He’s Ben There, Done It

Four days before the 1995 Masters started, Ben Crenshaw’s oldest friend died. The day before the Masters started, Crenshaw limped his way through a practice round at Augusta National with a sore foot. The day the Masters started, Crenshaw shot a 70 and was four shots from the lead.

The day the Masters ended, Crenshaw wept for his friend, savored his closing round of 68 and put on the most famous green jacket in sports. In the late afternoon sun, surrounded by tall Georgia pine trees, Crenshaw claimed his second Masters title. He just isn’t sure how.

As far as victories go, this one wasn’t as much improbable as it was, well, magical. It could go by other words, such as destiny and fate. Maybe that’s why Crenshaw was so overcome with emotion that he dropped his putter, brushed the cap off his head, bent over and cried on the 18th green when his final putt disappeared into the hole. Seconds later, Carl Jackson, Crenshaw’s Masters caddy since 1976, came over to console him.

That is the picture most remember from the 1995 Masters. It is the Masters when Crenshaw won, then broke down and cried. It is the Masters when Crenshaw overcame the grief of the death of Harvey Penick, the man who put the first golf club in Crenshaw’s hands as a child, and won his second Masters title at 43, 11 years after winning his first.

In the past year, Crenshaw has rewound the videotape time and time again. He is looking for answers. He stops the tape, then starts it again. He studies his swing. He wonders why he felt so strangely calm that he never checked the leader board until the 16th hole. He tries to recall exactly how he felt. The answers must be there in the videotape, so he searches it.

“I’ve looked at it many times,” Crenshaw said. “I look at the events that transpired and I try to think of what I was thinking, try to remember the situations I was in.

“I look at how the week progressed and I just say, ‘My gosh, well, how did you do it? How did you hold together?’ ”

The record shows that Crenshaw held together very well. His 72-hole score of 274 was bettered only by the 271 posted by Raymond Floyd in 1976 and Jack Nicklaus in 1965, and equaled Ben Hogan’s total in 1953.

Crenshaw began the last round tied for the lead. He trailed Davis Love III by one shot after Love birdied the par-five 15th, but the best was yet to come. On the par-three 16th, Crenshaw knocked a six-iron within five feet of the hole. He made the putt for a birdie.

He won the Masters on the next hole. He got the ball on the 17th green with a nine-iron and stood over a birdie putt of 13 feet. Crenshaw made it, later calling the curling, twisting putt one of the most perfect in his life.

Both Love and Greg Norman had completed their rounds and were two shots back of Crenshaw when he played No. 18. He played aggressively, but missed the green with his eight-iron second shot. He two-putted for a bogey, making the second from 18 inches.

The instant the ball fell in, Crenshaw broke down.

He recovered afterward and gave thanks to Penick, the legendary golf teacher who sawed down a club and gave it to little 7-year-old Ben Crenshaw at Austin Country Club. Penick died at 90 when Crenshaw was in Augusta on Sunday night. Crenshaw and Tom Kite took a chartered flight to Austin for the funeral.

The next day, Crenshaw played his practice round before the Masters and felt awful. In a matter of days, he was the Masters champion. After the awards ceremony, Crenshaw said it was Penick who made the difference.

“I had a 15th club in my bag and it was Harvey,” Crenshaw said.

That is what happened a year ago, here on golf’s most hallowed residential neighborhood for golf balls. Crenshaw clearly belongs. He seems to be as much a part of the scenery as the dogwood or the old, wooden clubhouse when you realize this is his 21st Masters.

Crenshaw the golf historian still marvels at the brilliance of Bobby Jones, whose inspiration began the tournament and who helped design the course. But Crenshaw the golfer also remembers how he felt between his Masters victory in 1983 when he was so full of promise and last year’s triumph, when he worried that his greatest success would belong to the past.

“You get to a point and you start to wonder, certainly past the age of 40, if you can do it again,” Crenshaw said.

Jackson helped the cause. After a practice round, he gave Crenshaw a couple of tips that paid off. Jackson advised Crenshaw to put the ball a little farther back in his stance and said he should make a tighter shoulder turn. Crenshaw immediately noticed the difference.

He struck the ball more crisply. He also began to make his share of putts, which usually is the best tactic to navigate Augusta National’s undulating, lightning-fast greens.

Mostly, though, the best point in Crenshaw’s favor was his mind. It was his memory, his thoughts. It also was what he felt in his heart about Penick, his only coach for 36 years. Penick also was Kite’s coach, among others.

Crenshaw just couldn’t get Penick off his mind.

“I still miss him,” Crenshaw said. “Every one one of his pupils miss him. He just wanted to help others and their enjoyment of golf and he was one of the best at it that ever lived. We were so fortunate to have him that long.

“After his passing, I tried to think of everything he ever told me and it was not complex. I play my best golf when the thought process is simple. The very few things that he always repeated were to trust yourself, to play like Ben . . . just play your game, play hard and accept the outcome. I don’t know why I kept thinking of those things. He was very much on my mind.”

The role of teacher in Crenshaw’s golf life now is being filled by committee. Crenshaw gets advice from Jackie Burke Jr.; from Butch Harmon; from Crenshaw’s roommate at the University of Texas, Brent Buckman, and from his golf coach at Texas, George Hannon.

If there is strength in numbers, Crenshaw is in a good position again. However, he knows it will be extremely difficult to equal last year’s accomplishment at Augusta National. Maybe he will rewind that Masters tape again and take one last look. Maybe he’ll discover how to come up with another 13-foot birdie putt on the 71st hole. Then again, maybe the answer is somewhere else.

“I’ve seen so many strange things happen at Augusta National that are up to fate,” Crenshaw said. “I believe in it, I really do. I don’t know what it is . . . something that gets to be sort of unexplainable at times.

“I have daydreamed so much it has been unbelievable, just for the happy memories of playing some of my best golf that week last year and then the events surrounding it. I have daydreamed a lot since then. And I’ll continue to do so for the rest of my life.”

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Ben Crenshaw at the Masters

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Year Fin. Winner 1972 19t Jack Nicklaus 1973 24t Tommy Aaron 1974 22t Gary Player 1975 30t Jack Nicklaus 1976 2 Ray Floyd 1977 8t Tom Watson 1978 37t Gary Player 1979 DNP Fuzzy Zoeller 1980 6t Seve Ballesteros 1981 8t Tom Watson 1982 24t Craig Stadler 1983 2t Seve Ballesteros 1984 1 Ben Crenshaw 1985 57t Bernhard Langer 1986 16t Jack Nicklaus 1987 4t Larry Mize 1988 4t Sandy Lyle 1989 3t Nick Faldo 1990 14t Nick Faldo 1991 3t Ian Woosnam 1992 46 Fred Couples 1993 MC Bernhard Langer 1994 18t Jose Maria Olazabal 1995 1 Ben Crenshaw

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DNP--did not play

MC--missed cut