I flew all the way to Hawaii to meet Scott Simpson and be regaled by his stories.
Well, that’s not totally accurate – I didn’t even know Simpson was living there and had become the men’s golf coach at University of Hawaii – but it truly was one of the highlights of my trip, especially the portion spent on Oahu for the Sony Open of Hawaii.
Simpson, 67, shared so many good stories that I’ve previously posted a story on his longtime partnership with Bill Murray at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and a wide-ranging Q&A, but when the conversation shifted to the U.S. Open, we dove deep enough that I saved that portion for a separate standalone Q&A.
Simpson won the 1987 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, the crowning achievement of his seven PGA Tour wins between 1980 and 1998. He birdied the 14th, 15th, and 16th holes during the final round to edge Tom Watson by one stroke. He finished with a three-under par total of 277.
Here’s Simpson on the importance of an attitude adjustment when he arrived at The Olympic Club, his magical putting day in the final round and “ranking just slightly ahead of a tuna sandwich” on the thrill meter in one writer’s opinion.
GOLFWEEK: What’s one of your fondest memories of winning the U.S. Open in '87 at Olympic?
Scott Simpson: I tell this story to my team at least once a year. I get to Olympic and I’d become a Christian a few years before that and I ran into our Bible study leader. He goes, “So, how you doing, Scott?” I said, “Not very good.” He’s like, “What?” and I said, “No, I’m frustrated, this is my fifth tournament in a row. I played lousy last week.” I’m complaining about this and that and he goes, “Wow, lucky for you our Bible study is on contentment this week.”
It was on contentment and it just changed my mindset, like you know what? Instead of this course is hard, this rough is thick, the greens are diabolical, I went out and said, “I get to play the U.S. Open. This is a beautiful course. Olympic Club, I get to play here? This is great.”
So, I went out with the mindset of if I miss the cut, if I win, that’s not what’s most important. If I have a good attitude – kind of that attitude-gratitude thing – if I go out there the right way, enjoy it, be the person I should be, that’s what’s important. That was a good lesson for me. You’re going to play your best when you can get rid of the expectations and the pressure and just go play.
Looking back on it, it freed me up to just go play. I remember when I got done – I birdied 14, 15, 16 – and all the reporters were everywhere, and they go, “Scott, you chased down Tom Watson, but you’re smiling and you looked so relaxed out there. How did you do that?” I said, “Well, our Bible study this week was on contentment.” Half the writers were like, “Oh, great, all these Jesus freak guys.” But they asked, you know? I had to tell the truth.
GWK: Was there any edge to not being in the last group with Watson that day, the final day?
SS: Possibly. I played with a friend of mine, Lenny Clements, who grew up in San Diego, who I’d known since junior golf. We were tied for I think second or third, one shot back. He didn’t play well that day but in some ways it probably was. Watson, whenever you play with the best, they’ve got some intimidation to them. Watson did. He does everything just so purposefully and aggressive. Yeah, maybe. With a few holes to go, it was just Tom and I.
GWK: You made three bogeys in your first six holes. What were you feeling at that point?
SS: You know, that’s another good story. I was feeling good. I had birdied the first hole, made a long putt. I made a pretty good 6-footer at the second hole. Then I missed three putts in a row that were like 6 feet, but I hit them all good. So, they’re all kind of right on the lip or lipping out.
Saturday, I played great. I just was a little tentative on some putts. The greens were so fast. But I just was a little tentative. I putted for probably an hour Saturday night, just making sure I really stroked through the putt, gave it a good roll. So, stroke felt great, and even though I was missing, I really trusted my stroke. I made some great putts down the end.
GWK: None bigger than the 30-foot birdie putt at 15. I read somewhere that you said you pulled that putt.
SS: I did? I said that? I don’t remember. What I do remember is I was just lagging it up to the hole. I couldn’t believe it went in. Putting through shadows and everything, I was just trying to get it close.
GWK: There's another quote of yours that I came across that said you were thinking about Billy Casper and Jack Fleck, who had taken down Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan respectively at U.S. Opens at Olympic in the past. Is that true?
SS: Oh, yeah. Well, Casper and Palmer. I got to 16 tee, and I remember Palmer hooked it in the woods and ended up losing the tournament. I’m not doing that. So, I pushed my drive just in the right rough, but I had an open shot. I just knew I wasn’t going to go left because Palmer went left and just blew it. That’s the part where I was just thinking, yeah, I’m not going to do that. I wasn’t thinking about the Fleck part, though. It never crossed my mind about the upstart beating the champion part, not until it was done, and then Rick Reilly (of Sports Illustrated at the time) wrote an article about how basically I ruined the U.S. Open, how good it would have been if Watson could win. My dad got all mad.
GWK: Rick Reilly did have one line in his story that I jotted down. “On the thrill scale you ranked just behind Edwin Meese and slightly ahead of a tuna sandwich.”
SS: He’s pretty darned funny. My dad didn’t think so. He wrote a letter (to the editor) or something. I said, Dad, I won the U.S. Open. He can write anything he wants. I couldn’t care less. I don’t care what he writes. But it was pretty funny. It was creative. Keith Clearwater, he called him Keith Clearasil because he was a good-looking guy. I was like, that’s just Rick Reilly.
And then Larry Mize – Reilly wrote an article because Larry Mize (Masters) and Bob Tway (PGA) had won majors that year, too – and he wrote, ‘You can get those three guys in a room and hear your hair grow.’ So Mize and I got together and were like, ‘Yep, I can hear it.’ We still joke with that.
GWK: There was another quote from after your win that I wanted to follow up on: “I never thought I was good enough to win the NCAAs, I never thought I was good enough to win the U.S. Open.” Why did you feel that way?
SS: Maybe it was the way I was raised. I just felt like even in college – (Craig) Stadler always knew he was going to be a pro. That was my dream, but I guess I never took it for granted. I’d always see the other guys, and to me they looked better. Yeah, they’re better than I am. I said, thank God it’s not just your golf swing or who hits it better on the range or something like that.
I think the way I thought around the course helped me. Even yesterday, J.J. Spaun said yesterday, what were you best at when you played? I was just kind of good, I was pretty good at everything. I wasn’t great at anything. I never led the Tour in any stats that I know of. I didn’t let things bother me, so I played good in the U.S. Open, I think.
GWK: Was that the best putting day of your life?
SS: Yeah, I can’t think of any better. It probably was. It probably was the best putting day of my life.
GWK: You made bogey at the 72nd hole of the 1991 U.S. Open, fell into a playoff and then lost to Payne Stewart (his 75 beat your 77). Do you think your career would be looked at differently had you become a two-time major winner?
SS: Yeah, I wonder. I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t think it would be much different just because half the people I meet think I won two U.S. Opens. Oh, yeah, Scott, you won two U.S. Opens. Because I played good in a stretch there, and I almost beat Payne, should have beat Payne. Half the time I have to correct people. I’ll say, “No, just won one, lost in a playoff.” They’ll say, “Oh, that’s still good.” Yeah, it is good. Winning a U.S. Open is good. But I don’t know if it would be much different. It would be a lot different if I didn’t win a major like a Jay Haas, Scott Hoch, those guys were really good, but they never won a major.
I’m glad I didn’t think about that then, put more pressure on myself because the older you get, you think, wow, that really is pretty good I won a U.S. Open.
