VG: Following fellow Texans Ben Hogan
and Byron Nelson as host of the
Champions Dinner, what is your role
in that room?
BC: First of all, it means so much to a Texan
because Byron, Hogan, Jack Burke and Jimmy
Demaret were all Texas icons. I happen to
share a locker with Jimmy Demaret. He was a
friend of my dad. My role? I tread very lightly.
I try to open up the dinner by usually saying
something historical and there’s no question
that I will speak about Billy Casper. I always
search for reasons to tell people why we’re
there. Obviously we’ve had success in getting
into that room. Some of the older champions
went through as much as many of us went
through. The emotions, playing of the course
and the situations they were in—all of the
younger champions always want to speak
to the older ones to know what they went
through. That’s in terms of clubs and yardage,
what happened and who did you chase down—
that’s basically what the dinner is. We never
want to lose focus of that because basically it
is a get-together of all the champions.
Byron Nelson would always be armed with
statistics. A guy named Bill English, from the
Oklahoma City paper who worked for the
club, compiled every stroke ever played and
would arm Byron with a lot of statistics that
the Masters champions would produce. I sort of
see my role in a historical context, connecting
the old with the new, stating why we’re there
in some lighthearted way and get the dinner
started. There’s conversation and then we
present the champion with his gold medals.
Then he’ll say something, we’ll converse and
have a nice easy banter amongst ourselves.
VG: Considering Hogan’s personality, is
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it amazing that he’s the one who started
this social tradition?
BC: At that time there weren’t many
champions. One of his stipulations was to
have the champion pay for the dinner. It’s
quite expensive now. I think there were 26 of
us last year. But you’re only too happy to do
it. You get to set the menu. It wasn’t much in
Hogan’s day when he started it. After he won
in 1952 and 1953, it was a smaller group. I
have a picture of that first Masters dinner and
it was about seven people. It was a very nice
thing and just a nice relaxed dinner. At that
time it included Bob Jones and Cliff Roberts.
VG: Your 1995 Masters victory after
Mr. Penick died, and your 1999 Ryder
Cup captaincy ‘I have a good feeling
about this’ speech at The Country Club
in Brookline, Mass., both have mystical
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qualities about them. Do you still believe
in fate?
BC: I have a half smile on my face because
there’s a certain element of spookiness in
them. I don’t know why that is, but they
happened. I certainly daydream about them
and I’m so proud of those moments. Each
one of them has such a special meaning.
The 1995 Masters gives me a great bit
of pleasure because that was for Harvey’s
memory. Everybody knew it. That man was
so special to so many people—a wonderful
teacher and a much finer person. And the
comeback at The Country Club in Brookline
was miraculous. Our backs were to the wall
and we had to play outstanding golf just to
get back in the matches on the last day. It
happened. I’d say it was serendipitous that
that was the place where Francis Ouimet won
in 1913 against all odds; he was a 20-year-old
amateur from across the street. It’s still the
Crenshaw and the U.S. team celebrated after he
captained the squad to victory at the 1999 Ryder
Cup Matches.
most romantic story, I think, in American
golf history. The spooky thing is that Justin
Leonard holed that putt on the 17th green.
Nobody expected him to make that putt.
But it happened to be the same green where
Francis made two important putts in the
fourth round and the playoff. Very spooky.
I had a feeling our team was ready and
would play well and knew the golf course
better. They had plenty of incentive. I’ve
never seen such explosive golf. It was
a miracle to watch. And the day was just
electric. There was something about the
atmosphere that just pulled us through.
VG: Golf lost former Masters champion
Billy Caspe Ȱ