Al Geiberger - Part 2 (The 1966 PGA and Shooting 59)

Al Geiberger begins this segment by recounting the joy of his 1966 PGA Championship win at Firestone followed hours later by the sadness brought on by the tragic loss of Tony and Betty Lema in a plane crash. He recalls his win in the 2nd edition of the Tournament Players Championship at Colonial CC (TX) over his hunting buddy, Dave Stockton. Al takes us through his incredible round of 59 in the second of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at Colonial CC (TN) becoming the only player in the modern era to win a non-major without a round in the 60's. Al Geiberger wraps up this episode by fondly recalling the positive influence of his parents, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Let's do the PGA Championship justice here at Firestone. Al, you won that by four over Dudley Weissong you mentioned earlier, even par 280. You led after 18 holes. Uh you were one behind 54-year-old Sam Sneed after 36. You remember that?

Al Geiberger 0:32

Right, yeah. And I played with played with uh, I think that's didn't he leap in the air and hurt his hip or something? He did it during that round when he played with me. He just missed a putt, and he was so flexible he could leap in the air and he he flipped around and when he landed he he kind of hurt his hip or something. Yeah, it's hard to imagine. Sam was still playing there, too.

Mike Gonzalez 1:00

So you you led by four after three rounds, and then uh and then uh you start on Sunday with three bogeys in the first four holes. What was going through your mind, do you remember?

Al Geiberger 1:13

Oh, yeah, you're right. Uh in fact, I got a good story about that. Um Yes, I was leading uh what was I leading by? Three?

Mike Gonzalez 1:24

By four, by four, and then and then next thing you know, you're it's only two, I think, after that stretch.

Al Geiberger 1:29

Right, and I bogeied one. One, two, or three, I don't know. But anyway, on the part three, the fifth hole, I think it's the fifth hole at Firestone, I hold about a fifteen footer for uh Bertie. For Birdie, and that got me turned around and and then I just started going from there. And what was funny is many years later, Ken Venturi was doing the announcing. And Ken says, I forgot when he brought it up, he said, you know, Al, when you made that putt on the fifth hole at Firestone, that turned you around for you winning that tournament, because I came back and then won it by four, which uh is amazing. But I was more amazed that Ken remembered that, you know. He was announcing announcing then, and and he remembered that and I went, Oh my gosh, you're right. Because I did remember that, Bruce? Do you remember that part three? It's kind of out. I do? Yeah, long one. Long one.

Bruce Devlin 2:32

Yeah, long.

Al Geiberger 2:32

Well, it was long then.

Bruce Devlin 2:34

Uh well, if you look at the uh if you look at the front nine, after making three bogies in the first four holes, between five and nine, the two hardest holes were the ones that you birdied.

Al Geiberger 2:48

Five and nine. Five five was top five and nine.

Bruce Devlin 2:53

And nine.

Al Geiberger 2:53

Remember nine? We used to think it was so long, and now the guys have wedges.

Mike Gonzalez 2:59

Yeah, I know. For our listeners, that was the 50th uh edition of the PGA championship. But do you guys remember you were supposed to play that tournament somewhere else that year?

Al Geiberger 3:09

Yeah, I can't remember when Columbine, Columbine Country Club, but they'd had uh the river Columbine River going by there, they had a flood, and they and Firestone was always ready. It was a beautifully won tournament, yeah, and they uh uh just switched right over and and right when and moments notice. It was so I guess that was a good break.

Mike Gonzalez 3:35

I was gonna say, I think that change of venue worked out pretty well for you.

Al Geiberger 3:39

Yeah, I went to Columbine the next year. Do you have any records in front of you there? Uh I lost I won by four at Firestone, lost by two to Don January and Don Massigill. I think they had a playoff.

Mike Gonzalez 3:57

Yep, yep, you were you were T5.

Al Geiberger 4:00

And I was two shots back. So technically I won the PGA for two years because I I won by four and lost by two. So I was two shots ahead for two years.

Bruce Devlin 4:10

Well, that's a good way to look at it, bro. On a sad note, something else happened that day that really affected all of us a great deal was when Tony and his wife Betty died in that plane crash right after right after you'd won the tournament there. That was a sad day for most people, but a great day for you.

Al Geiberger 4:33

Yeah. Um remember back then, Bruce, they used to block out uh within a hundred-mile radius of the tournament and no TV. Yeah. Do you remember those? Uh they thought that would be galleries come instead of watching it on TV, and so it was blocked out. And I finished that day and it was done, and I won. And so I went, we were staying with relatives in Canton, Ohio. And um we went back and we had a little, you know, a little party afterwards, and we were watching the replay. See, then they would show it later. And during that replay is when the flash came over the TV that Tony Lehman and his wife had been killed. And oh boy, that was uh that was kind of an airline strike. There was semi-strike where it was hard to get flights, and I think he chartered a flight. Yeah, you probably know that better than I do. That uh yeah, that was uh you don't know how to act. You're having a happy moment, you want a major, and then all of a sudden, boom.

Bruce Devlin 5:41

That was uh so you know what he was supposed to do the next day? He was supposed to do his little exhibition, then fly to San Francisco, and he and Betty and my wife Gloria and I had reservations to go to Australia.

Al Geiberger 6:00

Oh my gosh.

Bruce Devlin 6:02

So uh uh you know I w I I don't know where I was, but I was traveling somewhere getting I think I had a little exhibition to do the next day too, and it wasn't until the next morning that I found out, and that was a that was a sort of a miserable Monday.

Al Geiberger 6:19

Um it was. Did you do the thing in Columbus? I think I played in a Pro Am in Columbus. I think that might have been what we did, and then I We all went down there for a one-day thing and Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 6:32

Yeah, sad day. So talking about tough times, uh I believe that you had a bit of a tough time from uh 1966 to 1974. We didn't we look on your record, we don't see any victories. What was going on?

Al Geiberger 6:50

I don't know. I I don't remember I didn't win, so uh I wasn't starving to death, but I I but uh and Dave Stockton and I won the CBS Golf Classic in 69, 70, and 71.

Bruce Devlin 7:09

That's plenty of money.

Al Geiberger 7:11

Uh you're right, I didn't win anything, but when I did win was in Las Vegas in 74, right? Do you have that there? Uh in 74 Johnny Miller won did he win seven tournaments or eight?

Bruce Devlin 7:33

Yeah, something like that. I I think he won both in the desert.

Al Geiberger 7:37

I just won one and eight, and Johnny Miller's won eight and one here. And I remember that when I won that tournament Las Vegas, we played at uh Sahara. Sahara, I think. Sahara. I'm riding in a taxi to the airport and the guy said, Oh, what are you here for? And I saw her playing in the tournament like that, and he said, Well, who won it? And I went, Oh, oh, oh, I guess I did. I just remember that you know I'd gone so long without winning. Uh then you start to feel like you'll never win. Uh then I then that got me in the tournament champions, and and uh won the tournament champions. I think that's it. Have I got the order wrong?

Mike Gonzalez 8:29

That's right.

Bruce Devlin 8:30

You got it.

Mike Gonzalez 8:31

You sure do, and that was in a playoff with uh you remember who the playoff was with?

Al Geiberger 8:35

Yes, Gary Player. And he counts every playoff as a win. He playoffs don't count. So that that's why he adds them all into his overall victory. I remember that because I three putted the last hole at uh tournament champions to put me in a playoff. And I remember going out there, I was so bummed that I had three putted from about 30 feet. And remember the 18th hole across? It was a pretty tough hole, actually. And very tough. And I got in that first hole, I holed about a 20-footer. I mean that was amazing, a big slope on it, and but we had to go back to the fifteenth or sixteenth hole, I can't remember, the one in the corner down there. But uh yeah, Gary was too happy with me holding that that putt.

Mike Gonzalez 9:30

Well, you had also finished second there to Nicholas in 1964. Bruce Devlin finished second in that tournament in 1971, also to Nicholas, I think.

Bruce Devlin 9:40

Yes, that's right.

Al Geiberger 9:41

Yeah, we've uh Bruce and I'd have a few more championships if it wasn't for coming up in the Nicholas. For Nicholas. So what did what did you were you and I finished second at the TFC at in 71?

Bruce Devlin 9:58

Yeah, we sure did.

Al Geiberger 10:00

Wow.

Bruce Devlin 10:00

Yeah, we both finished second, yeah. As a matter of fact, I I flew out there with Jack, and I flew back with Jack uh to Florida, and it was uh, you know, I said, you know, you could have you could at least let me win one. You know, he beats beat me in the playoff for the Australian Open, and I thought, you know, finishing second to him all the time. I guess that's not too bad, though.

Mike Gonzalez 10:25

Well, let's let's pick it up with other victories. Then uh we talked a little bit about the tournament of champions, but uh let's talk about that uh uh second, as you mentioned in its existence, the second tournament players' championship, which was at Colonial Country Club down Texas, as our listeners are very familiar with that event and the other tournament there. That was by three over your hunting buddy.

Al Geiberger 10:46

Oh, over Dave, yeah. Yeah. And Dave came back and won it, I think, the next year or something. With uh are you talking about the players? Yeah, we we talked we did talk to Dave about his victory there, but uh uh that was the start the year before was the start of the players' championship, and then we played in Atlanta at uh Atlanta Country Club, I think. And Jack there and then correct and then we went to Fort Worth. A lot of people don't know this history because they don't like to talk about the days before uh stadium course.

Bruce Devlin 11:27

TPC, yeah, right. Right.

Al Geiberger 11:30

I don't know, Bruce, were you there when the wind blew at Say Grass Country Club? That would be the year or two before they moved over to the stadium.

Bruce Devlin 11:41

Do you I I remember the tenth hole that day you were talking about, and I was playing with Art Wall, and Art Wall couldn't carry it to the fairway. It was so windy, and uh do you remember the tenth hole there? It used to have a lake in front of it, and then it was a bit of rough for about three or four yards, and he had to go left of everything because he couldn't carry it.

Al Geiberger 12:05

We had a lot of problems on that hole. In fact, Gary McCord, remember there was a barber's chair in the locker room, and Gary McCord put on a hat and put on a little ticket in his hat that said press, and every guy that came in he said, Did you have any doubles, any triples? And he took a he and he interviewed you in the barber's chair, and he was trying to get a high ball for the right.

Bruce Devlin 12:35

The worst score on every hole.

Al Geiberger 12:37

I think it was a hole aggregate.

Bruce Devlin 12:39

That was I I think it I think it ended up being like a hundred and three.

Al Geiberger 12:44

At least I think it was a little bit more.

Bruce Devlin 13:03

I do remember that.

Al Geiberger 13:07

We didn't know that he was such a character then. Um but he had his hat on and he put a little like writers used to put a little ticket in their hat and press and he would interview you. And then if you didn't have any high scores, you had to now we don't want you. That was the tournament JC Sneed. I was playing with him, and we were at the end of uh I don't know if it was first green or tenth green. We weren't far from the clubhouse, and his hat blew off. Remember, JC used to wear those kind of straw hats, and it blew off, and it started rolling on the brim, yeah, and it started rolling across the green, and we're all over on the other side, and JC's balls way down there, and it rolled all the way down, and we could see it happen, and it ran into his ball, and he got penalized for we could see it happening, and it was like in slow motion. Oh my god. He wasn't too happy about that, can you imagine?

Mike Gonzalez 14:14

Oh amazing. Well, Al, I want to take you back to that uh that that TPC win of yours because uh you led wire to wire, and you look at the scores you posted. They were all scoring records at Colonial, at least the the first three rounds, maybe the the the four rounds, too. Uh 66, 68, 67, 69, 270, minus 10. Uh certainly was a scoring record there at that time. You must have been playing some pretty good golf.

Al Geiberger 14:42

Yeah, I didn't know that eventually they seem to shoot all low scores there now. You have to almost average 66 there, but that's a great golf course. Uh you have to play all kinds of shots, and we all love the course. And uh uh Yeah, that was pretty low scores for me because usually I didn't shoot a lot of low scores. I did better on the kind of the harder.

Bruce Devlin 15:05

Tough of course. Yes, you did.

Al Geiberger 15:07

Where a par was a par and uh like fire winning there twice and stuff.

Mike Gonzalez 15:14

Yeah, this this one stood out because you know, in it in addition to you and and of course Dave Stockton, who was three behind you, the only other player under par for the week was was Hubie Green. Hubie had lost a playoff at Hartford, I think, the prior week. So uh uh the three of you played some pretty good golf, uh and must have been under some tough conditions because nobody else scored that well.

Al Geiberger 15:34

The tough conditions were it was hot. Remember it was Bruce? I don't know. Yeah, I do remember. Can you imagine going to Colonial in August? I was so hot. I remember just living from water cooler to water cooler, Gatorade. That was the first time I'd ever seen Gatorade, and they made coolers of Gatorade, and I remember surviving on Gatorade there, and that would be so that's 1975. That's about when Gatorade started uh back then. But uh I seem to do well in hot conditions. I don't know. I mean, I'm miserable the whole time, but I in a lot of tournaments that I won, the 59, we're all in horrible, hot, very uncomfortable conditions. Nowadays I go out and it's hot and I collapse in one hole.

Mike Gonzalez 16:26

Well, I'll tell you what, I uh and Bruce, maybe you've heard this. I love this quote from Dave Stockton after this event. Uh-oh. He was he was quoted as saying, uh 270, it's an unbelievable score. I don't know what Al is on. I've got to find out what he's taking and take some of that myself.

Bruce Devlin 16:50

Well, when you were leading into the Al winning that yeah with the score and all on, you were talking about him, you know, only other one player under par was Hubert Green, and I thought you were gonna say to him how much money I won that week.

Al Geiberger 17:05

Yeah. How much do you remember?

Bruce Devlin 17:09

Yeah, I mean I won$387 that week, Al.

Al Geiberger 17:16

I think I won$35,000. Now they're what are they gonna get at the players' I'm not sure what it is. Six and a half million.

Bruce Devlin 17:27

Something like that, I think.

Mike Gonzalez 17:29

Something crazy. I mean, the the purse is probably the purse for the tournament is probably the the accumulation of all the money you guys played for in your whole careers on the PGA tour.

Bruce Devlin 17:39

No doubt about that. That's for sure. Or getting better, which uh whichever way you look at it, right?

Al Geiberger 17:51

I remember the day my son Brent when he played on the tour, and he won twice. He won Greensboro, Hartford, uh Sammy Davis, Hartford, and Greensboro, and he won over a million, a million one, and that was a little bit more than I won my whole career on the PJ Tour. When your son wins more than you won your whole career, which was a lot of years, and he got it in one turn, one week.

Bruce Devlin 18:23

He won uh he won uh 28 years after you won at the Greater Greensboro Open. You won in 76 and he won in 2004.

Al Geiberger 18:34

Yeah. Yeah. Different golf courses, but uh still the uh now they're back where I won it was Sedgefield, which that's correct. That's shorter course, and they shoot low scores. And Brent won at uh can't think of the other course.

Bruce Devlin 18:50

Forrest Oakes. Forrest Oakes, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:54

Yeah, that uh Al, do you remember who you beat uh at that tournament and whether he was any good or not?

Bruce Devlin 19:02

I do, I know who he beat. Which tournament?

Al Geiberger 19:04

Greensboro?

Bruce Devlin 19:05

I know Yeah, you know who you beat.

Al Geiberger 19:09

Uh we're talking about you or Trevino?

Bruce Devlin 19:12

No, we're talking about Trevino. The quiet man. Yeah.

Al Geiberger 19:18

I was leading going into the final round at Greensboro, and I'm paired with this reasonably new guy we didn't know, all he did was talk all the time, Trevino. And we start going along, and I feel like it's my tournament to win, the way things are going. And then pretty soon I faltered a little and Trevino started coming up, and the gallery started going crazy. And I remember on the uh 10, 11, 12, 13th hole over there or something, they started cheering so hard for Trevino, I had to do something quick. And 'cause it it was getting out of character. Now I have a lot of friends in Greensboro, but they weren't very they were pretty quiet. Oh I said, you know what I'm gonna do? And I didn't know I this it sounds like a Dave Stockton thing. I'm gonna send all those people home miserable because I'm gonna beat him. And I I knocked it up on the arena par five over there, and then the par three, which would be about sixteen. Does that make any sense? Sixteen? And I remember hitting uh like a a top flight. Remember, we could change balls. I changed a top light golf ball and hit a two-airn, like a bullet down there on the green and made the putting. And uh one and that put me two, I think two ahead of Torino, and I and won it. But uh but I I realized it made me so mad. These people were thought he was so funny and cheering so loud. I said, I'm gonna send all those people home miserable. So when you see basketball teams, the home crowd stuff, you want to send the basketball the team, the home team crowd home miserable. That's your goal. It's probably I probably learned that from Stockton because he he thinks like that.

Bruce Devlin 21:14

So Bones, the next year you went to you played a difficult golf course, one had a great victory at the Western Open. You won at Butler National, one shot over Joe Porter.

Al Geiberger 21:26

Uh Butler, as we know, is a great tough golf course. And Bob Dixon was leading. Do you remember that? And he was like, I do remember Bob Dixon, yes, sir. Quite a few strokes. And I'm playing with Bob and his group and all of a sudden Bob started faltering as the round went. And I felt actually I felt bad for him, you know, and it turns out as it gets near the end, he's fallen way back. And I ended up winning the tournament. Uh Um and Joe Porter was in ahead of me. Yeah, that was a weird tournament because I felt bad winning over Bob Dixon, and he was like six shots ahead or something. I don't remember, but it was uh I almost almost apologized to his wife, Carolyn. What a tough golf course, Butler.

Mike Gonzalez 22:28

It sure is. That's a that's a Fazio track, of course, George Fozio, I believe. And uh um, you know, having lived there for a number of years uh in the suburb just north of Oakbrook, I got to know that golf course and that tournament pretty well. Were you playing the previous year when uh they had the lightning strike?

Al Geiberger 22:45

Yes, I was there. I wasn't too far away. I played with Dick Lotz, I remember, and uh we were on a hole that was going away from where they we were at the green where they were. But I was gonna tell you another story about ties into the 59. Because I shoot the 59 at at Colonial in Memphis. So now I I've shot in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and on Friday of that Butler tournament when we played there, I shot 81. Uh not the year I won. I must have been whatever year in 77, obviously.

Mike Gonzalez 23:31

In 77, yeah, it was just a couple weeks later, I think, wasn't it?

Al Geiberger 23:34

So Friday of colonial uh in Memphis when I shot 59, 14 days later, I had shot in the 60s, 70s, and then I shot in the 80s, 14 days later. And uh I thought that was quite an accomplishment. Shows you how humbling the game is.

Bruce Devlin 23:56

And at and at the uh Memphis Open when you shot that 59, you you created something else that was a little different. You never shot one round in the 60s, not even one. It is amazing.

Al Geiberger 24:10

A statistician told me he figured it all out, and he said if you to shoot a score of 273, which I shot to win, uh, and uh not have a round in the uh sixties was impossible. No, hey, I wanted to. But it wasn't Bruce. Were you there that day?

Bruce Devlin 24:36

I was, yes, I was, and I I kept looking at the scoreboard and thought they were making a mistake, to be quite honest with you. I did. I thought the kids that putting up those numbers, uh, they're getting some bad information because uh if you'll remember, that wasn't the easiest golf course that we ever played, my friend. That was a very tough golf course back, you know, at the length we hit the ball back in those days. I swear to God, I thought something's gone wrong here that that can't be the score that Guyberger shooting.

Al Geiberger 25:10

That's why I led you into it, because if you're there, you're you're one of the few remaining that uh guys that are around know how tough that golf course was. And uh of course, you make a lot of long putts that tames can tame any golf course. Now, what I don't remember is they claim we played lift clean in place, and I do not remember that.

Bruce Devlin 25:33

I must have been in a fog or something, but uh yeah, and I think that I think that just only made the score that you, you know. I thought, well, see, playing lift clean in place, but you know, that's still a ridiculous score. There's not you can't shoot 59 around that golf course. That's all there was to it.

Al Geiberger 25:52

Yeah, you're right. I have more people that either played there then or came back and played U.S. Open qualifiers there that say, you know, I had respect for your 59, but now I've played it. This is unbelievable. Um how long that course was. And I still to this day there's no way to find out whether we played lift clean in place or not. I I don't remember doing it because the course it was warm. People think when you lift clean a place, it's muddy and wet. It was the opposite. Remember, it was 102 or three that day. Yeah. High humidity. Oh.

Bruce Devlin 26:32

I can't remember uh lift clean in place either, Al, to be quite honest with you.

Al Geiberger 26:37

Well, it was about a month later, some writer said in an article about lift clean a place. And I went, we didn't play lift clean in place. There wasn't any need. It was dry. In fact, remember there was a fire uh off where the parking lot was, and twelve cars burned up in the fire. Now that you that doesn't happen in the uh one car got on fire and they couldn't get in the rest, and they just burned them all down. I remember watching the smoke from the parking lot go up in the air. That and it went straight up. There was no wind or anything. It was uh but uh I still I think maybe if there well some writer put in there Live Clean a Place, and so I thought I don't remember playing Live Clean a Place, but uh Stockton, if he were listening to this, he'd say, Yeah, Guyberger, you were in such a fog that you didn't know what was happening, you know. If you hear my version of the 59 and Dave Stockton's version of the 59, we make a good Abbott and Costello because you know Dave can put the negative twist on it. And then I'm of course doing the positive part, and and we go back and forth because Dave comes back with some, oh guy, you didn't know where the hell you were, and you know, you could hear stuff like that. We've done it, we've we've done it several times.

Mike Gonzalez 28:05

I bet I bet you have guys. Do you remember how hot it was that day?

Al Geiberger 28:08

Yeah, it was 100. We looked, I thought it was 103 high humidity. Now I thought as time goes by we're exaggerating. We've they've looked it up and everything it was. Can you imagine 103 and high humidity? I remember Dave and I, we were playing together, and that's another story. Uh we walked down to the practice tea down there to the right, and it was so hot we were like walking in an oven, and we hit about four balls, and we turned around and walked back. We said that's it. It was brutal because see, we played in the afternoon at the hottest time. Yeah, it was uh that uh sometimes this is why I tell people they don't I think you know they say look out for an ailing golfer. Well, if you're playing in 103 degrees with high humidity, you feel like you're ailing. And I think that kept I was thinking of surviving the round more than what I was shooting, you know, if things were happening, but I'm thinking, well, you know, you kind of go back to the one shot at a time, one hole at a time, one shot at a time to get to get through the heat to keep from collapsing. And I think that actually helped me mentally. Uh, because once you start thinking about your score, uh you everything happens. Once I love these 59 alerts. When they cameras run out and they start 59 alert, and they're back on 13, you know the guy's toast after that because the cameras are there, the announcers are there. It's a 59 alert. Um the only alert that I had was all the people showed up with three hole three four holes to play. They ended up on the my my uh 15th green. Yeah, my fifteenth green. They were all bunched there waiting. Uh and when I when I hold the putt, they started yelling 59. But that's plenty of time to screw up from there. Um somehow I got it in.

Mike Gonzalez 30:19

You sure did. I think the most outrageous 59 alert was uh something I just saw on Twitter uh yesterday in the in the uh uh in the first round of the TPC. Some guy b birdied the first two holes, and and the post was 59 alert with a question mark.

Al Geiberger 30:37

Yeah, that's another thing. People say, How do you shoot a 59? Well, obviously, I've had time to think about it, and usually you don't, and Bruce, you can chime in on this. You don't start out with six or seven birdies in a row because then it's too early. You can't hang on to all that. It's very hard to get to the clubhouse. Mine, I just started out, I went birdie, par, birdie, par, par. Then in the middle of the round, I went birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie. Right in the middle of the round. Right. I went under par for seven holes, and that kind of put you in the zone, because all these psychiatrists think they know the zone. Well, you can't just put yourself in the zone, it happens. And I think I was drifting into the zone then. Uh and if you start out with a, because well, my friend told me to remind and tell you this. Later in the year up in Pleasant Valley, uh my friend Van was catting for me because they lived there, and he and he said, Don't you remember you started out and you buried the six first six holes and everybody went crazy? 59, here it goes, 59. And I ended up shooting 67 or 68. I was so stuck with that.

Mike Gonzalez 32:04

Well, there was nothing to indicate to people that you had a 59 in you coming into that week because you weren't exactly on a roll, were you?

Al Geiberger 32:13

Yeah, you're right. Um the two weeks prior that I'd played, I missed the cut. And I remember my putting was yippy and everything. I remember practicing after missing the cut in Atlanta. Uh trying to figure out some putting stroke. Then I went home for a week and figured out something on my putting. Oh, I know, my caddy, believe it or not. Lee Lynch. Remember my caddy? Lee Lynch. I don't know how he brought it up, but that I was aiming wrong. Uh, I can't say it like Lee. Lee didn't have any teeth. Your aim to right. I was aiming, I lined up a little bit right on every putt. Well, when you aim right, um, you have to correct during your stroke. Well, that makes you decelerate. Because if you're aiming right, you come back to the hole, it's a slowdown. You can't you decelerate. And so I started feeling like I was aiming left. Really, I was aiming straight, probably, aiming left, and it just opened the door and I started making all those putts, and I then I started to think I was invincible, and and believe it or not, and Lee Lynch was on my bag. That's another story. Bruce, do you remember Lee Lynch?

Bruce Devlin 33:36

Oh, yeah, I remember Lee very well.

Al Geiberger 33:40

Lee Lynch. He was the mean old man, all the kids on tour, cuz and they they hated Lee because he was nasty to them, and they'd call him the mean old man. And he was hard. Uh I would he would caddy for me for a few weeks, and then I'd give him to Bobby Nichols for a few weeks, and Bobby'd give them to Dave Hill, and uh you know, we just passed him around, and then he'd give them back uh because he was so cantankerous and and stubborn. People can't believe that I shot 59 with Lee. In fact, they called him two shot. Two shot means it's a two-shot penalty if you have Lee on your back. So and I had Lee on my back for the 59, so technically I shot 57 if I had Lee on my bag. That was his claim to fame. You know what? All the guys afterwards that went up, hey Lee, that's great. You know, you Al shot 58 with 59 with you on the bag and all that. And he went, Yeah, if he'd listened to me, I'd have we'd shot 57. You know, he wouldn't accept anything nice. He oh no, now if he'd listened to me, we'd we'd have said 57. Doesn't that sound like Lee, Bruce? That sounds like Lee to me. Boy, he was uh cantankerous, uh stubborn. A quick story: he was catting for somebody years after I'd I'd finished playing. I hadn't wasn't playing anymore, and he was still out there, and he's on catting for somebody in a group and he's holding the pin. And Gary McCord was announcing, and he said, Look at that, there's Lee Lynch. You know what? He's never gonna die. He's just gonna petrify what is it, like petrified wood. He's just gonna crystallize, crystallize while holding the pin someday, and he basically did. He he died while out on tour.

Mike Gonzalez 35:41

Well, Al, you shoot 59. People have to remember that was only the second round, so you still had some golf to play, didn't you?

Al Geiberger 35:48

Right. They picked David Duvall been winning the tournament, shooting 59. Try shooting it in the second round, and then win the tournament you're supposed to win.

Bruce Devlin 35:58

Yeah, right. Different thing.

Al Geiberger 36:00

The third day when I went out there, I'm walking down the first hole, and people start yelling, you better win this tournament. You shot 59 in it, and I went, Oh my god, do they have any idea that that uh that that was a lot of pressure? In fact, the story behind it was the pressure got so great and the heat. Uh the last day I'm playing with Gary Player, and by the nine and I had a three or four shot lead going into the last round, Gary Player caught me by the ninth hole, and he took the lead. And it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I realized when I walked from the long where the ninth grain was all the way to the tenth grain T was a long walk, and I and I felt relief like the monkeys off my back, but I was able to regroup myself and got and I came back, shot 32, I think. Did I shoot 32? You did, yes, uh 32 to win by win by four. Uh that one of my greatest comebacks ever, I think.

Mike Gonzalez 37:10

That's the way to close them out.

Al Geiberger 37:12

But I almost and I've seen that happen when a player has a lead for a long time and he loses it. Some of them will come back and some won't. But sometimes it's almost a relief. And they and if they're playing well and things are going good, they're able to come back. I've noticed that happen several times since then.

Mike Gonzalez 37:31

Uh Al, just to finish up with that tournament, uh, and I suppose any of us that live long enough, we're all going to experience some tragedy in our life, and certainly you had, because uh just three months prior to that victory, you lost your father in a horrific plane crash, didn't you?

Al Geiberger 37:48

Right, the Canary Islands crash when the two seven forty-sevens crashed on the ground. Uh I was defending I'd gone back, I've gone to Greensboro because we had good friends in Greensboro. We were staying at their house the week before, so I and I had an outing on Monday, so I we came in on Thursday or Friday or something like that. Well we were at dinner dinner at their house that night, and a call came from Ann Oosterhouse, Peter's wife, because she knew my dad very well, and she is the one that told me, I hate to tell you this, but I think your dad, Ray, as she called him, uh, was on that flight. She was the one that broke the news to me that uh uh because she she and Peter lived at their my dad with my dad after my mother passed away for about a year or two, and so they were very close. But that was uh yeah, and then I I was, you know, usually something like that happens, you quit, you go home. And we had about three days. I had an outing on Monday, and I finally said, Well, I'll stay and play it Monday. And by then, see, we didn't know whether we had to go to Canary Islands or go back to Los Angeles at home, and nobody was at home. Why go home? Nobody uh so um I'm out there at this outing for Scoville zipper company, which Dave and I would do every year there on Monday, and the friends that I stay with in Greensboro and Dave came up to me and said, you know, Al, almost brings tears on, you ought to stay here and play for your dad. Don't go home, defend your title and play for your dad. And I went, no, no, I can't do that. And by the then I started thinking about it for nine holes the rest of the day. And I went, you know, you're right, because my dad uh uh he always wore the hat that I wore at Greensboro, he wore it for a whole year, and you know, it was a big deal for my dad. He was always very happy when when my when I'd win or something, and and uh they say play in his honor. Well, I by then I'd got a hold of myself. And uh you realize that in a moment like that you you can dig down deeper inside than you think you can. It takes something like that to make you dig really deep. And I played that week. I finished fifth uh that year. Forgot who won. I was criticized by a couple of players for playing when your dad has just been killed. But uh most people thought it was good, but we were stuck. We didn't know where to go. If we go home, there was my mother was was alive and my brothers, nobody around, and we weren't sure you didn't have to go over there to identify remains or something. Like we were kind of froze there for a while. That was a a weird a weird situation. Uh but uh my my dad was uh a golf nut, didn't play very well. Luckily I did not copy his swing. Swing was so bad, I think I deliberately didn't copy it. But uh he loved his golf. He just loved it. And he he I remember when he I'm gonna he said, Oh, I'm gonna retire now. This is 65. I'm gonna retire now, and I'm gonna start playing a lot more, and I'm gonna lower my handicap. And his handicap was 12 then when he retired, and every year it went up one. So it was about 21 or 2 when he passed away. He thought that getting to play a lot was gonna lower his handicap.

Mike Gonzalez 41:44

Well, I'm I'm sure he was looking down on that 59.

Al Geiberger 41:47

Yeah, my mother was uh she loved her gong, and she would hit it about 120 yards at the most, 100 yards, and she whistled. It was because she was nervous, but all the other ladies thought she was that was a confident whistle. And so both my parents playing, I was just around it, and uh they they were great parents because they didn't put pressure on me to to win. You know, if I won or they'd go to when I won the southern or lose state tournaments in the state, not the state uh amateur, I never won that. Uh state fair tournament, different ones I lost, and one uh Southern Cal amateur and things are won or lost. They never showed a lot of emotion either way, whether I won or lost. They didn't put pressure on you to win, which I always thought I didn't realize it was so great. You weren't playing for your parents, you might say.

Mike Gonzalez 42:45

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, tell your friends.

Intro Music 43:00

Until we take it up again, fair way.