All of the noise is long gone now. There is not any entourage, no hubbub, no fuss. Instead of yukking it up with David Letterman, as he did twenty years in the past this month, Ben Curtis is spending the morning instructing southeast of Cleveland and steeling himself for the kind of 750-mile power to South Carolina for a circle of relatives holiday.
This roughly understated Friday morning may be very a lot how Curtis likes his existence twenty years after he made his primary match debut on the British Open — and gained. His victory at Royal St. George’s was once a global sensation: He went from being the sector’s 396th-ranked participant, the person who had spent a part of match week sightseeing in London along with his fiancée, to being the primary golfer in 90 years to win a significant identify on his first check out .
He by no means captured any other. Sporadic successes adopted — ties for 2nd at a PGA Championship and a Players Championship, a place on a Ryder Cup-winning staff, a couple of different PGA Tour victories — however by no means the major-winning magic. He closing performed a excursion match in 2017, completing with profession income of greater than $13.7 million.
Today, he coaches his son’s golfing staff at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio, and teaches at a golfing academy that bears his title. On Thursday, the Open will start at Royal Liverpool. He may just play in it, however he’d fairly no longer.
This interview has been edited for duration and readability.
Let’s get started in 2003. After the primary spherical, you have been 5 photographs off the lead. After the second one, 3. After the 3rd, two. When did you begin to assume you must win?
Saturday, I have in mind suffering the primary 9 holes, after which one thing—I do not know if I simply calmed down, perhaps idea it is over, I do not know—came about. I shot 3 underneath on that again 9, and it simply boosted my self belief. When we went to mattress that night time, I used to be like, “I’m going to win this thing.” I informed Candace that, and she or he roughly went quiet till tomorrow.
The again 9 on Sunday wasn’t as clean as Saturday’s. Was it the direction or the drive?
Probably the drive greater than anything else.
The first 9 endured what I used to be doing on Saturday. In any match, however a significant particularly, it is onerous to play in point of fact persistently for 27 holes with no need some roughly hiccup. In the again of my thoughts, I stored telling myself, “It’s tough for everybody.”
Ever watched the spherical?
To set up Twice.
Twice in twenty years?
We have been at a chum’s area, awoke and he had the Golf Channel on because it was once open week. And so we sat there and watched it a little bit bit, and the youngsters slowly got here down and we watched it. And then that roughly spurred it directly to, “Hey, let’s take the time since the kids were older.”
When I used to be enjoying, I by no means sought after to observe it as a result of I used to be cussed and sought after to be aware of the longer term. Now I have a look at it even though, and it is like, “What were we wearing?”
A couple of days after you gained, you informed the days: “It may not trade me. It may not trade who I’m. Did it?
I’m positive it did. But personality-wise or such things as that, I’d hope no longer.
Did it trade the way you approached golfing?
I wasn’t used to the limelight, and so it was once simply tough to head follow, to head in finding that quiet position the place I may just get paintings executed. You attempt to time table your day and also you attempted to have it all the way down to inside a couple of mins, however if you are seeking to have a two- or three-hour follow consultation and it finally ends up being six and you’ve gotten simplest practiced for 2 , it wears on you.
People are arising and you might be getting distracted — and no longer in an average method, by means of any stretch — however then you recognize you might be striking much less and no more time into the follow on account of that. So that is what was once tough, and even simply going out to devour, and it made me understand I by no means sought after to be like that — like, I’d by no means need to be in Tiger Woods’s footwear.
I’d like to come back in underneath the radar. I sought after to win each week, in fact. Everyone does.
I’ve heard you felt drive to end up that the Open hadn’t been a fluke.
Definitely. Especially when you find yourself younger and also you win early, there is that drive of you have to do it once more to end up your value, I assume.
Where does that drive come from? From inside your self? The media? The galleries?
It’s a mixture of the entirety. Luckily, social media wasn’t an enormous deal again then. But I did really feel it internally. I have in mind practising and getting in a position on the finish of 2005, and my faculty trainer simply went: Screw this. Just be you. Don’t you should be someone that you are not, since you’re seeking to emulate what the highest avid gamers on the earth are doing, and, smartly, perhaps that isn’t for you.
That was once most certainly the primary time I’d heard that during years.
Just return to being Ben Curtis?
Just return to being me. That refocused me a little bit bit. I feel it confirmed within the play that yr, profitable two times.
You trainer top schoolers now. What do you inform them about drive?
They’re apprehensive about breaking 80 or 90, no longer profitable majors. But to them, that is a large deal. I have in mind the primary time you ruin 80, the primary time you ruin 70 and the way giant of an accomplishment this is. So that is their primary.
I at all times inform them you’ll be able to’t power it. It’s simply going to occur. You paintings onerous, and it is simply going to fall in there.
You can simplest keep an eye on your self and your feelings and take a look at to regard each shot find it irresistible’s the primary shot. And 99.9 % of the rounds do not move the way in which you need them as a result of typically it is derailed inside the first shot or hollow.
Brooks Koepka says he thinks he can win 10 majors. Did you ever let a selected quantity like that input your head?
No, however I at all times dreamed of profitable any other one and had a few alternatives.
Winning a significant places you within the historical past books. Would your profession were more straightforward should you hadn’t gained so early?
Probably, nevertheless it would not be as cool of a tale. Like, if I had gained two different occasions after which gained a significant after which roughly disappeared?
Is there one of these factor as profitable a significant too early?
It’s no longer such a lot the profitable the only too early, however perhaps the way in which Koepka did it and profitable so much inside a few years. Now, hastily, you assume you will have to win each week.
And the toughest factor—and I fell into that lure, too—was once seeking to tools up your recreation only for the majors. If you simply do this by myself, if you are no longer enjoying excellent going into it, what distinction does it make should you shouldn’t have the arrogance? Confidence is the largest factor.
I used to be speaking to Max Homa lately, and he stated he had discovered he did not get ready for the majors how he ready for the entirety else and that perhaps he will have to smile extra and snort extra.
It’s true. When I gained on the Open, we were given there early simply to get adjusted to the time trade. I performed on Saturday and Sunday, after which on Monday, Candace and I went into London and have been those American vacationers.
Then I got here again and performed 18 on Tuesday and 9 on Wednesday. But you’ll be able to overdo it, and I feel what Max is pronouncing is should you deal with it like every other match, you’ll be able to be high quality.
It’s so onerous to do. But each time I’ve gained or got here shut, it was once simply, let’s move play golfing. You play unfastened.
Wyndham Clark goes to Royal Liverpool as a first-time primary champion. What’s your recommendation for him?
Enjoy the instant, and do not be afraid to mention no. Try to stick with your regimen. And the largest factor is simply expectancies: Don’t be expecting to win. Just move in the market and take a look at to benefit from the second. Just like Max stated, snort, have some amusing. If you’re making the lower and feature an opportunity to win, nice. If no longer, you might be nonetheless america Open champ, and no person is ever going to take that away.
You’ve performed two Opens at Royal Liverpool. What do you’re making of it?
It’s a in point of fact excellent golfing direction. I would not say it was once my favorite.
Would Royal St. Will George’s be the favourite?
It’s up there, however I really like Birkdale, simply the glance of it, the texture of where. And clearly St. Andrews is particular, however they are all nice. I hated Troon the primary time simply because I performed badly.
You can play the Open till you might be 60. Why no longer play it?
One, I do not need to put the paintings in. And, two, I’m no longer going to turn up simply to shoot a couple of 78s, 79s. It’s no longer honest to the opposite guys. You’re principally taking a place clear of a child at a qualifier or any individual who is making an attempt to play for the primary time.
I do know what it takes to play smartly. I will be able to move out right here and play OK. But while you play 10 instances a yr, it is a utterly other factor.
You closing performed a excursion match in 2017. Was it onerous to stroll away, or was once it freeing?
A bit of little bit of each. I feel I will have a few years previous and simply stored striking on and enjoying like crap, to position it frankly. Once I did, it was once nice.
When did you understand that you simply did not need that chaotic excursion existence anymore?
When the youngsters were given to college age. When they have been younger and you must take them with you, it was once nice. Then they went to college and their time table is restricted, and you might be touring and enjoying in those tournaments, and you might be by myself.
I by no means performed an enormous quantity, however when you find yourself used to having them out for roughly 20, 22 occasions a yr and abruptly it is only for 6 or seven, and now you might be in the market for 20, 22 occasions by yourself, it turns into difficult. It does not topic how great the hotel is. Every lodge room, it’s not relevant whether or not it is a Ritz-Carlton or a Courtyard Marriott, it is a rectangle room with a rest room in it. And it is difficult at the circle of relatives at house, too, as a result of they would like me house.
Numerous retired golfers reside in seashore cities in Florida. You selected Ohio. Why?
If you might be in Jupiter, you might be amongst your friends. Up right here, we are by myself. The persons are nice, all the way down to earth, and we needed that for our youngsters. It’s simply who we’re and the place we are at. This is house.
When you left the excursion, did you assume you sought after to train top schoolers?
No.
Think you sought after to run an academy?
It took a while. For the remainder of 2017, I used to be fascinated with what I sought after to do, and that is the reason when the academy happened. Ohio has a wealthy historical past of golfing, and it sort of feels like the entire greats got here via right here sooner or later of their careers. You have a look at Jack Nicklaus, rising up in Ohio, and Arnold Palmer lived in Cleveland for some time.
I simply began reflecting on how I grew up, and I used to be pondering, “Who around here is going to help these kids navigate the dreams that I had?” I needed to depend on my oldsters, after which fortunately I went to a school the place the trainer was once tremendous concerned.
When I train, it isn’t at all times about Xs and Os and hitting it to this spot or on this swing aircraft or no matter. I’ve those excellent children, they usually need to swing it like Koepka. I’m like, “Listen, swing it such as you. What your swing looks as if now isn’t going to be what it looks as if when you find yourself 25.”
My son was on the team, and the coach decided to retire. I got a call from the athletic director and I was like, “Well, who do you bear in mind?” And they were like, “You, and that is the reason it.”
I asked them to take a couple of days and try to find someone. I didn’t want to put that pressure on my son, but he was like, “trainer, Dad, trainer.”
Kids are more worried about their swing technique and the way it looks than how it performs. As long as you shoot a 72 on the scorecard, it doesn’t matter how you shoot 72. It’s a good score! Just worry about that.
Twenty years ago, you said that if you hadn’t been playing the Open you “most certainly” would have been watching the tournament on TV. Will you be watching this time?
It’s funny: It’s been seven years since I played, but I wake up now and realize it’s almost over. You totally forget. You get up and start doing your stuff, and it’s 2 o’clock and you think you’ll see what the golf is — and then it’s over.
The first three years were like that, and I totally missed it. Now, I’ll watch it, and I’ll enjoy it.