The New Life Of Bob Goalby

"Do you know what I'm trying to say?" Bob says earnestly. "I mean, I've been around awhile. New, I know I'm not the greatest or close to it. But I haven't been all that bad. See what I mean?"

Goalby spends a lot of time now asking writers who have "discovered" him to check the record books. Fourteenth on the alltime money list. World record holder of the most consecutive birdies—eight—at St. Petersburg back in 1961. Winner of tournaments on all types of courses—in California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Connecticut. A man who undoubtedly has played in about as many tournaments as anybody on the tour. "Until five years ago I was single and didn't have anything else to do. I played every week," he says. "See, I'm not really bragging, understand? I mean, all I want to do is make a living out here. I'm pretty much of a loner, you know. I sometimes like to eat alone and just think about my game. I've worked hard. I guess I used to practice more than anybody since Hogan. See, I've been close to winning a major championship before, but nobody remembers. See, I've been a good player but not great. Everybody thinks Dave Marr's a great player because he won the PGA a couple of years ago. I'm not knockin' Dave. It's circumstances. Now I'm a great player, I suppose, because of the Masters. Well, there haven't been very many great players, but there are a lot of good ones. See what I mean?"

Goalby has always been respected as a solid player and fierce competitor, if slightly temperamental. Goalby does, as he pleads, have a pretty good record in major championships. He was second in the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills in 1961 and came within a closing birdie of tying Gene Littler. At the 1962 PGA at Aronimink he outshot Gary Player 67 to 70 in the final round, but Gary, scrambling for his pars, nicked him by a stroke. Only last year, while winning more than $77,000, he played in two of the most important tournaments in the world like a man on the verge of winning one. He was sixth in the U.S. Open and seventh in the PGA. The reason he had been sort of forgotten before this year's Masters is that he had won only one tournament since 1962, the 1967 San Diego Open, and because he had never in his life finished in the top 24 at Augusta.

He was right out there all along, however. He was winning money, not only from the sponsors but in the practice games that he used to enjoy and learn from with the likes of Doug Ford, Art Wall and Jerry Barber. "We used to bet it up pretty good because it kept you sharp and trying," Goalby says. "With something at stake, you tend to remember the lessons of your practice round better."

Goalby was an admirer of Doug Ford, of his approach to the game, of Ford's realism. "There are swingers and there are scorers," Bob says. "Doug taught me that the scoreboard was what mattered. Get it in the hole. Grip it any way that's best for you. Go at it with whatever swing is right, but get it in the hole. And he didn't let things bother him unnecessarily. He played again next week."

It was easier for Goalby to admire this than to do it. The temper was always a problem, and he had a square-blade swing that made him hook, often at a clumsy time. Although he still lectures himself out there inside the gallery ropes, he believes that he's curbed the temper. And he likes to give the old pro, Johnny Revolta, some credit for curing the hook.

A good judge of swings, Jack Burke can best describe the change in Goalby's technique. "He's got that left arm straight and firm and the blade open and the ball sitting out there where it's supposed to be," says Burke. "He used to come into it with a square blade, and if his body didn't turn just right he'd give it a Palmer hook, only worse."

The hook, the hook. That's all Goalby could think about as he came down the pressure tunnel of Augusta's last few holes, knowing he was thick in contention for the Masters. He hit a lot of good shots, but there were two gems that won the tournament along with Roberto's pencil.

At the par-5 15th hole he was faced with a three-iron second that would have to carry the water guarding the green and yet stay near the front for a good putt at an eagle. Just anywhere on the green wouldn't do, for you can three-putt easily at Augusta. Goalby knew he had to have at least a birdie there. "In a situation like that, when you're in contention, you ask yourself if you've got any guts," Bob says. "All you want to do is make a good pass at it and give yourself a chance for the shot to work out." Goalby swung smoothly, and you knew he liked it the instant he followed through and stood there, bareheaded, leaning a little, letting the shaft gently slide down through his fingers. The ball ate up the flag and snuggled in about eight feet away, and he jammed it in the hole at the same instant (on your CBS split screen, folks) as De Vicenzo made that 3 on the 17th.

But Goalby made a better shot—the best of his career—at the 18th hole. He had committed the sin of bogeying the 17th and then giving up on the tee shot at 18. He needed to make a par 4 to tie Roberto, but he had tried to block out any chance of a hook off the tee and had sliced into a tree to the right of the fairway, the ball bounding barely back into play about 230 yards from the big, uphill green and in a spot where Goalby, the hooker in so many moments of desperation before, needed a fade of at least 15 yards. And he had a hook lie.