I miss the green.
For example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball in a fried.
Egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, fried Egg, Frida Egg, bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course.
Arnold Palmer is the Masters of Night.
He has buddy the last two holes, two cats.
I got bog ahead of cat that Jory?
What is the say that lay a ways? God? Have anybody hasn't ever seen that? A play up the hill.
Like that? And I think that's one of the greatest buddies I've ever seen in Friday Night.
Maybe yes, sir there, can you believe it?
Now?
No? There?
It is a win for the ages?
Is it his time.
Here? It comes?
Oh my goodness, oh wow? In your life? Have you seen anything like that?
Hello? Friends, I'm Jim nantsis my great pleasure to welcome you to the Master's Tournament. I've heard it said before. It's a tradition.
Unlike any other Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another Master's podcast on the Frida Egg Podcast Today. I am joined by nineteen ninety six us AM runner up in nineteen ninety seven Master's contestants Steve Scott, Steve, welcome on.
Thanks Sandy, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, it's uh, we get to talk to the man that you know, had the most probably famous loss in US Amateur history.
Hey, yeah, thanks for reminding me of that. Yeah, it's you know, you know, it's one of those things that, yeah, you know, I really wear it. That's bad your honor, you know, but it's you know, I played great under great pressure, and you know, the Tiger guy just played a little bit better. And and you know, he said, he said, if I can beat Steve Scott in his final US Amateur, I am ready to turn pro. And he went on and he nipped me in thirty eight holes, and he went.
Yeah, that's the tough thing with match play. We saw it at that you see it every year at the match play on the tour. Is like, you can you can play as good a golf as you can play and just get beat. And to have that happen in a final of the US AM I mean it had to be one of the greatest us AM matches of all time.
Yeah, it was pretty historical. I mean, you know, Jack Nicholas, Bobby Jones, nobody had ever won three US Amateurs in a row. And you know, for me to be the guy to be in the way of history per se, you know, it was a pretty unique situation to be in. I mean, you think of the odds of just making it, just making it to the US Amateur in general is
is highly difficult. And then you have a field of three hundred and twelve players that pairs down to two at the end of the week, and it was me and that guy, and you know, you think of the odds of that, it's pretty astronomical. And you know, I played my heart out. I you know, I didn't blow it. I didn't choke I I you know, if it was
stroke play, I would have beat him. But it wasn't stroke play, and you know, it was just one of those things that you know, golf always comes down to one shot, and you know, it just happened to be that last hole. I made a bogie and he made a par and that was it. That was it was just it was just a monumental day in golf history and probably something that will never be repeated ever again.
Yeah, I don't foresee anybody winning three straight because after two they'll turn pro.
I imagine, Yeah, they turn pro after one and they want to think, I think they can go dominate the world. It's it's very difficult. It's very difficult out there. Yeah. The thing think about golf is there's there's just there's just no guarantees. It's not like playing, uh, you know, being a top prospect in baseball or football and signing multimillion dollar contracts. I mean golf, you have to prove yourself every single day. If you're out there on the on the MLB field and you you know, if you
don't get a hit, you don't get paid. I don't think those guys would like that very much. And golf that's that's the case. If you you don't play well, you don't get paid that week.
That's what I always say to people when they talk about like, you know, life many tour golfers or my buddy who's playing on the Web tour, and it's like, you know, this guy does not have a glamorous life right now. It's you know, if he makes it to the PGA Tour and stays up there for a while, yes, that's it, you know, and then you're living the life.
But there's so few spots and the road to it is so difficult, especially if you're playing on Latin America or Canadian tour, like the money is is so small, and if you play bad for eight weeks in a row, you're not bringing bringing home any cash.
Exactly. You'll finish in the top five. Yeah, you're you're done. You're not going to make expenses for the week. So it's a you know, it coming up the ladder is certainly a you have to be super dedicated and you've got to have a little bank roll behind you, and you know, it's it's a it is an extreme challenge that you know, some people do it for a few years and then you know they go get a job in the real world because it's it's it's just that tough.
But you know, at the end of the day, you know it's it is is a pretty cool profession, you know, getting to play golf and making money at it, so you know, it is a it is kind of a cool thing too.
Yes, yeah, it's I mean, I think that's why so many people try and do it. It's one of the best jobs you could have knowing Augusta is on the line in that US am, how is the pressure in the semi final match compared to like the finals obviously that that adds a wrinkle to you know, your regular match, I imagine.
Yeah, you know, Andy, I had the luxury of making it to the semifinals in ninety five at Newport Country Club, and I was really really nervous that match. The year before I played and you know, against Tiger in that match. But yeah, the year before in ninety five, I played against Buddy Marucci who ended up beating me nineteen holes, and I can just remember how how fast everything was moving in my mind and and how nervous that I was. And the next year when I got to the semifinals again,
I mean to have that experience under my belt. It was really funny how the perception of time slowed down and I was able to kind of control of things, and I was ready. I was ready to make that step because I had the success that I did the year before and had that opportunity the year before, So you know, I certainly didn't want to let it go two times in a row.
After a couple of months go by, you get you know the invite. How many times did you go out and practice at Augusta before the week of the tournament.
You know, I was still a sophomore at University of Florida, and so I had, you know, had schooling to do and whatnot.
I did go.
In March of ninety seven. I made a trip over a weekend, and I think I played a couple of rounds. And yeah, I didn't go a ton like some people do, but but I was able to, you know, go out there for a couple of practice rounds before. And I got to tell you, the golf course plays plays zero like it plays during the tournament. Even a month before they really ramped the golf course up, and even from Monday to Thursday of Masters tournament week, the golf course
changes dramatically. The balls don't roll back into the bank, you know, from the band on number fifteen, let's say, or number twelve on Monday. But Thursday, like Wednesday afternoon, it's like it's like Disney World. To go out there and there's this you know, they they roll and cut and roll until they just can't do it anymore. And you know, it's one of those things that the golf course now the balls are all trickling in Thursday morning, you know, first round and it's just a it's a
it's a different golf course. They just totally ramp it up in a very short amount of time.
That's uh, that's funny. That was going to be my next question. So the difference, you know, from from Wednesday to Thursday is just you know, monumental.
Yeah. I remember. I remember when I so, I play a practice round on Wednesday morning and I went and played the par three course and then I came back out to the main cutting green to roll some putts, and they had done all their work on the main cutting green and I drop a couple of balls and I'm just you know, I want to you know how you just drop a couple and you're ready to go putt and the balls wouldn't stay on the green, Like the balls are rolling off the off the practice putting green.
I'm like, oh boy, I'm really in for it this week. I mean, it was like it was totally like linoleum that you just dropped it on and the balls just wouldn't stop. It was it was out of this world.
You heard the stories of Tiger practicing on Stanford's basketball court. Putting. Did you do anything beforehand special to work on putting on extraordinarily fast greens?
No, I didn't go to those limits. You know, I don't think anything really prepares you for I mean, look, unless you're super lucky enough to you know, know a superintendent who will totally scalp a green at your home course. You know, there's nothing that really prepares you for hitting a fifty or sixty footer at Augusta National during Masters tournament week. You just don't have any frame of reference.
And I've really remember struggling on those type of putts because I mean it was just the greens are just so fast, and you just you're trying to go on your memory bank of Okay, what do I do here? How hard do I really need to hit this fifty foot or down? I remember I had a ninety footer all the way across the green on the fifteenth hole.
I think I had. It was for eagle or something, and the pin was was front left and I was all the way on the right and it was downhill the whole way, and I hit this putt from ninety feet and I probably you know, I could have hit it like a ten footer and it just it never stopped. It went all the way across the green and off the other side, and you just have no frame of reference. It's just that unique.
Yeah, I think the thing that gets lost is that with the speed is that the greens are also some of the most vicious and undulating greens around. You know. They they have these these slopes that are just you know, incredible. They're you know, especially the Mackenzie greens are just out of this world with you know, Alis for McKenzie and Perry Maxwell doing most of the greens there.
Yeah, you combine, you combine severe you know, three or four degree slopes with the speed of the greens that they that they make them at and they can suck the moisture and make them you know, as firm and as fast as you could ever imagine. It's just it's one of those things if you have like when I saw the greens and after all they did all the work on the Wednesday, it's almost like the greens they're
not even green anymore. They're like a purply blue looking they're just like it's just a different it's a totally different arena. And you get out there and you know you have and you know, I guess that's why typically it takes a few years, around a few Masters tournaments to really get a good perspective of of how you need to play the golf course.
Who'd you play your practice rounds with?
Andy? I had some amazing practice rounds. Somebody gave me the idea of writing letters to people wanted to play with, and I want to say it was my college coach buddy, Alexander and and and so I wrote letters to Justin Leonard, I wrote letters to Jack Nicholas, and I wrote letter to Greg Norman and I they they all three of them obliged with a practice round for me. So I played with I played with Justin Leonard on Monday, and that was soon after he won the British Open the
year before. And then and then I played with mister Nicholas on Tuesday, and then I played with Greg Norman and Steve Elkington on Wednesday, and it was just it was it was super It was just so good. I mean, I couldn't I can't even put it into words how what the experience was like. And to to go around with with Nick, with Nicholas in particular, because he'd won all the Green Jackets and and you know, he was
like a grandpa there to me. You know, he's fifty seven year all at the time, and and you know, he was just showing me the ropes and showing me. He showed me this one putt above the pin on number nine, and I could have sworn this putt was going to break left or right half a foot at least, and he said, play it half a foot right to left. And it was totally, you know, opposite of what I thought.
And so you know, I did, and I played it the way he told me to do it, and from about thirty forty feet and I buried the putt and I just kind of looked over and I shook my head and I said, man, I guess this is why you've won six Green jackets.
That's uh, that's got to be so cool to get a player with jack out there on during the week. Which who gave you the best, you know, single piece of advice?
No, I mean, Justin Leonard was really good. He just you know, he said, just you know, get there early, play some practice rounds. You know, I don't know, I mean, there was just a lot a lot of people gave great advice. I can't pinpoint it to one, but you know, it's just one of those things you have to get out there and experience the course. And you know, for me, I think I think I just tried to soak it all in. I mean, I didn't play very well that week.
Unfortunately I missed the cut, and the cut was abnormally high that year. It was like six over par was the cut. It was abnormally firm and fast. And this was before all the Tiger proofing and the lengthening of the course and the rough and all that stuff, and and you know, it was just it played extremely difficult. Remember you know, Tiger wins by twelve shots over Tom Kite shoots shoots six under par and finished second. So you know, it was a it was a It was
a very difficult golf course that year. And I barely broke eighty both rounds. And you know, but I've never had as much fun playing crummy as I did there.
Yeah, So the first t is that the how are the nerves there? And was there a spot on the golf course other than that that you were, you know, a normally nervous to a regular round.
What I remember and maybe you know the first team, you're always amped up and and uh, especially there and and I remember during the practice round, h my Wednesday
practice round with Elkington and Norman. Elkington hit his drive out there on first and and Norman hit and I hit last and and and I think I outdrove Norman by you know, five or ten yards and and uh, you know I was pretty amped up, and and you know, it's just it was just really cool, you know, listening all the you know, the fans, you know kind of maybe heckel Norman for getting out driven by a you know,
a kid. And you know, I know I was never really known for being a long hitter at that point, and I'm still not, so you know, it was it was It's pretty cool how far you can hit a golf ball with adrenaline. Uh. And and you know, first teeth the Masters is kind of the uh, you know, the epitome of of you know, trying to control that, you know, that adrenaline in the emotions. MM.
So that shot on twelve is uh, you know, you hear about the wind so much could tell us a little bit, you know, Is it as tough as everybody says with the wind.
Yeah, it certainly is. I kept it out of the water both days, which was which was nice. I remember in the practice round the month before, I remember being so nervous because you know, you've watched The Masters on TV for you know, a ton of years, and I don't remember being nervous in a practice round. And I was nervous in a practice round. You know, I get up there and and I think I dumped one or two in the water, you know, a month before. But yeah,
the winds do swirl. You get you know, you get the flag on eleven that that looks like a downwind, and you know the wind kind of turns back in that corner and comes back into you, and and yeah, you have to kind of you got to get a little lucky. Let's put it that way. I mean, the green on the left side might be thirteen to fifteen paces deep, and then and then in the middle it's like seven paces deep, and in the right side it's like, you know, nine or ten. So you know, it's one club.
If you miss club by one right or one little, you take a little too much speed off of a shot, or you get a little adrenaline, then you know, that's why you see guys go in the back bunker and go it is. It is the most challenging one hundred and fifty five yard shot that you could imagine because the green is just it's so shallow from front to back.
So you alluded to watching a ton of Augusta coverage as a kid. What was the thing playing the course that was the most different from what you you know, thought it was from watching it.
You know, I think the terrain at Augusta National is I mean, the drop from the tee to the green at tenthole, for example, is just unbelievable. You know, you certainly can't get a sense of that on you know, on television at all. It's it's it's such an amazing climb and you know, you and down to the twelfth green in the thirteenth t area that's kind of the low point of the golf course and everything works back up to the clubhouse from there, and it's I think
the terrain probably is the most significant thing. And then you know, then it's just the speed of the greens. You don't have any appreciation for how great of putters, you know, guys like Ben Crenshaw were and the putt that Nicholas made in eighty six on seventeen and you know, and even on even on eighteen in eighty six, when Nicholas hit that putt from the bottom tier all the way up to the top and almost hold it. I mean,
like that is a really tough putt. And you know, the appreciation for those shots you just don't get unless you're unless you're there in person and see how much how much slopes that there are out there.
In terms of the tournaments over the years, do you still watch a lot of the Masters or most of it? Is it? Is it still a ritual for you?
I watch every minute that I can't I get, you know, whether it's streaming online or on television. I mean the Masters, you know, as a I mean I'm not only you know, a professional golfer, I'm a I'm a golf fan. I'm a golf nut, and I love I love everything. I mean, this this time of year is like I'm like a
kid in a candy store. Really, I mean, I'm forty years old and I still feel you know, those those it's that excitement of spring and and you know the Masters just really really, you know, gets that out of you. Every time, and it's that that, you know, the lead up to the Masters is great, and I don't know, I personally can't get enough.
What tournaments and shots do you think don't get spoken about enough or forgot? I don't know.
I mean I think I think they kind of all do. I mean, you know, you go back. I don't know. I guess I think of the the you know, the eighties into the nineties and and you know, from Sandy Lyle hitting a fairway bunker shot and hitting it to five feet above the hole on the seventy second hole and making it, or you know, like, I don't know, I think they all get their due really, you know, I don't know. That's that's a that's a tough one because there's so there's so many that you get their due.
Probably it's hard to have to say that one.
Really what was the what hole did you find to be kind of the most under the radar great hole that you know outside of Amen Corner that you loved.
There's just there's so many. I mean, the greens, like getting your approaches into the greens have to be so presite. The fairways they mowed them back of the tee and to have a sand wedge, you know, up to the green on number seven for example, off of the super tight lie that the grain is mowed right into you. It's so hard. I totally can see why why Jordan Spieth a couple of years ago dumped a couple into
Raysed Creek. You know when he hit when he had that layup on number on number twelve, when he hit in the water and then he dropped and for uh, I guess pretty famous, but for bad reasons. But you know, the precision needed to hit a wedge shot off of off of that tight lie, it's just it's so tough. I mean, you you hit it a tenth of an inch heavy and you're gonna you're gonna look like Jordan Speed. I mean it's that it's it doesn't take much at all.
And you know, any wet you know, just those simple web shots or the shots that look simple, like the shot on fifteen, you got a downhill lie if you lay it up too much down the right side of the fairway. So that's why you see a lot of guys lay up left. It's a little bit flatter, flatter lie into the green, and you know you just have to position the ball properly and give yourself the flattest lies possible.
And if you could have one like world class skill and you're going to the Masters and you're the best in the world, have one aspect of golf, which one would you want it to be? To have success at Augusta.
You've got to be a precision iron player. You have to you have to be able to dial in your distance so well there because every you know, the difference between you know, one or two yards off is dramatic.
You know, like I mentioned about the twelfth fall being you know, less than ten yards deep of the green on the green in some parts of that green, and you know, to get it on the little tiers like on the thirteenth hole, the pens all the way in the back, and you know, you've got an area the size of a dining room table, it seems like to really place your golf ball or else you know it's going to go off in the lower areas and the
low parts of the green. And the precision iron game and getting and dialing in your distance I think is crucial.
Yeah, also with all the uneven lies and makes hitting it the right distance even tougher.
Yeah, you get the uneven lies, and like back in oh I can't remember late eighties, early nineties, Nick Faldo beat Ray Floyd in a playoff and Floyd tugged it into water on the eleventh hole to lose. To lose, Defaldo hit the ball was above his feet and he didn't quite calculate that into a shot as much as he needed to, and that's why he tugged the ball a little bit left. And yeah, you don't get a lot of a lot of even lies, Like the thirteenth
hole is a short par five. But I remember, you know you have like a I mean for me, I you know, I'm not Bubba Watson. I don't have wedge to the green, but you know I had like a four iron, let's say, and you're hitting it off a downhill with the ball above your feet, but you're trying to hit a high cut with a ball with a lie that's telling you you're going to hit a low hook. And like, I think that's that's something that you don't
quite see on TV. I mean, the lies just don't always fit the type of shot that you need to play. Same thing on ten, the tenth hole, the ball kind of sits a little above your feet and you really need to hit a high cut into that green to hold it better. If you hit a draw, it will
kind of fall off the left. And you know, those those sorts of little nuances, they totally affect the shot and can really make the pros look dumb if they don't quite you know, calculate all those little nuances into the into their equation.
Yeah, I think that's one of those subtle design tricks. Everybody always talks about how you how do you make a course extremely playable for a fifty a handicap of fifteen handicaps never going to recognize like, oh I have a hook lie and I need to hit a fade into the screen. But for the elite, world class players, it's it drives them crazy.
Absolutely.
Who do you have for going into this week? Who who's your pick?
I don't know, I've got I think I think it's very open. I think for for you know, for a golf fan out there, I think this has got to be one of the most exciting masters. You know, you got Field playing great, You've got Tiger coming back up and knowing knowing the golf course so well. You got McElroy winning recently, at bay Hill. You know, you have Bubba Watson winning at the Dell Technologies match play a week ago. You have a lot of you just have a lot of great players that are that are really
playing well right now. Justin Thomas is playing really well, you know. So I don't know. I think it's I think it's wide open. I think for the if I'm a betting man out there, it's hard to pick somebody. If I had to pick somebody, I don't know. Left handers, they're seeming to do very well at Augusta. You know, Bubba Watson, even though he might not be a player favorite inside the ropes, I think Bubba is playing extremely well and I would put him pretty high on my
list for sure. And Michelson's playing great too. So I don't know a left handers kind of I don't know. I think they have a little bit of an advantage there.
Yeah, I think Bubba. One of the things he can do is he can almost like manufacture angles because of the way he can shape the ball. So you know, he might not be in the ideal angle, you know, the ideal spot to attack a flag, but he can move it so much he can make the angle.
Yeah, he's as creative of a players as there's been in the last you know, twenty or thirty years out there and moving the ball around like he does. Yeah, look, wouldn't put it past him to be in a hunt. Come back ninth Sunday.
All right, we've got a tradition of overrated underrated. It's not it's not a tradition unlike any other, but it's it's our tradition. So uh, I'm going to just throw out a couple masters things here and you say, you know, if it's overrated or underrated, you can add explanation, but it's got to be one of the two.
Okay, all right?
Pimento cheese sandwiches.
Hmmm. For had one? So I don't know, Can I can I talk on that one? Can we come back around?
Have you never had one? You didn't try one, didn't have curate?
No, I don't think I did. No, I don't know. I think I I don't know if I I don't know if I had one at all. But you know what I would say, I would say, I don't know. I'd say I'd say overrated.
Hey, there's a reason you haven't had one.
I've got to pick one I would say overrated.
Driving down Magnolia Lane.
Underrated it's it's it's you just gotta do it. It's amazing, all right.
The fourteenth hole, that green is difficult.
I don't know. I don't think it's so, I don't know where it's rated, but I would say, I would say it's really tough. So let's go underrated there, all right.
And then the Crow's Nest.
The Crow's Nest not overrated. I don't know if it's underrated. It's just amazing. It's uh, it's like a religious experience to stay on the grounds of Augusta National So I don't know. It's certainly not overrated. So if I have to pick one to be underrated.
All right, Steve, thanks so much for your time, and we're looking forward to a great Masters week and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
Yes, I will, thank you Andy for having me on. I really appreciate this