You only played the Tour full-time for a few more years after that and had one further victory in New Orleans in 1983. Why did you decide to step back?

The win at New Orleans gave me a bit of an energy boost after a lean 1982 and I had full intentions of ploughing on with the world still at my feet.

Then our first child was born in ’83 and all the dynamics and my thoughts about the Tour started to change. My wife wasn’t able to travel as much with me so while it wasn’t a conscious decision, some changes were happening.

My success in 1981 set me up for five or six years of almost constant international travel but with a young family at home, I started to lose some of my desire to work at it as hard as I needed to and started questioning the reasons for being out on Tour.

I guess I also became as the saying goes here, a bit ‘fat and happy’ to a degree and some complacency set in.  Anytime your competitive edge is compromised in any way, it’s going to show up in your performance and it’s hard to get it back.

It got to the point in ’86 and ’87 where I was thinking I’d rather be doing anything else but playing professional golf. By this time, we’d also had a son so we had a three-year-old and a new born. I wanted to be there to watch my family grow up, do all things parents do with their kids.

I couldn’t be a part-time pro and compete at that level and didn’t have that ‘kid-like’ love for the game to work at it as I did. So in 1988, I walked away with plenty of exemption left but with no regrets. I felt all along I’d been blessed to have had what I had.

You remained connected to golf however, as the Director of Golf at the San Antonio Country Club for ten years, as a partner in the development of the Briggs Ranch Golf Club in the city and now coaching. You’ve obviously maintained a love for the game?

Yes, there’s not much I haven’t done in the golf industry these days. I guess I haven’t invented anything yet but I’ve done just about everything else! As I said, I really enjoy being able to give back in a way through the coaching role, mentoring and guiding the kids to achieve their goals. Not all of them will make it to be Tour players but I hope some of my experiences are helping them.

Are you playing much golf yourself and how is your game?

I still love to get out there and play non-competitively. I get a kick out of hitting good golf shots, enjoying the pure essence of the game. Bruce Lietzke and I play every year at the Legends of Golf and we have a great time, but that’s the only ‘competitive’ golf I play now. 

For the younger readers, which current PGA Tour players do you think have similar game to how you played in your prime?

Not that I hit it anywhere near the length of most of the players these days but I would say a Trevor Immelman type, the mistake-free kind of players. Zach Johnson would be a pretty good comparison, someone who’s a fighter and plays it tough. Corey Pavin and I had a lot of similarities of course.

What gives you the greatest pleasure these days outside of the game?

Well I’m a man of faith, a Christian. Everything else has fallen in line wonderfully behind that. My children are now 27 and 24 and have both graduated and are great kids.  I’ve had a wonderful wife who has supported me all these years and we’ve all had a great family life together.

After a lifetime of travel, it’s nice for us to take vacations at home these days. We have close friends in people like Bruce Lietzke and his wife, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Bobby Wadkins and their families.
We love it in San Antonio, it’s a great place to live.