Caddie's plight eases road to win

Charles Coody won the 1971 Masters with a total of 279 strokes, two better than Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus.File

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Special to the Augusta Chronicle

Whenever I come to Augusta, I always make it a point on the first day to drive down Magnolia Lane .ƒ.ƒ. real slow. It puts a little tingle in your spine, a little shot of adrenalin. It reinforces the appreciation for what you were able to accomplish by winning the Masters Tournament.

When I won in 1971 it was just a great week. Three couples, who were friends of ours in Abilene, Texas, came down to Augusta with us and we rented a home. All of us are compatible and had a great time. The week started off on a high note and never got off.

When I think back to how I won, I think first of 1969 when I had a chance to win, leading by one with three holes left. But obviously I wasn't quite ready for it. I made the mistake of looking in the bag of my playing partner, George Knudson, on No. 16. He hit 4-iron and it didn't get to the back level of the green. So I didn't know if 6-iron was enough and pulled a 5-iron. I hit it in the bunker and made bogey. I bogeyed my way to the house.

Two years later, I felt like I was walking in the same footsteps on Sunday. The yardage was exactly the same, the pin the same and the shadows seemed the same. It was a carbon copy, except I was behind Johnny Miller by one. So I learned from it, grabbed a 6-iron and hit it about 12 feet behind the hole and made my second straight birdie on the day and went on to beat Miller and Jack Nicklaus by two.

Maybe the difference was I was a little looser, probably because of my caddie's situation.

Walter Pritchett - everybody calls him Cricket - caddied for me in 1969 and we almost won. He didn't come back in 1970 and I started out with another caddie in 1971. But that caddie didn't know what he was doing. After the practice round on Sunday, I was walking through the parking lot and there was Cricket. He had gotten off from his bus-driving job in Atlanta and was just looking for a bag. So, since they assigned caddies, I had to go down to the tournament office and really discuss the situation. Well, I got Cricket to work for me.

On Saturday, we were in contention and walking down the eighth fairway. Cricket asked what hole the TV coverage started on. I didn't know and wondered why he needed to. Cricket said he had told his boss in Atlanta that he was going to visit his sick grandmother in Houston. He didn't expect that I would play this well. I laughed all the way up to the green.

When TV came on that afternoon and on Sunday, it looked like I had an Arabian caddieing for me. Cricket had taken a towel and draped it over his head to hide from the cameras. When Cricket went back to work on Monday, his supervisor said, `You had a nice week, didn't you Cricket?' But he was a nice guy and understood.

The thing about winning at Augusta is that people always remember. They might not remember the year but they always remember your name, that you're a Masters champion.

And that's an indescribable feeling. It's something you can't sit here and put in a nutshell. Sometimes I wondered if I was having one of those hallucinating dreams or something.

Masters bio Go to Charles Coody's Masters bio   Leaderboard Final leaderboard from 1971   SI Flashback Chronicle flashback The word on Coody "(Jack Nicklaus) lost it to a tall Texan named Charlie Coody, who even walks with a drawl, a guy who has two different swings in one motion but makes it work, a guy who lost it before and now deserved it, a Masters winner who admits he's probably lacking in color when he says, `I just play along in living black and white.'" -- Sports Illustrated's Dan Jenkins on Charlie Coody ``The rest of us deserve something, too. The top names have got everything. They shouldn't mind letting us poor boys have something now and then.'' -- Coody in Sports Illustrated on beating the world's top player, Nicklaus. ``Charlie's one of our better shot makers, but he tries hard not to win.'' -- Frank Beard on Charlie Coody ``Whatever Coody did for four rounds of golf in Augusta last week, it was plenty good enough, especially when it got down to the enormous pressure of Sunday afternoon. Then Coody was at his best. There is a lot to say for a player like Coody who can hang in these big ones and win.'' -- Sports Illustrated's Dan Jenkins

Masters Record
Year	Place	Score	Round				Money
			1	2	3	4
1999	CUT	151	77	74	0	0	$5,000
1998	CUT	164	79	85	0	0	$5,000
1997	CUT	160	83	77	0	0	$5,000
1996	CUT	160	82	78	0	0	$1,500
1995	CUT	147	74	73	0	0	$1,500
1994	CUT	154	80	74	0	0	$1,500
1993	T-57	299	74	72	75	78	$3,800
1992	INVITED	0	0	0	0	0	INVITED
1991	CUT	154	77	77	0	0	$1,500
1990	CUT	152	75	77	0	0	$1,500
1989	T-38	298	76	74	76	72	$4,900
1988	CUT	154	78	76	0	0	$1,500
1987	CUT	155	75	80	0	0	$1,500
1986	CUT	153	76	77	0	0	$1,500
1985	T-45	296	72	77	74	73	$2,660
1984	CUT	147	75	72	0	0	$1,500
1983	T-36	296	68	75	79	74	$2,450
1982	CUT	156	75	81	0	0	$1,500
1981	T-40	296	74	71	75	76	$1,500
1980	T-38	292	72	73	71	76	$1,525
1979	T-34	293	71	72	74	76	$1,950
1978	CUT	150	75	75	0	0	$1,500
1977	CUT	150	72	78	0	0	$1,500
1976	T-5	285	72	69	70	74	$11,167
1975	T-40	295	72	75	75	73	$1,800
1974	T-29	289	74	72	76	67	$1,850
1973	T-29	296	74	73	79	70	$1,750
1972	T-12	292	73	70	74	75	$3,100
1971	WIN	279	66	73	70	70	$25,000
1970	T-12	288	70	74	67	77	$3,000
1969	T-5	283	74	68	69	72	$6,750
1968	T-33	290	76	72	72	70	$1,400
1966	CUT	155	78	77	0	0	$1,000
1963	CUT	164	80	84	0	0	AMATEUR