Jaime Diaz

Open ever, I believe.

I was just reading, you may have this, I always refer back to it, Sal Johnson's old print kind of comprehensive statistical summary of all the U.S.

Opens up, I think, through 96.

But he said at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday, nine guys were tied for the lead.

And I do remember that in sitting in the lunchroom.

I was sitting with, I mean, I was total, you know, very much deferential, just kind of a rookie with Dan Jenkins, Mike Lupica, Dave Anderson.

Herbert Warren Wynn, I'm just sitting at this table and, you know, kind of listening.

But I'm looking at the leaderboard going, well, I'm going to go out there.

And it was hard to leave that table just because it was just so much lore being flung around and wisecracks and just really skilled, incredible, you know, golf minds.

And, you know, I left, and I followed Floyd and Stewart on the way in.

With the media?

Well, he was one of those guys that put out a very gruff exterior and was skeptical of talking to the media and would kind of repel people just with his looks.

just with his mood and his, uh, or at least his, the mood that he affected when the media came around that I saw, uh, you know, so he was a little intimidating, but if you could kind of cut through and just keep asking a decent question that, that showed that you might have an idea of what, um, you know, what, what professional golf's about, he would be very, I wouldn't say engaging, but he'd be very thoughtful and, and smart about the game.

And, you know, I ended up doing a book with, with Raymond and,

the elements of scoring.

It was about the short game mostly, but just in general, his course management and the way he thought of his way around a golf course and just the inside kind of mental part of the game.

Of course, he had some technical stuff he did with his golf swing, but it was very much a homemade golf swing.

He was a great athlete.

He got drafted by the Cleveland Indians as a pitcher.

And so he really knew sports and he really knew golf.