Posted by: Art Stricklin October 19, 2024
Hal Sutton, 66, has 14 wins on the PGA Tour.
Getty Images
Hal Sutton was 24 years old and in his second year as a pro when he won the 1983 Players Championship. Five months later, he won the PGA Championship at Riviera, beating out his idol Jack Nicklaus. Over the next three seasons, he won four more times. The “appearance bear,” as Sutton called it, seemed to be heading for extraordinary heights.
But then came the drought, which lasted nine years from 1986 to 1995. “I took my foot off the gas,” Sutton, 66, says now. The Shreveport, Louisiana, native finally got his foot on the gas again at the 1995 BC Open. This is the first of seven tour titles he will add to his resume. Sutton also captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team that lost at Oakland Hills in 2004.
Now, Sutton has shifted his professional focus from playing golf courses to building golf courses, including TPC Treviso Bay in Naples, Florida, and Boot Ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas, which brings him great joy. Sutton says there is. . During a visit to Sutton’s latest design credit, the Darmor Club in Columbus, Texas, GOLF.com spoke with the 14-time Tour winner about his career in both playing and design, his regrets, and his advice for today. -And the guests.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
GOLF.com: How would you rate your accomplishments in your playing career and your design career?
Hal Sutton: I’m much happier as an architect than I am as a player. What I discovered is that performances can disappear quickly, but architecture can last forever. I’m really happy that people are enjoying my course (Dalmor) and I think it’s getting better every day. … When I made this piece with Boot Ranch, I was here every day, working every hole and looking at every detail. No architect would do that. They come in about every six weeks and then move on to the next location. I took a course with Arthur Hills in Florida and another in Japan. I just put my name on them. This is where I want to spend my time.
His last win on the PGA Tour was in Houston in 2001, but he didn’t play much on the Champions Tour because of back problems. How much do you remember from your active days?
I had some regrets and some mistakes when I first started.
Why?
I started out eager to win the PGA Championship and Players Title, but a veteran player I respected told me he didn’t know how to play for money. When I asked him what that meant, he said he didn’t know how to play percentage golf and earn a good check when you can’t win.
How did it affect you?
I regret taking my foot off the accelerator and putting my foot on the break on the course and starting playing percentage golf. As a result, in the 80s the score of shots was significantly reduced, but no one cared about it. I didn’t win much.
What advice would you give to today’s up-and-coming talent?
Don’t listen to what others think about your game, listen to yourself. Everyone on tour is an expert. One of the problems I had when I first came out was listening to what you (the media) had to say. I thought they were in this game and when they wrote someone about me, I thought they knew something and listened. That was a mistake.
Sutton won the 1983 PGA Championship. Getty Images
How important is it for young players to have a mentor like Jack Burke Jr.?
Hire someone who will call you when you least expect it. To me, Jack was never a guy who chased the almighty dollar. When it comes to professionals, everyone is an expert and everyone is trying to create their own niche. There’s no need for that.
Have you been mistaken for being a golfer?
To be honest, I never really thought about it. I think thinking about it means I cared about what people would think, but I really didn’t.
Have you thought much about his hot start in 1983, when he won both the PGA Championship and the Players Championship?
I didn’t really think about it at the time. When you’re a competitor, you never think things can go wrong. You’re not thinking about the other person. That’s real wisdom for you.
It has become customary to blame the U.S. captain for America’s Ryder Cup loss, such as Zach Johnson last year. Want to mulligan with your own captaincy?
No, I have big shoulders so it’s okay. I feel like I missed out on some majors. They led on the back nine on Sunday, but were unable to get a shutout. Of course, I have never lost one by missing a short putt. I didn’t pay too much attention to that. I did the best I could and moved on.
What other memories, both good and bad, remain in your mind from your playing days?
I like collecting art. My wife and I were in Carmel, California, and we saw a large painting of a train preparing to leave a station and a man standing there watching it leave. That really hit home for me. Because for most of my career, I felt like I was just going to get on another plane or another car and go to some other tournament or some other event.
Is golf architecture your life now?
I just love getting out here, giving lessons, watching people play, spending time with my wife, and traveling. I’m very peaceful and it’s really hard to get angry about anything these days. I just want this (Darmor Club) to be a contribution to the game that has done so much for me.
