The professional: Masters winner Larry Mize shares philosophy, benefit of experience with amateurs at Boeing Classic

Published 3:02 pm Monday, August 29, 2011

The rest of his foursome rolls ahead in the carts, but Larry Mize preferred to walk.

The Augusta-based professional player hadn’t seen the back nine of the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge this year, and wanted to get personally acquainted with the course prior to the start of the weekend’s marquee Boeing Classic tournament.

“This is the way to play,” Mize said. “Besides being a pro-am, it’s another round on the course.”

Weather that day was warm and humid by local standards, but nothing to the Georgia native. “You haven’t had mugginess,” he explained. “The scenery, the weather, it’s awfully good.”

Accompanying Mize in the Korea Air Pro-Am on Thursday, Aug. 25, were a trio of players hailing from Seattle’s KJR Sports Radio. Mize kept a stroke ahead most of the time, but never rubbed it in. If Mize saw a way to pass on a lesson, he offered it.

“You need help, Jim,” he asked KJR player Jim Richmond on the Hole 14 green.

“I’ll take any help I can get,’ came the reply.

“My job is to make sure they enjoy themselves,” Mize explained, “that they know how much we appreciate them supporting our tour.”

This is Mize’s third appearance at the Boeing Classic. He tied for eighth place last year and 20th place the prior year.

Mize is most famous for his 1987 Masters win at Augusta. In the playoffs, from off the green, Mize hit a 140-yard birdie with a sand wedge to claim the win. The moment defined Mize’s career, and was especially memorable for him because he worked the scoreboard at Augusta as a teenager.

“It’s been such a blessing in my life,” he said. “That win opened doors for me.”

Homework and faith

On their TPC round, Mize played from a further, higher tee than his companions.

“Pros play from a tee that the rest of us shouldn’t play from,” explained his caddy, Tim Mork, who has worked for Mize full time for four years.

“I’m pretty blessed,” Mork said of the experience, which has bonded him close to the pro. “It’s someone you spend a lot of time with, because of the nature of golf.”

“The biggest thing is to get a caddy that you can enjoy working with,” agreed Mize.

Mork’s job entails a little grunt work, keeping Mize’s equipment spic and span, and a lot of homework. A lot of mental preparation is done before the tournament.

Pulling out small leather-bound notebooks, Mize and Mork acompare notes on the course’s layout and details, setting up the perfect shot across the Hole 14 chasm.

“I know that plate over there says 210, but it’s actually 198 yards to the hole,” Mork said. “Because it’s built up high under the tee, it’s downhill. The ball has a chance to travel farther in the air.”

Mize co-authored a book, “Focus; The Name of the Game” with fellow golfers Scott Simpson and Loren Roberts and writer Sigmund Brouwer.

“It’s a book about golf, but it’s also about our Christian faith, which is very important to us,” Mize said.

On Mize’s wrist is a woven bracelet with WWJD embroidered in white.

“For me, he’s the real deal because he doesn’t just wear the bracelet, he lives it,” Mork said.

“My faith affects everything I do,” Mize said. “The neat thing about being able to do this is it gives me an opportunity to share my faith. People want to know what a Masters champion has to say.

“I always want them to know what they’re coming for,” he added. “I don’t want to blindside them. They know they’re coming to hear about golf and my faith in Christ.”

Mize didn’t hesistate to autograph his book for one spectator, and then the golf bag, head cover and shag bag carried by 9-year-old Josef Koznek.

“There’s plenty of time,” he explained. “I probably did more than I should, but I couldn’t resist a little kid.”

Mize’s earliest memory playing golf is in first or second grade.

“I could go out and beat the ball around,” he said.

His game really began in fourth grade. Mize’s father started playing golf in his thirties, and Larry, his youngest son, was the only sibling to pick it up.

“I fell in love with it, and have been playing my whole life,” he said.

Technology has made the biggest change to the sport in his lifetime.

“It’s a much more tolerant game now,” Mize said. “You see guys hit it so far. Here I am, 53, and I drive it farther than when I was 28.”

Twenty years past his Masters win, Mize is far from ready to retire.

Pro golf “is better than getting a ‘real job,'” he said. “As long as I can still do it, have fun and stay competitive, I’m going to keep doing it.”