1138: Craig Stadler, 1982 Masters Champion

Music Be the right club, be the right club today. Music That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Music Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lange podcast. Solly here got an interview coming shortly with Craig Stadler, master's champion and neighbor of mine. I found out he actually came over to my house for an in person interview a couple weeks ago. We had a great time with something I never pictured would ever actually happen. Seeing, seeing Craig Stadler show up at my doorstep, but had a great time with him. Greatly appreciate his time here and some stories on the champions dinner, all kinds of stuff to get you to wet your appetite just a little bit more ahead of next week's masters. Additionally, the beginning of this episode is presented ad free from title is the overwhelming number one ball at this week's Augusta national women's amateur without any further delay. Here is Craig Stadler. So we just did a podcast recently where we dove into rules, infamous rules issues of the past. Do you know where I would wear my first question would be on that topic? Probably. What? Tell us that story. It's pretty amazing. And that was 30 29 years ago. No, 39 87. So 39 years ago, Tori Pines. And it got brought up as down to Valspar doing stuff for the tour last week for a couple days, meet and greets and whatever. And it got brought up three times that week. I just, it's amazing. It gets brought up 20 times a year. For those that maybe did this down there. Four years old. What was what is the story there? What happened? I was in San Diego. Actually on Saturday. I don't think they do anymore, but on the South course, we're playing Saturday and I drove to the right on 14 and was under one of the, you have these like 10 foot tall juniper trees or 150 markers. Neither side of the fairway and right under it. And the things that ranches girl like a foot off the ground. And I would have greens here and I'm here under this. I would have to go back about probably 120 yards beyond the trees behind me to get a clear shot. I took a drop and it was just bucky out. Not, it wasn't casual water. I had white pants on and no rain pants. So I just laid a towel down needle in the towel and should sit it from here to your bag. There had about 10 feet. Just got out from under it and finished around and played all day Sunday. Nobody said a word about anything. I got done on Sunday. I made about a 30 foot, 35 foot, but to finish second and Glenn Tate, one of our, actually from San Diego, one of our tour officials where I was from, Sammy, honey, graces, dog, take care of your car, but don't sign it. Okay. So walking down to the 10, I'm like, what the hell did I do today? One through through 18, nothing. And so he gets down there. I go with card and he was like, what happened on 14 yesterday? I shot up the tree and put towel down. Cause it was all muddy. Had white pants on. He says, well, we had a couple of collards call in in the lead up to the telecast today and thinking that it might be a penalty building of building a stance. Like really. So didn't sign the card. We know to the little modular rules trailer, I guess you'd call it. And Mark Russell's in there and Mike Shea and a couple of the guys and they had P.J. Boatwright on the, who was president of the SGA then had him on the phone at home. I'm sitting there listening to my wife sitting there with me and I'm sitting there looking at the rule book and they based it on this thing that happened to some guy in the, in the, maybe college of the desert have their own tournament down Palm Springs and they're playing Indian Wells where the one par five, I don't know if you're doing the Wales or not. I don't know by heart, but now. Yeah. Like the third one, two, three, fourth hole par five was just big rock outcropping on the right. They drove it up in there and it was here and this is about a hole this wide. So you couldn't quite see him where he said, roll up a towel stick there. Made it simple to tell. That's building a stance. And that's what they're comparing mine to. Okay. So I'm sitting there listening to these guys talk about this. I'm like, this is. And I'll give the rule book and I said, P.J. It's great. Yes. I said, you got a rule book in front of you. I assume I do. It's going to look at page 12, you know, rule one, four dash two, pi squared, whatever they are. They got a billion of them. He says, I have it right here. I said, can you read that to me? He said, absolutely. This is the definition of taking a stance is placing one's two feet firmly on the ground. Okay. So how are you penalizing me for building a stance when in reality I did not take a stance because your feet were in the air. Yeah. He says, well, in this case, your knees take the place of your feet. I said, where the hell does he say that? It doesn't. It's just our interpretation. I said, well, your interpretation sucks. And on and on and on. So long story short, they disqualified me. Oh, because I signed in the correct card on Saturday. I should have put six instead of four. And they knew this before we teed off. They did know about it. Let me let me do it Sunday before the telecast. You know, I was probably on five or six or seven and just let me play all day. So yeah, it was, uh, my wife wasn't happy. She walked and slammed the modular door and it came flying off the inches. That's pretty good. But then you came back to chop that tree down. Is that right? Yeah. There was about a 20 foot tree actually hiring that bearded ten. But, uh, no, they had it trimmed up to where just, I just cut its life line off. But we were laughing at that picture because you're not wearing any eye. No glasses, no gloves, no nothing. Somebody actually sent that. I said, I picture that like three months ago, like not even any, any goggles or eyeglasses or anything. No. We had a hoot relive that one. So it's good to get the actual actual story. So we're recording this here a couple of weeks ahead of the masters. What does the masters mean to you now? We're going to go back in time and talk about winning it now. Did you have any idea when you did win it that it would have a long lasting impact on, on the, on your life or does it still have a major? Yeah, it was the assumption, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, any major has, has a part of that in all of them, but certainly the, you know, it's weird because it's the only one that everywhere you are, you get a deuces of masters champion. And not everybody gets introduced as a PGA champion or USJ, US Open champion or British Open champion, but the masters is every time, which is kind of wild. I don't understand why, but, but it's, it's kind of fun. I think it has something to do with the, the eternal nature of you're invited. You could play it forever, you know, and there's just a, they celebrate the history in such a way so that what is, I'm just curious what it's like now. You go back, you stopped playing in 2014, masters. What, what is, what is the, is it like a no absolute no brainer? Like do you look forward to that week every single year still? I do. Yeah. What's, what's the week like now for you when you go, do you go watch golf or, you know, we go up, we live up, we leave Saturday morning and go out and, and maybe catch the tail end of the women's thing for a couple of holes and then watch the kids on Sunday. And, and then I usually bring, I try to bring a couple or, or just a couple of friends that have never been and stayed at the house for three, four days and then go. No, I just kind of got Tuesday night, got Monday night, final four, you got Tuesday night past champions, you got Wednesday night, Chairman's cocktail party under the oak tree. And then I usually, I usually do a, do a dinner on Friday night somewhere, which I'm doing with John McGinnis this year. So somewhere. If you look at that photo, just to your left there, I was fortunate enough to, to win the media lottery in 2024. And they, you know, get to play the Monday after the Masters and I get to, I go to the lot, you begin to use the champions locker room for that. Sure enough. I was assigned your locker. You shared with Craig Wood as well. Is that right? Yeah. I got to use your locker. So when you get there is your green jacket in your locker waiting for you there. And you had straight there and put it right on. And what's that? Lately it's, it's been a little trying because I've been going up and down and up and down weight-wise. And they had, usually have two in there this year. They had one and I put it on. I got about, I mean, it looked like a straight jacket. I got halfway on and I said, no, let's, let's like 48 regular or something. I said, no, no, no, no. I'm not, I'm not a 58. I don't weigh 450 pounds. I weigh 260, but I don't weigh 450. He said, no, sir, that's your jacket. No, you put it on. This skinny little guy, fit him perfect. And then so they called the club. JJ came up, the pro came up to the locker room with another jacket. And he says, this was your locker? She says, that must be your original one from 82, which is like a 42 regular. Like I put it on like this, like this, you know, can't move. So that's, that's happened three or four times in the past like six, seven years. They got to find a new one or a different one for the night. Well, it's, it's funny. I, I was reading so much about 1982 and everything after that. And a lot of the, I guess, what was this like for you? Because a lot of the writing immediately after you win the masters is about weight and they're asking you about weight, you know, in the press conference afterward, but you wait or temper one or the other. Wait and temper. All right. But I mean, the writing is, is, is shocking by today's standards and a lot of that stuff. But at the same time, you had also said you had gotten down to maybe 190 at a certain point and you didn't like putting at a lighter weight. Is that maybe you don't remember that, but your line, I think had something to do with maybe you liked just having the gut locked you in or something like that was, was your line. 1979, I guess I went from like 230 to 185 or something and just, just wasn't, I don't know about putting, but it just wasn't very comfortable. What, when going back to 1982, and I know you've told the story a million times about, about that week and but it can't be, it can't be a bad thing to relive the, the telling the story about that. Or do you ever get tired of telling those stories? About what? About 1982, just the, the weekend that was and do you ever go back when they put all the, the, the final rounds on YouTube several years ago, do you ever go back and watch it now? I watch it when I go to the club once a while. Okay. I watch it. So if you say the night they have every, I don't know how many years they have on their TV, but and they had TV from like the back nine, which in 82, they only televised the last four holes. 82, I think they, well, whatever they had online now, you come into the picture and nine fairway, they have nothing, nothing earlier than the ninth hole, but maybe that's different. I think, but television in the early 80s, I think we're still doing just 1617 18 every week, everywhere I thought, maybe not. But yeah, I have no idea what I did the front nine shot 33. It was easy. It was easy. Did. Yep. I don't remember a single shot there. And I remember every shot I hit on the back. What? So, so take us to that back nine because I watched it. You know, I knew the story of, you know, that you shot a back nine 40 to go into a playoff with Dan pole, but I went back to watch and I was expecting to see where we're drives. I was expecting to see you all over the map. You were striping the driver. I had two good shots on 10, two good shots on 11. I made pars there, then 12. I just caught a little too solid. I put the back bunker buried at the back bunker, which you're dead to that left pin. So I came out right and just to make sure I didn't have water made bogey there and then 13 another good drive. One iron just to the right front and right along the edge and then down into the creek, but it stayed out of the creek by a little bit of water, but not much. They par there and then 14. I had two good shots, like 30 feet behind the hole and three put it by the first one about four feet by 15. He had a good drive. Good three would just into the back right bunker to the back right pin came out about four feet and 350 60 that one. I thought I know all this. I just see a million times. It's like, you remember more from watching on TV than you do the actual probably I thought I was a little closer on 18 after my first. But 16, I had a really nice six iron pin was back middle top right and just trickled it into the bunker. We were dead. Actually, I had probably the best shot I hit all week from that bunker. I carried about that far out of the bunker. It just was trickling down towards the hole and unfortunately caught the edge and spun it. And that's what made it go down the hill or would have stayed out like yay, but good to put there. And then 17 I drove that monstrous divot in the middle of the fairway. Half the ball disappears. I've never seen one that and almost made two. I almost hold it. It was front right over the bunker. I bounced it up about the FAR show a hole and spun back off the green and just a little link chip for par there. Hit two good shots driver five iron on 18 about 35 40 feet right of the hole just on top. And I remember I used to tell the story until I watched it. I remembered, you know, leaving it like four feet short. I left it like six feet short or seven. It might be a you after what you said about a fee. Yeah, it was it could be. But it was right edge putt and I just put it right on the right edge and just melted it over the hole. I'm just like, oh, my God, what have you done? Because you, you know, around the back, you're cruising this tournament, you're obviously striping the ball and around you said afterward that you you felt like you had it. Your picture and putting the jacket on around that around a man corner and things like that. When did you snap into and make you feel like maybe this still has a golf tournament? I didn't. You round a man called your quotes. You know, you had you had quoted in there and saying that your focus drifted a little bit around the middle of the round because you had such a big lead and you were your picture and put in the jacket on. I don't know about that. I just, you know, I, I, the greens were not good that year. This is the first year back to vent grass. They were really spiked up and they were really fast. And first, even Thursday, I put it pretty well. I put it well the first three days and then three, three putts on the back nine, which killed me. But, you know, I just cooked a little too much on 12. I had a, what I thought was within a foot or two feet of having Eagle putt on 13 with a one iron good shot on 14. This is eight inches into the background 15 four inches into the background 16 great shot on 17 and a good five iron 18. I shot 40. And I shot 40 the front nine on Thursday. So 80 for bookends. It was okay. It was okay in between, but no, I, I said it's probably the best 40. I've got ball striking 40 I've ever had, but I shouldn't have three putt 14. That was, that was a mistake. But, you know, I shot, I shot 40 the back and Dan Paul shot 30 the back. I think he, I think he, he shot 67, 67 on the weekend to get into that, that playoff. But what, so what happened, you know, you got, you had a six shot lead, it gets down to four, you make the four bogies in the back nine and you're, you're, it's a quick turnaround to get into that playoff. What did you do between finishing out on your 72nd hole and no one you still got a chance to find the card? Then they asked me if I wanted to hit balls or go play like, let's go. Walked up to 10 and which is not my forte hitting it right to left and he got up and just nice little draw down the hill, which he does and I just followed him right down. I hit first, it was back left. I hit first about at six iron, about 25, 30 feet short and he found his over on the right fringe, which is not a good spot. And he left at about, about six, seven feet, maybe short. I rolled mine up like that and jiggled it in and he tried to take some break out of it and, and I just hit a little too firm. And if you remember back in the early 80s, the scoreboard was like left to the green about 25 yards. His putt was under, went under the scoreboard, like 20 yards off the green. His putt. What do you mean? His par putt. He missed it. He missed it a little bit too much and take some break out of it. What had just kept going, but he pulled it right over the left edge. He kept going all the way down the hill under the scoreboard. Oh my gosh. I got no set. Anyway, it was, I was sitting on my bag in the back of the green and it was kind of, you know, you kind of felt as good for yourself. She did bad for him. Actually, just kind of one of those moments, but it didn't last long though. What was that? What was that night like? It didn't last too long. We had to get up and get on the airplane at 6 30 the following morning. So go to San Diego for the term champions. Oh wow. So it wasn't a long night, but it was long enough. You have dinner with the club with the members and whatever. And it was kind of stuffy a little bit. It's not anymore. It used to be. It's a great membership now, but my wife was pregnant and she was not feeling good. So they escort her out through the kitchen out of the dinner. Nice. What was the rationale behind that? I have no idea. Huh. No idea. It couldn't have the champion's wife feeling bad or something, but I really. I had my chairman was kind of weird. I hurt hard and I didn't get along with him real well, but what was the basis of you guys not getting along real well? I don't know. He just kind of was kind of a hard ass little bit, but you know, nice enough. But after that, we've had nothing a great chairman after that. And he wasn't bad by any means. He decided to get along too well. What, what is the, what's the champion's dinner vibe like these days? There's been a lot of conflict in the world of golf. Some of that conflict between masters champions has, has the vibe shifted at all in that room in recent years? Not really. It's just, it's a fun cocktail party and fun dinner. You know, a couple of years ago when the live guys came, there was no issue at all. Everybody knows everybody. So, you know, was Phil really dead silent in the, in the first champions dinner after the live one that pretty much he got into it one year with, with VJ about something during, not during the dinner, but during the locker room. I don't know what it was, but I don't know. Who do you find yourself seated with at the champions dinner? You know, if you go back and look at all the pictures, everybody sits in the same place. Every year, almost every year. No, the science seats. I'm on the window side and the deck side, I guess. And typically it's like Tommy Aaron, then Floyd, then Nicholas, then Tiger, then me, then Amira. Why not? Let's want them wins. They're front, but I did look at the other side and Langer and Mice are all there together and the Spaniards are all together and I don't know. It's weird. Do you find it at all weird? I do. I'm a part of this of how much the general public like pays attention to and cares about this dinner. It's one of the hardest tickets to earn anywhere in golf and one of the greatest honors in golf, but you know, it becomes old hat for you guys, you know, as many times as you've probably done it, but I'm just curious if you had any perspective on that. No, it's special for sure. There's no doubt about it. I just, I love turning down Magnolia Lane every year, every day. You know, it's just wonderful place. As I said, the membership is just great. I've got a lot of friends that are members now. And different go up there and play much outside. I went and had lunch there a couple of weeks ago with my buddy Roy Simpkins and his son. They're both members. I haven't seen them a while. So I was in Atlanta and just set it coming back. I just ran into a car and drove up there and then drove home. When was the last time you played it? Have you played it since you last played the Masters and yeah, I played it two or three times. I haven't played now in eight years though. So what is it? Any you haven't touched a club in eight years? Just health reasons or just done with back and then a new hip and now my legs. I screwed up my TFL ligament or whatever it is here from my leg. That's been two years down the side any better. So after my hip, but yeah, I could, I've, I've gone out and taken my, my new wife as of last year, taking her out there and trying to teach her chip and putt and whatever in the back of the range at DPC. So that's fun. Do you miss golf? Not really. No. Yeah. You know, I'd, I'd still get enough of it. I still do a couple of XM, four XM shows a month and whatever else. So, uh, still involved in the best three days at Valspar last year went out to do some stuff, the BMW and Silverado. So yeah, still getting around. What is retirement like for you? How do you, how do you, how do you spend most of your time? I don't know. Doing a lot of traveling have been, uh, not in two years ago. It's like, I got everything done. I got, I got my back done, worked on. I got my hip replaced. I got new eyeballs. Uh, I got pneumonia. I got shingles in two different places at the same time. I had a lesion on my kidney that was benign cyst. I had calcification by all the arteries from my heart, which when I did the PET nuclear stress test, they found nothing anywhere. And that was all in a period of like 11 months. So I got it all done. But, uh, now I've been traveling a little bit because that's a weird thing about golf. I mean, all this has been all over the world, but we never saw anything. You know, you go to Europe or where Japan or where you get there and your regiment, you do your, get there Monday and do your Tuesday through Sunday and fly home. So I've taken a couple of cruises to Europe and gone to New Zealand and Bali and Bali, which I won't again, but that was kind of a mistake. Big mistake, like 30 hour flights. But no, a little bit of that. And I just work around the house a lot. I was curious about that for, for people that, you know, spend their life professionally traveling. Uh, you know, do you want to get out and see the world after, you know, after you're done with playing career? I tried well, especially living here. Yeah. Cause I tried to get out of here middle of June into June, come back and first walked over something. I really enjoyed rewatching the 82 masters getting ready for this. And they had some really cool camera angles there. And the thing that just, one of the, I mean, this is obvious, but the things that stuck out were just the golf shots that were required then are very different than now. I mean, they had a high camera angle of your shot on 18. I mean, you just carved this driver with a huge fade on that one. And then you, they watch you hit it off, you know, off 10 and you're whipping this draw around right to left. They were questioning whether you could, you know, they were, you know, you got to 10 team regulation and they said, you know, this is kind of a surprise. He's more of a left to right player. And then you just whip one around right to left. When you watch golf, do you watch much golf today? One is, is a question. Yeah, I, yeah, most of the time I do because I've got a Tuesday show and then a Saturday afternoon show. So do I got a client know what's going on a little bit. I long, I guess a little bit for the era of watching shots like that where it just felt like you needed to shape the ball and the technology was so different. I'm one, I mean, some of this stuff is, it's, it's obvious when you, when you turn on a TV and see how different it is, but I'm wondering how you could kind of describe the skills that were required more in your era versus what it's like today and kind of what's, what's been lost. Well, I guess the difference is pretty much everybody worked the ball back then. I mean, you didn't have these clubs that allow you to hit it straight. And hitting a straight T-ball was hard to see in the world back then. It's pretty simple now for these guys, but, um, yeah, I think the imagination we had around the golf course was a little bit different than they do now. But, you know, it's the same thing. They're just better. They're better at everything. And, you know, they have their entourage and eight or 10 that go with them every week as you've seen the courses during TPC with Rory. Yeah, I, I've been the golf tournament like team is what does it. And, uh, yeah, we had a team. We had my wife and catty. And that was my group, but then most of them. And most of them, but, uh, it's certainly a way, way different game now with, especially with equipment and the shape. Let's talk a little bit about the nest. The nest is our membership program. This is our unique way to provide some exclusive content, value and avenues for connection to our biggest followers and supporters. A quick rundown of what the nest membership gets you. It gets you to exclusive podcasts per month. Sometimes these are golf related, sometimes non golf, but we're really working to make golf. We're going to take these a larger window into what we're up to here at no laying up. We always post these links, uh, to these podcasts in the refuge, our message board. 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So if you haven't now might be the time to join the nest, go to no laying up.com slash join to learn more again. No laying up.com slash join. We greatly appreciate your support. Back to Craig Stadler. A lot of the conversation can be, all right, well, the athletes are different now and the technology in terms of track men and launch monitors and all that stuff. The data we now have about strokes gain. If you went back into the 80s with the equipment you're using, the ball you're using, the clubs you're using, but you had information like launch monitor stuff or maybe better. What did it have changed a lot? You know, what would guys I'm sure some things would have changed probably, but I have no idea what I've never been privy to it even now. Even when I was still playing in the teens, 10 years ago, I've never used track man. Never been on it. You know, everything's everything's there for these guys now. I mean, everything you ever needed. I mean, we went into the early 80s and still we're hitting tag bike balls. At some events, Pensacola was one on the range. Yeah, you could get your caddy out there and you hit balls soon. You're out there with helmets. Yeah, it was it's why we just carry a shag bag with 100 balls in it. But, uh, and that was a little trying because, you know, he had to, had to get it out there and there was a while one of them gets hit by somebody. But, uh, remember doing that? Well, not, not with, not with caddies, but the Yosopen calling it Canoe Brook up in New Jersey. And the last time we did that was like, never, uh, Beth Page was the first time. Oh, five, maybe? Oh, two US open page. And you're still hitting yellow stripe balls warming up for your qualifier. 36 qualifier and that's like 10 years old. Like really? But anyway, what I mean, some of the stuff is obvious. The food, I'm sure that the, you know, the accommodations and everything, but what, what, what, what's something about playing in your era that today's, today's guys would not even begin to comprehend the exception, the exception criteria. Hotel standing at TSA line for starters, low subred houses and fly private. So, you know, I don't, I don't know any of them that drive tournament to tournament. What kind of vehicle were you in and how did that work? The first one I first drove back to Milwaukee is my first event. Cause I went through the, the June tour school. They had two a year back then and had a hatchback Camaro that took Scott Simpson's brother with me and he caddied for me for a little while. But it wasn't much fun. I went, I went, uh, so I started like Milwaukee was like the last week in June or first week in July and, and I finally got in Hartford as an alternate. I never shot hired at 67 on Mondays and it was like five weeks later. I finally got in. I made the cut in Hartford. No, it's probably 10 weeks later. I got in Milwaukee and then miss the cut. Then I got in Hartford made the cut and then made the cut it in Cincinnati, Ohio, the where that used to be Kings Island. I think Kings Island made the cut there and then I made the cut in Silverado. What year would that have been 79? That was at 76. If you made the cut you got in the next week's event. That's played for your life. I made the cut at Silverado the end of the year. Last tournament and Ohio Kings Island open that would have been in September 19th. I racked up $2,150 or something for the summer. What did you spend? Probably 12,000. Was there, was there questions to whether that pro golf was, Oh yeah, I mean it worked out. It gave me whole, gave me like November, December to think about it. It's really what I want to do. Or what am I doing wrong or whatever. And then the first week in 77 was Pebble Beach and I finished tied for fourth. And I had to go June to June. I had to make 12,500 to keep trying to play Mondays. And exempt was, exemption was top 60 then I think. And finished fourth, tied for fourth at Pebble or fourth and made 6400. So I've got 80, 80, 8,500 now. If I can't make 4,000 bucks between now and June, I'm not going to do this anymore. And I had a good West Coast and you know, it was exempt that year. So I only had to qualify for a year basically. And the rest was just a bit of history I guess. Were you, before you got out there, were you like well versed in the tour? Did you have guys on tour that you especially looked up to? Like the big names was it, you know, when you're sharing a range with them, what's that like in your early? Wonderful. All the guys are good. There were a couple of them that, you know, maybe on not even one hand that I wouldn't want to go have dinner with, but all in all, it was a great, great bunch of guys. Did you guys go out? Like, did you guys do stuff during tournament week? Now it's, you know, the guys who get their Norma tech boots on and they're in recovery and tracking their sleep and everything, but was the tour a little bit more fun We had probably six of us that pretty much quasi-travel together when we played a little bit. Pat McGowan and Gary Koch and Woody Blackburn, just very good friends. But we all stayed in the same hotel most of the time and whatever. Beaten up for dinner, having a few drinks. Mainly the places we'd back then we just nobody had any money. So we were going to Morris's and Morrison's and Piccadilly buffets and whatever. And we had dinner there probably four or five nights a week in places where they're there. So a little different. When you, you got going to three forks very often, but of that way, or capital girl. When back to your amateur days though, so you want, when you won the U.S. amateur that got you a two year exemption to the masters. Who did you end up paired with your, your very first masters on the Thursday? First day I played with Jack and what was that like? That was pretty surreal actually. I'm finally for the fourth time hitting balls that morning. We teed off like 230. Finally hit balls for the final time. One of the putting green putted and came on the back of the T and the umbrella table there. The back corner of the T, he was standing there talking to forget who the starter was then. But anyway, I walked in through the crowd onto the T and like, all right, here we go. Walked over to the table and just as I got there, he turned around and look at right at me. Like, holy crap. This guy knows who I am. I'm just a little snot nose kid from California. I was, you know, we, but I guess he was, uh, he watched, uh, I don't know if he played. I think he did, but he watched the, uh, some of the, uh, final round of the LA open in 73. Uh, when I was like a junior, just a junior, I think in college and I think I tied for third. And so he says, I remember watching you in river air. Damn good player. Like, wow. So as is, um, every year, the masters, if you pass champions in the group, they tee out first on one. And we continued that him first, me second for 18 straight holes. Never cut him a hole. Not out of kindness. Not out of deferring the honor. Not once, but it's funny because I, I shot, I think I shot, I don't want to shot. 77, I think 79, maybe something like that. But next day on Friday, got paired with Tommy Aaron, shot 71, miss the cut by a shot. Second year I got paired with Palmer the first day and shot 77 or six or he's jack shot 67 Arnold shot 68. And the second date, I get paired with Tommy Aaron again, shoot 71 again, miss the cut by one, which is pretty pitiful. Cause you know, you, they cut to 44 and ties back then. There's only 52 or four in the field. So like eight of you are going home. What you mentioned the things that people wrote back then, uh, it was either one of the other one of them being temper. Why, why, I guess was it well documented for those that didn't grow up in that era that you, uh, you had a temper was an on course thing was kind of take us to the picture. How did that evolve over your career? Pretty much. I don't know. Just pissed all the time. Do you have, uh, I was my worst, my worst is when I three put it, I just, I couldn't have that very well, but, uh, you know, I was my own worst enemy in the late seventies, no doubt. And, uh, just, you know, finally somebody, uh, 83 before the masters the week of, but before I like Tuesday or something, I was in the, in the media room and some of the first question was about my temper about something. And, um, who was the beat writer for, for the Ellie times forever did the whole side page? Um, I just said this interview recently. Is it Jeff somebody? No, no, no. Anyway, he wrote an article on Tuesday about the upcoming masters and, and, uh, also Monday the year after the day after I won. But it talked about overweight temper, yada, yada, yada, and about the fifth paragraph down was, oh yeah, he's also pretty good. Probably won the masters yesterday. So it took this whole lead off to get to that. Um, I almost had it. I just watched an interview you did. Did you have the day at the 80s LA times sportswriter? Oh, I can get newspaper. And you know who it is. So he's a common name. But anyway, so he was in the press room on that Tuesday, the next year. The first thing, first question he asked me, I said, you know what? I don't understand why you guys get so much into me getting pissed off in the golf course. It's my issue, not yours. And, uh, I think that was finally the first time that I just realized that, you know, you got to, you got to work this out. This is, this is not good. So in the end, he probably was one that helped me just get pretty much more, way more level headed on the golf course. Cause I'd, I'd three put a hole in the seventies, late seventies. I'd take that boogie master goals. I was so upset. LA time. Sorry. I'm going to try and find this cause I know it's going to bother you. Everybody's in their cars. Probably, uh, probably screaming. LA times sportswriters. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. Probably screaming LA time sportswriter early eighties. I'm looking at, I have the LA times. I can't, I'll get it. We'll get it. We'll get it for you. Cause I, I, I had heard the, I guess I'd read the story. What happened in 1975 British amateur? Do you remember what happened there? The caddy. That was in the, um, this was a British. Yeah. Yeah. He fired me in the middle of a round. I read that you had thrown your club. Throwing your club at the bag and the, and the caddy was fed up and walked off. These real deep set eye sockets and just look like a, yeah. Looked like not a very good guy. And, uh, about the 13th hole, he's his off head in FGU, put the bag down and now he's waiting for him when I finished some guy, some doc worker was in the crowd. Oh, okay. For you. Okay. He just came running out. So I've walked, we got done and walk in. It was a burkdale. Turn up burkdale, a Hoylake and, uh, walked down and he's standing over by the door. Big giant guy. He could have broken in half in a heartbeat. And I walked right by the door to the side of him. He yelled at me. I came over. He says, yeah, I'm sorry. I did that. Which you need to pay me something. Yeah, I'll pay you. I'm no problem with that. And what, and then he just came nice as kind of world all of a sudden. He's walked up before he got the money. Yeah. Uh, so, I guess, so when around 83 is when you'd say that you, you started to work, you know, get, get things more under control. Pretty much. And were you, did you carry? I still wore everything in my sleeve. Yeah. That's part of it. That's why I think you're part of, like, why you're a popular player. I think, did you feel like you had a lot of popularity doing your playing career? Yeah. Did the nickname help? Probably. I think it probably, it probably did. I'll tell you a quick story. We, uh, my mom was in town. We were, we were dining here at 1810, a little Mexican place around the corner. And, uh, and I'm sitting there and, and you walked by and I said to her, it's like, you're not going to believe this, but that, that guy won the masters. And, and she was, I was like, who's that? That's Craig Stadler. She's like, Craig Stadler, why do I know that name? I was like, the walrus. And she's like, oh my gosh, the walrus. She knew you from that. But what was the first time you were referred to it as the walrus? Was that something you embraced in your, in your career? I really had no choice in the matter. I guess it happened to the Walker cup and 75 Jerry paid, put that one on me. It stuck, obviously. Head cut you, you know, you, you did it. You had head covers and embraced the logo for it. But, uh, uh, yeah, did you, did, uh, you know, did, did, did players call you that as well? Or what was that like? Yeah, a few of them did all the time. Not many, but. What, what, what was the champions tour like? You know, you, you come out, were you, were you, uh, jumping at the bit to get out on the champions tour? I think to want it 2003 or so you would have, you would have turned 50. It probably, uh, I amazed what happened, but I won the, well, I, the, I guess the Gus was 10 years to the world series day to give me 10 years for all the series at two, gave me 10 years to the end of 02 and I turned 50 in June of 03. So I used my top 50 to be exempt in 03 and I played, uh, played every, every West coast event and then I played Bay Hill. Uh, I wasn't in the players. I played Bay Hill and Honda and Hilton had the gust and Hilton and Hilton had the mystery single cut. I think I shot 42 or three of the first nine at Hilton. And, uh, with true cause my back was sore, which it wasn't. I just was sick of playing crappy golf and I basically just quit until June and, uh, you know, just practice and went to start working. I was working with Dick Harmon then a little bit, uh, as well, but, um, you know, went down and worked with him a couple of days here and there and just, uh, waited until I turned 50 and I just kind of just started building up this thought process that, you know, I'm playing horrible, like the worst I've ever played and consistently bad, but you know, I, I beat these guys a lot when I was younger and now I'm going to see these guys haven't seen in five, six, seven years and, oh, maybe things will be different. And I, my, my cat, he was sick the first day at Aronomic, which is my first event, the senior PGA. So I took my cousin back and he catty for me and it was raining. It's about off the first morning. He and outfit. I did time was, uh, 10, 10 and went and hit balls, came up and putting green. It's right above the first T like 40 feet, but everybody's got umbrellas up and whatever and it's like 10, oh five and, and, um, this guy, what, just walking off the T in front of us and I've been on the putting green for about 10 minutes and the marshal was down there watching me putt. The last guy hit, he said, Mr. Stadler, your, your group just teed off. What? And time was 10, not 10, 10. I misread it. Like, why don't you tell me that three minutes ago, dude? So I started off with two shots and, uh, you know, here we go again and I ended up finishing the fifth, oh man, that week somehow. And then, um, you know, three weeks later, I win the Ford players in Detroit and then the next week I went to BC open. So then just, you cleaned up there for a while. I think eight wins between 2003 and 2005. Yeah. That first half year and a half was just amazing. You know, I made way more money than I ever made on tour. Really? The money was that good on the champions tour in the early 2000s? Well, it just wasn't the day when I was playing, you know, I made 54,000. One of the masters. Yeah. And 72 seems a long time ago. 82 doesn't seem that long ago for some reason. But yeah, I think that that first that year and a half, I think I made trees $5 million probably one half anyway. Wow. That, uh, yeah. It's, wow, I've been doing a lot of research on the nineties too and about how like the money was close on champions or senior tour at the time and PJ tour because that was Nicholas Trevino all of them in nineties. The money was close. I mean, it was maybe 75% of what the PJ tour was playing for at that point. I think, uh, the first one was the first tournament that played for a million dollars. I think in 90, 91, it was Vegas, maybe or something. But yeah, so it took their very time and we were making 16,000 for first one. It came out. I got to ask you about this. It says in, in 1984, United Airlines held a promotion for its frequent flyer members. You could fly any, any member who flew the airline to all 50 states in the U S in a 50 day period would receive free first class flights for a year and you were one of 78 people that completed the challenge. Is that true? We did a, uh, uh, Smiley Kaufman, Steve Sands, myself and Scott Hoke last Wednesday, a dinner. We sat up on bar schools and we did a Q and A with all of us and Steve Sands asked me the exact same thing. Like I've never heard of that before. It's not true. Ages and ages. Yes, it is true. Okay. Yeah, except, uh, you know, you got to, you have to send in all your receipts and it's on your Wikipedia page now is probably where he got that's where I got it. So yeah, he has sent in all your receipts by a certain day and I had them all and send them all in and I just, I just, I think it was, uh, 50 states in 50 days, I think that's what it said. Yeah. And it was like from October 15th to December 1st and we weren't playing anywhere. So I just, I was living in Reno at the time. I just, if I fall asleep, I'll be back and I just got him playing and what places? What did you do? I just fly for three days, come back, mess around. I mean, the weird one, I flew from, from Reno to Vegas to Portland to Seattle to Anchorage, got off the plane on Anchorage, got right back on it and flew back to San Francisco or go to Chicago, another plane and then went, uh, did something pop, pop, pop, pop and back to back to Reno. So I was gone like three days and I think I hit 13, 14 states. Like this, this just shouldn't be this easy and it was. And I got a thing in the mail after I sent him all in. I got a thing in the mail from a United that said, congratulations. You've earned a round trip coach ticket for a year. It said first class flight. It wasn't first class. And I just like, uh, no. So they had some kind of number on their calls and we talked to somebody and said, no, you missed, uh, you missed Portland, Maine. I said, no. He says, we have two. Oh my God, one's Portland, Maine, one's Portland, Oregon. They're right next to each other. He said, okay, I'll take care of this. I'm like, what the hell is this? All I work in coach, I don't even want to fight coach period. Well, how much did you spend on all these flights? Was it worth the upgrade? Go anywhere, anywhere in the world. But the next year, did you fly just in first class? Did you go a bunch of different places? Was it worth it? All that? Well, I had to pay for my life first class when she went. So, but it was actually, it was quite fun. I said really weird routes. One of them was United flu from Charleston to Jacksonville. Really? Back then. Yeah. So strange, but yeah, it was fun. What, uh, do you? How much do people bring up 10 cup when it comes to your scene? Yeah, not very often. No. What was filming that like? How long was that a one day shoot? You're seeing? No, we were there probably three days. Oh, really? I guess. What was the buzz like at that time about that movie? There weren't a lot of golf movies. No, nobody, nobody really knew, but it got a really nice opening. They did an opening in a theater at Louisville, the Tuesday night of the PGA at the Bajala. Costner and cheese, they were all there. So it was, it was nice. It was fun. But, uh, honestly, fairly boring half the time. It takes so long in between shots, move cameras around, whatever else, and just got tired of doing nothing, but it was fun. Stand around and wait on a lot of things. Yeah. Hurry up and wait is what they say. Cheech and cheech was amazing. And, uh, you know, all we, all we heard is I didn't know any of these guys. Costner was, he was fine. He just went back to his trailer every time. Cheech went and practiced at balls. Really? He just, he never taken up golf and he just got hooked. And all, all we heard, uh, before we went out there was what a, what a not great guy Don Johnson was. And he was just salt to the earth. He was so nice. Really? Yeah. He played the role of the not great guy in the movie really well, but, uh, the cheech marron was just, oh man, he was a fun guy, great guy to be around. That was such a, uh, such a unique, unique time in, uh, in movies, especially for sports movies and golf and happy Gilmore around that time. And do you, I guess before the champion's dinner back to that, do you, do you pour over the menu before when it comes out? Are you anxious looking for the menu or do you, do you always eat what's served or do you, you can also order off a separate menu during the dinner? I don't think that was separate. But anymore, that's frowned upon. Yeah. But no, they've all been good. Yeah. They're all the black cod that the Ducky served. Yeah. God, it's so good. I think everybody in the room went back for another piece. Really? Yeah. This, this will be, this will be a, this will be a good dinner. It's going to be an amazing wine night. Yeah. That's what people are most. That's pretty much what I served. I served a poolini Montrache and I think a 66 law feet in 83, but I didn't do it. I didn't go to the Chicago, the camera out. Did you, did they hit you? Did you get hit with the bill for the dinner? Is that true? You get the wine bill. You get the wine bill. Okay. And you knew that going in. Yeah. Okay. But you know, the law feet in 83 was 180 bucks. I mean, it wasn't 10,000 like it is now. Right. But when the Montrache was 18, 20 bucks or something and you pay there, you pay their wholesale prices, you don't pay the menu prices, which back then, you know, that was still when they, you were buying, they were buying camis for $40 and selling it for 44. They put 10, they put big 10% off the line. They paid for it. And then all of a sudden, now you get a bottle of seven eighths, seven eight cab. That's a $210 of the winery. It's 500 and the dining room. So they're, they're making a money making machine everywhere now, not just the golf course. Do you stay at Augusta throughout the entire tournament week? Are you there all the way through Sunday? What was, what was last Sunday? You come back Sunday. I come back Sunday morning, watch it on TV. Okay. So you weren't there for the conclusion with that, with worried, but all that was like I was, I was curious. I'm sure that would have been, do many champions stick around for all the way through Sunday or You usually see, you know, the guys that are friends, you know, it was good. He goes all almost back to the scoring trailer and, and, um, the, oh, who's got the one with the beard Irishman? Um, God player. Yeah. He's Roy's best friend. Oh, Shane, Larry, yeah. Yeah. He was there and then I, if it Patrick's there, all the Europeans are there, you're actually letting him. So it's just what's circular. And they're usually hanging around waiting for the winner. If he gets there. Yeah. Yeah. Do you, uh, when was, when's it time? How did you evaluate when it was going to be time to not play in the masters any longer? Kind of, uh, you know, 2014 was your last time. What, uh, did you know long in advance that was going to be your last time and what was it like kind of giving it up? Nope. I just charted in the kind of like 2007, eight, nine, I got tired of Barbie and like 75 or six. And, uh, it's funny because once or twice a year I'd see, I see Kevin somewhere and we'd start talking about something. I said, you know what? I had to win and about three years later I said, you just need to win. He's, why do you keep telling me that? Because when you win, you're going to be in a gust. This could be your first. This could be my last. So you finally won Phoenix in 14 and, and that was his first and my last. So that you, you were waiting specifically. I was going to play until he won. Really? Or if he never did, I, I'm not going to play that late. But you know, I could have played till probably till 2020 or so. Maybe if I wanted to. Well, I could play now if I want. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. And he just, he had an amazing first year there. He was, he was lying second to fourth all Sunday and bogeyed 17, 18 to finish dates, I think or something. Gosh, I don't think I realized that. Very impressive. I loved watching it. And you guys played a practice round together that year. Is that right? What was, what was it like shared Augusta with your son? It was fine. It was great. Loved it. Played bar three together and you know, everything. So, and I walked, I walked. They didn't Paris. I wish they had a Paris like late. Apart. So you could go. They put, they put me like 30 minutes behind him. So, you know, I'm not aware of the new range. I can watch over and get to watch him tee off in the first tee and then come back and hit balls and go back again. So it's kind of not a great moment. I would love to see him tee off in this first one, but, but now I walked the whole weekend and watched the reshot and was proud papa. That's awesome. Do you have any insight or predictions as to what might happen in the, in the coming masters? Any picks? No, somebody to win. You do, do you root for a specific champion based on what might be served the next year? You know, no, no, no. We've had just a ton of great dinners. I mean, Ron's was good. The Imelmans was really good. Cabrera brought a whole sod from Argentina and whatever. And yeah, it's good stuff. What's last question for you? What's something about being a masters champion that maybe the general public doesn't know or wouldn't think about? Like what's a, what's a perk in some way or some way that it has affected your life or something you get to do that we wouldn't know? No, there's not, there's, I mean, there's not many perks. There's I'm a member with an asterisk. I can't, I can't take people. If I take two guys, we turn into three guests. Yep. I get one of my member buddies to host us. But you know, the cool things I can go up there anytime I want. And I'd, I'd, when I went up there a month ago or three weeks ago, I just, I called the Turner. I said, you know, you better call the club. Cause I don't know if I can just come in and have lunch with you guys or not. He goes, normally, if you're in the club, you got to play golf. If you're there, you got to play golf. You can't just go for lunch. He says, but yeah, you're in the past champion. You might be different. I don't know. He's like, I'm just gonna call me. It's good to go. Like, cool. And you don't go put the green jacket on if you're there outside of master's week. Do you? Uh, during master's week? Outside of master's week. If you're there for that long, you go with it. Well, for, we get, we take somebody there and we stay overnight. We have dinner. You have to have a jacket on. Member has to have a jacket on dinner. Okay. But that'll put it on just during the day now. Yeah. Okay. Take off the show locker room, put it on whatever if they want a picture or something. Yeah. Well, I'm definitely in a master's mood and I appreciate you. I appreciate you taking all my master's questions and coming over. Yeah, it's all good. Yeah. Great to, great to meet you in person and appreciate you sharing some stories with us from your time. And yeah, I think people are going to, people are going to ask you about the masters all the way to your last day. So really appreciate your time and thanks for coming up. It'll be a good one. Yeah. Again, that's a cool thing about Sunday, isn't it? Yeah, exactly right. It's a gift that keeps on giving. Really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us. All good. Thank you.