Al Geiberger - Part 1 (The Early Years and Tour Wins)

1966 PGA Championship winner  AKA "Mr. 59" Al Geiberger begins his life story learning the game on a hard scrabble nine-hole course in Sacramento, California, and playing high school golf in Santa Barbara with soon-to-be-famous teammate, Charles Schwab. Al was team captain at USC playing for the legendary coach, Stan Wood, playing in the L.A. Open three times while in college, ultimately finishing 5th while a senior and beating Arnold Palmer. He remembers turning pro at age 22 and recounts his early wins including the 1965 American Golf Classic at Firestone where he became famous for his mid-round PB&J sandwiches. Al Geiberger fondly recalls his younger days, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another episode of For the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin, as you know, all major sports we've come to know have famous numbers. It's if you think about it. Think about basketball, Michael Jordan. What comes to mind? 23. You think about baseball. Our guest knows this guy from the Bay Area, Willie Mays. What do you think of? 24. You think about hockey. What do you think of Wayne Gretzky, the greatest of all time? 29. Well, Bruce, today, our guest is known by a number as well.

Bruce Devlin 0:50

Well, he's known by a number, and he's known by something that you eat, and he's known by his regular name, but it's Mr. Skippy, Mr. 59, the great and wonderful 1966 PGA champion Al Geyberger. Bones is the other name that he has.

Al Geiberger 1:11

I got several names.

Bruce Devlin 1:13

That's right, you do. We welcome you, Al. Thanks for joining uh Mike and I today. We're really looking forward to chatting with you.

Al Geiberger 1:21

Yeah, it's been a while, Mike, and nice to join you and let's have some fun.

Mike Gonzalez 1:26

Well, let's do it. And and Al, as we've talked about, we're here to tell your story, and the way to do that is we've got to go back to the beginning. So, my understanding is you were born in Red Bluff, California. I know that's up near Reading on the five. Uh why don't you tell us tell us a little bit about early life growing up in California?

Al Geiberger 1:44

Yeah, Red Bluff, Red Bluff's right at the top of the state, right? And the only reason I was born in Red Bluff, because my parents lived in Las Melinas. Now you really have to look hard for that one. It was a small town then and it still is. And uh and so I was born in Red Bluff, which was thirty miles or forty, I don't know, uh miles away. And then uh at about two years old I moved to two or three years old, moved to Sacramento. My dad was a became a farm advisor. He was an ag teacher. Uh an ag teacher at uh at Los Molinas. Actually, my parents met at Oregon State. My dad was an ag engineer and my mother was Home Home, and then they got married, and that's where they uh moved to Las Melinas. That was their first teaching job. They were both teachers. And then my dad got uh a job in Sacramento, which is as a uh farm advisor, which most people don't know what they are. They as they say, advise the farmer. And that was a big deal then. And uh and they each had specialty because Sacramento is a big agricultural center, the whole valley is, and so uh I didn't know or appreciate all that then when I was there. But uh then we moved to in still in Sacramento, another other end of it, but that's where my golf started. We we uh moved next to a nine-hole course called William Lamb Park. Um I live that's where I learned to play golf and grew up and we moved to Santa Barbara when I was fifteen. Uh and that's when I met Chuck Schwab. I mentioned to you Chuck Schwab. Yeah uh he and I were both played at Montecito Country Club together there.

Mike Gonzalez 3:45

Yeah, well we'll we'll talk a little bit about your connection there because I know you played high school golf with uh with Mr. Schwab, but uh your parents were were both avid golfers, and they got you started pretty young, didn't they?

Al Geiberger 3:57

Yes. They uh started me very young, I think. My mother said, and I did dawn on me what it was, but I I think I came along as an accident, kind of late, and my mother said she wasn't gonna give up any more of her golf, and so she would drag me out to the golf course. So I started as soon as she could get me out to the golf course, uh, I guess I was there, and that's where I picked it up.

Bruce Devlin 4:24

Well, you were Al, you were a very quick learner because uh your record shows that when you were eight years old, you won a 12 and under tournament. That's pretty fancy.

Al Geiberger 4:37

Right, I did. Uh yeah, the 12 and under at William Land Park. Yep. That was kind of like Sacramento City. Uh we didn't have too many courses there. And uh yeah, the 12 and under. But I was out there when I was three or four, I guess.

Mike Gonzalez 4:55

So, uh Al, if you were like many of our guests, they talk about growing up on a little nine-hole course. Most of these courses didn't have irrigation, didn't have necessarily a golf pro, most of them didn't have sand traps. You kept your own shag balls. Does that sound familiar?

Al Geiberger 5:10

Yep, you've hit them all. I definitely have my own shag bag. Uh, and you marked your own balls a special way so that we can get mixed up with everybody else's. And uh it was a nine-hole course, and a lot of kids we hung around there all summer. That's all we did. Uh it was kind of like Sandlot, the movie Sandlot. We were the golfing version. We we just all hung around the golf course there and uh and played golf. And uh my kids, when they got older, got tired of playing a certain one course, 18 holes. I said, wait a minute, I grew up on a nine-hole course. And I went around and around that thing, and like you mentioned, Eggacult, the uh they wouldn't plant then no grass in the rough, so it was hard pan. Because Sacramento gets pretty warm summer, and I knew how to play that course down the hard pan and all the little tricks to it. You didn't know it, but you're learning stuff at that time. But uh that was just the way we figured out how to play the course.

Bruce Devlin 6:11

So you talk about a shag bag that you had. Somebody told me somebody told me that you mocked your shag balls a different way to most people. How did you do that?

Al Geiberger 6:23

Uh, you mean with fingernail polish?

Bruce Devlin 6:27

That's what I meant.

Al Geiberger 6:29

Well, it's hard to we didn't have sharpies or anything like that then. I somehow I used a little little bit of fingernail polish. I didn't know you knew that.

Bruce Devlin 6:41

Yeah, I think that's pretty cute that you did that, really.

Mike Gonzalez 6:45

So you you you kind of were uh split with high school then, Al. Much like me, I spent two years in one town, moved and went two years and played on another team for another high school. You had the same experience in Southern California, didn't you?

Al Geiberger 6:59

Yeah, see, I played um high school golf in Sacramento at CK McClatchy High School, and then uh then my dad was transferred, he took over the whole county of Santa Barbara, and uh uh and I went to Santa Barbara High. And they didn't even have a golf team. But we knew we had a bunch of players, they all played at uh Montecito Country Club or or they caddied at the Valley Club. So we have a we put together a team of either the high school kids that played at Montecito or the caddies from the Valley Club. And we put together a team and uh nobody would play us in LA. See, we're about two hours from LA in Santa Barbara, and we'd have to we had to we could come down there and play 'em, but they wouldn't come up and play us. So we had to get in a big old station wagon and drive down there every week. And we really had a good team. Uh another guy scored he and I were about one and two. We were very equal, and Chuck Schwab was just under that. He was our third man. And then uh we had some good bottoms, so we cleaned everybody that that we could play. Anyway, they wouldn't let us go Northern California or anything like that, but we won everything. And then the second year, uh the other guy the uh Tom McFadden had left. So Chuck was probably my partner. We were one and two. And uh so we spent a lot of time together.

Bruce Devlin 8:33

And he stayed in golf for a long, long time, still heavily involved, particularly here at Colonial.

Al Geiberger 8:40

Oh, the joke is uh he wanted to go in and play professional golf, and this is why I tell people it's not true, but uh I told him, no, why don't you go into finance and I'll play golf and that's quite a success story. He kind of circles around. I won it colonial twice, the colonial invitational like you, and uh uh and the players, and and now Chuck is uh uh that's his tournament.

Bruce Devlin 9:17

Plus he does uh he spends a little bit of money on the senior tour as well.

Al Geiberger 9:21

And the senior tour. And I didn't get out there, I didn't the that didn't really come about till I'd kind of phased out. I don't know.

Bruce Devlin 9:31

All that money, you left all that money, Bones.

Al Geiberger 9:34

I left it all, yeah. Well, look at nowadays, geez. We left a lot.

Bruce Devlin 9:42

Uh well, we were fortunate though. We uh we you know, if you think about it, uh all the guys that we played with, we you know, we were friends with all of them. We you know, we wanted to beat the hell out of them on the golf course, but you know, nine times out of ten you'd be out having dinner with three or four of the guys, and the wives would be there, you cook, you know, do barbecues, whatever. I mean, it's a little different game.

Al Geiberger 10:05

We had I remember uh Pleasant Valley. Remember the motor lodge there? They all the families would stay there and we'd have the big barbecue. The whole motel was filled with players, it felt like, and we had a big barbecue and all the families, and all those kids now are grown up, they're all up in their 50s.

Bruce Devlin 10:24

Yeah, no, I got one in the 60s.

Al Geiberger 10:30

Uh we did a little different way.

Mike Gonzalez 10:32

Uh well, just you know, you mentioned the money, Al. I'm sure you and Bruce have seen just what they're paying this week at the Tournament Players Championship. I think back in 74 or so, when uh Jack probably won the first one in Atlanta. $50,000 was first prize that week.

Al Geiberger 10:51

I won the second one at Ontario. And that was $50,000.

Mike Gonzalez 10:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they're paying what this week?

Al Geiberger 10:58

I tried to divide that up and multiply it out the other day, and I said, uh, that's grown a little more than the economy.

Mike Gonzalez 11:06

Uh yeah, a little more. I'd say so, yeah. So you you had a good uh high school career uh finishing up in Santa Barbara, uh playing at, as you say, Montecito Country Club, which I think is there along Highway One, isn't it?

Al Geiberger 11:22

Yes, uh 101, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 11:24

Yeah, did you get to play Burnham Woods? Was that around too? I know that was across the street from They built uh that came along later.

Al Geiberger 11:31

Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. It's funny you know Burnham Wood.

Mike Gonzalez 11:35

Well, I know it's right across the street from the Valley Club, right?

Al Geiberger 11:38

Right, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 11:39

And the Valley Club is a lovely Mackenzie.

Al Geiberger 11:43

The Valley Club is the uh that was the high end. That's why I say we the rest of our team were guys that cadied at the Valley Club. And Chuck and I went out and caddied at the Valley Club a little too, but we were at Montecito, and then they built another course on the other end of town, La Coumbra, which uh well that's a hist that's a story itself. That was the third building of it. In other words, every depression or war, it closed. And it it's a very nice course.

Mike Gonzalez 12:14

So tell us about the progression then to college, because you spent a couple of years at at uh Menlo College before going on to USC, right?

Al Geiberger 12:21

Right, yes. Uh yeah, I didn't I wasn't quite sure where I was gonna go. I wasn't really a great student, and so I ended up at Menlo College, which is a private was a two-year college then. Um so I went up there for two years and then uh went uh transferred down to uh USC. But that was quite an experience, yeah, USC and being a Southern California. So I kept working, started Red Block and then uh Las Molinas, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, on down to LA. Now I'm out now I'm out in the desert, out in Palm Palm Springs area.

Bruce Devlin 13:03

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 13:04

So you played for a pretty well noted coach at the time, Stan Wood?

Al Geiberger 13:09

Yes, yeah. That's another story in its own. Um he was a writer for the mirror golf writer for the mirror news. Uh and they asked him, he was friends with the athletic director at USC. And I think I needed a golf coach, so we asked Stan to be the coach. And then the rest of his history, Stan was for years and years the coach there and a legend. Uh we got a lot of stories about Stan because uh nowadays they're so strict on alcohol and everything like that. Stan Wood used to take us to the bar or or bring cases of beer to our room. He said that way he knew where we were. Yeah. He said that way I got to know my team real well, and I knew where they were when we were on a trip or something. Or we'd finish practice and we'd go by the bowling alley and have some beers. And of course I didn't realize it, but I wasn't even old enough.

Bruce Devlin 14:14

Yeah.

Al Geiberger 14:15

Right near Rancho, Bruce, you played there.

Bruce Devlin 14:18

Yeah, sure did.

Al Geiberger 14:19

Right up the street was Rancho Lane's bowling.

Bruce Devlin 14:22

I'll be done. Huh.

Al Geiberger 14:25

But Stan was a uh big influence, a great guy. Everybody loves Stan. Uh and then the mere news folders, so he was basically a coach, and then he took care of a lot of media for tournaments. He began to realize LA Open and different tournaments needed uh help with the media. I mean, getting getting the newspapers there, whatever, whatever needed to be there as part of the media, that was his job.

Bruce Devlin 14:54

He's he was a pretty good uh recruiter as well. He he he coached some pretty good guys that went through their college. There's Stadler and Stockton and Scott Simpson and a bunch, bunch more. I mean, a lot of really good players.

Al Geiberger 15:09

Yeah, a lot of a lot of good players uh came through there. Uh Stockton followed me. I never Dave and I never played together because I graduated and Dave came in. But right after that, yeah, uh Stadler, like you said, Scott Simpson. Gosh, who are we forgetting? There's so many. Even Roger Cleveland, Cleveland Golf, he played on the golf team at SC. And so the two uh Rhodes, Rick Rhodes, who played on the tour a little, but eventually became a head pro at San Francisco Golf Club uh for many years and retired. And Ron Rhodes, his brother.

Bruce Devlin 15:53

Right.

Al Geiberger 15:54

Yeah, we can go on. I know we're leaving out a bunch.

Bruce Devlin 15:57

Yeah, but Al, uh, while you were at that school at USC, you you got to do something that not too many young players get to do, and that's to play in the LA Open three times, thank you, as you when you were at college?

Al Geiberger 16:13

Yeah, you're right. I I did play three times. I was low amateur twice. And then it was a big deal because they took care of the amateurs at the LA Open. It was kind of they still keep the tradition going a little bit. Used to be uh used to be much better and uh uh bigger and the juniors we got to uh college players, we got to play, and my claim to fame, my senior year in college, I finished fifth in the LA Open. I hope I'm remembering that right. I tried to look it up the other day and I couldn't find it. You did? And I was paired with Arnold Palmer the last day. Uh and I think I beat him, but I'm not the story sounds better that way.

Bruce Devlin 16:59

Wasn't the last time you beat him either.

Al Geiberger 17:05

That was at Ranch, that was at Rancho.

Mike Gonzalez 17:08

Al, you were able to you were captain of that team at some point at USC, and as they say, uh oftentimes in life you're always trying to keep up with the Joneses, but that back then you were trying to keep up with the Houstons. Yeah.

Al Geiberger 17:22

That's one of the reasons I went to USC, because we knew all the good juniors and where they were in college, and so we tried to do our own stockpile. And Bud Bradley, I don't know, did you ever know Bud Bradley and uh Bob McAllister? You knew Bob, I'm sure.

Bruce Devlin 17:38

Yeah, sure did. Yeah, very much so.

Al Geiberger 17:40

They were already there, and then that then a very good player, Bobby Howe. He was he was uh LA City champion, very good player. He never did turn professional, and uh a few others, and we thought we could go after Houston, but I guess we choked. We finished third.

Bruce Devlin 18:00

They're pretty good team, they were.

Al Geiberger 18:03

And then it was like the we finished third, that was the best. And then it was like the curse of the Bambino. Uh SC finished the best they could ever do was third for 30, 40 years until they won a couple years. Finally won the uh the NC2A a few years back, but it took a long time. Girls, they didn't even have a girls' team, and they actually formed the girls' team uh several years after I left, and they even ended up winning the NC2A several times. They had some really good they have some good teams at SD.

Mike Gonzalez 18:45

So tell us about the transition going from Santa Barbara to you know, let's say two hours south down to USC. You're kind of in La La Land down there, Hollywood and so forth. You you got to play a little bit about at Lakeside, didn't you? Which uh featured a few famous celebrities.

Al Geiberger 19:01

You did, you're right. I uh people I did play with a few others, Bel Air and Riviera, and I didn't realize, you know, I happened to hit on some of these celebrities, but Lakeside is where the celebrities were then. And I used to go out there and play a lot. Uh tennis, uh one thing in particular, Tennessee Ernie Ford always live uh televised his show every Thursday night live. And he wanted to play golf with me every Thursday. So every Thursday afternoon when we could, I'd I'd go out and play with Tennessee Ernie Ford. Not many people remember, but he was a great guy. Sure. But there were several celebrities at uh at uh Lakeside that was kind of their club.

Mike Gonzalez 19:51

Yeah. Yeah, it it sure was. Uh so just take us through for our listeners the decision process you were going through as a I guess a college senior at the time, thinking about uh maybe I want to do this full time for a as a profession.

Al Geiberger 20:08

Well remember you didn't make much money then, so it was I when I finished fifth in the LA Open, that was my last year at USC, I uh I decided to, you know, hey, maybe I can make it on the tour. Uh that was kind of the turning point that I I realized. I didn't know I didn't know how buffed these guys were gonna be nowadays. Remember I was skinny? Well, Bruce, you're skinny too. Okay I was.

Bruce Devlin 20:41

Thanks for reminding me, I was.

Al Geiberger 20:44

Yeah, Bruce and I, that's where the bones come up.

Bruce Devlin 20:48

That's right. Yeah. He and I together wouldn't weigh 300 pounds. Can you believe that? Both of us about 6'2 and weighed about 145 to 150 pounds.

Al Geiberger 21:00

Right. I was 150 pounds. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 21:03

How did you guys play in the wind? Hit out balls low.

Al Geiberger 21:11

Uh, we didn't know any different.

Mike Gonzalez 21:14

So were there any in early influencers from the professional ranks that you sort of patterned your game after, or maybe were influential in your early career?

Al Geiberger 21:23

Well, my earliest, but we didn't have television when I lived in Sacramento was Byron Nelson. How I picked Byron, because I didn't really you didn't have TV or anything, I don't know, but people said I looked like Byron or swung like him, and I guess that's how I did it. But as I got further along, a k a guy named Gene Littler came along, and I got to go physically watch Gene play, and he became my my next idol. I told him every once in a while, Gene, you were my idol, and he would get upset because he's probably five or six years older than me at the Most and I said, You were my idol. I I tried to copy emulate your your game. So I'd say Jing was was probably and Bruce is very familiar with Jing.

Bruce Devlin 22:14

He is a beautiful swinger of the golf club, had fantastic rhythm. Isn't it? Probably the probably the best of all of them of that era, I think, as far as uh control of the golf club and beautiful time swinging. He was great.

Al Geiberger 22:29

He was. He had a simple swing, and my my being tall and thin, I don't know, for some reason I realized I had to keep my swing simple too. And so I tried to keep it as few moving parts in it. And then that was one of the good decisions I made. We we all made a lot of bad decisions on the swing. Nowadays they they have it all proven right there on the screen.

Bruce Devlin 22:56

But isn't that amazing?

Al Geiberger 22:59

Bruce and I had to go up a lot of dead end streets. Twenty years later, we'd find out that that information we got from somebody else was wrong.

Bruce Devlin 23:08

Yeah, it wasn't so good, was it?

Al Geiberger 23:09

Yeah, right. Well, we had a team though, Bruce, didn't we? The rest of the players were our teachers. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 23:17

Yeah. Oh yeah, we had plenty of teachers back in those days. They all you had to do was walk on the practice till you had three or four of them help you.

Al Geiberger 23:24

And they all share information. Those are our teachers.

Bruce Devlin 23:28

Yeah.

Al Geiberger 23:29

No uh no uh our psycholog uh yeah, they all have a team now. We didn't know what the hell we were lucky to find a caddy in the parking lot that that uh that we could handle all week.

Bruce Devlin 23:45

There you go.

Mike Gonzalez 23:46

Al, I remember Lanny Watkins telling us that that his uh uh psychological coach was the bartender in the in the hotel he was staying at typically. Yep.

Al Geiberger 23:59

The the bar was attended several times in most of the hotels.

Mike Gonzalez 24:03

That's right.

Al Geiberger 24:04

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 24:06

So who was involved in that decision at age 22 to turn professional?

Al Geiberger 24:12

Oh, I guess I was. I guess I was Stan Wood, right? Bring back Stan Wood. Yeah, yeah. And Stan uh he he really we got along really well and he he found me some sponsors, and uh I didn't even have to look for him. He he uh he knew everybody, so he he had some sponsors for me. Uh um George McAllister, which is related to Bob McAllister, and Art Anderson. Do you Bruce Maynard?

Bruce Devlin 24:44

I remember Artie Anderson, I sure do.

Al Geiberger 24:46

Two of them owned a golf center in Studio City, and they sponsored me. That was fine.

Bruce Devlin 24:54

Yeah, Artie Anderson was I played a lot of golf with him actually at Riviera. Yeah. Uh he was a he was a good buddy with uh with my partner at the Crosby, Dean Martin. So we'd we'd go out there and play a little bit of golf together. Of course, we didn't gamble and we never had a drink.

Mike Gonzalez 25:10

No, no, well, of course not. So Al, at some point I guess you realized you weren't going to use that psychology degree, huh?

Al Geiberger 25:20

I mean or uh Bruce, the plumber, he's got a bigger one. No, you're the plumber more than I didn't have a psychology, I was business, whatever.

Mike Gonzalez 25:31

Oh, okay, okay. I don't know. Somewhere I picked up the fact that you had a psychology degree.

Al Geiberger 25:36

A few nights ago when the Hall of Fame they met, they brought up the Charlie Sifford Award. And when I was at SC, I was in my business degree. One of them I had to work in a retail store for six months or something. So I worked at this store right across the street from the campus there, and Charlie Sifford came in one day, and he goes, Hey man, I hear you're a good player. Hey, let's play someday, you know. And he was really nice to me. Uh and you know, little did I know of what Charlie was going through. I didn't, you know, I'm a California guy. I didn't know everything he he'd gone through. So then uh he was very nice to me. Here I'm behind the counter working in the store.

Mike Gonzalez 26:21

Life on tour was a little different back then uh in a lot of ways. You talk about the money, you talk about uh um whether people like uh Charlie Sifford were as welcomed as they probably should have been on tour. There are a lot of differences than from today's game.

Al Geiberger 26:37

Oh yeah, yeah, oh definitely. It and it all gradually grew so slow you didn't realize it was happening. Uh you know, it uh uh just I was so many things. Look at caddies. Caddy, you and Bruce, you and I, we used to find our caddy in the parking lot, right? Yeah. The caddies waited in the parking lot or whoever you could find. And uh and nowadays the caddy is uh that's a big job. That's a big deal.

Bruce Devlin 27:12

Yeah, you hear as much about the caddy as you do the player, actually.

Al Geiberger 27:17

Well, there was a point there when a few players started cadding, you know, 20, 25, 30 years ago. And I re I thought that was kind of strange, but I can see now what it's evolved in. The guys that didn't quite make it on the tour started working either teaching or or uh or cadding or whatever. And then the psychology, your team, your psychiatrist, your uh we yeah, we just I talked to Bruce. Bruce had talked to me, and so we had a lot of valuable information.

Bruce Devlin 27:53

So after turning pro in 59L, it didn't take you very long to uh break through and win. Fir first victory, 61 Utah Open. That was a yeah, you know, that's a pattern that we've seen in the history of these players. They turn pro, uh they go out there and sort of learn the first year and bang, they win the second year. It's happened to a lot of the guys we've spoken to. They miss the first year, but they win the second year.

Al Geiberger 28:19

Yeah, you're right. I uh I turned pro well back then you the PJ of America had you had to wait six months to to uh receive money. Remember that stupid rule? Yeah. And uh so when I got out of college, if I went in the army, we had to go in the army then. Uh I could wait my six months in the army and come out and play the tour. Well, by the time I got out, the PJ of America changed the rule. So it it it it did no service. But so I started playing the tour in 1960. Uh and you're right, 61 Utah Open. That was a non-tour event. A friend of mine who was uh basketball player he was became a coach, that's it, at USC. Uh Jerry Pym, he uh he was a coach up there and a big golf advocacy. He uh he got them to invite me to the Utah Open and I and I ended up winning uh won it.

Bruce Devlin 29:21

That's good.

Al Geiberger 29:22

I think they still play that course once in a while. Hard to tell, but uh yeah, that was an unofficial, but uh Gary Plair he counts any tournament as official, so so I can add that to my official event. That was an unofficial event.

Mike Gonzalez 29:39

Well, we can recap for our listeners the official events. I'll just uh for our listeners tell a little bit about uh Al's career. He had uh 30 professional wins, official wins, that is, including 11 wins on the PG8 Tour, one win on the Japan Golf Tour, and 10 senior PG8 Tour wins. And as uh Bruce had alluded to earlier in our opener, uh the highlight, of course, the 1966 PGA Championship, which we'll talk about in a bit. And uh let's go to that first official win then, which was 1962. It was the Ontario Open invitational uh at Whispering Lakes Golf Club by one shot over five others, including Bob Goldby, Bob Dickinson, Tommy Jacobs, Chuck Rotar, and John Rudy, I think is how you pronounce his name. I didn't wasn't familiar with that name.

Al Geiberger 30:26

Uh yeah, I remember Stan Wood came out on the 18th hole and he said he he had several names for me. Fruhoff was one of my names. Uh because I was like a load, uh that's another story. But anyway, he came out and he said, car this hole, otherwise there's gonna be a seven-way playoff. And that was an Ontario Whispering Lakes, which was the uh in Ontario there, and it had uh the ponds for the three success pools. So we called it whispering cesspools, but uh that course is still there, still functioning. Uh people think when it's Ontario that I won the Ontario Open because they they don't know if it's Ontario, California.

Mike Gonzalez 31:23

Yeah. Did it feel did it feel like a home victory?

Al Geiberger 31:28

I don't know. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 31:34

Pretty close to home.

Al Geiberger 31:35

We go back and look at those older courses we played. We really played on anything we could they could we could get on. And uh and believe it or not, though, like I said, that course is still there.

Bruce Devlin 31:49

Then 63, Al, the uh Alameda Open Invitational. Uh and you beat uh pretty fancy player, Dutch Harrison, and also uh a buddy of yours, Dick Love.

Al Geiberger 32:02

Uh Almaden Open. That's uh when I went to Menlo College, we'd play a lot of matches out in outside of San Jose out in the valley there, and that's where Almaden Country Club. That's now known as Silicon Valley. That whole valley was nothing in it when we played there. And look what happened to it. But I won the they had an off-tour event, which we used to have several back in those days in the fall. And I won the Almondon Open one year and then came back as a tour event the next year and won the Almond and Open. I remember what the Silicone Valley looked like without a house or anything on it.

Bruce Devlin 32:47

Amazing.

Mike Gonzalez 32:48

Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 32:49

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 32:50

Well, let's let's talk about your back-to-back success at Firestone, starting with the 1965 American golf classic uh the South Course there, where you won by four over Mr. Palmer.

Al Geiberger 33:03

Some reason I played Firestone good. Uh I guess a par was a par. And Bruce and I didn't hit it far enough. Uh that we were hitting the long irons. Remember those days? Hitting two irons.

Bruce Devlin 33:17

I knew.

Al Geiberger 33:17

A lot of guys hit wedges on every hole there, but uh just about. It's amazing. Uh yeah, I played really well there and one by four, and I shot two eighty.

Bruce Devlin 33:28

That's four over four over four.

Al Geiberger 33:34

And I uh won by four, and then I came back the following year because the PJ was played there, and I ended up shooting the same score, 280 and winning by four. Did I are have you got stats in front of you? Are they right?

Mike Gonzalez 33:50

Uh you got it, baby. I was gonna say we'd take your word for it, but no, we know better. You absolutely shot 280 both years, and uh, I think uh the the first win at Firestone, wasn't that when you became sort of known for your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

Al Geiberger 34:07

Yeah, that's uh years ago when I first started on the tour, I I don't know, I went to the doctor one day and I said, Man, I get so nervous and jumpy, and I don't know, I mustn't have been feeling well. And he did blood tests and he said, he said, You have low blood sugar, and you need to take all this protein powder. I would take thermoses with protein powder. And he said, There used to be if you had low blood sugar, you had ate candy or something like that. The other way around you build yourself up with protein. So I started carrying things in a bag. The thermos, I didn't like that big old thing in the bag. That was sort of catty didn't either. Uh and uh at the American Golf uh the week before the American Golf Classic, PJ was at Laurel Valley, that's where Dave Barr won. And I was paired with Arnold Palmer there. And I was getting ready to go I was in the first two rounds with Arnold and I went, Oh my gosh, I'll never be able to get any food at any you know, the food wasn't very handy, and they didn't leave any on the teas or anything. And so um my wife was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my my little three or four-year-old daughter then, and I said, Hey, I'm playing with Arnold today. Make me one of those and I'll just put it in a bag. And there was history. I I took it out there, ate half of it one nine, and half the other nine. I said, Wow, this is it. So I went to the next week and I used using the sandwiches, and the press got wind of it. They saw me. Uh they got wind of the peanut butter and jelly. They thought it was so unusual and so, you know, weird that I was doing that. And the next year when I came back to Firestone, they were ready for me. Cameras, everything were, you know, they were watching me take a sandwich out of my bag. They thought it was such a big deal. And it was amazing. Years after that, many guys carry some version of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Uh really it's about the best thing. I used to tell people you could if you didn't eat it for three days, it still was good. Your caddy your caddy could sit on your bag, smash it, it still was edible. Uh it was really one of the few things. Uh when I have to nowadays, I don't get out very often, but uh I'll make sure that I have food of some kind, and then that that's that's I still do the same thing. And and a lot of people, uh players coming down the road, when I hear about them eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich or peanut butter and something, I went, wow, I started that.

Mike Gonzalez 36:57

Yeah, that's right. And from that came a few endorsements, right?

Al Geiberger 37:01

Yeah. When I won the PGA, they were they were pro media made a big deal about it. Yes, right. Then I signed a contract with Skippy. There's one of my names. Uh Skippy. Right. And I was with Skippy for a I don't know, 20, 25 years.

Mike Gonzalez 37:19

Now, does does one of the does one of the head covers behind you have the peanut butter and jelly uh logo on it?

Al Geiberger 37:26

Oh what there is a head cover. My son, my son, he's in the kind of the clothing end of golf a little bit too, playing and everything. Alan Jr., but he made up these head covers and they stitched in there uh a peanut butter sandwich with peanut butter and honey, uh peanut butter and uh jelly in it. And I've had more people like that head covers. I end up giving them, oh, you like okay, you can have now I'm down to like two head covers. I had five. And now I'm I don't want to get them to make some more because it had little sandwiches all over the head cover. That's not in the picture behind, is it?

Mike Gonzalez 38:12

I don't think that's no, I've but I've I've seen a I've seen another photo of you with that. There was a bag of clubs with that head cover in the background. I have seen that. It's a cool looking head cover.

Al Geiberger 38:23

People say, Oh, I love that. Can I I've had people some person will come to me for somebody else and say, My friend, he would do anything to have one of those head covers. Oh, okay. So now I'm running out of them. But uh that's funny, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 38:40

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we teat up again for the good of the game.

Outro Music 39:19

You're okay.