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Remembering a chat with Hubert Green

| June 28, 2018 1:00 AM

I was getting ready to walk out the door of the Press one weekday in mid-June a few years back.

It was early evening, but I don’t remember why I was leaving early — I’m usually here until deadline.

The phone rang.

It was for me.

“Marrrk,” the voice on the other end said, with a slight drawl. “This is Hubert Green.”

The year was 2000, and Green was calling from his motel room in San Antonio, where he was preparing to play in an event on what was then called the Senior PGA Tour. The name of the tour later changed to Champions Tour, then the PGA Tour Champions.

I sat back down.

Green was scheduled to be in Coeur d’Alene the following Monday, for a Junior League of Spokane golf exhibition at The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

And, on that weekday night, he was gracious enough to return my call so I could write a story on him that ran that Sunday, the day before the exhibition.

GREEN, WHO died last Tuesday at age of 71 in Birmingham, Ala., after a long battle with throat cancer, won 19 times on the PGA Tour — including the 1977 U.S. Open and the 1985 PGA Championship. He tied for second in the ’78 Masters, was third in the ’77 British Open (remembered as the Duel in the Sun between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry) won four times on the Senior Tour, and totaled 29 wins as a pro.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007.

Some people believe golf wasn’t invented until Tiger Woods showed up in the early 1990s. But I remember watching the U.S. Open from start to finish as far back as the 1970s, glued to the TV set (not literally, but that’s what TV’s were called then).

The U.S. Open was often a torturous slog back then as well, and I remember watching Hubert Green win that ’77 Open by one stroke over Lou Graham — despite playing the last four holes knowing a threat had been made on his life.

And you think those knee-knocking 3-footers the pros face on today’s slick, undulating U.S. Open greens are difficult?

GREEN WAS known for having this peculiar ritual of keeping his hands unusually low — almost down by his knees — when he started his swing. He did it on tee shots, shots from the fairway, chips and putts. He had a short, quick backswing and then took a lash at the ball.

Picture an adult trying to play with clubs meant for, say, an 8-year-old.

During our phone interview, I asked him about his unusual swing.

His initial response was like, What? What’s unusual about my swing?

He was joking, of course.

“It’s kept me off welfare, anyway,” he told me.

And it worked, obviously. He’s won two more majors than most us, anyway.

“Hubert tried to swing pretty once,” his Florida State teammate and fellow Senior Tour player Bob Duval told the Florida Times-Union recently. “He stopped winning. He told me he was going back to his regular swing and he started winning again.”

BACK TO that exhibition at The Resort Course.

Green played in a foursome with then-PGA Tour players Mark O’Meara, Mark Calcavecchia and Stuart Appleby.

That was at the end of a nice run by the Junior League of getting PGA stars to come to the area. Two decades earlier, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson were part of a foursome that played in an exhibition at the then-Spokane Country Club.

Imagine a group like that these days? That would be like getting Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson to come to this area for a relaxing 18 on a Monday — all in the name of raising money for a good cause.

That would never happen now — it would cost way too much to bring all of them here — or even any of them here.

Which is too bad.

Because it denies us the chance to meet and speak to kind men such as Hubert Green.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.