Transcripts For KRCB Charlie Rose 20130824

And it would energize me to go finish the tournament. I mean, to me, thats why i was there. I mean, to me, to finish at noon on sunday and finish 30th is something i have no desire to do. Rose right. But to come down thetre sch of a Golf Tournament and have a chance to win that Golf Tournament and be there to enjoy and have fun with those people and yourself and the competition with your fellow competitor, thats why we play the silly game. Thats why we love it. Rose palmer, nicklaus and player, next. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Thats a fouriron and jacks got a much better shot. And jack is going to take advantage of it. That ball is going straight for the green. Rose Jack Nicklaus is widely regarded as the greatest golfer to ever play the game. He won a record 18 majors, he burst on to the scene in the 1950s with a mix of power and finesse that would revolutionize golf. The great bobby jones famously remarked that nicklaus plays a game with which i am not familiar. Nobody has been a masters champion more than nicklaus. In 1986 at age 46 he won his sixth green jacket, making him the oldest player to ever win a major. This year marks the 50th anniversary of his first win at the Augusta National. Last weekend, i visited him at his home in north palm beach, florida. You might have won the u. S. Open, but you didnt. Incidentally, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. Rose what . Not winning. Rose why . Well, i learned so many lessons. I got to play with hogan. I saw how to finish your tournament. I learned the mistakes that i made. If i won that tournament, i would have never found the mistakes i made which i never really repeated in my career. Rose like what kind of mistakes . Oh, i mean, i had a i had a oneshot lead but i was leading after nine holes with nine holes to play. At the end 1206 holes, with six holes to play i had a oneshot lead. I looked at the leader board, started worrying about hogan, palmer, kroell, cherry, souchak, those are the ones who were all four under and i was five under and i got nervous the next hole and i had a little i had a 12foot put and ran it that far by the hole and i had a ball mark in my way and i didnt have the presence of mind to know that i could fix a ball mark i. Knew it wasnt mine but youre not thinking clearly. So i three putted that, three put it had next green, missed a put like that at 16, missed an eightfooter at 17 and bogeyed 18 to lose the tournament. Arnold won the tournament. Thats fine. Hogan, he selfdestructed on 17 and 18. But, you know, all those things happened if i had won that tournament id have said boy, im really good. And i would havent learned the lessons, have had to learn how to do different things. And it was really one of the greatest things that happen misdemeanor n my career. Great experience playing with hogan. Rose why . He was unbelievable ball striker. He hit the previous 18 greens in regulation, hit the second every green in the second round and the first 34 holes i played with him the last day he hit every green in regulation. 52 greens in regulation. He was a machine. And i mean he couldnt have been nicer to play with. It was just he played just like i did. You know, he he gave you a few nice things to say and didnt really talk a lot, he talked a little bit. When it got to be his time to play golf it was all business. Thats sort of what i was. I was always business when it was my turn to play and what i was trying to do and i was trying to be pleasant in between. Hogan was pleasant in between. And it was just he was the kind of guy i enjoyed playing with. Rose as good a ball striker as theres ever been in golf . I think probably the best. I think trevino was awfully good, too. Rose ball strikers . Pure ball strikers . Uhhuh. Rose so in 63 you go to the masters and people are asking this question can he validate what he did at the u. S. Open . Is this guy how did you approach it . Well, i played the masters in 59, 60, 61, 62 i felt like i was really in a position to want to play well in 62 because i came very close in 60 and 61 as an amateur and 62 i didnt play very well. I finished 14th and i said it wasnt a very good tournament for me and so, you know, going into 63 actually, 63 i didnt know what was going to happen because i hurt hi hip earlier in the year and i was in San Francisco and i hit a second shot into the green in the proam at Lucky International which was at harding park and i couldnt hardly walk by the time i got to the green. I played the next day, missed the cut. I could hardly walk. I went to see dr. Wagner, a 49er doctor and he injected my hip and he said i want you to come back on monday morning, i want to give you an injection before you go. I went to palm springs and i w the Golf Tournament but i couldnt play left to right, i couldnt hit into my hip. I had to play around it. I proceeded to have 25 injections in my hip during the next month, ten weeks. And so finally my hip got all right but during that period of time i couldnt swing into , i had to i learned how to playwrighttoleft because i could play around my hip. So i went to augusta knowing that i never played righttoleft but i could because i had to play all spring. And i felt like i was going to play well. Shot 74 the first round. Not a good round, but i came back with 66. In the second round put in great position, good position to be right in what was going on and i ended up finishing it all. Rose you love the precision of the game more than the power of the game . I do. Always have, i think to me its always its more fun to play a really interesting little cut shot into a green or a high soft drawl or a little bumpandrun or something. I always thought those were fun shots. Rose you see the club as an extension of your hands . I see the club head as what im playing golf with. The golf club. And i like to feel and try to figure out how do i do because i visualize what i can do. I feel my swing. And if i can have the golf club in my hands in a way that i feel like i can perform the shot i want to perform, thats what i try to do. Of course obviously it takes practice to do that. You learn how the do it and learn where your hands need to be and where the club needs to be and how you can pit it in. But that to me was the fun of the game. The fun of the game is being able to outsmart the course, outsmart yourself and play within yourself and make sure the golf club is doing what you want it to do. Rose play within yourself so if you needed more power you had it . Meaning you dont try to do something you shouldnt do. In other words, if you went to augusta and youre saying wow, you know, im in good position in the tournament here but, you know, i think i can get home. Well, what are my chances of getting home . 5 out of 10 . Not very good odds. I dont like that. Now if i hit it down about 20 yards further sitting with a two or threeiron in my hand and im saying 19 times out of 20 im going to put the ball on the green or right around it, that to me are the odds i want. I dont want 5050. I want the 19 out of 20. And im going to try to make sure that that that 20th doesnt happen. Thats playing within yourself. Rose its also playing smart. Most people believe that you hit a oneiron better than anybody had ever hit a oneiron. And i love the oneiron. I just loved it. Because of all the things i could do with it. And people say why didnt you carry a fourwood instead of a oneiron . Well, to me fourwood was up in the air, there was too much to the elements. A oneiron i could always control the elements by hitting it down or hooking into it. I go back and i look at maybe the my three favorite shots that i ever hit were all oneiron shots. 67, u. S. Open at pebble beach in 72 and the masters in 75 at 15. All oneiron shots and i said at that time, i said ooh, was that fun i love when i hit a good shot i loved it. It was it got me charged up and excited. That was fun. Rose but what was it about you and golf that everybody said was going to a new era . Well, you know, that would be pretty difficult for me to answer. I was a 23yearold kid. Rose right. In 63 and, you know, all i my whole goal was to go out and play the game i knew how to play, play it to the best of my ability and try to be the best at it that i could be. Obviously the u. S. Open fell to me in 62, the masters in 63 and i always tried to climb mountains. I always felt like, you know, here i am, theres a lot of other guys out there that are awfully good and all of a sudden i went i must be better than i think i am. I won the next one and i said gee, i guess im better. Lets keep playing, keep trying to get better. Thats what i did most of my career. So i never thought about that i was changing something. Rose how important was the balance in your life that you had barbara and you had family and a place that gave you a center . Well, that to me was the most important thing. I mean, golf was never the most important thing in my life. I mean, golf my family was always number one and my golf was always number two. And, you know, whatever and i think that it was so important to me. And im ive got five kids, ive got 22 grand kids and when you when you look back at it, you look back and you say my kids all knew me, they all understood what i did and they were part of what i did and today we still talk about Football Games that i went to or basketball games that i went to, i made an effort to do things and the kids you know, i dont bring it up, they bring it up because they loved it. And, you know, i just feel really sad for a lot of people who were so focused on one thing that they didnt live the best part of life. Rose so no great regrets that you did not win a grand slam. Oh, i have regrets that i didnt win it, but i just didnt do it. Rose what ground do you remember the most in terms of you versus someone else . Is it watson . I dont know. I never really thought about me versus somebody else. Rose the duel in the sun . Well, that probably is probably the one round one tournament that i would probably i would probably remember more of the shots than any of the other ones. What i lost now, in that last round i can remember three or four shots, tournaments i won i can probably remember most of them. Ones i lose i usually get them out of my mind and forget about them. But that was a good one. Tom played great and i played very well, too. I missed i made the one mistake, i missed about a fivefooter at 17 and that cost me the tournament. But, you know, its the way it goes. Rose tra vino once said about you that you play badly better than anybody else. That you can play badly for you and still shoot a 68. Well, thats the secret to playing golf is to learn how to play how to score well playing badly. And i played i mean, i played poorly many, many, many times and i walked off the golf course inside 67 or 68 on my score card but i managed my game. Thats understanding who i was and what i could do and playing within myself and if im one thing i always did on the golf course, charlie, is i always try to correct myself. If i was not playing well, i didnt care if it was the last round of the u. S. Open and i didnt like what i was doing id make the change in the middle of the round. Now, i would play conservatively for a shot or two while i was working on it. But i knew the way i was playing i wasnt going to win so i needed to change and i needed to do it right then. So i did it and a lot of those tournaments i won. Rose how painful was it to realize you couldnt play it at the level you wanted to play it . Well, you know, its certain time in life thats going to happen. And fortunately i had a balanced life. Rose exactly. And if i hadnt had a balanced life it would have been tough for me. But it didnt bother me. When i knew that id lost my vehicle to my competition competition is what i loved. Golf just happened to be the vehicle to it. And so if and i love playing golf, obviously. But, you know, when i saw my skills eroding and i knew that, you know, ive got five kids, ive got five grand kids, ive got 22 great grand kids, ive got the ability to go i mean, im barbara, i didnt go today because you were coming. I missed a middle School Volleyball game and a high School Volleyball game. Rose you get joy out of that . I love doing it do i get joy out of it . Absolutely i love watching my grand kids play. Rose somebody once asked you how much credit did barbara deserve for the 18 majors and you said maybe 15 of them. That would be a good number. Rose laughs i want to give myself some credit. laughs barbara was fantastic. I mean, the beauty about barbara is that barbara knew what she was taking on well, she didnt know it exactly. She didnt know i was going gole knew i was an athlete and when we got married and i started playing golf she automatically, as smart as she is, and shes smart as a whip, she knew her life had to be second to mine otherwise i could never be successful. So she never badgered me about wanting to do this or do that or do this. We took our time off, sure, but why dont we go do this . That was fine. But never while i was playing. Never always let me do what i had to do. She raised the kids. She always made sure that shed get on an airplane aftertn friday and shed travel to california with three kids, couple of them in shed get off the airplane and watch saturday and sunday and then fly back with me. I mean, you know, i mean, how many women do that . She was fantastic. Rose Arnold Palmer. Arnold palmer was, you know, a great competitor. I mean, arnold came along at a time when we needed somebody in the game to take ahold and he grabbed the imagination of the public, the television was coming along. Arnolds out there, hitches up his pants and goes and wins the masters and the u. S. Open in the 1960 after winning the masters in 58. Around played a lot like they did. He had his shirt out, had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, he drove it off in the trees and he played this slicer draw up around the trees. Arnold was i mean, i was a big Arnold Palmer fan, too. Arounds ten years older than i am so i watched arnold play a lot of golf and i love watching arnold play. You love watching the guy do those things. And then i got the chance to play with him. I was 18 years old first time i played with arnold. But, you know around was great for the game. Arnolds career as a major championship golfer didnt last a long time. Rose five or six years. 68 through 64. Didnt last a long time but he was very good at that point in time. Thats when arnold really putted well. He really putted well. And arnold the type of putter that arnold was was the type of putter that probably wasnt going to last. Because arnold was a guy who did not fear a fourfoot put coming back. And so hes ramming that ball up the hole and ramming the ball up the hole and hes putting this and im going to tell you, if you keep putting these all day long theyre going to get to you. And, you know, eventually thats probably probably i cant say positively but its arnold probably got to arnold because he stopped making the four footers coming back then he stopped getting aggressive going for the first put and soon he had to change the whole way he putted and that wasnt Arnold Palmer. Rose someone like s ef sr eu said every golfer who played after him should have given Arnold Palmer 25 of their earnings because he changed the game and then you came along and the rivalry between the two of you as short as it was made golf what it became. Well, i agree with sevis comment on that. Everybody owes arnold a debt of gratitude for what he he just happened to be the right guy in the right place. It could have been anybody but it happened to be Arnold Palmer. He handled it well. Rose how would you characterize the friendship . I would say very close. Rose thats what he said about you. We were very close. I love arnold like a brother. Hes hes we were great competitors. We i mean, arnold when i was 22 years old starting on the tour, arnold would fly, pick me up and wed go play exhibitions all over the country. We did that a lot. And, you know, we played the Team Championships together. We played ryder cup together. We played canada cup now world cup together. We played our wives were great friends. We traveled all over the place. Had a great time. And, you know, and one of us would beat the other one, wed finish the day, shake hands, walk away and say what are you doing for dinner . And thats neat. And thats the kind of friendship we had. We had a period where we sort of split a little bit but that was the time when arnold went to the senior tour and i was on the regular tour and we had ten years where we didnt play a lot together. Once i got to be a senior then he played a lot again and our friendship got closer because we were both after the same goals again and playing together. But its now, arnold is im very grateful to what arnold did for the game and what he did for me. Rose you dont have any regrets about this extraordinary game you played and, as you talk about the players, whats amazing to me is what makes golf so great great it is there is o perfect way to hit the ball. Everybody does it differently. Rose everybody does it differently. Exactly. Rose designing golf courses is your passion today. The land speaks to you. What does it say to you . Some land says ugh. Rose laughs and some land says wow. To me, though, my job as a designer is to be able to take any piece of ground and if its an ugh piece of ground i have to turn around and make it a wow. Thats the creativity that ive got to display and put it on that piece of property. If its a wow piece of property then its my job to use that piece of property and not screw it up and try to figure out how do i work best to put golf in there so that i dont mess the land up but i also bring the best in golf in it. Se because you want to take the best of it and not damage it and let it speak to you and use it so that. Absolutely. Rose . It takes you. There were a couple golf courses that i moved virtually zero dirt. And i think they turned out beautifully. Two, for example, is probably dismal river in nebraska. We moved 5,000 yards of dirt and the only 5,000 we moved was to take a little hill off, it was halfway to a green on a par 3. So the golf course itself we didnt move one yard of dirt to design the golf course. We found the golf course. Another was prong horn out in bend, oregon. And that was a piece of property that it was just absolutely gorgeous. It was sort of lava rock outcroppings and Everything Else and i think we moved maybe 15,000 yards of dirt and it was all a lake rose china. Youre big in china there. Yup. Rose youre building more courses in china than anywhere, i guess. Yup. China is the upandcoming place in the world today for the game of golf. The chinese have learned that golf is a game that they can do business, they can have fun, they can its a game that they can play with like we do, a scratch can play with a 25 and still enjoy the day. You know, theyre starting to learn that and they like they love the american way. They love what we do. And ive been going to china for 25 years and i love going over there. Rose is it just china or is it other parts of asia as well where golf is exploding . Golf is exploding a lot in china. Vietnam has become rose japan doesnt have the land. Japan still plays a lot of golf but theyre pretty mature as a golfing nation. Korea is building a lot of golf courses. But i think china is the big place because the population base in china india wants to do it, too. But india doesnt have the land. Indias about im guessing about 40 of the landmass but about the same population. And theyre really to find land in india is tough. Which brings me to what how we design courses in india. I mean, its kind of interesting because people come to us with 30 acres, 60 acres, 80 acres fo their golf course. And i say well, you know, you need 150 acres for a golf course. And i said to me thats wrong. To me what you do is you say, okay, if youve got 50 acres then what we need to do is design a golf course where you have 50 acres but we need to design a golf ball for 50 acres. Rose oh so you change the golf ball . I would change the golf ball. To me you ought to be able to play the game and you ought to be able to play a golf ball golf weve done it backwards forever. Weve always done it because of what the golf ball does. To me it should be what the land is and then you fit a golf ball to the golf ball is cheap and very inexpensive. Rose they changed them a number of years ago so it went from something to something and suddenly you could hit it much further. Rose you could change the ball short, long, whatever you want to change it inexpensively. I dont want to change championship golf. Championship golf is great. But im talking about people learning and playing and getting involved in the game of golf. Arnolds got a fourwood and hes about 240 yards away. Palmer cranks up and hits a good shot right down the fairway and will leave himself a wedge shot to the green. Rose he is a legend who came out of the hills of pennsylvania with his fathers harddriving lessons deep in his soul. He had the strength of a linebacker and the magtism of a movie star. All of that, and he could hit a golf ball a mile and then roll it into a small hole with a touch of a master. He won four masters, one u. S. Open, two british opens and 62 p. G. A. Tour events. But never, never the p. G. A. , although he came close coming in second three times. He was once chosen athlete of the decade not just in his sport, in all sports. Golf has never been the same. It is bigger, better, and more popular in every dimension. He changed the game. Everyone that followed is indebted to him. No one has had an army like arnies army. No one has been so courted by president s from eisenhower to obama. No one has had so much respect from his peers. He and Jack Nicklaus defined great rivalry like Magic Johnson and larry bird, like john mcenroe and bjorn borg like duke and north carolina. When jack kennedy was in power, Arnold Palmer was winning everything. He was the best. So good that the president wanted arnie to look at his swing and come play a round. Arnold palmers a pilot and a hugely successful businessman. He and the late Mark Mccormack showed us what endorsements were all about. He was most of all a competitor and a gentleman and he still is as he approaches his 82nd birthday. We visited his home in pennsylvania. He still lives there. And also in florida with his second wife during the winter. Right across from the golf course his father helped build. Nearby is an office with enough awards to fill a museum. We began with a tour of so many memories and then a conversation about so many experiences. This is a Norman Rockwell. Well, ill tell you a little more about that. That was done a number of years ago. Rose yeah. Well, obviously. Rose when i first saw it you said do i recognize this guy . Well, i wasnt sure everybody would remember me. Rose Norman Rockwell painted your picture. Yup. Rose not bad. Not bad. This is the number of times ive been on sports illustrated. Rose you and sam . Yup. We played in the world cup a couple times together and we won both times we played. Rose you and jack . Yup. Same thing. Rose my name and yours, a unique concept of golf, first of a fivepart series how to do it your way. Sportsman of the year. Thats sports illustrated. Theres billy caspar. Thats one we talk about every once in a while. Rose the toughest one its the toughest one to win or the masters . Well, you won more masters. Yeah, of course, i hung out at the masters. I loved it. Rose thats your favorite . It had to be. You cant ignore the open. Its a its still the rose because it is of america. Oh, thats one. Thats it. Rose the american championship. One championship. Rose this is when you turned 40. This was 40 years ago. Yup. Rose 40 years ago. See how much youve changed . laughter thanks rose this is you and the famous winnie. Yup. Rose again. Thats 1967. There you are. Lets look at that swing. Rose theres you and jack and gary. Yup. Rose u. S. Open. You and jack again. Golfs kings must be selfish. laughs . Rose do you think you have to be selfish . Well, i dont know about that. I dont think hes selfish and i dont think i am. Rose so whats this . Those are my buddies. Thats the blue angels. Rose tell me about flying for you. Oh, i love it. Rose its a second stphags. Yup. I you know, i started by being scared. I was when i was an amateur i played a couple tournaments and i had to fly and i got into weather and stuff and it scared me and i decided that will not work. I had to learn to fly. I had to find out what airplanes and air nautical engineering and what it was all about. Rose youve stopped flying now. I just i still have my license and the only thing that keeps me from flying is going to recurrent training which i havent done. If i wanted to fly again, id have to go back. Rose your license lapses if you dont go back. Well, in the airplane im flying. Rose but did you fly all those famous jets you had . The citation 10 and the other jets . Im going to show you them before we finish this tour. Rose so this is your office. Yes, sir. Rose pictures of family . Family, everything. Rose theres your dad deak. Yup. Rose his given name was deacon . Milford jerome. Now you know why hes called deak. Its easier. laughs . Rose exactly. Theres the guy. Yup. Yup. And he was a great guy, he was a strong dude, and not a real big guy but very strong. Rose but by the time after the amateur and by the time you began to be who you were and are he fully appreciated it. Yeah. It was great. He was great. This is my first tournament win right here. The canadian open. Rose that was in what . What year . 1955. Rose three years away from when you started really killing it. Then im now, as you know, approaching 82 and ive never shot four rounds in an official tournament lower than that. Rose 265 for four rounds. Right. Wow. 64, 67, 64, 70. Pretty good. Rose youd think if you were today playing today and its back with the same age and skills that placed in 68 to 62 when you won your most number of major tournaments but when you won all your major grand slams, if you were playing today would you be number one . laughs i cant answer that rose but you had the will to win. Clubs are different. Youd be stronger. Youd like to give it a shot, wouldnt you . Youre damn right laughter id like to give it a go. Well, wake forest. Ive spoken twice at commencement there. Rose yeah. Thats theres the picture of the school in winstonsalem. Pebble beach which im a partner in. This thats the hole i drove at cherry hill. The first hole. Rose when you actually reach that green, what were you you were so infused by the fact of what it said to you. Oh, i was well, the determination and the things that we talked about, they were rose foremost in your mind . All over. Rose everybody believed that if you had wanted to be you could have been governor of pennsylvania. Did you think about it . Well, i had no choice. You know, people pushed for me. Tom ridge is one of my good friends. Rose the future governor. Yup. And so that was something that i wasnt a politician, though. Rose did you but youre also an american and a citizen. I love it. I love it. Rose but you just didnt want to do it . I didnt want to spend i wanted to play golf. Rose and you dont have to be in politics to make a contribution to the country. laughs these are all commencements i speak at at various universities around the country. This is one that i just got last summer that im very pleased about and thats st. Andrews. Rose oh, indeed my degree from st. Andrews. Well, come on, well show you some more rose so tell me what im going to see here because this is legendary where you come here and hide and thats it, i love it. I come in here and work on golf clubs. A lot of people say i destroy more than i build. Rose are you convinced that what you do in here to a club fits it better to your swing . I always said that if i had the perfect club i should play the perfect game. Rose because you had a perfect club. Thats what im trying to achieve here. Rose and you grind and build and get the parts sent into you. Oh, i can do anything. I put them together, take them apart. Most people say i just im very good at taking them apart. Rose laughs what kind of club do you play with today . Rosetoday. Callow way rose of course you do let me talk to you about president eisenhower. Your 37th birthday he shows up at the front door of your house. Yes, sir. Rose hes come with his wife to pay tribute to your birthday. This was the president youve had the deepest relationship with . Oh, yes. I played golf with him the day after i won the masters in 1958 at his request. We became ever lasting friends. I was with him the day before he died at walter reed. And thats very familiar because theyre closing walter reed. We just became very Close Friends and we played golf together, we played heart exhibitions, we did all that kind of stuff. And then the doctors told him that he really should not play golf anymore. So he used to call. Hed spend his winters in palm springs and hed call me and hed say arnie, what are you doing . Id say im going to go play golf, i think. He says oh, well, if you get time, stop at the house and well have a beer. Well, i wouldnt play golf, id go over and sit with him and wed talk and just talk about golf and business and the military and the whole thing, the country. Rose his passion for golf also helped make it popular. Oh, you can say that in spades. He was rose then there was j. F. K. Uhhuh. Rose who also sought you out. laughs yeah. Rose he wanted you to look at his swing. Right rose because he was a guy who loved winners. He and he was a good golfer. Rose when you saw his swing you said hes supposed to have played better and had a more fluid swing than any of the president s. Right. Rose and you said that you could have worked with him. It never happened. Rose why didnt it happen . Well, actually, i was on my way to palm beach to play rose this was 63. It was early. Rose was it 63 . Well, it was yes, it was 63. Rose and he died in november of 63. And we were going to play some golf and the white house called me and said arnie, forget it. And i said why . I want to go do it and they said well, he hurt his back and hes going to take some time off, i dont think hes going to play golf for a while. And that was the end of it. Rose so this is the famous shop. This is the shop. Rose this is the place where dr. Arnold palmer esquire doctor of laws makes them and breaks them. No house calls. laughs rose this way . Yup, were going to go right here back to the right now. Rose youve always had a very Good Relationship with the press. I enjoy the press. I understand their business. And doc has helped me with that. But the guys from the press were guys that, you know, i could get with. I could talk to them and rose part of what made arnies army so famous, too, was this there was a sense that you were this big brawny guy, this guy who could, you know, play to win, but there was a sense that you were of them. Buddies. Rose buddies. Thats the best way to put it. Rose arnie was there buddy . Wed have a beer together. Rose oh, my god. Look at that these are big time medals. Thats the president ial medal of freedom from the United States of america. Rose is the highest award that the United States can give to a civilian. Right. Rose this is the one from portugal. Highest civilian award. I built a golf course there and the president and i became friends. Rose played a round or two . This built is the hickock belt. In 1960 i won that for the professional athlete of the year. Rose you also won it for the professional athlete of the decade. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And thats what the this relates to. Rose this is the picture it looks like president bush giving you the president ial medal of freedom. Right. Rose thats a great honor, isnt it . Yes, it is. Rose and whats this . Thats the national amateur. Rose so thats 54 . Yup. Rose that stands pretty high up in your oh, thats major. Well, we go over here and well wind it up. Charlie, this is my president ial corner. This is the things that happen with my various president s that i was associated with and spent some time with. Rose lets just talk about them. First over there theres richard nixon. Did he play golf . Yeah, he did. Yup. Rose gerald ford is here. Good athlete. Oh, yeah. Rose played football. And he was a great guy. Rose he loved golf. You can tell by the laugh. This is a conference that nixon called of all of his friends to talk about how to negotiate the war. Rose you were considered among a friend. Kissinger, the whole ground. Rose how to negotiate the end of the vietnam war . Yeah. Rose wow this is george bush 41. Hes a great guy. Rose but he played fast golf. Very. Rose her is ronald reagan. These are are Like White House dinners. Rose here again with the bushes. Here again with whos the lady in white . Oh, she happens to be the queen. laughter . Rose and so here we go with some trophies. Various ryder cup. Rose what is the ryder cup. Its a Great International competition. Rose theres more enthusiasm for it than well, i hope so. Ive always been a big thinker that the more International Competition we can create through sports the better relationships well have with countries. Rose the more Common Ground we can find. Exactly rose the better off well be when push comes to shove. Thats right. Thats the name of the game. Rose so here you are with bill clinton. Clinton here, clinton here. Now he loves golf. Hes a great guy whatever your politics are. Rose whats his golf. Well, the ball just didnt have a zip code on it. laughs . Rose wherever he was driving the ball, it wasnt necessarily the same place. laughter this is a letter he and i were playing golf one day and you can see the date, its 65. Rose i can read it . Its d. D. E. , dwight david eisenhower, gettysburg, august 14, 1965. Dear arnie, enclosed is payment for my debt. And never was there one more reluctantly paid. Also attachd is a picture cut from the philadelphia enchoirer that indicates dejection. Please remember a couple of accidents will not be important a year from now. Youll wayne lot more tournaments and forget the woe caused by bridges, rocks and complaints about a tree. Love to winnie and keep hitting them, all the best, as ever, d. D. E. And theres 10. The bet was what . He bet me id win the p. G. A. Championship. And i didnt. Rose thats a hell of a life. It was full. Theres gary player who is short next to the bunker. Thats an eightiron hes going to chip with. This is his third shot on the par 4. Gives it plenty, goes towards the hole and right by rose gary player is a legendary golfer who won nine grand slam events. Hes one of five people to have one each major at least one time. Its known as a career grand slam. During the 1960s and 70s his duals with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer elevated golfs stature around the world and next years masters, the big three, will reunite as honorary starters at Augusta National for the masters. Im pleased to have gary player at this table for the first time and thank god for that. Welcome. Rose thank you very much, charlie. An honor to be here. 7,000 people, all heroes of mine have sat at this table. Youve done a great job rose who would have believed. Let me take you way back to johannberg. How did you learn to play this game . Well, golf, we have some of the best golf courses in the world, probably the best climate in the world. A lot of good junior programs. My father played golf. Very poor man but insisted that i play golf, thank goodness, because i was playing all other sports at school. Starting playing when i was 14 14, which is late. I turned pro at 17 to his tkpweus gust. He wanted me to go on and get degrees and i said well, traveling around the world will be a degree that is so important and im going to be a World Champion because im going to outpractice them all. Rose is that what you said . Im going to outhit them. And this hand has outlived more balls. If f vj singh lives as long as i do he might hit as many or maybe more. Rose is that the secret . I think work ethic is something the world needs more now than ever before to get through to young people theres no this nonentitlement that people think theyre entitled to. So i think a work ethic and a passion and a love and a desire is really the secret. And energy. And energy. Rose and if you have all those, its not work. Well, thats right. But you have to have energy. I think energy is a special gift given to people. Or loaned. I think everyone is loaned. Nothing is permanent, as you know. Rose do you think you had a gift or that enabled you to play the game well once you put in all this practice . Charlie, you know, this is frequently asked and i mean, you know, you think that i won the grand slam on the regular tour and the grand slam on the senior tour and thats probably more difficult than the grand slam on the regular tour because you have to do it after 50. How can somebody like myself, a small person, say i did it . I never do that. We all have different beliefs. I believe its a gift thats loaned to me by the lord. I believe that. And, you know, why should he give it to me . I dont know. But it was a gift because you cant i cant be that good. Its just something that i really believe is loaned to you. And it can be taken away just as quickly as weve seen it throughout history. Superstars, many of them, champions that couldnt play tomorrow for a while. Rose you knew as hard as you wanted to win and as hard as you tried to win if you didnt win you never thought that was the end of the world. Thats right. And i believed i was going to win every time. Rose we have been nicklaus and palmer you thought you were going to win every time . I really believed that. Rose when you teed it up on the first tee im going to win this tournament . I played nicklaus at the world match play championship and beat him 64 and then 54 the next year. Head to head, 36 holes because i believed i was going to do it. Nobody else did but i believed i was going to do it. Rose but if you believe it and visualize it it can happen. Exactly. Rose he would hit the ball how much further than you off the t . 45 yards. But i could play bunker shots better than he could and i could play wedge you can play bunker shots better than anybody. And i can play chip shots. Rose somebody said youre a player that hits a shot better than out of a bunker better than anybody in the game. Do you believe that . Thats not for me to say. I have to look at the record book. laughter . Rose how is arnold better and different than jack or you . Everybody loved around, i loved around, jack loved around. We wanted to beat each other very badly but we had great love for each other and, you know, when i think of what arnold did for the game, its unbelievable. And so for jack but he had charisma and he had we had time for people. It wasnt this commercial bigmoney business. It was a different life. Youd stay at peoples homes at a tournament. You know, i dont think anybody very seldom is that done today so it really you know, arnold has been a great rose did you say, in fact, that this be this is been attributed to someone that all of us ought to give 25 of our earnings to arnie because he changed the game because of the potential endorsement ability . Well, he did. Because the game was probably on the wayne to a certain degree and here come this is charismatic man and he goes to britain and he had this he had a he had it. He had it. How do you explain it . You know . Rose you also changed the game in giving it an international dimension. I hope so, because i traveled more miles than any athlete, for sure. Maybe more miles than any human being, i dont know. But i traveled all around the world and went into little towns and played for 25 a game because we loved the game and we gave people pleasure. So it was a different time. I mean, there was none of this massive sums of money. We didnt play for much money. But that wasnt the criteria. We wanted to win and we had great camaraderie with people. You look at arnold when he was signing autographs, hed stand there until everybody was gone so we had to do that as well. Rose fitness for you was everything. Tell the story of your brother. Going off to world war ii and he says to his younger brother what . Well, hes standing there, hes 17 years of age going to world war ii to fight alongside the americans and the british and the australians and the allies at that time. And he said to me you want to be a professional sportsman . And he bought me a set of weights. He said promise me youll use these, youll exercise to the day you die. And im 76 and ive exercised. Ive adhered to his promise and its the greatest gift. He came back and became one of the worlds leading conservationists, saved the rhino from becoming extinct and got his doctorate and thank goodness i did because of my stature when i think of the fitness, how it helped me traveling all these miles, traveling with time changes is not easy, as you know, you very well know. So the fitness is being and my great dream is for young ople to know this. Because i started doing weights long before these other guys thought about it. Frank and i used to do it. And id love to be able to know people say well that man introduced weight training and exercise and diet into the sport of golf. Rose so what do you shoot today . Oh, i shoot anything between 70 and 74. Rose so you can still shoot your age. I break my age. Unless its a very windy day i break almost every time. Rose 70 to 76. Whats different between your swing today and your swing winning the grand slams . Strength. Strength. Rose obviously club head speed, you mean . Club head speed which comes from strength. So i would have hit the ball at least 50 yards further. Rose does that mean therefore that the strongest physically strongest players are often generally the best players . No. No. Not necessarily. But in my case i needed that 50 yards. Rose what was the moment that you wish you could most replay . Replay . Rose yes, replay. The masters, i won the masters in 1961 and 1962 i was two shot ahead of arnold palm we are three holes to go and i put the shot in there at 16 about 12 foot from the hole and he missed the green to the right. Now, anybody who knows the green to the right knows you cant get it out in two because you have to hit it way out to the right, it comes down the hill, gathers speed and i said to my caddy weve got him. And it came down the hill, hit the fairway and right in the hole. The golfing gods decided that moment but we got in by one shot, hooked it intoiz eisenhowers tree, took a fiveiron, knocked it on the green. Hole get. Then i had an 18 hole playoff. I came back with a friend of mine i was 33, he was 36. So he had a bad shot at ten to the right and his put came back in 31 and won. So that was but the year before i finished he finished in the double doggie on the last hole. It all evens out in the long run. This business about hes an unlucky or lucky player. Ive heard people say all these great shots you see at the last few holes. You know, they say its luck. I remember playing with nicklaus in the british open and we were going head to head and i beat him in the last round. I hit a threewood that far from the hole on a par 5 and people said thats a lucky shot. Well, the harder you practice the luckier you get. Rose laughs thats true. About everything. So wearing black, where did that come from . Well, my father, who was a miner and a very poor man said one thing you have to do is have a brand. And my son runs my business. Youve got to have a brand. Rose man in black. And i saw jack paladin have gun will travel. And he had the black and silver holster and i said im from black africa im going to wear black so i became known as the black knight. And people t people i met, elvis presley, president of the United States. Rose you met presley . Yes, in 19 im going to tell you this. In 1961 i go on one of the morning shows and i say one for the money, two for the show, three get ready no go, pat, go you can do anything but dont step on my but suede shoes and he saw that and said i want to meet that guy. So im in los angeles and a hale waltz takes me over to meet him. Rose the Film Producer . Yes, and elvis puts his jacket on, well mannered how do you do, sir. He had a grip like this, looked like a cow giving birth to a role of barbed wire. He said whats important, tkpwaeurly. I said, elvis, learn to use the hips, wind up and unwind. He says the hips . He says, buddy, youre talking to the right man. Man, the hips laughter . Rose is that righting . Yeah, i loved elvis is this on film, anywhere . I dont think so because it was just done spontaneously. But man i loved that man and you think what his music did and live today, my caught ther from south africa sends me on the ipad the other day elvis singing blue suede shoes. Young, thin, handsome man. He was something, wasnt he . Rose youve written one book that i know about called dont choke. Whats the lesson to not choke . That pressure is selffore bearing and you have to make comparisons and i think of the tough times i had with my mother dying and my father in the gold mine and my brother at war and coming home to a dark house and there was a black gentleman there called john, made me a bit of food occasionally and id had to travel to school and travel back. I went to a great school, you had to stand up when the teacher came in the class. You had to take your hat off. Great sporting facility. So it was tough. Rose but thats what taught you not to choke . I think so. Rose you were tougher because you knew how to handled a versety . I think so. I always made a comparison is this as tough as what you had as a kid . No. Everythings its everythings in the mind, isnt it . Rose do you believe you got the credit you deserve for the game you played because you played at the same time of two people who had so much attention given to them, arnie and jack . I do believe so because remember i was an International Player and they look at the records in golf and they theyve put in the perspective and they lets look at the records and i was given having lon jeff any the sport i was given a lot of credit. I have no beefs about that and i dont blame the American People for putting arnold and jack before me. Thats understandable. And i accept that. I mean, thats something that rose apart from them, do you think youve gotten full credit for what you achieved on the course . I this think so, yes. Because the record book cant lie. The record book doesnt tell lies and if you look at the number of majors in the years, it doesnt tell a lie. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org 08 23 13 08 23 13 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] from pacifica, this is democracy now say that asr to difficult as the problem as, this is something that is going to require americas attention, hopefully the entire Communities International communitys attention. An alleged chemical attack killed over 100 people. We will speak with azadeh zohrabi