Fifty years after Claude Harmon won the 12th Masters tournament,
his son Claude Jr., better known as Butch, holds a major title
of his own: Coach to defending Masters champ Tiger Woods. This
was to be a special week for 54-year-old Butch. After joining
Woods at Doral, where Tiger finished ninth, Harmon was going to
meet his younger brothers Bill, Dick and Craig at Augusta, scene
of their father's only professional victory. During this golden
anniversary year, the Harmon brothers would play Augusta
National together; it would be the first time Butch had played
the course.
Helpless Woods said the news about Harmon "wasn't good."
(Robert Beck)
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"Change of plans," says Butch, who had two malignant moles
removed—from his back and right ear—on March 4. Las Vegas
surgeon Robert Strimling "got it all," Harmon says. "The cancer
was localized, but I'm still concerned. With cancer you worry
that it could come back."
Woods, too, was shaken. "It's a shock," he said, "but they got
it all out, so I'm O.K. with it."
Harmon was cleared to resume his teaching duties but cannot take
a full swing with 30 stitches in his shoulder. There are 18 more
stitches behind his ear. Family friends Bob Goalby and Jay Haas,
Goalby's nephew, helped arrange the Harmons' trip to Augusta and
will take Butch's place there. "I'm not going," he says. "It
would bother me too much to be there and not be able to play."
"Butch was in a lot of pain for a while, but he's optimistic,"
says Bill Harmon, who believes his brother's cancer was due to
years of exposure to the sun. As for this year's being the
anniversary of their father's Masters victory, Bill says, "We
just realized it ourselves. Suddenly it has a lot of meaning."
For now, though, all celebrations have been put on hold.
Issue date: March 16, 1998
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