A Very Gentle Ben Crenshaw

We should be celebrating a Masters Champion this week but our lives have changed in too many ways and so we are left to wonder ‘what if’ and maybe reminisce a bit.

Alan Shipnuck of Golf Magazine chooses the latter in their April/Masters edition as he spends time with two time Masters Champion Ben Crenshaw.

Crenshaw was touted as “The Next Nicklaus” after a stellar career at the University of Texas but that moniker has doomed many a young golfer. Crenshaw’s career while Hall of Fame worthy paled in comparison to Nicklaus but Gentle Ben as he was nicknamed certainly carved out his place in Masters and golf history.

Shipnuck tells us that the “Gentle Ben” moniker was born of his temper rather than his seemingly kind, gentle nature. He spends time with Crenshaw and his wife as they view a replay of his emotional ’95 Masters win twenty five years ago.

Ben had buried his teacher, mentor and life long friend, Harvey Penick earlier in the week and glided through an emotional Masters that left him crying in the arms of his caddie as he succumbed to the emotion of the moment on the eighteenth green.

“The victory secured Crenshaw’s place in the Hall of Fame, but its meaning transcends mere wins and losses. The whole golf world cried along with Crenshaw when he doubled-over on Augusta National’s 18th green, felled by the bittersweet emotions of having won for Harvey. The metaphysical overtones of the victory confirmed for many that Gentle Ben was more than just an everyday Tour player. With his palpable love for the game and warm embrace of its history, Crenshaw has always been a romantic figure—basically Shivas Irons with a better putting stroke.”

It was a defining moment in Crenshaw’s career and one we all can share in each time we watch that replay of raw, sincere emotion.

But long before his days on tour and Augusta, Crenshaw envisioned his life as a golfer. Not just a player but a designer. ”..soon he was making noise at national golf events, including the 1968 U.S. Junior Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. That week was the first time Crenshaw heard the legend of Francis Ouimet. Around that time, he received as a gift The World of Golf, by Charlie Price, which stoked his interest in golf history in general and Bobby Jones in particular. As Crenshaw began visiting the game’s citadels to compete in USGA events, he would study the photographs on the walls and leaf through the books in the clubhouse. A love affair with the game was blooming.”

It was that paragraph in Shipnuck’s piece that struck a chord and brought back one of my favorite moments as I imitated a golf journalist.

In 2014 when the USGA was staging back to back men’s and women’s opens at Pinehurst I had a short conversation with Gentle Ben.

Crenshaw was the Mayor of Pinehurst that week as he and his design partner, Bill Coore were receiving praise for their restoration of the classic Pinehurst #2 course. The pair were one of the first to successfully introduce “minimalism” into course design and they rode that wave to the top of their profession.

And early in the week of the Open I found myself on the practice range with Ben Crenshaw wandering the grounds chatting with one after another of players, journalists and wannabes.

I had an opening and took it. I approached him, introduced myself and extended my hand. He shook my hand, gently, of course and gave me a few minutes of raw, real Ben Crenshaw.

He was welcoming in his demeanor and beyond thoughtful in his conversation. I congratulated him on his success at Pinehurst and asked him if he could answer one question for me. He said sure and what followed has stayed with me ever since.

I asked him of his two very successful careers, that of a Hall of Fame player and a world class designer which he found more rewarding. And with his thoughts bubbling out he stopped walking, looked me in the eye and recounted his first days at The Country Club at Brookline.

He said the minute he saw that course he knew his fate, “I knew at sixteen years old that I wanted to design golf courses.” And as he was talking to me he seemed to be looking past me and gazing over Brookline once again and I detected a bit of a crack of emotion his his voice. It was a classic moment for me.

Crenshaw’s emotional reputation is well known and he used it well years later leading the ’99 Ryder Cup Team to the comeback of the century. Against impossible odds, with his team on the brink of a horrendous defeat he said, ”I’m a big believer in fate, I have a good feeling about this.”

Of course his team came back to win and further cemented his legacy. And of course it happened at Brookline where a young Crenshaw saw his future. A future that included two very successful careers and all the while he was truly Gentle Ben. Even on that day at Pinehurst when he chatted with me.