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AT&T CLASSIC

May 14, 2008

Bob Charles

DULUTH, GEORGIA

LAURY LIVSEY: We'd like to welcome Bob Charles, the inaugural champion of this event back in 1967, to the interview room. You were recently here in Georgia playing in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf on the Champions Tour with Stewart Ginn, so you're familiar with Georgia and you're back here. Want to talk about the festivities today and some of the things you've been involved with?
BOB CHARLES: Today?
LAURY LIVSEY: Yes.
BOB CHARLES: Well, let's see, I set the alarm for 4:45 in Birmingham, got on a plane at 7:30 in Birmingham, and here I am.
No, it's 40 years, seems a long time. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge, a lot has happened in that period, and it's certainly nice to come back, unfortunately not to the Atlanta Country Club where I won. Well, this is my first visit here to Sugarloaf, which I understand the event has been here 12 years. I haven't had the opportunity of playing the TPC here, but as I said on the tee, I feel a little bit like Arnold Palmer on the first tee at Augusta this year hitting the inaugural tee shot for the Masters.
So I guess, yeah, it's kind of special to be here to do something to celebrate 40 years of the Atlanta Classic. What do they call it now, the AT & T Classic. It's no longer the Atlanta Classic. So here I am.
LAURY LIVSEY: You're still playing a lot and obviously playing well. You made a lot of headlines last year when you made the cut on the European Tour at the New Zealand Open. How are you playing now?
BOB CHARLES: Well, I'm not playing a lot, for a start. When I'm back home in New Zealand, where I spend seven months of the year, I'm probably lucky if I get to play one round of golf every two weeks. I'm a part-time golfer and gentleman farmer, not a full-time farmer, gentleman farmer.
But yes, getting back to the New Zealand Open, which was played the first -- well, finished the first week in December, I had an exceptionally good week there, which I did prepare myself for a new golf course, which I had probably played more than anybody else in the event. I really did a lot of practice and preparation for it and had a good week. In fact, if it wasn't for a double bogey on the 72nd hole, I would have been the leading New Zealander and finished about 12th, I think. And as it was, I finished 23rd or 24th, during which I broke my age twice and equaled it on -- well, I had a 75 the first round and then I equaled my age and broke my age in the other rounds.
Last year I played something like 15 tournaments. This year I plan on playing 12 tournaments. This week in Birmingham is my third event of the year. I've got nine events scheduled for the European Senior Tour. And beyond that, I may become a full-time farmer and hang up the spikes.

Q. The first one is the obvious one. What do you recall specifically about the '67 tournament, the year that you won?
BOB CHARLES: Well, not too much, but first of all, it was a brand-new event. Nobody had any advantage of course, golf course knowledge. The course had only been open about 12 months, I think, before we played there. I was, of course, 32, so I was probably playing as good a golf as I've played in my career.
I was leading the tournament I think probably in the back nine -- I don't know where I was positioned. Well, I think I was at the end -- I must have been leading, I think, after three rounds.
I think Tommy Bolt, I seem to recall that he was playing ahead of me and putting a score on the board, which meant I had to par something like the last two holes, and I hit a bad tee shot on 17 into the woods, and I think I made a pretty good recovery, got it up-and-down. Standing on the last tee, all I had to do was make a par to win, which I was able to do, being a par-5, of course.
So other than that, there's not too much I remember about the event. I don't recall my score, but it was my -- let's see, my first win was in Houston; second, Tucson; I think third was -- it would have been my third win because after that I won the Canadian Open the following year and I won Greensboro. So yeah, it was my third win on the TOUR.

Q. Did you sense at the time that this was a tournament that would last this long and be around for 40 years?
BOB CHARLES: We never thought about that in those days, but I'm pleased that it did. I think that the city of Atlanta has got a long history of golf going back to, of course, Bobby Jones, and I think that it's great to have -- well, what have you got? You've got two events here annually, haven't you, and it's a shame there's no senior event here or Champions Tour event.
I was at the Pepsi Senior Challenge, which I won at Horseshoe Bend, so I've won two events in the city here. I don't recall what year that was, in the late '80s, probably, '87 or '88. Yeah, that would have been 20-odd years ago that I won at Horseshoe Bend.
So yeah, do I have a sense of longevity? I just hope that it continues another ten years and I get the chance to come back on the 50th anniversary, not only just the 40th.

Q. I have a silly question. I'm asking everybody this. I asked Arnold this last year and I asked Greg. Obviously your career spans a couple different eras, and I'm just wondering -- I was looking through -- last year I was looking through the pictures of all the winners of the tournaments last year. Every winner is wearing a hat. Every golfer wears a hat. Back in your day, you would see Arnold Palmer playing without a hat or Jack, the Golden Bear. I know it's a silly question, but why do you think literally every single professional player now wears a hat? Is it because of the revenue it generates? Is it increased awareness of skin cancer or what? And is there a reason for it, and did you wear a hat back in the day?
BOB CHARLES: I did not wear a hat. I did not start wearing -- well, I started wearing a visor before a cap. I suppose I started wearing a cap -- well, a visor and a cap more because of skin cancer awareness. In 1978 I had a bout with skin cancer. I had a malignant melanoma removed from my back. I've got a big scar about so big on my back, so right about then I became very aware of problems with the sun and skin cancer.
Yeah, I think there's more awareness of that today, and the reason that guys get paid to wear them I guess is another good reason, as well.
But yeah, going back to -- I started in the early '60s. Very few people did wear hats on a golf course. And in fact, when you look around today, you look at somebody who's not wearing a hat -- well, I played with Tony Jacklin, for example, in the Legends of Golf a few weeks ago, and he wasn't wearing a hat, and I thought to myself, well, -- I didn't ask him but I wondered why.
Another thing is I think you get protected from the sun, but it also protects your eyes. I think your eyesight is quite critical in golf, and to break down that glare, which is one of the reasons I started wearing it, is if you've got a beaked cap you're shutting out the glare.

Q. There's been a very small amount of rumbling amongst the press and so forth about the anonymity of today's golfers. They all look alike, sound alike, and that individuality doesn't show up as much. Do you think the fact that everyone has a hat jammed down over their head can play into that, or is that an issue at all as far as growing fan interest? I acknowledge this is a silly topic, but I've got to start on it.
BOB CHARLES: You know, all the players have got their mug shots for media without hats on, so they're not totally shut off. Sure, when you're out on the golf course, you pull the hat down and it may be a little hard to recognize.
No, I think the young guys today are perhaps less recognizable than my day, and I look at it from the respect of a golf swing. The young kids of today -- well, I used to be able to look two or three fairways over there, and oh, there's Gay Brewer and Julius Boros. You knew who they were by their golf swings.
But today's young people, I don't think they have those kind of unique golf swings. Today they all -- it's a standardized golf swing, whereas it never used to be that way. So that's the difference between the individuals, look-alikes.
LAURY LIVSEY: Thanks for joining us today.

End of FastScripts

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