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Mac McLendon
Mac McLendon
By Ian Thompson
B.R. Mac McLendon wanted to play baseball, not golf.
Baseball was my first love. I wasn't much of a hitter, but I could pitch pretty well. McLendon said. I grew up in Trussville and when I was 10 we moved to Montgomery. By the age of 13 I was playing in the Babe Ruth League, but I was cut from the team because I couldn't throw a curve ball. I remember walking home just devastated. By that time my parents had joined Bonnie Crest Country Club (in Montgomery). Something inside me told me I was going to dedicate myself to golf, and that was the start.
This feature on McLendon is the first in a series on Alabamians who have played professional golf at its highest level and will seek to retell some of their stories from life on Tour. McLendon shared his time and memories with GolfSouth Editor Ian Thompson recently.
McLendon turned pro in January 1968, but a lot of water passed under the bridge between his decision to dedicate himself to golf and that day in early 1968. McLendon gave tremendous credit to Bob Borland, who was the head pro at Bonnie Crest for many years.
He took a great interest in the kids and spent additional time with me. He was really like a second father to me. A remarkable fact is that out of that small country club, a club that didn't have 300 members, came four touring pros. Myself, Buddy Gardner, Bill Rogers and Mike Reid. Both Bill and Mike's fathers were stationed at nearby Gunter Air Force Base.
And you know the reason that small club produced four touring pros was Bob Borland. He left us too young, but he showed the positive influence golf professionals can have on young people. It's important to keep the future generations of the game coming through.
McLendon is a financial consultant, Gardner is off the Tour as well and Rogers works as a club pro in San Antonio, Texas. He achieved the most fame, winning the British Open in 1981 at Royal St. George's. Reid is still plying his trade on the PGA Tour.
Mr. Borland only ever showed me one golf book Ben Hogan's Five Fundamental Lessons.' He taught only Hogan's teachings.
McLendon showed a flair for the game from the beginning. That first summer, as a 13-year-old, he won a tournament and regularly shot in the 70's.
My game improved in spurts. I was fortunate that my father let me play a lot in the summers. I became a very accomplished player in a short period of time. Really, from the ages of 15 to 17 I played the best golf of my life.
1962 was certainly a banner year for him as he won the Future Masters, State Junior and State Amateur all before he was 17.
His lifelong friendship with Hubert Green began in those junior tournament days.
We've known each other for 40 years. He had it a little harder in the summers because he had to work and I didn't. He wasn't really that good until he was 16 or 17. I remember we were playing in the Dixie Junior at Selma Country Club. The first round I shot 71 and he had a 69. The final day we played 36 holes and I was in the group ahead of him. That day I had rounds of 66-65 and he had a pair of 65's. He shot 14-under to beat me by three. I knew right then that he could play.
I think my father let me play so much because he thought I had a future in the game. After I won the Future Masters when I was in the 10th grade, the LSU coach Harry Taylor did a snow job on my parents. I visited (the University of) Tennessee, but I liked Baton Rouge a lot more than Knoxville.
Coach Bryant told me he wanted me to come to Alabama, but they didn't have the golf program at that time to compete for a national championship. At LSU they wanted to build a national championship team and they were offering four full scholarships. That was also a big factor.
So LSU it was for McLendon. As a freshman he couldn't play for the team his first year, but he made up for lost time by winning the SEC Individual Championship three years in a row from 1965-67. He also fitted in another State Amateur crown in 66. I won it at Indian Hills in Tuscaloosa and Joan and I were on our honeymoon. They'd married July 22, 1966 after his junior year at LSU and Hubert Green had played matchmaker.
I had no plans to leave early to turn pro. You've got to remember that was a tumultuous time in the country with Vietnam. I'd also worked hard on my accounting degree and had a goal of becoming a partner in a Big 8 firm (now Big 6). That wasn't to say I didn't have the necessary backing to try the Tour, as a group of guys from Montgomery had offered me some sponsorships.
I finished my undergraduate studies and decided to get my Masters in business which would take about another year and a half. I checked with Selective Services (the Draft Board) and they agreed to this. However, I was so bored with the classes as they were so similar to previous ones I'd taken that I said enough was enough. I called Selective Services and they said I needed to take a physical and that I would probably be drafted. I failed the physical because I'd had asthma as a child. I never dreamed that I would fail. So I said, What now? I decided to finish the semester and then turned pro.
That was January 1968. In those days qualifying school wasn't until April, so Mac and Joan McLendon moved to Birmingham. Her family was from there and he had a lot of friends in Birmingham too.
Q School was vastly different back then. Eighty-six players played 144 holes for 15 spots. This didn't allow you instant access to the PGA Tour, simply it allowed you to play in the open qualifying held each Monday for tournaments later in the week. McLendon made it through, along with such luminaries as Bob Dickson, who was medalist, Mike Hill, John Jacobs, Hale Irwin, Chuck Thorpe and Hideyo Sugimoto.
Sugimoto was like the Japanese Arnold Palmer. I invited him to play in an exhibition back in Montgomery. He was great guy and a true gentleman. He played the Tour for a while, but I don't think his heart was ever in it and he moved back home.
McLendon then headed to his first Monday qualifier in New Orleans. Seventy-seven strokes later his ego was bruised and he didn't make the tournament.
I headed back to Birmingham. Vestavia Country Club were very kind to offer me a non-resident membership. Playing the Tour I'm sure they figured I'd be gone most of the time. But I preferred to practice at the Country Club of Birmingham. Jon Gustin was kind enough to let me play there whenever I wanted. I started to play unbelievable. I'd be playing three or four balls per hole. That was like 72 holes of golf a day.
So I headed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi for a satellite tournament played opposite (the regular Tour event in) Fort Worth. I shot rounds of 65-69-69-66--269 and ended up in a playoff with Pete Fleming.
We'd played 36 holes that final day and then in sudden death we went another nine holes before I won with a birdie. I won somewhere around $2800 to $3800, but it sure looked big to me. I was on my way.
That was the start of another busy week for the McLendons'. Two days after winning in Hattiesburg, he headed to Memphis Country Club for local qualifying for the U.S. Open. He won it with a two-round total of 137. Then it was on to the old Colonial Country Club for the Memphis Open. He rode his hot streak to rounds of 65-67-69 and was one shot off the lead.
Here I am going from a nobody to being paired with Arnold Palmer and Lou Graham in the final round on national TV; all in the space of two weeks.
I'd met Arnold once before at a banquet for All-Americans. He said he remembered me and, all day, he was my biggest cheerleader. He really helped me relax.
Prior to teeing off for the final round McLendon recounted a story of a chance meeting with Charlie Sifford.
Joan and I were eating breakfast with my parents at the Holiday Inn. I looked up and there was Charlie Sifford. He came over and introduced himself to me and my family. I'm rooting for you today,' he said. I want you to win.' We've remained close friends ever since. You see, he didn't have to come over and say that, but he did and I've always remembered that.
Three three-putts over the final 18 holes cost McLendon any chance of back-to-back wins, as he fell two back of winner Bob Lunn. He kept making cuts the rest of his rookie season. This was important as to avoid Monday qualifying the next year you had to finish in the top 60 on the money list (it's the top 125 nowadays). He did that successfully and he also remembered playing pretty well in his first U.S. Open.
Trevino was untouchable that year (1968). He had four rounds in the 60's at Oak Hill and no one was going to beat him.
McLendon ended his first season with earnings of between $30,000 and $40,000.
In 1969 he didn't win, but played well enough to finish in the top 60.
By 1970 I'd started tampering with my swing. I was always one of the straightest hitters, but thought I needed to hit it a little farther. As we were living in Birmingham, Bob Borland was not so close at hand and a friend of mine, Billy McDonald, had kept urging me to see a friend of his, Jimmy Ballard. Finally one day Billy Mac said he'd give me $100 to talk to Ballard. I told him I didn't want his money, but that I did appreciate his friendship and that I'd go.
His driving range was out off of Highway 78. It was hotter than blue blazes. We just sat down and talked and I never even hit a shot. He said he'd watched me on TV, that he could help me, but it would take time and that I'd need to be committed to it. He told me to go away and think about it. My concern was that I couldn't afford to pay him anything. He told me not to worry about that, just to tell others about him. I decided to go for it. I took a few weeks off the Tour and I hit balls all day long. A 1000 balls a day was nothing. Jimmy taught Hogan principals which he had learned from Sam Byrd. When I went back on Tour I was encouraged with my ball striking, but I putted like a dog.
I always said I was just slow I guess, because I'd go back to Jimmy so many times I think he got tired of it. Really all touring pros are stubborn because after they've been out there a while they think they know it all. I still say Jimmy Ballard is without doubt the finest teacher in the game. He took the basics that Bob Borland had instilled in me and took them further to give me a swing that would hold up under pressure. He certainly kept me out on Tour longer than I ever would have been out there otherwise.
Fast forward to 1974. McLendon had remained on the Tour the previous few years with limited success. He and Hubert Green were due to play in the Walt Disney Team Championship at the end of the season, as they had the previous couple of years.
'74 was one of Hubert's best years on Tour. Also there was a Bert Greene playing on the Tour back then. The public often got them confused and Bert had the idea of teaming up with Hubert for the Team Championship. Hubert told him that would have been fine, but that he'd already given his word to play in it with me.
I played the best I had in years and we shot 32-under-par (Best Ball format for 72 holes). Heck, we probably birdied at least 15 of the same holes. That win, while not official money, counted as an official win and got me back on tour in 75. I wouldn't have been exempt otherwise. I'd really been thinking about quitting, but that win was like a second chance. I said to myself here's your chance to rededicate yourself. Clean yourself up, lay down the beer, get in better shape, try not to smoke anymore and get the mental side of the game right.
I played the best golf of my pro career in 1975. I didn't win, but I was close and blew a couple of tournaments I should have won.
Onto 1976, which would yield his first official, individual Tour win.
I'd played three good rounds at the King's Island tournament and was one off the pace, but I shot 77 in the final round. I was devastated and fed up. I got to the airport where I was scheduled to fly to the West Coast for Tom Watson's Pro-Am at Stanford and then the Napa tournament was next. At the next terminal there was a Delta flight back to Birmingham. I was tempted to just get on that one and head home, but up walks John Brodie, who'd been calling a (Cincinnati) Bengals game. He told me he was also playing in Watson's Pro-Am, so we sat together and talked the whole way there. I told him I was down because I was having a hard time closing the deal. He was an All-Pro for the (San Francisco) 49ers, you know. He gave me a lot of good advice. We played in the Pro-Am together and he kept pumping me up. Two weeks later, I won the Southern Open.
Although Brodie was far from a sports psychologist, he did a lot for McLendon's sagging confidence. Indeed, McLendon sees this as the biggest difference between today's players and those from his era.
Sure the equipment's better and the courses are in better condition, but it's sports psychologists having these players pumped up to believe they can do it, that they can break through and win. They didn't exist back in my day.
McLendon called the fall his favorite time of the year to play golf. And that was when the Southern Open was played at Green Isle in Columbus, Ga. It was the forerunner of the Buick Challenge, now played at Callaway Gardens.
I don't remember my exact rounds, but I had four scores in the 60's. After a 32 on the front in the final round I knew exactly where I stood, I was four shots clear and Hubert was my nearest challenger.
Bogeys on 11 and 12 brought me back to field and I said to myself here we go again. Those burnt out Bermuda grass greens were the fastest we played on Tour. On 14 (a long par 3) I hit a 5-wood eight feet above the hole. I missed it, but it was a very solid par. I parred the next two, but missed a four footer for par on 17 and had just a one shot lead playing the last. Up ahead there's a big roar and I see Hubert holing a putt. I presume it's for birdie and that we're now level. That final hole at Green Isle is a par five and I laid up perfectly in two. By that time I'd found out that Hubert's putt was for a par, so I knew I just needed par to win. I struck a beautiful 9-iron third shot and it ends up six feet past the hole. But the putt is like glass, straight downhill. If it doesn't go in I'm going to have the same length for par. I put the ball out on the end of my old Bullseye (putter) and it goes right in the middle. That was very satisfying.
McLendon also recalled his Mother was happy because he had said some time back that he wouldn't cut his hair until he won. I went the very next day!
Hubert couldn't praise me enough in the pressroom afterwards. I'm a huge fan of his. He's had a bad rap and has been treated unfairly over the years. He's up front with everyone, kind of like Colin Montgomerie is today. There's nothing wrong with that.
Moving onto 1978, McLendon's last big year on Tour.
I remember Bruce Crampton telling me once that when you're going to win, you're going to win and it's as simple as that. That was the case at the Citrus Open near Orlando. It was early in the year and the greens were slow. Two things that normally were against me. But I just started making putts...long putts from all over the greens. As Crampton had alluded to, it was my week. I birdied 15 and 16 in the final round and made two solid pars to finish. John Brodie walked the final 18 at Rio Pinar with me, which made it extra special.
The Citrus Open moved to Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club the next year, becoming the Bay Hill Classic.
Instead of spurring him on to bigger and better things, McLendon remembers missing cuts and getting tired of the grind of pro golf after the win. He did have one more win in his bag and it would come close to home at the Pensacola Open.
'78 was the first year we played the Pensacola Open at Perdido Bay. It had been at Pensacola Country Club previously. My first three rounds I'm on fire: 65-67-67 for a three-shot lead. But I get up for the final round and I knew it was going to be a struggle. You get up some days and your fingers feel fat and you can't feel the club. That was such a day. I plodded along two-over the front nine and after a bogey on No. 11, the easiest par five we played all year, my lead is gone. But I hole a 30 footer for a two on 13, par 14 and play an incredible shot on No. 15 off of hardpan over a pine tree that lips out for eagle. Trevino had showed me that shot years before and it left me a tap-in birdie.
I reach the 18th tee and find out that I'm tied with Mike Reid who's been in the clubhouse for quite a while. I plug my second shot in a bunker over the back of the green, but I hood my sand wedge and explode the ball to six feet. I roll it in and we're off to a playoff. Mike hits a quick hook in the trees left and struggles for the entire hole. I'm on in two and he just misses his par putt. I've got two putts from 12 feet and I take them for the victory.
I often look back and wish Mike had won. He was just starting out on Tour and it would have been a big boost for him.
However, that playoff win wasn't the end of the day's excitement.
Billy Mac (McDonald) was with me. He was my good luck charm. We get on the plane to fly back to Birmingham and upgrade to first class to celebrate. I store my trophy in the luggage bin above me and sit down and close my eyes for a second. Billy tugs at my shirt excitedly. Muhammad Ali just got on the plane,' he shouts. I couldn't believe it as I look up and there's Muhammad Ali trying to force his briefcase into the same compartment where my trophy is. Billy says to me He's going to damage your trophy.' Who am I to argue with The Champ? If it's damaged, so be it.
Ali fell asleep for the flight, so McLendon never got to talk to one of his self-proclaimed sporting heroes. And the trophy was fully intact too!
However, McLendon soon sensed that this was the beginning of the end of his Tour career.
Normally after a win I'd be so keyed up that I couldn't sleep for two or three days. That night I slept soundly for eight hours. I knew when I woke up that that was it. I knew right then that I didn't want to play anymore.
Contractually I was obligated to play in 79, and after two wins the year before I knew I could make some nice endorsement money. But my heart wasn't in it. I didn't have the desire. I played that season and the next, but I regret those final couple of years. I stayed two years too long.
He made two farewell appearances in 1981 at the Team Championship and in Pensacola and hasn't looked back. He is a financial consultant, has been for the last 18 years, and his wife and their children, Amy and Rob, all work together at the same office. He's obviously very content with his lot.
Everyone else assumed I'd have a try at the Senior Tour, but I knew I wouldn't. Why leave a position...a profession I enjoy more than playing golf? I don't have the desire to travel week to week. With my job now, if I do it correctly I have the means to make a difference in the quality of people's lives. That's a real thrill.
In golf, when it's all said and done, you're an entertainer. I was only on that stage' when I played good, and I only did that the minority of the time. Now for Nicklaus it must have been a heck of a thrill because he played good the majority of the time. That's the difference.
McLendon hasn't stopped playing golf entirely, in fact he says he plays about once a week to about a one handicap. He plays most of his golf at Shoal Creek, where he both lives and is a member.
Why go elsewhere when I can play one of the top six or seven courses that I've ever played right here? Shoal Creek is a true championship course...they could host any event there. Regardless of what I shoot, the course always shows me something new.
He cited Pebble Beach Golf Links as his favorite all-time course and Harbour Town (now known as the MCI Classic) as his favorite Tour event.
I think most touring pros would say Pebble Beach is the best course they've ever played. I know I do. Nearby Cypress Point is the most fun course I've ever played. I liked Harbour Town because you had to hit the ball straight there. In my early days, myself and the late Canadian George Knudson, were the two straightest hitters.
McLendon still follows his many friends who now ply their trade on the Senior Tour. He is in regular contact with many of them and when the Bruno's Memorial Classic comes calling every spring it is a big week for him too.
Gene Hallman (Tournament Director of the Bruno's) was kind enough to offer me a spot in the tournament the first couple of years after I turned 50 (he's was recently 54). But that would be doing something I don't care for: Taking a spot from someone who needs that chance to make a living. I'd embarrass everyone involved, not to mention myself, if I played. What am I going to shoot? 75? 78? That doesn't do anyone any good. But I am flattered that he would ask me, I really am.
Yes, Mac McLendon is content to be away from the spotlight, but obviously enjoyed sharing his memories with me. Hopefully the powers that be at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame will see sense and induct him post haste into the Hall. His record is deserving of close consideration.
And in closing, his given name is Benson Rayfield McLendon Jr. It was always easier for him to go just by Mac.
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