An Interview With s8

July 26, 2013

To be inducted into the Hall of Fame is an An Interview With: honor, and to go up on the walls with a lot of my heroes and a lot of my friends, it's really fun.

JIM NELFORD Q. So you mentioned heroes. Who would be some of those heroes on the walls? THE MODERATOR: Thank you, JIM NELFORD: Well, certainly guys like everyone, for joining us this morning. We are George Knudson and Stan Leonard who came having this brief media scrum available because from Vancouver, Moe Norman, my good friend we will be hosting Jim Nelford's induction Sandra Post who we've done a lot of broadcasting ceremony tonight at 7:00 p.m. and realize that with, and of course my hero of guys, who, you many of you will not be able to attend. Jim will be know, you get to know them, you get to know what inducted as our 71st Canadian golf hall-of-famer. they're really like when they're not in their persona Jim has quite an extensive career, including being on the golf course, and who would have known one of only 17 players who was ever able to that Halldorson is such a shy guy and such a good capture two Canadian Amateur titles. He was also guy and has such a great heart, and to get to know the 1975 British Columbia Amateur champion and a guy like Moe and to understand him where so won the 1973 BC Junior title. much of the world didn't. You know, George After turning pro, Jim was able to capture Knudson helped me out a lot. There's just so the World Cup for Canada along with Dan many of the players that went in there and Halldorson in 1980 and also won the British represented Canada well and gave us belief Columbia Open in 1983. We would like to systems. welcome Jim today, and obviously looking forward I remember as a kid watching the to inducting you tonight. Do you have anything U.S. Amateur when Gary Cowan holed it out to win that you would like to start off by saying about the the U.S. Amateur right on the 18th hole, and going, honor that will be bestowed upon you? man, that's one of our Canadians doing it. Every JIM NELFORD: Oh, sure. Obviously it's one of those guys that broke through allowed the an honor to get inducted into the Hall of Fame, and guys behind a little smoother road. You felt like so many of my friends have gone in before me, you could do it and somebody has done it before and the people that I got to know by playing you. professional golf that are in, I'm honored to be able So you always respect the work that they to have called them my friends and still call them did to get there, and you try to copy some of the my friends, and to have known so many of the things that they did. Some things you copy work great players throughout the ages. out, some don't, but nobody's perfect, but they're I've always said that there is no lack of all great players, and it's fun to be inducted and be talent in Canada. We've got great players up here, a part of that. a lot of talent. It's just a tough thing to make it on THE MODERATOR: You've played in the PGA TOUR on the world stage with the best in numerous Canadian Opens yourself. Do you have the world. When a person does, it's -- you know, any advice that you would give to the Canadians it's a whole new world out there on the TOUR, and playing today? that's never a goal of anyone's to make it to a Hall JIM NELFORD: It's a long journey. Every of Fame. They're too busy grinding every week week that you play is just a small little chapter in just to stay out there and get your card. your life, and when we came -- whenever Throughout my career it's been such a pleasure to Canadians came to a Canadian Open there was so play not only with our Canadians and support our much pressure to play well, and we put so much Canadians out there but be able to broadcast and pressure on ourselves, and all of our fans that are tell some of their stories on TV.

015f14a14fe0fcbc413475cc3b8208 1 95.doc visit our archives at asapsports.com cheering for us, it can work for you, it can work recovery was trying to think positively, trying to against you, and it's very difficult to find that spot think as positively as I could, but I had many where you care less. I found it when I came to dreams about coming back to play at the Abbey, Canadian Opens, I tried so hard, and my parents and if I could just come back and play the Abbey often described me as a people person, and I one more time and get in contention one more would see the crowds and I'd think, oh, I've got to time, that was my dream, and it was a recurring hit a good shot so I can please these people, and it dream. took me a while to get over that feeling of saying if So the first time I came back after the I don't take care of this stuff and block everything accident, it was too soon. It was too soon for me out, I can't hit that shot. to be back on TOUR. The first six months I didn't So it's so exciting for the young guys to make a cut, but the PGA TOUR basically forced play in the Canadian Open, to get in a big TOUR me to take my year as per medical extension. I event, that for them to calm down and actually play didn't make a cut for six months, missing by a shot, well, it's very difficult, and it takes years to be able missing by two shots, but I started to play a little bit to do that well. Guys on the PGA TOUR have better on the weekend. learned to do it, so that's why they're still out there And that was a very special time playing in performing. You put it into a perspective of this is that Canadian Open because something just another shot on another hole and a round of happened, and that was -- it was that dream golf and a tournament and a year and a career. coming true. I was on the ninth hole, I was three As you get a little older in golf, you start to shots out of the lead in the final round, and of realize you have to deal with it that way. course that back right pin on 9, I tried to -- tried my hardest to put it left of the pin and leaked it out Q. Just as far as playing in the there in the water and ended up finishing 15th or Canadian Open goes, obviously you played in I so. think basically all of them here, didn't you? But I had a good friend Don Lloyd who JIM NELFORD: Yeah, a bunch of them kind of started the Nelford Navy, and he would go until -- well, even after the accident, and then up to every green and tell everybody, hey, this is broadcast the rest. Jim Nelford, start clapping, get on your feet. Bless his heart. Q. A lot of people are asking why you So the whole back nine he was doing that didn't have it in Vancouver and you wanted to and walking up 18, the dream that I'd had so many have it here for that reason, because this is times became a reality, and everybody stood up almost like a second home to you, isn't it? around that hole, amphitheater, and were clapping JIM NELFORD: Yeah, it really is a second on 18. And that was a real heartwarming moment. home to me. It's where my professional career Glen Abbey meant so much to me, and being able was really played. In my playing career and then to play here and compete here and compete well in the broadcasting career, it all started right here at times and go through the gamut, the missing the that year that John Cook and Johnny Miller had the cuts and how much it breaks your heart, and you playoff. I was asked to go in the booth on the don't know what to do. You don't know whether to weekend. It was a great experience because I had leave town, you don't know whether to sit in your played the course, I knew all the hole locations, I room and cry. It meant so much every time. knew the players, I knew exactly how everything And all the friends that I've made being was playing, and so it became pretty natural for me here and playing in front of people, this was just to do that. the spot, and at the Canadian Open this was the And it also gave me a lot more confidence spot. because when you're out on TOUR you're always living on the edge. You're one bad streak away Q. Given the accident itself now, from sometimes losing your card, or like I had, like obviously it cut short your pro career or an injury, you don't know when this career and definitely stunted it, does that put more of an when this dream stops. emphasis or more of a warm feeling for you as But one of the real reasons I had it here far as your amateur career goes, just because was after I had my accident, the doctors told me I that was really where you -- it seems to me would never play the game again and I would have that's really a foundation of your Hall of Fame half a right arm. When I was recovering, part of my

015f14a14fe0fcbc413475cc3b8208 2 95.doc visit our archives at asapsports.com induction, what you did as an amateur, and got paired with Irwin in the third round at the does that have extra meaning for you? Hawaiian Open after he had won, and I remember JIM NELFORD: You know, it was a short shooting 5-under on the front side. It took amateur career. It was really -- from the BC Junior everything I had to not go, now that's how I played on to the last Canadian Amateur, I was trying to last week; I saw what you did. I'm still waiting for win three in a row and I had a seven-shot lead my apology from Hale and still haven't got it, but after two rounds and got beat by a great guy, Rod I'm not holding my breath any longer. Spittle, and I remember finishing second there. I But you have to take the positives out of just kind of ran out of gas, and he won it at something like that. A lot of people years before Ancaster. don't realize that I'd stood on that same tee exactly But I was so excited to get to the pro Tour, in the same position, I was four back, but Mark it didn't have a big effect on me. I said, okay, Hayes was leading by four and had just made a that's -- now I'm going to the pro Tour. I get to live triple bogey, so I was one back. And I hit a cut out my dream. over the ocean and bring it back to the fairway, and Actually when I think about it, my amateur I thought, okay, that caught the edge of the career was very short, and I didn't play a lot of fairway, I'll walk down there and get it and see if I amateur golf outside of college golf, or we didn't can make birdie. I'm walking off the tee and I'm have a lot of extra money in my family, so I only playing with Leonard Thompson, and he goes, really got to go to those tournaments that the BC where are you going? I said, what do you mean Golf Association sent me to or the RCGA sent me where am I going? He goes, your ball never to. When I look back, it's like, wow, pretty good crossed. It hit the edge up there and bounced out percentage of winning, but a lot of my amateur in the ocean. You're kidding me. No. I talked to career was really college tournaments, playing the other guy in the group. Sorry. against the best in college, guys like Stadler and So I made double bogey. I probably Strange and Scott Simpson and Jay Haas and should have made birdie. I thought Hale Irwin those guys in that era. should have made the double. So when I came back out of college to play So even though I didn't come away with in the events that I did in Canada, I knew I was the results I wanted, just one of the favorite places tuned up and ready to go, but looking back on it, it for me in golf I've ever played. It's not all about was a short amateur career. I only played, I think, sometimes the winning. That would mean it's in four Canadian Amateurs. about the destination, and it's not; it was the So to have won a couple and really journey. It's all the shots that you hit, all the work probably should have won a third one was neat. It that you do to get yourself in that position. was really neat, but time to go on. I said I've got to And to have the definition winner or make some money because I was broke and a second-place finisher, you know, it's such a small college guy and married, and it was time to make line. Every guy on the TOUR knows that you hit some money. 15, 20 putts in a tournament that should have gone in that don't, and one lips out and you don't know Q. When you look back at that moment why: Spike mark, whatever. The line is so fine. in Pebble Beach, how did you come to terms But just to know you can be there and you can with that, the bad luck you had, the good luck compete on that level and you can look a guy like Hale Irwin had and that that's as close as you Irwin in the eye, like Nicklaus, like Trevino, and came to winning on TOUR? they're watching your shots and they're saying, JIM NELFORD: That was certainly a that's quality stuff, quality stuff. heartbreak. It was a tournament that I loved And when you get the respect of your playing in, fantastic golf courses. We played peers like that, that's the long journey, and that's Cypress Point and Spyglass along with Pebble, part of that journey. The winning, I don't agree and my kind of golf, just a magical place. I think with Tiger Woods. Second place isn't first loser; it's probably -- probably Augusta National, St. it's the silver medal, and there's a bronze medal Andrews and Pebble Beach are where the golf and then there's participants. But you beat 154 gods reside. It's just golf the way it was supposed other guys, and that's what we're trying to do every to be played. week. Yeah, that was devastating. It was very In this era we put so much emphasis on difficult to deal with, and the next week I actually winning, winning, winning that everybody that

015f14a14fe0fcbc413475cc3b8208 3 95.doc visit our archives at asapsports.com doesn't win is a loser. That's a horrible thing to tell That's a tough thing for a lot of guys to our kids. No, you're competing. You're doing the deal with. All of a sudden they were the best in best you can. It's a long journey, and enjoy that. If their group, now they're going and playing against you don't win, you're competing. You're a winner a bunch of guys who were already the best when because you're out there doing it. It takes a high they were kids, but now they've learned how to level of passion and of work ethic and the ability to play professionally. So it's a long road. It's a long go through those things and come out on the other road for these kids. side and hold your head high and say, that was a I'd like to see these guys get on the good effort, that was a good fight. Let's go to next Canadian Tour, play, learn to travel, learn to deal week and see what happens there. with all the stuff you have to deal with and your So you admire the guys that go through inevitable failures against better players. Do you the tough times. Like I said, it's not how many learn or do you tuck your tail between your legs times you get knocked down, it's how many times and slink away? I think that's happened too many do you get up. Get up one more time, that's all. times to some of our good players. They got a lot Get up one more time. of attention, and then when they go into the big leagues they're a very small fish in a big pond, and Q. As you see the development of the you've got to start at the bottom again and go all game in Canada, do you think the Canadian the way back up. But now you're against the best field here is great or do you think it should be in the world. much better? It's a stepping-stone, but I think nothing JIM NELFORD: Well, it's nice to see a lot more than that. of Canadians playing. They're getting an opportunity. This is a tough stage for them to go Q. I guess this is a good time to take on, on a tough golf course, under a lot of pressure. stock as any. When you look back on your So it's a heck of an opportunity, but it's an event. injury and you have something as horrific as They have to -- they really have to go through their that happen to you, have you come to make building process, getting through college golf, sense of it? getting through their amateur career, getting JIM NELFORD: I don't know really what through -- now it's going to take going to the you can say other than it's a horrific thing. It was a Web.com or the European Tour and building and horrific thing to happen. I thought I had enough building. One tournament never makes a career. challenge playing the PGA TOUR. Then to try to They get a taste of this, and that's good. It play the PGA TOUR with half an arm and that should show them how much farther they need to emotional -- it was very much like being blown up, go to get to the top level. You know, I think back to like the guys coming back from war being blown the time that Jack Nicklaus and I played an up, dealing with posttraumatic stress. I guess you exhibition, and he was good enough to three-putt could say, well, if I can get through that, I can get enough times for me to win. It was like, oh, you through about anything. beat Jack Nicklaus. Yeah, I beat him one day in And so I did have to go back and try to an exhibition. I'd gladly trade a few of his wins for play with half an arm and totally reconstruct it, and that one day. it made me think, okay, so what makes the golf You know, it's good. A lot of them are in swing work? If I have a right arm that's completely over their head, but I hope they don't feel like this different and I'm still competing, maybe the golf is the pinnacle. This is just one of those steps that swing comes from somewhere else. Maybe it says, okay, now I've got to realize how good these comes from our mind, how we think, the way we guys are week in and week out, because we get a think, does it affect our body. lot of phenoms that play great golf early on, and So I worked hard on teaching golf a then they have to deal with the pressure and the different way. What I've seen from some of the anxiety and the playing against the best of the best players, it comes from the ground up. Talk to world, which you do when you get on the PGA Ernie Els and talk to Fred Couples and worked with TOUR is you find out how many great players Freddie a lot. They're playing from the ground up. there are, and not all of them are playing great any Teachers today are teaching from the top down. It week, but you've got about 10 that are. And if your does a couple things. First, it's very hard on the level isn't up there, boy, you find out quickly. body, so they get wrist, elbow, shoulder injuries, back injuries. Secondly, it's not -- no other sport is

015f14a14fe0fcbc413475cc3b8208 4 95.doc visit our archives at asapsports.com played like that. Every other sport is played from They had a heck of a golf course at St. the ground up, the legs with the power and they're Andrews, wasn't it. Yeah, that's neat. That's neat. dominant. I'm glad they get the recognition for that. So it's put me into a mode where I'm trying That should be in the Canadian Golf Hall to figure out what do the best players did. What of Fame, those feats that -- we don't go in as did Trevino do? Trevino and I talked about it a lot. favorites ever to a World Cup or something like What's different about this so-called proper classic that, but we have come out as winners an awful lot swing and then all the guys who do it differently, of times. That says something about our guys. break all the rules and are fantastic players When Dan Halldorson and I won World anyway? What's different? Cup, it was in Bogota, Colombia. It was actually It's so unconscious to the best players. under duress. It was quite funny, they had curfews The best players play unconsciously. That's why a on every night because they had national strikes, lot of times they can't teach their sons, because and they said it's best that you get in by about 8:00 what they do is unconscious to them. So I've been at night before it gets dark. Really, why? Well, studying that and I've been working on that and you'll be shot if you don't. Really? That's a good have really come up with some what I think is the reason to eat at the hotel. And we heard gunfire truth about the other way to swing, and it happens going off every night. Well, we're playing under to be what we do in every other sport. It starts pressure here, aren't we, boys? Not many people from the ground up. knew about that. So it was actually a game of life So teaching people on that basis, golf, and death. (Laughter.) It put things in perspective here's what you know in other sports and you can a little. use it in golf, and here's how you do it. It's a totally THE MODERATOR: Thank you very different set of rules. much for making some time, and we look forward That's one of the great things that came to hosting you and your family when you're being out of it, and I got to be an analyst on TV and talk inducted tonight at 7:00 into the Canadian Golf Hall about the swings and say, hey, this guy is breaking of Fame. all the rules and yet he's still winning. He's hitting the ball better than the other guys. What's going FastScripts by ASAP Sports on there? Because I think we need to get away from that kind of teaching because it's so hard to learn. It takes so long to learn that people can't enjoy the game, and it's driving people away, that way of teaching, because it's so different. It's a brand new sport, and it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. You've got to chase all those foul balls.

Q. Just on an unrelated topic, I'm just wondering if I can get a comment from you on the '94 Dunhill team being put into the BC Golf Hall of Fame as a team. JIM NELFORD: Yeah, it's the first time I heard that. I thought, what a nice thing to do, though, all those guys from BC to win that tournament, that was a big tournament with a lot of great players, a lot of -- it was much like a World Cup except now you've got three guys and everybody counts. That was a big moment in Canadian golf. I think that was fantastic. Somewhere it's got to be on film, and I'd love to see it because I didn't get to see that. But I'm glad those guys are getting the recognition for that because they took down some big names.

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