the triple bogey on 18 was a lot of money on tour in 1970.
George drove me to the San Francisco airport and I headed back to school. The Crosby was one the highlights of my caddie career, such as it was, and way up the list of experiences in a A Life in Golf.
Addendum On George Boutell
"I can't do this anymore." It was George Boutell calling on April 20, 1973 from New Orleans, saying that he was done with the PGA Tour. After being one of the country's best golfers as a junior, through college and playing the tour with marginal success, he was going to take his life in a different direction. I was living with him at the time.
He was smart, graduating near the top of his high school class of 600. But George lacked the "make your hands bleed" desire to be truly great, a necessity for being successful on tour. As a amateur he was good, very good. At age 14 he qualified for the US Open, at the time the youngest person ever. In 1965, Golf Digest named him the # 1 amateur player in the country by being runner up in the Western Amateur and winning the Trans-Mississippi. In 1996 he was an All American at Arizona State.
As an amateur he could beat anybody. When he went out on tour it was a different story. "I saw Tom Kite and Lanny Watkins come out on tour and I knew I couldn't beat them. Then Tom Watson came out and I couldn't beat him."
George burned out.
The game of golf at a high level is like a rubber band. Your game goes up and down, causing tension in your life toward the game, stretching and relaxing, meaning you enjoy playing the game or not. However some people break the rubber band. Once the rubber band is broken with the game, it can never be repaired. George broke the rubber band. George play sporadically in the mid 70's and then quit completely. Since 1978, at 35, George has not played one hole of golf. But while he quit the game, he never left the game.
After the leaving the tour in 1973, he got a job at Papago Golf Course in Phoenix. He opened the course at 6:30 every morning. Reliably and dependably, he went to work every day until 1975 when the retiring golf coach at ASU called him and told him to apply for his job. He did, got the job and held it until 1986.
He worked seven days a week. "I worked hard at the job because every decision I made had an effect on a young man," George told me. Meticulous with paper work, caring and concerned about his players, he ran a great program with Billy Mayfair and Dan Forsman being his best players.
In 1986 he got the job he always wanted, to be a PGA Tour official. He was perfectly suited for the job. With tour experience, studying the rules of golf continuously and living happily out of a suitcase for weeks on end, he was just the kind of person the PGA Tour needed. He found a home among his rules official fraternity brothers on the PGA Tour.
Being a tour official is a job of predetermined routine but at changing golf tournaments. George was ideally suited. The first job of the week is to set up the course, with every course being different. When the tournament begins, the routine becomes sitting in a cart in a predetermined area of the course. When a rules question arises, suddenly the official is thrust onto the main stage. On TV with a microphone on for the decision, it is immediately high pressure. With his tour experience and knowledge of the rules, George could handle the situations.
"George is always diligent and has the respect of the players," Nick Price told me in 1994.
"I almost continuously read the 'Decisions on the Rules of Golf'," George told me. Sounds boring to many of us, but George took his job very seriously.
At his retirement in 2011, David Feherty called him "one of the best" rules officials and a "razor sharp rules machine."
No one would argue that George is a quirky guy, living alone for the last 50 years, most of them spent on the road. George spends most of his time enjoying the theatre scene in Phoenix, going to stage plays, while occasionally seeing old friends in the golf world.
George has been an unwavering friend in a Life of Golf.
