Fuzzy Zoeller - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Have you ever wondered what it takes to make it to the top of the PGA Tour? Our guest for this episode, Masters Champion Fuzzy Zoeller, guides us through his journey from playing golf and basketball in New Albany, Indiana to conquering the world of professional golf. Fuzzy's unique swing and indomitable spirit, nurtured by his high school coach, Bill Henry, paved his way to success and set him apart on the PGA Tour. 

With college golf experience at Edison Junior College and then joining national powerhouse Houston, under the guidance of famed coach Dave Williams, Fuzzy's game developed to a point where he felt he was ready to take on the PGA Tour.

As Fuzzy narrates his experiences with Monday Qualifiers and the shift from the "elite 60" to the "125", you'll get a glimpse of the sweat and toil that goes behind the glamorous scene of professional golf. Listen in as he recounts his triumph of securing a place in the top 60, his first professional win, and the differences in golf balls and golf equipment companies he experienced throughout his career. 

Finally, take a step back in time with heartwarming anecdotes of Fuzzy playing golf for quarters with old timers in his hometown. From the invaluable learning experiences to the camaraderie built along the way, Fuzzy's stories are a testament to his love for the game and the transformative power of sport. Join us on this enriching ride filled with nostalgia, insights, and life lessons from Fuzzy Zoeller as he begins his life story, "FORE the Good of the Game."

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Chapters

• 0:03 Fuzzy's Golf Journey and Game Evolution
• 8:30 Early Golf Memories and Going Pro
• 14:56 Early Years on Tour and Golf
• 18:51 [Ad] The Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast
• 19:34 (Cont.) Early Years on Tour and Golf
• 28:39 Golf Balls and Career Reflections
• 33:38 Memories of Golfing for Quarters

Transcript

Music playing  00:00

Mike Gonzalez  00:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin, we've got a repeat guest this morning and a fellow midwesterner.

Devlin, Bruce  00:24

That's right boy. What a career this man has had. A lot of people remember his white flag deal at the U.S. Open. But Masters champion 1979, U.S. Open champion 1984, in the vodka business, IndyCar racing, what a pleasure to have Fuzzy Zoeller back with us today. Thanks, Fuz for joining Mike and I we look forward to finishing your story.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  00:54

Bruce, Mike, it is my pleasure. And thank you for the invitation to come on.

Mike Gonzalez  00:59

Yeah, it's great to have you back Fuzzy. And just to remind our listeners, the first time we got together with you, we did have a chance to talk about your professional career talked about all 10 of your PGA Tour victories, we had a chance to reflect back on your  U.S. Open and Masters wins as well. And so this time, I think what we want to do is start where we normally start, which is back at the very beginning. And I think a lot of our listeners would be very interested in hearing about life growing up, I guess probably just north of Louisville,

Zoeller, Fuzzy  01:31

Just north of Louisville, New Albany, Indiana. lived right on the fourth fairway of Valley View golf club, little nine hole Golf Course. You know, it's I tell people I said, you know, my mother and dad never had to hunt for me. They knew I was on the Golf Course, but they just didn't know what hole I was on. So

Devlin, Bruce  01:52

nice place to be.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  01:54

Yours beautiful place.

Mike Gonzalez  01:56

So tell us about your folks. Were they sports people? Were they golfers? What did they do for a living?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  02:01

Well, yeah, they were. You know, my dad was a businessman here in southern Indiana. My mother was a stay at home mom. She took care of the four kids, my older brother, older sister, my younger brother. So we had a great, a great family. But like I say the convenience of the game of golf was right there in my front door. So I took advantage of it

Devlin, Bruce  02:26

as your other siblings play to Fuzzy where

Zoeller, Fuzzy  02:29

they did Bruce Yeah, I'm not I'm not I'm took it to the extent that I did. I guess I was just one of the chosen few that had a talent for the game at a very young age. And I could have told people when I was eight years old, what I was going to do you know where I was headed, I was headed to the PGA Tour. That was my goal. And that was my mission. You know, and I as I tell people, my dream came true. A lot of people's dreams never come true. But my dreams came true.

Mike Gonzalez  03:01

So if you were like me back in those days, I was growing up in Southern Illinois, probably not too far from you. And we had little nine hole course. No bunkers. Short little rains, you bring your shag bag out. No, no water on the Golf Course as far as sprinkler systems, so we learned to play firm and fast even in Southern Illinois. And there was baseball. There was luckily for me golf, but not many kids had the opportunity. There wasn't much to do other than play sports was there.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  03:31

No, that was it. Yeah. You know what? I play basketball in the wintertime kept me in shape to the golf in the spring. I gave a baseball when I was 14 years old. Only because my dad said it's one or the other son, either. I'm getting tired of going back and forth to the baseball diamond. Every day practice and all that. He says you got golf right here at your front door. Why wouldn't you just stick with that? And that's what I did. I stuck with the golf but the basketball was good football gave up into ninth grade. Only because I was afraid of getting injured. I mean, you never you never think of injury when you play the game. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. But I just kind of advice. The advice of my father and my mother they said probably be best if you didn't. I said okay, I can do that. So I was down to two sports. I was a two sport man basketball and the golf.

Mike Gonzalez  04:29

Yeah, I quit golf freshman. I mean, I quit football freshman year as well. And you know now at our age looking back on it as bad as things are, how much worse would we have felt having another three to seven years of getting knocked around on the football field?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  04:44

Yeah, no kidding. Well, you know, Bruce, Mike, you and I and Bruce just talked about before we came on air, about these older life the older life is supposed to be the glory years. Well, hell all we do is repair things. So can you imagine If we would have to repair something that happened back in, or would it be the 60s? Oh, my God. I've been through enough now I don't need any more.

Devlin, Bruce  05:11

So as a you went to you went to high school there in New Albany, right?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  05:16

I did. I did. I went to the public high school New Albany High School on it because of the Catholic school didn't have a golf team. You know, all the rest of my family went to Providence High School, which was a Catholic school. And then I was recruited by the guy who was  Bill Henry, Coach Henry, he kind of took me under his wings, and I went to the public high school, had a great time. Great experience. It was

Devlin, Bruce  05:49

in 1970, you state runner up to so he, did he help you from from a playing standpoint, teaching? Or did you have somebody else that sort of taught you

Zoeller, Fuzzy  06:02

know, Bruce, I'm not sure. I can say anybody really helped. I got a lot of advice from people. And what the deal was back then the hit they, they all want immediate to develop my own golf swing. Right? They didn't want me to look like well, I could do on a tour now they all swing the same. Oh, they do. It's it's, I think that's a greatest saying about when I was coming up on the PGA Tour, is that you could stay in for fairways across and you could see Huber green swing, or a chichi rod rigorously, or even yourself. And you could pop the face with the golf swing. Gotcha. Oh, my God. Now these kids are all six to six, three, and they all swing the same. It's very difficult to say, Who's Who out there. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez  06:54

Good. That's a good point. I think the days of very distinctive golf game swings have changed.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  07:02

Gotta Have they have they've gotten more I'd like to say mechanical because I was always taught to do things by feel. Not so much mechanics. But yeah, it's all it's, they're very mechanical. Now they all take a club back the same way. Big high art. And then they just rip the hell out of it. Something and I never, I never could.

Mike Gonzalez  07:30

You know, though it it helps. I'm sure these these younger fellas playing the game today, to have a sweet spot that must be 20 times larger than the sweet spot you guys were trying to hit.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  07:41

That's funny, you bring that up because I was just looking at an old set of my clubs. And these little things are just about that long. And I said, you know, it's like the water play versus the old one iron that everybody used to have everybody hit and never thought anything of it. But the blade was maybe two inches long. Two and a half inches long. wasn't very big at all. No. Fan. And you sit down you look and you go. God had I ever hit that. But we we did. We just kind of dealt with what we were in the cards. When we played with them. We mastered them. We showed that you could hit these clubs. So I think the ball had a lot to do with it. I think that softer ball helped to

Devlin, Bruce  08:28

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez  08:30

So what's your earliest memories of playing golf? How early Did you really have a chance to first try it? Well,

Zoeller, Fuzzy  08:36

I played my first tournament was a junior fall cities when I was five years old. And I got beat on the 19th hole by a 14 year old and I cried all the way home. Damn Trophy Hunter, you know? Oh, yeah. Those are good days. Oh, that's I mean, I'd sleep on the way to the Golf Course my mother would caddy for me. She'd pull the cart caddy for me. That's just good times. It was all good.

Mike Gonzalez  09:06

Yeah. What kind of clubs did you play at those? In those early years?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  09:10

My very first set was a set of Wilson's that. Yeah, it was a used set of Wilson golf clubs that my dad had bought. He wasn't sure that I I was going to fit him. I mean, they were a little long for me, but they worked. They worked. I had a great time.

Mike Gonzalez  09:29

And how about about golf balls? I know I was playing Club Specials.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  09:34

Did Yeah. I think anything I found while I was out on Valley View playing golf. That's what I played with. News cracks in them. It didn't make any difference. It was a ball. I was happy to have one.

Mike Gonzalez  09:48

So you're saying in your shag bag there was more than one brand?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  09:52

Probably different colors. Yeah. You know the ones you used to be white were brown. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Mike Gonzalez  10:01

And many of them probably didn't fit through your little steel ring either.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  10:05

Probably not there, I'm not gonna say they were all round. But they looked good to me. And that's the ones we used.

Mike Gonzalez  10:14

So I remember, you know, again, back in our era of learning to play, you know, if you didn't have a golf pro, or some very fine local players to teach you the ropes as a kid, you either saw a little bit on television, or you start cutting out these little one page lessons in the golf rags and maybe read Hogan's book or something. How did you how did you pick up some of the finer points as a kid?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  10:39

Just by listening to other people, you know, players that were better than I was stuff that they had done, said, You know, it didn't work for me, but maybe it'll work for you. Basically, I am a self taught golfer. I did. Yeah, we I had a club professional. He was also the superintendent. He ran the club. He did every everything. Yeah, he made on Sundays. He did everything. I went through the junior programs there. And then the rest of it was kind of just going out and practicing and developing the feel for the game, learning your own self and your golf swing. Knowing what you can do and things you can't do.

Devlin, Bruce  11:25

So so fuzzy after after high school, you went to a junior college first and then ended up at the University of Houston. Correct. I did. A little bit about the the junior college and then on to Houston.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  11:41

Edison Junior College is one of the greatest moves I've ever made. You know, all of all of my scholarships, Bruce of course I am from Indiana, southern Indiana. We're further north where I live now. Well, hell, it's cold up there in the wintertime. So I wanted to Yeah, I mean, I wanted to go someplace where it was warm. And the advantages of going to Edison Junior College were, you played more wind, you learned to put on Bermuda grass, which in southern Indiana is everything appears bent. So I never had the opportunity to learn how to pet to putt and play in the windy conditions and also the grasses, different grasses to play. So it was a great experience. And then I went to the University of Houston for my one year. I made it as long as Freddie couples did. I, I came out of there. Dave Williams and I did not see eye to eye. So only because it I had a different attitude for the game. I never got P owed or ticked off. And that really drove him. I just drove him crazy. Because, you know, he seemed to thought that everybody on that other team was like an enemy. Or on another team while the hell they were all my friends. I'd play junior golf with him all the way through. So Dave, and I, I gotta say, did not get along. So I had told my dad, I said before he warns me for this game. I said I'd like to step aside and go see if I can make it on a PGA Tour. So then it all started back in 73. So you

Devlin, Bruce  13:23

want a couple of tournaments to before turning pro right. You won the Old Capitol Invitation Indiana and then the State Amateur as well. And that obviously is what said, Boy, I'm ready for the Tour

Zoeller, Fuzzy  13:40

Hey, winning the Old Capitol down here. 20 miles away. That's a major tournament around here.

Devlin, Bruce  13:51

Well, you in 73 when you turn pro, I know you were coming out there trying to walk all of our backsides. And yeah.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  14:01

Well, it was fun. And I mean, it was it was fun. I told I can tell you after I went to school in 74, of course I had missed in 73. That's when we had the tour school. And they only gave certain amount of certain amount of cards to get on the tour. It that year was 19. And I came through with Peter Oosterhuis, Bruce Litzke. Jim Thorpe. I read quite a few of them Bill Rogers. We had a pretty good bunch of guys that made it through that year.

Mike Gonzalez  14:36

Well, you mentioned a couple of Houston guys. Of course, you mentioned Dave Williams for our listeners. Dave Williams was a longtime golf coach at the University of Houston 16 Team titles for the Cougars to date. Eight individual NCAA titles to date they produce 40 for all Americans and you mentioned some of the names but Freddy Couples, Elk Faldo, Leitzke, Mahaffey, Bill Rogers, Dave Marr

Zoeller, Fuzzy  15:07

tried day I had forgotten about Davies a little older and I was put Yeah, Dave Marr

Mike Gonzalez  15:12

and then a non golfer but certainly in the game and that's Jim Nance.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  15:18

He went school with Freddie Couples. Yeah, Roomed with Freddie couples. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez  15:24

So you get through high school you get through college, you've played some some amateur golfer on the country. What told you that your game measured up to the standards of the PGA Tour?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  15:38

I'm not sure I was ever told. I just kind of proved to myself that I could do it. A little harder work. You can make that your dream come true. And I did work very hard at it. I mean, I was on the Golf Course every day. Even if I had snow on the ground up here in Indiana, when I was here, we go out with tennis ball and a five art and still play had more. More damn fun. You're you're supposed to but we had a blast. Yes.

Mike Gonzalez  16:07

You mentioned at an early age, you knew what you were going to do. So at some point, then you must have been convinced that you could do it.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  16:17

Yeah, it's a proving ground. I mean, you have to prove to yourself that you could win. I won the school in 74. With all the good ones in there. I mean, with the guys I just named off here a few minutes ago. That proved to me that I was I was on the right track. And I had to talents to go out and compete. So I make a living into skiing

Devlin, Bruce  16:42

the journey early years foes after your turn after you won that, the qualifying it took you a while before you actually won a tournament, but I'm assuming that you were seeing good progress, you know, getting close to wins making some money.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  17:01

Well, I'll tell you what, Bruce 75 was my first year on tour and I made $7,300. Damn, I was fat and rich. You know, 7300, I spent about $25,000. I said, my dad looked at me Go son, you gotta turn this around. But I got a break, I got a break in 76. I played Westchester, finished second to Ben Crenshaw. And then I went to Quad Cities and finish second to John Lister. Now that put me in the elite 60. I was about 54th, 55th, something like that, on the money list. And that got me in out of the qualifying because we had to qualify every Monday for three to four spots every Monday, which is a pain in the old tale end. But it was a great experience to do that.

Mike Gonzalez  17:57

Yes. So you guys remind our listeners of how the system worked back then with the top 60?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  18:03

Yeah, well, that top 60 was it's it's like the Elite Eight and the NCAA basketball. And it's like getting to the NBA championship. Super Bowl. But that was the number that way you were exempt for the whole year and didn't have to worry about that Monday qualifying or going through those spurts where for a month, month and a half, two months, you might not get in a tournament. You were in every tournament.

Devlin, Bruce  18:34

You were in the middle of this whole thing when it went from 60 to 125. We all remember who it was that pushed that. Tell us a little bit about that.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  18:51

Well, I'm you know, I thought 125 was a very big number. But as it turned out, it worked out. So yeah, changes. You know, as far as golf professionals, we don't like changes your hearts about that? No, we don't. I mean, I'll be honest with you a bunch of Oh, cronies. We don't like changes, we would like to kind of get set in our ways. And we accept it and we go and deal with it. But I thought 120

Devlin, Bruce  19:23

Do you remember the year old guy like that? I remember.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  19:26

I can't. It's early 80s. Yeah, that's all I can tell you. It was like 83, 84, something like that. 83 Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez  19:35

So tell us a little bit about what life was like as a young man coming out of college that first year on tour where you don't know the golf courses. You don't know the cities don't know where to stay where to eat. Had to be a heck of an experience.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  19:49

Well, that's where the old guys like Bruce came in. You know? I mean, they always told us where to go. That's why it's like Bob Murphy over in Hawaii. He always told me if you're gonna drink, go drink underneath a banyan tree and Bruce remember the banyan tree? So that's where we all ended up the banyan tree. Yeah.

Devlin, Bruce  20:11

That is the truth. 

Zoeller, Fuzzy  20:13

Oh, lordy, it was good. Good days. Good days.

Mike Gonzalez  20:16

Yeah. But that had to be tough as, like I said, a young man you don't know your way around. You know, probably you would agree that the old guys back there in more ways than one were helpful. Unlike today where people are traveling by themselves with their teams. You guys were sort of, you know, buddies together and forced to be friends and helped each other with their games and with life.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  20:42

Well, we did. We did travel a lot together. You know, we went to dinner together. Like I say, we all congregate around the banyan tree in Hawaii for cocktails. But we're, you know, our job was to go out and compete and put on a great show for the people in Iraq pretty proud of our show mercy when we played back then there were some great players great players back there that that I never would have had a chance to meet unless I played the game.

Devlin, Bruce  21:15

And and a perfect illustration of what we talked about earlier about you and I both knew when you know if we saw Jimmy Demaret swinging a golf club, or Hogan swinging a golf club, you know, some of our guys that were older than us. I mean, you you could be 300 yards away if your eyes were good. You knew what it was.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  21:37

Why exactly, yeah, you put the face with the golf swing. i It's, it's hard to do today. I mean, it really is hard to do. But even Gene Sarazen, Gene Sarazen had a swing even though he was only five foot what 3, 54 He had a swing ever just a smooth even at his older age. And he come in and have his little red wine and half an apple every day. So

Devlin, Bruce  22:07

So fuzzy, you probably didn't know this, but I stood on the eighth tee when he made that hole in one of the postage stamp. Really? Yeah, the stat stood there and watched it. How about that? Yeah, that was quite a quite a treat for a young man then. Anyhow, how about little sights?

Mike Gonzalez  22:30

Were you playing with him Bruce?

Devlin, Bruce  22:31

No, no, no, I was in a group behind him. You know, it seemed like every time we got to that little postage stamp we had to wait to wait on the group in front of us but oh yeah, prettiest looking little I don't know what he hit he probably hit like an eight iron or something but boy it never looked like it was going to miss

Zoeller, Fuzzy  22:52

so you hit a good shot at one one those flukes

Devlin, Bruce  22:55

good shots and a flirt.

Mike Gonzalez  22:59

Has to be a good shot on that hole too. So which guys did you find yourselves in your early years? Fuzzy if anyone watching on the practice range watching their swings? Oh, I

Zoeller, Fuzzy  23:12

guess I well, I watched them all. You know what I mean? He always tried to pick a little bit here a little bit there but I watched everybody you know you the rhythm of the golf swing. You look at a guy like Tom Watson who has a very fast rhythm. A Hubert Green had a very fast rhythm. Nick Price. Nick Price was a very fast rhythm rithmetic type golf swing. Lanny Wadkins the aisle and he was quick on it yeah he's quick to the trigger. Yeah. And then you

Devlin, Bruce  23:42

have Gene Littler

Zoeller, Fuzzy  23:44

slow slow and deliberate yeah, here to ol' Geno. God bless him.

Mike Gonzalez  23:50

Yeah, but certainly rhythmical just

Zoeller, Fuzzy  23:53

saw was it was like music Bruce, you know? I mean, it was just just flowed everything just flowed with Ol', Gino.

Mike Gonzalez  24:04

As Hollis Stacy told us she said her mother ingrained in her as a swing thought The Blue Danube Waltz. That was her swing thought.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  24:16

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll see Yeah, that's good. That's good. Anything anything to get you to take your mind off the excitement while you're out there? Works? A little musics. I mean, a little music doesn't hurt anybody. 

Mike Gonzalez  24:32

For us amateurs, though. It's the Swing Thoughts are different every day. So

Zoeller, Fuzzy  24:36

Well I understand? As I tell amateurs, I said if you hit one good shot a day the way that you dreamed it up, you're ahead of the game. There's a lot of people go out there never hit a good shot and don't know what a good shot feels like. You know, you're trying to you're trying to get that feedback from the club head to your hands to your brain. Oh, no, that felt good, man. How did I do that? And can I repeat that. So

Mike Gonzalez  25:01

coming out on tour, what kind of equipment were you playing fuzzy

Zoeller, Fuzzy  25:05

H&B. Hillerich and Bradsby. Your orange bag? Yeah. On because it was right here was in my back door. Louisville, Kentucky. That's where the office was. I believe people are there. They, yeah, they used to have some great ones. Jack Hillerich. The whole group were outstanding to me in my younger years. They were. anything I needed. They got me. The only bad thing about being with H&B is that I was with Charles Coody and Gay Brewer. Right? Yeah, yeah. Now Miller Barber was there too. But Gay Brewer always stoled all the drivers I was having made up because it was a persimmon heads and I did have a tendency to crack the next home. So they always made me extras and Gay Brewer always came in. I don't know how you knew that. I was out of town. But he'd always come in when I was out. And he'd go through the new drivers that they were making me and take them. I said, Oh, there you go. I said guess you have to make me some more.

Mike Gonzalez  26:11

Well, they had hit some good guys in the in the H&B stable. One guy we used to follow at the Western Open at Butler was George Cadle.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  26:20

Got George oh yeah. I know George, God love him.

Mike Gonzalez  26:25

had an opportunity, Bruce about a month ago to play with another H&B guy. Leonard Thompson.

Devlin, Bruce  26:32

Yeah, right. Yeah.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  26:34

Yeah, let her play. I'll see. Chip Beck played him for a while. Larry Mize quite a quite a Larry Mize. There were quite a few the guys that jumped on board later on down a tour a little bit. Yeah, but Bruce. I'm going to tell you I never knew until 1976 We were down in Memphis, Tennessee and I I was with Gay Brewer. Charlie Coody and Miller Barber. We were going over to Bert Dargis club repair right? And Miller Barber looked to me he said give me your clubs. Because always played everything with a big sweeping look. Well that's why I was taught. I never knew you could bend the stamp clubs you know get a lie set down live shoot it was I just figured well you learn how to hit them and that you go with it go to work. Yeah, go to work. But they really those those guys really did help me and like I say when we get to Bert Dargis. Miller Barber had all my irons flattened four degrees. So I mean, I finally got the club head down, got to toe out of the air. And then I started out well, I mean, hitting the ball straighter, more accurate. Yeah, it was a it was a great fix.

Mike Gonzalez  27:55

Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. So what kind of with those beautiful persimmon heads on those H&B clubs. What what golf ball would do pair up with those back in that day?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  28:06

Well, you know, I see I started I think with Hogan, the Hogan ball. I don't even know if I make a Hogan ball anymore. And then I went from Hogan ball to the Dunlop. And I was I was Hubert green, myself and Dave Eichelberger. Were with the the Max-Fli people for like, 22 years. 23 years that we played the Max-Fli

Devlin, Bruce  28:29

ball. Yeah, yeah. So

Mike Gonzalez  28:32

at some point, you're at this cirques on because in our last interview I mentioned that's the ball well,

Zoeller, Fuzzy  28:37

hey, but I mean, you have to understand the connection between the two companies. When Max-Fli, decided they were going to sign Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman they dumped Hubert Green, myself and Dave Eichelberger, the ones who had grown a company so I mean when I went to Japan through the years I always played the Srixon ball now why was as because Dunlop who owned Max-fli owned Srixon so there was a connection between golf balls. So they asked me if I would play the Srixon ball in America so I'd be more than happy to I said it works here in Japan. Why wouldn't it work over there? It's the same game right? So we we got on board and watched it grow and then they get rid of me there. So I'm one of those guys you want to give the boot to right? Right and get out of there. Yeah, here

Devlin, Bruce  29:35

but as

Mike Gonzalez  29:38

Did you have a chance to play the small ball either as a kid because there are a few around or when you went played The Open Championship a

Devlin, Bruce  29:45

young for that?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  29:46

No, I am too young for that. They beat her dad out about two years before I came out on tour. Yeah. And I'm there I've never hit I've never hit the hell I have a hard enough time hitting the big ball Much less than dinky ball, you know,

Devlin, Bruce  30:03

it's interesting because having grown up on the small ball, right, I always forget, it's easier to hit straight. You can't spin it as much, probably. But I had a hell of a time trying to use that big ball for a while. I mean, just, you know, like, like you said, you know, you used to hit a lot of hooks. The same too, and I couldn't stop it with that big ball. Now, to me,

Zoeller, Fuzzy  30:31

it is it is.

Mike Gonzalez  30:34

Fuzzy, one thing we like to always ask our guests to particularly what their early lives and trying to figure out what really attracted them to the game of golf. We've heard a variety of answers. And sometimes it has to do with their personalities and how maybe the solitude of Golf was an attraction to them growing up versus other activities. What was the attraction for you?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  31:01

I think the challenge of it. Every day, every day was a new day. Every day was a different game. You might feel really, really good. You think, oh, this is gonna be my day. And you go out there and hit it like a dog. Next day, you go out and you kind of feel terrible. And you everything just clicks. Yeah. Explain that to me. Now fat doesn't get underneath your craw and drive you nuts. It's the right game. Trust me, it is

Devlin, Bruce  31:30

all of us nuts. Didn't

Zoeller, Fuzzy  31:33

we? Boost we have survived it. Yeah, you know, but,

Devlin, Bruce  31:36

you know, that's what the love of the game is all about, though. Fuzzy, isn't it? You know, I mean, you hit you mentioned earlier about, you know, the feeling that you get from hitting the shots that you're really trying to play and how much joy you get about it. And then, you know, the next day, you can't even feel that thing again. So it's fascinating. It's

Zoeller, Fuzzy  31:59

well say it's how you adjust to your feelings. It's about basically what it is.

Mike Gonzalez  32:05

Fuzzy as we finish this, look back on your earlier days in golf. Any other any other reflections on the people that helped you along the way?

Zoeller, Fuzzy  32:16

Just want to say thank you to all the people who are in southern Indiana who watched me grow up, and who gave me the opportunities to come and play golf with them. They would invite me and when I was four and five years old, they invite me into the group and I'd play 5, 6, 7 holes with them, then I'd go up to the house. So I just want to say thank you. I mean they were they were all instrumental in my career and building my career.

Mike Gonzalez  32:43

You know, it's interesting you say that it's one of my favorite memories growing up as a kid. You know, if you could play a little bit you did find that the older guys would invite you along and boy, were those some learning experiences.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  32:58

I used to love I always bet quarters, because that's bad. All I had in my pocket was a quarter a bowl marker. I had a judge here in town that just loved to play me for the four or five holes that I was out there playing I've take what I take quarters off him i i don't know how many quarters I want off off the judge but Judge Tagert, God loving. I ordered a great guy. He and Jackie Keach who owned a pool hall here in southern Indiana New Albany. Downtown. We played golf all the time. All the time. Yeah, it was great for quarters, quarters, 

Mike Gonzalez  33:39

special special memories.

Zoeller, Fuzzy  33:41

Oh, you don't forget those things. You know, you just don't know.

Mike Gonzalez  33:44

Thank you for listening to another episode of for the good of the GaNS. 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 down until we tee it up again. The good of the game So long everybody

Music playing  34:03