MARK ROLFING: First of all, congratulations. That was spectacular. Our guest really doesn't need an introduction. I guess we got some pictures of him, older pictures or something.
I'm going to tell you a little bit about Butch Harmon if you don't know much. He grew up with the game of golf. Golf has been a part of his life, jeez, for however old he is. Thank heavens he's just a little older than me. I've been trying to catch him but I haven't yet.
Has dad won the Masters. I don't know if you all knew that. And Butch won the Broome Valley Open, or the Broome County Open, was it? That's what it was. He was pretty darn good, that guy. He began playing at 8. Dad taught he and his brothers to you to play.
Really forged himself quite a career. Got sidetracked a little bit. He went in the U.S. Army to Vietnam and joined the PGA Tour shortly after that. Following his career he became a club professional out in Iowa, and his career as an instructor, you just really can't say enough about it. It spanned decades and decades. He's had some of the greatest players in the history of the game as his students, especially that guy right there.
But you think about Mickelson and Couples and Seve and DJ and Greg Norman and on and on, it's just really pretty remarkable. Now today he runs the Butch Harmon School of Golf out in Las Vegas, which is a tremendous experience. He's been named by his peers as the best instructor in the game for, I don't know, 20 years now or however long they've been doing it. I don't see that handle going away for a while.
And I'm going to finish and bring him up by saying what I was going to say when I wasn't going to introduce him: He is the GOAT. When you think of Butch Harmon, he is the GOAT. Come on up, Butchy. (Applause.)
You got a couple old war horses up here tonight. Fasten your seat belts. (Laughter.) Couple of mandatory topics I'm sure. One has the initials of TW and the other probably has three initials, LIV. You don't want to hear what Butch has to say about LIV Golf, do you? Bet you do. I'll bet you do.
Just for a second though, Butch, step back and look from 50,000 feet, which you're really good at, at the game of golf right now. As we get toward the end of our careers, what's your take in general on the condition of the game that you and I've been a part of for so long?
BUTCH HARMON: First of all, I think professionally we're in the greatest period we've ever been in. When you look at all the great young players we have all over the world today more of them coming out of college programs, I don't think we've every had the great amount of players we have today.
If you look at two guys that I was very fortunate enough to teach and took to No. 1 in the world, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods, they held that honor for a long, long time. We won't see that anymore. No. 1 in the world is by committee now, because there are so many good ones and so many coming and coming.
Look at the Ryder Cup, for example. You and I have done this, this will be my 14th Ryder Cup. I work for Sky Sports, so had to sit on the European side as one of the only Americans on the broadcasting, and they beat the shit out of me because they been kicking our ass. I am glad we are beating theirs for a change.
When I think about where our Ryder Cup team is now, we're going to win for a long time. We can field three teams and beat anybody in the world. Golf is in a phenomenal place.
The pandemic helped golf. If there is anything good that came out of the pandemic, and there wasn't a lot, it was golf, because that's what we could do. We could go outside, be in the fresh air, play golf. We could play with our friends. It got kind of nice at the course I live at, a course in Henderson, Nevada, which is a suburb or Las Vegas, Anthem Country Club, because we all have our own golf carts. It was a great being a foursome with four carts. You didn't have to listen to anybody, just go down there, hit your shot.
Now that we are back to normal, hell we got to share carts again. That's no fun. Mine went 25 miles an hour. I didn't have a bad lie for two years. Are you kidding me? This is a game -- and I look around this room tonight, and I've met so many wonderful people. What just happened a moment ago -- let's back up. Do you realize how much money you all raised tonight? This is amazing what's taking place.
The Evans Scholarship, just about all of us in this room have grew up as caddies, and here we are. We all sit tonight, all very successful in what we do. But what this program has done and Jon Paul, what this young man has been through and where he is now, it's because of you. So golf is better than great. It's fantastic right now. And thank you for that. (Applause.)
Now, why would you have brought up LIV Golf?
MARK ROLFING: Because I remember there was a time when and you Greg Norman were really almost best friends.
BUTCH HARMON: Really?
MARK ROLFING: I suspect you're still friends.
BUTCH HARMON: Yeah, we get along fine. I'll give you my take. There is a lot of controversy about it. No. 1, we live in a great country. We are free to do whatever we want to do, and golf pros are no different. They have the freedom to go play where they want to play with whatever organization they want to play in.
But as we tell our children growing up, in every decision you make in life there is consequences. Those that jumped over there and took all the money, I don't blame them. If somebody offered me 100 times what I was making I couldn't get over there fast enough.
I'm a little concerned, to be honest with you, with the media, the way they have picked on these individuals that have done it because of the company that is sponsoring this, Saudi Arabia. I don't agree with their human rights issues, I don't agree with China's human rights issues, but we as a government do business with them. Every large corporation in the world does business with them, so why the hell you picking on the golfers? Leave the poor golfers alone. They're just trying to make a living.
I am sick and tired of the verbal pillow fights between the two organizations, the PGA TOUR people and the LIV people. You just made your decision over here, you made your decision there. Let's just live with it, get on with it. It's life, it's golf.
Some people are getting paid more than others. If you don't like it, express your opinion. That's fine. But let's stop the verbal pillow fights. Let's get on and play golf. I'm 79 years old and I can remember an ABA and an NBA and an AFL and an NFL. Eventually this will work itself out and things will happen.
Now, I'm not sure it will be on Greg's watch, because Greg has kind of -- how can I say it nicely -- he's not really happy with the PGA Tour, and he never has been. This was his idea. You may not realize this, 27 years ago, Mark and I know this, this was Greg Norman's idea, and he had it pulled off. Deane Beman was the commissioner then; Palmer and Nicklaus weren't for it, but Raymond and Freddy and Nick Price were all for it, and at the last minute they all pulled out. He's had this vendetta against the Tour anyway.
I don't agree with that. I don't agree with the guys that went over there and all of a sudden want to come back and play on the PGA Tour. You made your choice. You got paid a lot of money. Enjoy what you're doing.
Do you realize if the PGA Tour hadn't been as old as it was and it was starting today, today was day one for the PGA Tour, you know what it would look like? Like LIV Golf. Be a lot of music, a lot of having a good time, a lot of guys making money. It's a whole new world we live in.
So they are who they are. I assume they're going to continue to be who they are. I'm not sure why the Saudis got in the business of golf, but they're here to stay. Damn sure not going to run out of money, that's for sure. I don't know how you can fault a guy for taking the money.
If you look to the older guys in their 40s, I don't blame them. They can't beat these kids. Somebody is willing to pay that much money, go for it. Look at a guy -- somebody asked me the other day -- and there are a lot of things you don't know about guys. Brooks Koepka. He won four major championships. Why would he go. He's got bad knees. He is eventually going to have to have one of his knees replaced. Who knows if he'll be able to play again. For him it was a homerun. Yeah, I'm going.
But they should have said that originally, not we're going to grow the game, play less. No. You you did it for the money. There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone in this room, we're all businessmen. We do a lot of things for money.
The one young man over there, Harold Varner, III who I happen to coach. Michael Jordan and I both tried to talk him out of it, but they paid him $30 million and gave him $18 million up front, and he's a young minority from Valdosta, Georgia. He couldn't refuse it.
If you read his statement, I told Mark this earlier, you would've thought I wrote it. I said to him, look, if you're going to do this, tell them why. You are doing it for the security of your family. You just have a new son. For your wife, for your foundations. These are all the things you can help. People would understand that. They don't understand when a guy says it's he's getting paid $130 million and he's going to grow the game. That's bullshit. You're growing your wallet. That's what you're growing. Just say that. Don't come it with this hypocrisy. Tell them why you were doing it.
We can co-exist at the moment. Tell you a funny story about PGA Tour guys have been -- Fred Couples for example. Fred has been very outspoken about LIV guys. Guys who were his best friends he said he'll never talk to them again. That's a little childish.
I was talking to Dustin Johnson, one of the guys worked with forever, and my son Claude coaches him now in? Miami sat Doral last week. He had a tough year this year. What did he make, $35 million I think he won on the LIV Tour. He says to me, you'll get a kick out of this. There has been in this pillow fight back and forth, they even can't get world ranking points. They only play 54 holes and not 72 holes, and so I get this phone call from my son and he's on the range with DJ and he goes, Hey, Butchy how you doing? I said, hey, DJ, you bought a plane yet? I'm thinking about it. Yeah, no kidding. The guy can spend more money than anybody I ever met in my life, and now he's really got something to spend. He said, I'll send it for you. Come to any LIV event you want. I said, just let me know when it's going to be there. I'll be happy to come see you.
He says, Hey, you and Fred Couples are good friends, aren't you? I said, yeah, very good friends. We play a lot of golf together. I see him in Newport in Southern California. He said, he shot 60 and in tournament last week. Yeah. Tell him it doesn't count. He only played 54 holes. I got a big kick out of that; I don't know why.
Everybody thinks DJ is so dumb that he couldn't spell ox if you gave him the O. That's all put-on guys. He's not that dumb. Believe me. As you know, he's the quickest interview in golf because he's not going to give you any answers so he doesn't have to do it.
You played great today. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Made 12 birdies. Oh, that's what it was? Yeah, I did. Are we done? And runs out and goes and practices.
LIV Golf is not going anywhere. It is what it is. It is something new that we have. If there has been anything good, and you and I talked about this earlier, where the hell did the tour find $250 million to add to the prize money? Must have been there all along, so I guess that he did some good to bring that on, don't you think, Marky?
MARK ROLFING: I think so. I'm interested in your perspective on this. You worked with so many great players, and I had the privilege of being the on-course commentator on Sunday at St. Andrews at the 150th Open Championship with a young man that just put on performance, Cam Smith, that was amazing.
When it was done, I was kind of sad because I was thinking to myself, he's going to LIV golf, which I knew he was at the time. He hadn't announced it yet. We were never going to know how good this guy is. Are we ever going to see the real Cam Smith? Could Cam Smith be another Tom Watson? I think so, but I don't believe we'll know as long as we have this divide between the two organizations.
BUTCH HARMON: That's a good point. I know a little insight to Cam Smith that he doesn't talk about a lot. Cam comes from a very poor family in Australia. Mother and father are farmers. He loves his country. He never gets to go down there very much. He doesn't love golf as much as you think he should love golf for as good as he is.
He looks at it as just his job. He had this opportunity to make a tremendous amount of money, and he felt it would allow him to help his parents on their farm, go home to Australia more often than he ever could, and that's why he did it.
I agree with you. I was very, very surprised. I wish he wouldn't have. But I think he did it for the right reason, because he felt like he could help his family, which is what most of them should say. Felt like it gave him an opportunity to spend more time in Australia, and we'll see some LIV tournaments down there, too.
Enough of LIV. Let's talk about some real golf.
MARK ROLFING: Yeah, so when you look back on your career and we see all the great names you worked with, at different times in their careers best players in the world. When you look at that list, do you have a favorite guy that you worked with? I'll ask a you that first. And do you have an experience that maybe didn't work out that people might not think about?
BUTCH HARMON: I've been very fortunate in my career. I worked with tour players for almost 40 years now. Retired from the tour at the end of 2019, meaning I wasn't going to travel to any more tournaments. The players still come to see me and I still work with them.
Golfers are good people. Golf is a great game. You people here, like I did, all grew up being a caddie. We learn a lot about life being a caddie. You learn about how people act, how to read people and how they do things, and golf has allowed us to do this.
Everyone I've had the ability to work with is a different person. Someone once said to me, how do you describe what you do? I said first, sarcastically, my job is very easy: I baby-sit very rich spoiled young people. That's what I do.
But in reality that's not true. In reality my job, I have to understand each and every player. They all have different personalities, different likes if their life, they're different in how they handle things.
My job was not just the Xs and Os of a golf swing. It was knowing the individual and when to kick one in the rear end, when to give them a hug, when to make them laugh, when to back off, and when to help them get to be the best player they could be.
I think the thing I a, most proud of my career, it's not the number of major championships or tournaments guys have won, because I think we as coaches -- and you heard me say this before -- I think we get too much credit when a guy wins and too much criticism when he loses. A job of coach or instructor is to prepare your players to play, and they have to go play.
Having been around the best in the world, my favorite will probably surprise you. Jose Maria Olazabal. One of the nicest human beings I've ever met in my life. I love this man like he's my own brother. Very strange guy. Still lives at home with his mom and dad in Spain.
Greatest of all time that didn't have a lot of natural talent. Had to work his tail off. I could tell you Jose Maria stories forever. He's probably my favorite.
Rickie Fowler, who just came back to me after a three-year hiatus. One of the nicest young men. I really enjoy being around him, and he's starting to play better again, which I'm really happy about.
Greg Norman, probably the most difficult of all the ones I coached. Not because Greg is a tough guy, because I learned so much from him. Greg does so many other jobs. As you all know, he's a very successful businessman. If we had three hours to practice, it was going to be three hours of practice. No BS. We were going to work our tails off, because he had other meetings he had to go to. I learned so much from him on how to manage my time.
Phil is Phil. I mean, what can I say? His nickname on the Tour, as you know, is the genius, because he isn't, but he tends to think that he is. We all say about Phil, he not only said he knew the name of the unknown soldier, he said he knew the sum bitch, so...
But as quirky as Phil is, he's an incredibly generous person. He did some nice things for my wife and I when my wide had a heart attack one time. He can be a wonderful person.
Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods. You and I could have this discussion on who's the greatest player in the world. Is it Jack Nicklaus? Is it Tiger Woods? In my mind, Jack Nicklaus is the greatest champion ever lived. 18 majors; how about 19 seconds? How about 13 thirds? Guy could have won 30, 40 major championships.
Tiger Woods did things no one has ever done. Won U.S. Opens by 15 shots.
So to me, they're the two best in the world. Now Tiger was difficult to deal with in that he had a father named Earl Woods who was -- I'm just going to clean it up and say he was Earl Woods.
Talent-wise, probably the most talented player who ever played the game. You had the opportunity to be inside the ropes and watch him. I had ten years of watching him and helping him go.
I think the thing I'm most proud of all the things I've done is that every -- players aren't going to stay with you forever. I try and tell these young instructors that get so upset when a guys leaves them to go to someone else, maybe they've heard everything they can hear it from you and they want to hear it differently. Don't take it personal. You did the best job you could do.
I've never had anyone that came to me that wasn't better when they left than they were when they got there. That's the thing I am probably most proud of in al the stuff I've done with players. They're all fun to be around. Fred Couples is beyond belief.
I mean, I love this guy. You know, you women out here, you love Freddy because he's sexy. I don't really look at him that way. Kids love him because he's cool. Guys like him because he's just a guy.
I'll tell you a funny story about Freddy. I was working with Fred and Phil at the same time at Augusta a few years ago. One is right-handed and one is left-handed. It's pretty easy for me. I just stand between them and say, nice shot. I mean, what the hell? It's not that big a deal.
So all of a sudden Fred says -- so you people think when we're on the range we're just talking about golf shots. No, that's not happening. They're talking about sports or other things.
And so we're standing there, and at Augusta that new raining is nice. They got the stands behind us and Freddy talks kind of funny and I can imitate him pretty good. He goes, wow, Phil look at the one over Butch's right shoulder in the red sweater. Are you kidding me? Look at those things.
And so I start to turn around. He goes, no, no. You make like you're making a swing so we can look at her, please. I'm here going like this like a idiot and Freddy and Phil are just gawking at this poor lady up there in the gallery. I'm like, guys, can I look now? Yeah, go ahead. I said, yeah, okay, whatever.
So Freddy is a different animal.
The other question I get asks a lot, and Mark, you know this, and some of you that have listened to my podcast, I've told this story. My favorite Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson story. It happened I think around 2009 and they were playing the last round at Augusta together. They were five or six shots off the lead, but either one of them can shoot 64 or 65 and win.
Phil has this thing on the weekend when he's kind of in the hunt, he wants to do two warmups. So he calls me Saturday night at the hotel. He says, hey, meet me on the range at 10:30. We can do our mechanical warmup and then have lunch and do our normal warmup.
Okay. Go out, 10:30, we do our stuff. He says, come on up in the Champion's locker room and we'll have lunch. The Champion's locker room at Augusta, it's very small. There are only three tables and the guys share lockers and stuff.
We walk in and there is a sandwich sitting on a table. I didn't think anything of it. Phil sits down at this other table. I sit down with Phil. Waiter comes, we order our lunch.
So Phil is taking his pants off and folding them over a chair and Tiger walks in. Tiger says, dude, what are you doing? And Phil goes, Hey, I don't wear the cheap Nike shit like you do. Tom Ford makes my pants. $1500 a pair. I want to look good while I'm kicking your ass this afternoon.
Tiger never missed a beat. He said, I don't care who makes your pants. Cover your stuff up so I can eat my sandwich, will you?
So I'm thinking to myself, I wish the press could hear these two guys needle each other. In the last 40 or 50 years the two greatest champions we've had. That's how these guys are. They have fun. You know. You've been inside the ropes. They kid each other, needle each other, and that's maybe probably the cleanest story I could tell you. There is some crazy stuff, these guys.
MARK ROLFING: I don't know what I'm going to do when you go to Augusta this year, because Brandel and I sit in a little booth at the end of the range, and we're talking about what Butch and Freddy are talking about up there. Yeah, right. Like we know. I can't imagine.
I'm sure we were talking about it and we weren't talking about what they were talking about, I can tell you that.
BUTCH HARMON: I don't know how you guys can talk about golf 24/7. I get worn out talking about it.
You guys want to hear more Tiger and Phil stories? I got a million of them.
MARK ROLFING: Give us your absolute best Tiger Woods story.
BUTCH HARMON: Well, the one I tell all the time, people say to me, so of all the guys that have won major championships that you work with, what's your favorite one? I said, well, it's pretty easy, Tiger when he won the Masters in '97. Why is that? Well I started with Tiger when he was 17. The thing I liked about Tiger was he always wanted to know about the old timers. He asked me questions because he knew my father and Ben Hogan were great friends and I played golf with Ben Hogan when I was a teenager and I knew him my whole life. I loved the fact that he loved the history of the game.
You know, one day I said, you know Tig, one day, my dad won a Masters in 1948. Won by five shots. He said it was the greatest feeling in the world walking up the 72nd hole at Augusta with a five-shot lead because he couldn't lose.
That always stuck it in my mind. When Tiger was young teenager I said, you know, one day, I'm going to tell you this story about my dad, and I told him the story. One day that's going to happen to you, and I'll be damned, in '97 I'm standing behind the 18th green and here comes Tiger up the 18th fairway with a hell of a lot more lead than five shots.
I was standing behind with his mom and dad and I had my sunglasses on because I had tears in my eyes. I'll be damned. I told him this story when he was a kid and here he is, he's doing it.
So things like that that you remember in your life, a lot of times I remember the funny stuff. My favorite Tiger and Phil story was at Deutsche Bank in Boston. Tiger and Phil were playing the last round together. I think Tiger might've been leading by one or Phil was leading by one. I don't remember what it was. I wasn't there that week.
So I'm talking to Phil that night. Phil, let me tell you what Tiger is going to do to you tomorrow so you can get ready. If it's close on the back nine he's going to slow play you. He's going to do it on purpose. You may bomb your drive out there 320. Even though he doesn't need to, he is going to his a 3-wood and make you wait.
He is going to walk slow, go to the bathroom three times on back nine just to make you wait. And if you have an opportunity to putt out, putt out, because he will putt out on you on purpose because then 5,000 people just run and you can't stop them. You have to putt through that.
This is the funny part. He said to me, do you really think he's going to do that? We did that to you for years. It worked every time, Phil. So he calls me that night and he says, I'll be damned, he tried every one of them. I said, I told you. (Laughter.)
MARK ROLFING: All right. Here is Tiger/Phil question.
BUTCH HARMON: Okay.
MARK ROLFING: Who is more likely to win another tournament on the PGA Tour in their career, Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson0?
BUTCH HARMON: Probably neither, to be honest with you. The way Phil is playing on the LIV with only 48 guys, he ain't beating anybody. I would never say never to Tiger Woods. He has proved us all wrong so many timings. He has come back from so many adversities, most of which he created.
I used to challenge him. You know this about me. A lot times when I try and get guys to do something I'll plant a little seed in their head. With these guys, their egos, it has to be their idea.
We were at match play at La Costa one year. It's a terrible range. Only about 250, 260 yards long and there is fences everywhere. I was trying to get Tiger to work on a high 3-iron shot that he would need on par-5s, second shots, and he wasn't get it. He was hitting hooks and wasn't feeling it. There was an entrance at the end of this range about 240, 250 yards down there where the cart came in to pick up the balls.
So put $100 on the ground under five balls. I said, I got $100 says you can't hit one ball with a high fade through that gate. He hadn't hit a fade in 30 minutes. First ball, right through the damn gate.
High fade, he snatched that $100 up. Best $100 I ever spent. He won the damn tournament. I got my commission. That wasn't bad. (Applause.)
The other thing, you talk about Phil, he was the modern day Arnold Palmer. Everybody loved Arnie because of how he played, and Arnold lost as many times as he won. Phil os that way.
If you remember the Masters in, what was it, 2010 on 13 when he was up in the pine straw and had to hit it between the two trees there. He hit a phenomenal shot to about three feet. Jim Bones, his caddie, was trying to talk him out of it. No, no, layup. You're the greatest wedge player in the world and Phil didn't want to. Phil looked over and he noticed there was a microphone, so he leaned in real close to Bones and he said, Bones, there comes a point in time in every championship when you got to suck it up and hit the right shot.
I'm hitting this damn ball on the green and I'm winning the Masters. Now get out of the way. The microphone didn't hear that. Only reason I know that is because Bones told me the story, and he was still pissed off that he went for it. If you remember, it barely cleared the creek and missed the putt. Hit it to about four feet and missed it, but did win the Masters.
MARK ROLFING: You said there was some players that you named that talk to you or you talked with them about going to LIV and whether or not you thought that was a good idea. Did you talk with Phil about his decision and really the direction he was heading at that stage?
BUTCH HARMON: Well, if you remember, before LIV came out and there was a lot of negative press. Phil was dealing with gambling. He was hiding out up in the mountains there, one of the resorts just skiing and not playing golf. No, I didn't get to talk to him.
I think between and you I, he probably needed to the money. I know it's hard to believe the amount of money he has made in his life, but we all know Phil has a very bad gambling habit. It's more than I can -- I'm not at liberty to tell you what it is, but it's a big six-figure amount of money.
I think he needed the money, and I think that's why he went, to be honest with you.
MARK ROLFING: Is there a chance he'll get his game back?
BUTCH HARMON: No, I don't think so. I really don't, to be honest with you.
MARK ROLFING: What about Tiger? Tiger, one of the great things about Butch, if you've read about him and the way he teaches golf or you listen to him on his Podcast, people ask, what is the Butch Harmon system? There is no Butch Harmon system. That's the system.
And he's always been kind of a grip, aim, ball position, posture kind of guy. Actually I'm a lot like that, too. Just couldn't figure out how to do them all the right way.
Tiger, when I look at Tiger and I think about the physical challenges that he's got, is he going to have to significantly change the way he plays the game if he's going to attempt to compete?
BUTCH HARMON: Absolutely he's going to have to. He has to adapt his body to his whole life. This guy is amazing. I will tell you one thing about this kid: He won tournaments when I was with him. He would have a sprained ankle, and he has a tolerance for pain -- the only other person I know in the world that has a tolerance for pain is my wife, and that is not because she's married to me, it's because of her back surgeries and all the stuff she goes through.
He would never let on that there was anything wrong with him. He didn't want anyone else to think they had a chance to beat him. His mantra always was that they knew that I knew that he knew that they couldn't beat me. He always looked at it that way.
So, yes, if he's going to compete again, and I think we'll see it soon in the father/son tournament where he's playing with his son again. We'll see what kind of swing he comes out with. But he's going to have to change. He's going to have to change the way he swings because he body won't let him do the things he used to do.
MARK ROLFING: After the career that Tiger had with you, the day that you knew, whether he told you or you told him, however it came down, that you all weren't going to be working together anymore, what was that like? What was the feeling for you like when that came down?
BUTCH HARMON: I can tell you it was 2000 at the PGA. I think we played at Hazeltine that year. He called me on the phone earlier in the week and said that he just wanted to go another direction, which I didn't see it coming, but I understood it. That's the way it goes.
Heck we had a ten-year run that's beyond belief. I would be a fool to tell that you if I didn't make a lot of money because of ten years I was associated with Tiger Woods I would being crazy, because I did.
But that's just how it happened. It took me a long time to understand why. Finally was told by his agent about ten years ago that you know why Tiger and you split up. No idea. Just figured he wanted to move on. No. He was tired of you getting a lot of credit for how he played, so he wanted to go do something completely different when he went to Hank Haney and just prove to people it had nothing to do with the coach, it was everything about him.
That was I guess the reason he did it. Never told me that. But sounds about right. We did all right. That was okay.
MARK ROLFING: Any scenario he would call you now?
BUTCH HARMON: We talk every now and then. If you remember the Masters last year because of COVID, I didn't go to the Masters for two years, and there was a scene on Wednesday that Tiger was walking off the putting green coming to the driving range. I hadn't seen him, and went over, and it was really funny because he went to shake my hand and I said to hell with that, damnit. Give me a big hug. I gave him a big hug and I said, you have no idea. I'm happy to see that you're alive, that you can walk, that you're a great dad, and you can play golf again.
It's just nice to see you back in your environment. He was great. He said, Butchy, thanks for saying that. I missed you, pal. So that's just how it is with these guys. I've taught the best players in the world. As I tell people all the time, I did a deal -- I don't know if they'll show the stuff we did earlier for four of the Evans caddies that wanted me to critique their swing. We did it on film. I hope they show it to them.
I say this to people when they come to my golf school: The best thing you got to do now, every time you play you hit a bad shot, you can blame Butch Harmon because of the lesson I just gave you. Don't worry, you're not going to bother me. I took five guys to No. 1 in the world and four of them fired me, so I'm going to be all right with it. Not going to be that big of a deal. Don't worry about it.
MARK ROLFING: Well, this has been a great, great pleasure Butch. I look at this room and see a lot of faces that would sit here and listen to Butch Harmon stories all night, and everybody is going, okay, let's see here, about time to go.
Last question: When you think of the game of golf and everything that it's done for you, kind of what comes to mind first? It's a game that kind of is a thread among all of us here in this room in a lot of different ways. What has the game meant to you really?
BUTCH HARMON: I'm the oldest of four boys in our family. Myself, my brother Craig, Dick unfortunately who is not with us anymore, and my younger brother Billy. We grew up in a family of golf and our dad was a Masters champion. Not only one of the greatest instructors of all time, really one of the west players I had ever seen play.
So to think that he raised four boys that all went into the same profession he was in when he was a legend in the game and he still alive is pretty impressive. And we did that because of him because we had admired him so much, we admired the game of golf so much.
And on the other side of that note, what I saw tonight in this room is special. Really special. Jon Paul is special. There is no Jon Paul without you people.
What I saw, the amount of money you just raised tonight, I was trying to keep up with it, it's a lot of money, and for the right reason. Just about every one of you grew up as caddies, as I did. To sit here tonight -- and when I was asked to come do this it was an honor for me. I get to speak at a lot of things, but nothing touched me like tonight has touched me. I get a little emotional here.
(Applause.)
You are special people. This is the norm to you because this is what you do with the Evans Scholarship because this is what the Evan Scholarship is. You're special people. Caddieing is kind of a lost art. Here in the Midwest you have it. In the Northeast they have it a little. The rest of country doesn't have it.
The Western Golf Association and what Evans Scholarship has done for young people is phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. Tonight was a perfect example. You may have broken your record tonight. I don't know what your record is for raising money, but damn, that was aggressive. I commend each and every one of you for you what do. And why do you do it? Golf. (Applause.)
MARK ROLFING: Ladies and gentlemen, Butch Harmon.
BUTCH HARMON: Thank you.
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