Jamie:
Could you tell us a little more about Harvie Ward----what he was like, what he talked about, his swing etc?
Tom,
I got to know "Ole Harv" during my last two years of college and kept in touch with him on occasion after that. Pinehurst was about a 45 minute drive from school. At the time, Harvie was giving lessons at Pine Needles. Bill McGuinness who knew Harvie very well suggested that I contact him about getting some help with my game. It probably wasn't a good thing for my swing, but I was nervous as hell before my first lesson with him. I knew he'd forgotten about more great shots than I ever hit, so it was a bit intimidating. All those nerves went away quickly because...
From the first moment I met Harvie, it seemed like I had know him forever. He was such a warm and magnetic personality, it was impossible not to like him. He was a great storyteller, and God knows he had plenty of memorable stories to tell. As a player, a teacher and a character, Harvie never failed to live up to his reputation. He talked about the "Match" with me, but not to any great extent. It seemed to me that from Harvie's perspective, the story and legend about it grew more over time and at the time of its actual playing, it was just one helluva match played by some of the greats in the game.
Harvie was very set in his ways about how one should go about playing good golf. He stressed rhythm, tempo and 3 main clubs, the driver, the wedge and the putter. He used to always say in his Carolina twang, "Keep the driver in play, cause' those irons ain't worth a damn if you can't get the big dog in play." He always talked about the importance of driving it straight and the need for a good player to eliminate one side of the golf course. For him, that meant eliminating the left side, and that the "fade" was the proper way to hit the ball. He liked to see the ball falling to the right for the majority of shots. He also preached the importance of the shortgame. Especially in match play, he thought a great short game could just frustrate the hell out of his opponent when he wasn't striking it his best. Even though he was great, great ballstriker, I remember him saying that he won more matches because of his short game. To use a Harvie-ism, he'd say about an opponent, "I'd get er' up and down from nowhere, and I'd just steal their lunch." I remember reading a quote somewhere from Harvie about a match in which he beat Nicklaus...something to the same extent of what I wrote above. He liked that "stealing his lunch" comment.
Luckily after a few lessons with him, I had a chance to go play 9 holes at Pine Needles with him a couple times. Harvie's golf swing was just so rythmic and natural, it seemed like he could never hit a bad shot...and he rarely did. I think he shot even or a couple under par every time we played, and he was in his mid 60's at that point. Harvie had an effortless grace about him, both on and off the golf course.
I have Harvie to thank for one of the greatest days in my life. In 1990, Harvie invited me to spend the Wednesday practice round day of the Masters with him. In those days, you could just walk up and get a ticket for the day. I was to meet him at the back of the practice range early in the morning. When I arrived, I found him with no problem, he told the range attendant to let me under the ropes out onto the range. Much to my amazement, he said when I greeted him, "Jamie my boy, I'd like you to meet a couple of guys you might have heard of a time or two." Harvie was holding court and standing with Byron Nelson and Sam Snead. Needless to say, as a 21 year old, I was blown away. At that time, Harvie was helping Payne Stewart with his game. Payne Stewart was my favorite player at that time, so it was even more special. We got to go out on the course and watch Payne play nine holes before he got ready for the Par 3 contest. One of the neatest things that day was that during the practice round, Payne had regular golf pants and a baseball hat on. A lot of people in the gallery had no clue who he was because of his normal dress. They sure knew him after he changed for the Par 3 tourney though. Payne arrived out of the locker room dressed to the nines. Black Knickers, White long sleeve formal shirt, Black bowtie, Black flat cap and white and black shoes with gold metal tips. He knew how to put on a show.
As I said in my earlier post, as the years go by, the more I realize how lucky I was to have known Harvie, even for a short while.