Simpson Became Winner When He Found His Faith, Lost That Temper

At the golf course, after a big victory, no two players celebrate the same way. Different strokes.

Roger Maltbie’s general reaction to the successful conclusion of a tournament is: It’s Miller time. First round’s on Roger.

Billy Casper’s general reaction used to be: Soup’s on. Come and get it. Time to go out for a buffalo burger and an order of fries.

Mac O’Grady? Well, you never know with Mac O’Grady. He probably calls up Alan Shepard, the astronaut, and compares notes about what golf is like on the moon.

Scott Simpson is not like these guys. When Simpson wins a big one, he pretty much just leans back and says: What a friend we have in Jesus.

Simpson makes no secret of his born-again beliefs. He talks about it a lot. When Simpson misses a big putt or hits one into a creek, he doesn’t change his grip, or lose it. This man puts his hand with the man who stilled the water.

The trouble is, a lot of people are bored by this sort of talk. Golf writers tend to ignore it. They would rather see Jerry Pate jump into a lake, or hear about Maltbie losing a $40,000 winner’s check in a pub, or--the golf writer’s favorite--relate one of those ever-popular stories about how the winner of the tournament, Spike Marx, borrowed a 1937 putter from runner-up Chip Shott just 10 minutes before the final round.

OK, so Scott Simpson does not exactly sparkle in an interview room. OK, so he is no Chi Chi Rodriguez.

OK, it might be true that, considering Simpson’s rather stolid manner, the endorsements he accrues from winning the U.S. Open championship could be worth somewhere around $40.

Yet Simpson’s comments about his faith should not be ignored, just because some listeners are bored, or because religion supposedly doesn’t belong on the sports page.

On the contrary, it might have had quite a bit to do with Simpson’s winning Sunday.

Simpson, a pleasant fellow with sort of a Tom Selleck’s second-cousin face and temples too gray for a 31-year-old head, was sitting around discussing his victory afterward and mentioned that he had not been nervous during the final round.

“I’m a Christian, and that probably is the most important thing in my life,” he said. “I wasn’t really worried whether I would win or lose, to tell you the truth.”

Tom Watson, his closest challenger, was plenty nervous. So much so, he had trouble sleeping the night before.

Watson wanted this one much more than Simpson did. Even seemed to need it more. Since Simpson was almost nonchalant about how the tournament would turn out, his hands might have been a wee bit steadier down the stretch.

It wasn’t always this way. Simpson needed something in his life to settle him down. He was temperamental, something he picked up from his father.

Joe Simpson is a scratch golfer in his own right who has been a San Diego Country Club senior champion and placed in the top five in the city championships. As a boy, Scott caddied for his old man, and he and his brother already were doing nicely in age 10-and-under tournaments.

“I wouldn’t be here without my dad,” Simpson said after winning the U.S. Open on Father’s Day. “He taught me to play, and encouraged me to play. A lot of people aren’t so lucky. I’d just like to take this occasion to tell my dad I love him.”

Simpson & Son came to the Olympic Club a few months ago to play a round together. It was then that Joe told his son: “This course is built for your game.” Perfectly suited for it, he said.

Scott wanted to believe it, but as far as winning was concerned, he did not hold his breath. The tournament he had won in Greensboro, N.C., two months ago was only the third pro event he had won in a decade on the tour.

By 1984, with only one victory to his name, Simpson decided his disposition might be a factor. “My father used to have a temper. He was a real good player, but had a real bad temper. I do, too. I think a lot of golfers do. We’re all perfectionists.”

He tried this; he tried that. He even studied karate. When he finally decided to become a Christian, it calmed him somehow. A few weeks later, he won a tour event in Westchester, N.Y.

Priorities started changing. When his wife, Cheryl, gave birth to their first son last year, Simpson took 11 weeks off from golf. He was no longer as obsessed with it.

When he got to the U.S. Open, it was his sixth straight tournament, and he was tired. But, he figured it would be a wide-open Open. He told Payne Stewart: “I think there’s 50 or 60 guys who can win it.”

Stewart replied: “No way. Maybe 12.”

Simpson disagreed. “I can think of a lot of guys,” he said.

And sure enough, the winner was Simpson himself. Winner of one of golf’s greatest prizes. Winner of $150,000.

“What will you spend it on?” he was asked.

“Part of it is for taxes. Save some, I guess,” Simpson said. “And, I’ll give back some of it to the Lord, because if it weren’t for Him, I wouldn’t be here today.”

This could be the first U.S. Open champion in history to go directly from the country club to the PTL Club.