Al Geiberger - Part 3 (The Majors and Ryder Cup)

"Mr. 59" Al Geiberger recalls his final tour victory at the 1979 Colonial Invitational where his high school teammate, Charles Schwab was to become the future tournament sponsor. Al reflects back on his performances in the major championships, including a few close calls that could have added to his major count. He recounts his Ryder Cup experiences in 1967 playing for Captain Hogan at Champions GC and for Captain Palmer at Laurel Valley in 1975.  Al remembers his successful senior career and he and Bruce compare notes on their paltry pension earnings from both tours. Al Geiberger wraps up his life story, "FORE the Good of the game."

Transcript

Bruce Devlin 0:15

So, Al, the last uh your last victory on the PGA tour was uh you you went back to a place where you'd won the TPC championship, and that was in 1979 at Colonial, and you beat a couple of pretty good players there. Gene Lindler and Don January by a stroke.

Al Geiberger 0:34

We know them well. I remember that week it was so hot, and I wasn't playing well coming to the tournament. And I even told Lee, my caddy, I said, I said, Lee, don't even come down here. You know, it's it's gonna be so hot and miserable. I'm playing so bad. And I go down there and I use a friend of mine who were still close friends. He was in high school. Some friends had told me about him. He's a good player, and uh he cadied for me, and I ended up winning the uh winning the the players w with him. His name is Doc his doctor, he became an orthopedic surgeon, uh Dr. Wolf is his name. And and uh my friend of mine had given me a little tip. I stayed with him in New Jersey and he had given me a little tip on my golf swing. And you know what all you need is a some little tip, and if it works, you think it works, you ride it. And uh I other than that I was playing not very well when I went down to Fort Worth from I think where did we come from? Hartford or somewhere? I don't know. Um and I rode that tip the rest of the week and now the caddy that the high school kid the caddy for me, Dr. Wolf, or now he's Dr. Wolf. He uh he uh he's gone through, practiced, and retired now. Yeah, we've all had a lot of good caddy success stories, you might say.

Bruce Devlin 2:12

Yeah, over the years.

Al Geiberger 2:13

Yeah, some good, some bad, but uh Mark Wolf was his name. He was so he was getting ready to go take his test for med school and he was reading flashcards while he was on the tournament, reading flashcards for to prepare for his and uh he talked real slow, real slow like day. He didn't talk like he was very smart. Everybody told me your caddy is very smart, and I and then I heard him talk and said there's no way he can be very smart. And they well, he's doing these flashcards. Well, it turned out he he could have picked any medical school he wanted to go to. He was and we still stay in contact. He belongs to Colonial, he's been the member there for years. Uh two of his boys played at college at TCU. Wolf, that's the last name. Two I can't think of their names, but uh it's amazing when you you go back at your caddy trail. Some you remember, some you have intentionally forgotten.

Mike Gonzalez 3:24

There you go. How many do you did you have, uh Bruce? Did you ever count them up?

Bruce Devlin 3:29

Oh, I couldn't, I can't I can't remember them. Uh my my son always says to me, Dad, I know that you I know that you had at least seven caddies because they all they all tried to get money off me when I was out there trying to play on the tour, and then they'd used to say, Well, your daddy always give me a little help. Yeah.

Al Geiberger 3:52

It was money. We weren't making money, and they didn't they they that was a different story. Now the caddies they're making oh man.

Bruce Devlin 4:02

Most of them are on contract.

Al Geiberger 4:03

Yeah, yeah, they're on contract and they become millionaires and stuff like that, but I had some some I've forgotten, but some were pretty bad because you picked them up because they were available. And others uh I have one, my friend Van. He's still my closest friend. Uh he can't they assigned him to me when he was 13 years old at Pleasant Valley. He was his family, lived there and played there, and they assigned him to me. And I have a picture of Van and my golf bag, and they were the same height.

Bruce Devlin 4:39

And oh boy.

Al Geiberger 4:42

And uh yeah, and we've been he's still one of my best friends. Uh I call I talk to him all the time. In fact, he called me to tell him tell me what to tell you guys. Oh, did he? Great, that's good.

Mike Gonzalez 4:55

Well, hopefully you hopefully you listened to him.

Al Geiberger 4:58

He went to college in the business world and graduated with lots of money and retired down in down in Boca.

Bruce Devlin 5:07

Good for him.

Mike Gonzalez 5:07

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit if we can, Al, about uh major championship experiences. We covered the PGA win, of course. Uh uh you did pretty well in a number of U.S. opens. I mean, you had some close calls, didn't you? You had uh uh, you know, when player won at Bell Reve in 65 over Nagel in the playoff, you were T4. You must have played well at Marion the year that uh Trevino bicked Nicholas.

Al Geiberger 5:32

All I remember it was hot that week.

Bruce Devlin 5:34

Yeah, it was hot that week. That was the playoff.

Al Geiberger 5:38

Wow, did I I what I finished fourth there?

Mike Gonzalez 5:42

You finished fourth that year in 65 at Bell Reve, yeah.

Al Geiberger 5:45

I forgot about that.

Mike Gonzalez 5:47

Yeah, and then you know, second place finishes in '69 in 1976. Um the the first one was uh was um oh, let's see, Moody, I guess, won in 69, didn't he, done a champions?

Bruce Devlin 6:00

Yeah, good story there.

Al Geiberger 6:03

You know, and I'm playing along, nothing's really happening, and all of a sudden, the last nine holes, I start making Birdie Birdie, and that's Bruce knows that's how tournaments like that happen. All of a sudden everybody else falls, and you and I get around to the 15 part three, fifteen, six, six, sixteen, sixteen. And I look up on the board and I'm leading. Orville has fallen back, and I quickly three-footted from about 40 feet, and I powered the next hole and had a chance for a birdie on 18 that missed that. And Orville, I didn't know it. We didn't nobody knew Orville, maybe you did, but we didn't know Orville that he was one of the worst putters in the world. And he was able to get the ball in the hole, the last four or five holes, and and I ended up second. I went, the worst putter in the world, and he and he got it in because Dean Beaman and I were second with um Rosberg.

Mike Gonzalez 7:13

Rossberg, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Al Geiberger 7:15

And then the other one was another fluke. Same thing in Atlanta, Atlanta Athletic Club.

unknown 7:23

Yeah.

Al Geiberger 7:23

I was played okay, but I nothing was really happening on the last day, and playing good, but not making any pus. All of a sudden I started making birdies at the end, and the other brick started backing up. And I was playing with Weisskopf, and we both parred the la I made a 15-footer for a par on 18, because that's the whole remember we had the layup? Because if you hit it, people don't realize that there was a pond in front of us of the green. And if you just touched the rough, you didn't go for the green because you couldn't get it out of the rough, US Open Rough. And I hit it there and I laid up and hit it on the green and made up 12, 15 footer or something pretty good. And so I'm thinking, oh, maybe well, Tom and I are in there, we're gonna maybe be in a playoff. Because we look back and Jerry Pate had hit it into the rough on the right, and we went, no way. He's gonna, we might he made bogey. And we're signing our card, and he uh and we hear a zunk in the crowd yelling, and he he had drawn it, somebody had taken a big divot, and his ball was in the cleaned-out area. That's why he was able to hit a pure, he put it in there about like fellows. Do you remember that, Bruce, at all?

Bruce Devlin 8:43

Yeah, I do remember, sure. Yeah, and you know, we we talked to Jerry about that too. He he was on the podcast with us. And uh yeah, it was uh it was quite uh I I remember one thing, and I think I mentioned it uh when we were interviewing him, but uh I I my uh Charles Cootie and myself were paired within the first two days, and and this young guy uh we s we had the honor on the 15th hole, which was a long par three with water on the right hand side, and I think I had the honor and I pulled it into the left bunker, and Cootie pulled it and hit it in the left bunker, and Pate stood up there and just frozen rope at about two feet from the hole, and we thought, My God, this guy can really play. And he ends up winning.

Al Geiberger 9:30

Yeah. And he froze that thing out of the rough where he would have had the layup, and no, you know, he can make power from there, we did, but it's not easy. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 9:41

And uh that was a smooth little five iron, and you you mentioned now that you hit that rough 118, and and it's likely you're not gonna be able to go for it. Well, no, uh, as you remember, John Mahaffey felt like he needed to go for it. He did and wasn't successful.

Al Geiberger 9:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh uh Pate was lucky. You know, somebody had been there and wiped out the divot, and so he had a decent lie and and went for it.

Mike Gonzalez 10:07

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I wanted to ask you about uh the open championship because you played in an era uh where it wasn't that big a deal for American players for a number of reasons. One, it wasn't official money, uh, it didn't pay that much, and so it cost you money to go over, even if you won, probably. Right. It wasn't convenient. It wasn't convenient because you might play in it and then have to miss the PGA championship the next year. That happened a few times in the 60s where they ran them back to back. But just take us through so our listeners understand the mentality of the player toward the open championship back then.

Al Geiberger 10:42

Well, Bruce, you did you probably went to it a little more. You probably had a different uh being from Australia or not. I don't know.

Bruce Devlin 10:53

Yeah, that's true. You're you're true. Uh most most people that were born outside of the U.S. always felt like that if they could win the Open Championship, uh you know, that was that was a big deal for them. So just about, you know, I played there from 64 on, I think, maybe 15, 20 times, something like that.

Al Geiberger 11:13

Yeah, see, it cost you a lot to go. You had to almost skip the week before and and ruin the week after. So you really almost wiped out three weeks. Um it cost so much. I went when I became I was when I started had a good run there in 74, 5, and 6 when I was playing good in there, I went over to the to the British Open and had a little more money to go over there. Yeah. I think the best I did I did 12th. I played at uh Royal Lithum is where my first one I'm gonna do.

Mike Gonzalez 11:54

You picked a couple of picked a couple of tough golf courses. Lithum with uh they must have had a million bunkers and then and then the next year you play a carnusty.

Al Geiberger 12:04

Yeah, Carnasty.

Mike Gonzalez 12:05

I Carnasty's right.

Al Geiberger 12:09

Uh that's when they had a second cut, and I I made I missed the second cut. And yeah. It's a lot of work a lot of work to go, and you would traveling, you had to almost give up the week before if you wanted to give give a good run at the British. And you uh and you would ruin the week after. So we weren't making much, so we were counting what we made each week to keep going. And uh so you did decided what to do.

Mike Gonzalez 12:46

Well, if we jump ahead to the PGA championship where you had one win, you had some other opportunities too there in that tournament, didn't you?

Al Geiberger 12:54

I guess let's see. Well, obviously the following year, where I said I won back-to-back because I I won by four shots and uh lost by two the next year, so technically I was the leader for two years. Nobody nobody else ever looked at it that way, but yeah, uh, where else uh PJ played well?

Mike Gonzalez 13:14

Yeah, the next next year was the top ten at Pecan Valley, the year Julius Boros won.

Al Geiberger 13:19

Oh yeah, yeah. Right. I guess I did play okay there.

Mike Gonzalez 13:24

Yeah, top ten at Tanglewood in 74 when Trevino won. Trevino won.

Al Geiberger 13:29

Right, yes, yeah. I liked I liked Tanglewood. In fact, turned out that's where I won my first senior event. It was the vantage was at Tanglewood. I won the that was I won a hundred thousand. I think, wow, man, that was fantastic.

Bruce Devlin 13:48

Money!

Al Geiberger 13:49

Yeah. So I did play pretty good at Tanglewood, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 13:53

Yeah, and then '77, that year that uh Watkins won in a sudden death playoff with Gene Littler, you were T6 at Pebble Beach.

Al Geiberger 14:01

Oh. So I played okay there. Okay. So I what did I think?

Bruce Devlin 14:07

Yeah, he's good.

Al Geiberger 14:08

At Pebble. Well, no, there's another story that goes for that. That was the week the Ryder Cup team they finalized the Ryder Cup team. So I was twelfth, and they took twelve. Every year the Ryder Cup, well, you didn't pay a lot of attention to it, but the Ryder Cup team, top 12, were the team. And so I was twelve. So I'm there that week. They I go in and I get fit and I have everything, get all the sizes, all the clothing, everything ready, and that week uh Lanny Watkins beat Gene Littler in the playoff. Yeah. And the new rule was if you if a member of the PGA won the PGA championship, it knocked off the 12th man. So nobody felt sorry for it. Nobody said anything. I got knocked off the Ryder Cup team. It happened several years later, and I felt so sorry for whoever it was, and I'm going, nobody said a word when it happened. Nobody cared about most. Nobody knew that I got knocked off the team, but uh I had the clothes, fit, and everything.

Mike Gonzalez 15:22

Oh man. Oh man. Yeah, you crazy. You could have gone back to back in the Ryder Cup because as a player you competed at champions. Uh that was a victory for the U.S. side in 1967, and then and then in 75, uh, the Ryder Cup before that 77 year, uh, it was a win at Laurel Valley. Why don't you take us through a little bit of your your Ryder Cup experience? Because uh your captain was none other than Ben Hogan.

Al Geiberger 15:45

I had two pretty good ones, didn't I?

Mike Gonzalez 15:47

Yeah, you sure did.

Al Geiberger 15:48

Yeah, my first year, 16 uh seven, wasn't it?

Mike Gonzalez 15:54

Yep, yep. Yeah, 67.

Al Geiberger 15:56

Because I won the PJ in 66, uh, was Ben Hogan. People asked, oh, what was he like and all that? And your meetings and all that, and I say, What meetings? All I remember, and Bruce could probably appreciate this, was we didn't even go in the clubhouse for me. We were meant in a group between the 18th Green and the Clubhouse. We just huddled around a group, and Ben's Ben said a few words, and you had to listen because he didn't talk very loud. He said, First of all, you have to play the small ball. Remember back then it was very British to play the small ball. We had a choice. So he thought it was a disadvantage if we played the big ball. So he said we had to play the small ball. He said, Wear any damn clothes you want, because by the then clothing was starting to come in, and everybody was arguing over nothing fit and the wrong clothing, and it was just a mess. He said, Wear any damn clothes you want, and most of all, don't lose. That was it. That was our pep talk.

Mike Gonzalez 17:02

That was the speech.

Al Geiberger 17:07

It was that was that was basically it. Uh yeah, don't don't lose.

Mike Gonzalez 17:14

Yeah, you and Gene Littler played together.

Al Geiberger 17:16

We did, we played a lot, yeah. Yeah, Gene and I paired together.

Mike Gonzalez 17:22

Yeah, you you split three matches with uh with uh Tony Jacqueline and Dave Thomas. So you were one one and one with those guys.

Al Geiberger 17:28

Oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, they didn't even care. They kept me with the same group the whole time. Uh they people said, Did you have a say in who you played against? I said, No, I had no idea. So I ended up they just won whatever worked, and we were already winning, so they yeah, they just left it. Um playing the same guy. And then the other one was that Royal Valley was Arnold. Our meetings were a little, not much. Uh they all got together who they wanted to play with, and and I think I sat out the first match, and then I ended up I played with Johnny Miller, I think. As a partner, uh Ray Floyd as a partner.

Mike Gonzalez 18:15

Well, whoever you played with, you didn't lose.

Al Geiberger 18:18

No, Lou Graham was a partner, yeah. Louie, yeah. So I had different partners every match there.

Bruce Devlin 18:26

And uh and never lost a match.

Al Geiberger 18:31

Never lost tied, I think, didn't I?

Bruce Devlin 18:34

Never lost. Undefeated.

Al Geiberger 18:36

I think we tied one in there with didn't it, Jocalon, an Oosterhouse or something?

Bruce Devlin 18:40

Yeah, it could have been, I think.

Mike Gonzalez 18:41

I don't know, but uh just give our listeners a feel, uh Al, because the Writer Cup has changed so much since then, it's a whole different deal on a different level. Give our listeners a feel for what it was like back then.

Al Geiberger 18:55

Yeah, well, it was a big deal, but not a big I wish I'd have thought of it as a bigger deal. I would have played a little harder to get on it because I was always kind of on the edge and just missed or something like that. But I could uh one funny story of the Ryder Cup, Laurel Valley, Lee Trevino's there, and Peter Oosterhouse, every he beat everybody. He would beat everybody. Have you heard this story? This is where we're in our team meeting, who's gonna play who? And Trevino says, Give me that oosterhouse. You know what? I'll I'll play him, I'll beat him. If I don't, I'll kiss every one of you guys' ass. He said he goes out to play Peter Oosterhouse, and and he uh and Peter beats him. So we all ran back to the player meeting room and we all lined up our drawers as he came in the door. He denies it. But uh wait, it was either Peter, was it Peter his drawers or was it uh the other guy? Uh he's passed away now from from England. Um he was beating everybody too. But anyway, Lee said, give me give me that SOB, I'll beat him, and if not, you know, and so we ran back, we ran back there and we all had our drawers down as he walked in the door.

Mike Gonzalez 20:32

It wasn't it wasn't Brian Barnes, was it?

Al Geiberger 20:35

Brian Barnes, yes. Was it that might be might have been him rather than Peter. I'm not sure the stories fade after a while. Lee even denies that it happened.

Mike Gonzalez 20:48

Well, as I recall, uh uh he he beat Nicholas twice in the same day back-to-back singles matches in one of the Ryder Cups, Brian Barnes did.

Al Geiberger 20:56

Yeah, maybe so. Maybe that was might have been Barnes. But Peter had a good run going too.

Mike Gonzalez 21:02

So he sure did, yeah. Yeah. Well, you had a good senior career, didn't you?

Al Geiberger 21:07

Oh, yeah. Yeah, boy.

Bruce Devlin 21:11

Ten times.

Al Geiberger 21:13

Yeah. Well, Bruce is going right along with me. We're the we're only a month apart. And uh but I remember the senior tour was a hundred thousand dollar purse.

Bruce Devlin 21:27

Wasn't that the biggest purse for Total Purse, yeah. Total purse.

Al Geiberger 21:36

And uh so we were we were we didn't get in the in the best years. I mean it's it's grown quite a bit, but nothing like the regular tour. Notice how Bruce is you notice his answer there? No. Now we're looking 'cause Bruce and I fell into the the uh when they started the uh retirement. on the tour. And he and I Bruce and I didn't do very well. We got caught in the 'cause they were making up the tournament. They didn't know what to do because we're independent contractors. And we uh and the tour was a non profit organization, you might say.

Bruce Devlin 22:20

Do you remember how much you got for your pension off the regular tour? Sure.

Al Geiberger 22:25

You want to want me to say I got$118 a month until age 65 or 75 anyway,$118 a month.

Bruce Devlin 22:38

And you got well that you know something? How much do you think I got?

Al Geiberger 22:42

You said you got one lump sum, did you?

Bruce Devlin 22:45

No, what happened is for you to do what you did where you took a deferred compensation over a certain period of years, you had to you had to have at least$10,000 in your pension to do that.

Al Geiberger 22:58

Yeah okay I didn't know that.

Bruce Devlin 23:00

And I got one check one check for$4600. That was it.

Al Geiberger 23:05

Yeah. And I got$118 a month. I almost I almost I should have kept a few of them to that prove it. Yeah. And now what did uh Tiger Woods say the PGA tour has the best retirement in sport.

Bruce Devlin 23:24

Yeah.

Al Geiberger 23:25

And we're and Bruce and I were probably looking at each other yeah sure. But it was right in the middle of the 80s wasn't it right in there they made up the they started figuring out how to have a retirement early 80s somewhere in there.

Bruce Devlin 23:40

Yeah well we played uh the last time I played was uh 82 so I think you're right I think it was like uh it either started in 81 or 82 82 I think it started yeah yeah but people saw it with my career on the tour and I stopped playing about then too because all I have on my surgeries then and at 80 that's right that's right I didn't play much after that I got a whopping$118 a month and uh this this is a joke.

Al Geiberger 24:12

Uh annuity they called it annuity for me.

Mike Gonzalez 24:17

Yeah as you as you can probably appreciate this subject has come up before with some with some of the guys and uh I always come back to uh just one example uh you know you we just saw on the news again where they they they passed out the$40 million player impact profile uh payments right to yeah uh and and first prize was like eight million dollars went to Tiger Woods who didn't hit one golf shot the entire year and I'm thinking you know there's probably some other uses for that 40 million that would go a long way to take care of the guys that played back in the day.

Al Geiberger 24:56

I have a feeling they've been exposed that that money's there. It's going up next year though it's gonna go into 50 million dollars that's going up but I that means they got money back there. They could go back and when they figured out the retirement it was such a new area we were independent contractors that was the excuse they gave us um and prof you know the tournaments were for charity and all that and uh we uh and that's when they figured out the senior tour I don't know how'd you do on the senior tour Bruce I I did a lot better on the senior tour I think my pension which ended when I became 75 years old how would you like your pension to end at 75 that's when you need it most yeah yeah well it's it ended at 75 and I'm I think it was in the close to 300,000 total yeah broken up over those years so I was oh yeah yeah I was a little more than that I got so much a month but it ran out at the wrong time yeah started 65 and you had to take it by 75 that was yeah anyhow Bones we look at your uh your senior victories as as Mike said you won ten times you won uh you won the uh infinity senior tournament of champions a couple of times back to back wasn't it yeah yeah yeah yeah and uh started started advantage where you talked about it uh in 1987 you won three three times in eighty seven you won that was a pretty good start you know how you are when you get started on the senior tour you either you might say choked to death or you look you think you're gonna do good and you don't or you do start good and I won that first tournament and then I won uh two weeks later at Hilton Head. We played uh Hilton Head and then we went to Las Vegas and I won that all all the three out of four tournaments it was so you get all fired up again and that was uh so Al are are you playing much golf these days? No I'm I yeah once the pandemic hit that kind of slowed knock the wind out of everything and now now I can't even make myself go out and when it is it's it's too embarrassing.

Bruce Devlin 27:36

Yeah that's that's the hard part isn't it you know we uh we we we've loved this game for many many years and you go out there and your mind still feels like it's gonna work all right but the body won't do what you tell it.

Mike Gonzalez 27:52

And you make this nice swing and a wounded duck out to the left and the blue goes about 190 yeah awful i had a I had a group my friend my tax account tax lawyer he he said here come and play on our nine hole group and I said okay that sounds pretty good so last year before the pen we started playing they last year when we were starting to be able to play again I would play their nine holes and I realized now I know what nine holes are for boy nine holes are just right and I think about it for another week and play nine holes again but so far this year good weather and I have we haven't played the nine holes so well as we uh as we wind down the story of Al Geyberger uh one thing we like to do Al there's a few questions we like to ask all of our guests and uh Bruce I'll I'll let you get going with the first one.

Bruce Devlin 28:48

Okay Al if if you knew what you know now back when you started on the tour what changes would you have made?

Al Geiberger 29:02

Well what changes because we just went along and learned a game whatever we knew and we pick up information or misinformation and now they kinda they they have all that information ahead of time. What changes would I make I would probably work a little harder I think that would be the biggest thing I'd play more tournaments because I used to and Dave will verif Stockton will verify this instead of going out for three weeks I'd go out for two. Well sometimes when you've been home for a while and you go out for two your third week is really gonna be the best week. And I did that so many times I left my best week you might say at home left it at home yeah and I would but it was hard to go away for three weeks from your family it uh hard things. Two I guess I was copying Jack Jack but Jack was on a different level and he also had his own plane and a little different.

Mike Gonzalez 30:11

Come on Mike ask him the next one well the next question is this uh we'll give you one career mulligan where do you take it oh wow a career mulligan I guess it gets back to one of those US opens uh but actually Pate was in control of that so that wasn't a mulligan for me.

Al Geiberger 30:44

I was a victim of it uh I uh I guess if I'd have realized that Orville Moody I didn't knew nothing about Orville Moody. Remember he's still in the service and I I didn't know that he really had so much trouble putting and that man I'm in a good shape here to to win the open you know because th there's no way he'll be able to finish the last three holes you know but he did. I would I have played harder I guess I there yeah Mulligan uh bad no one shot one shot it's hard to find one isn't it yeah it is I can't uh I I when I had to go into the playoff with Gary Plair and I hit it on the 18th grain and three putted from really it wasn't that hard a but I made the putt 20 footer to win the playoff. Otherwise that would have been my mother I went out the next morning when we were loading up the car and I said I don't believe this and I putted that putt over and it was a much slower putt than you could see it had a knob in the middle of the green well I was probably so nervous I couldn't see the knob and so I came up real short. So if I hadn't won the playoff I would say that while again well that's that's fair enough.

Mike Gonzalez 32:13

So uh in wrapping up Al, how would you like to be remembered?

Al Geiberger 32:20

Oh well I guess everybody wants to be known as a nice guy out there and uh you certainly fit that bill yeah probably too nice so maybe that's one of my mulligans to be a little tougher. Uh in fact that g that could tell you this little story about the 59 in that uh but uh I guess known as a good nice a modern day golf swing. I guess I had more of a modern day golf swing because a lot of the things that I was doing I were really fit into their to the mold of of the modern day. But uh I'm gonna go back here. Stan Wood had he would always encourage us you know and and I'm in the middle of the 59 round and I'd I'd had gone eight under for seven holes I parred the next two which felt like bogeys so next time you have a streak like that the pars are gonna feel like bogeys but now where I had to walk up to the next T. See remember Bruce I was on the front nine not the right for a minute.

Bruce Devlin 33:38

Right.

Al Geiberger 33:38

Okay so after the par three which would be number what three four five yeah yeah then you walk down in a ravine and up to the next T. Well the gallery couldn't go back there and I'm walking down there it's hotter in hell and I'm going oh this is awful and oh my God what have I gotten myself into you know in other words I'm so four under par and going oh no what do I do now you know what and I walk out in there and I went wait a minute Stan Wood used to always tell me that I needed to be more aggressive and I said okay I'm gonna just be more aggressive now and if I screw up Stan it's your fault and I and it did it's kind of like okay Stan it's gonna be your fault well I blew it right down the middle on the green and and made a 12 footer for a birdie there and had three holes to play and the gallery was yelling 59 but that little speech of okay Stan if I screw up it's your fault but that that psychology I played on myself I took some of the pressure off me I think.

Bruce Devlin 34:47

Well I got an I I got an idea of how we should remember Al Geyberger as a as a as a good solid competitor with a beautiful golf swing and a very kind man I've never heard him speak a sour word about anybody that he's ever played with or met and I just want to say to you Al Geyberger thanks for joining Mike Gonzalez and myself today. It's been an absolute pleasure talking with you about you and your career.

Mike Gonzalez 35:17

Thanks a lot buddy thank you thank you very much and it's nice to get somebody that you can talk about the old days and uh and it might be remembered now as because uh you know nobody knows who you Bruce Hugh and I are now if they're if they're uh young guys died if they're any younger than a certain age my kids do that's good well we're sure hoping that uh people 50 years from now will be listening to these episodes and they'll learn who Mr. Al Geiberger was Mr. Bruce Devlin was and uh we certainly thank you for being with us. 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 until we see it up again the good of the game everybody