Interviews

An Interview With: GREG POWERS

MARTY PARKES:  It's my pleasure to welcome Mr. Greg Powers to the interview room.  Greg, I noticed from the bio sheet you've played in 10 U.S. opens, so you're not a stranger to USGA competition, can you tell us about your experience?

GREG POWERS:  It's nice to be with you.  It's nice to be invited in to get an opportunity to see the media.  It's been a while since I've been in any kind of media center.  I haven't played a lot of golf over the last seven or eight years, but ten or 11 Opens.  One as an amateur.  I played in the 1969 U.S. Open -- actually Bruce Fleisher and I were low amateur in the Open at Champions in  '69.  And I played in a lot of Opens through the '70's and early '80s.  I was about four or five groups in front of Johnny Miller when he shot 63 at Oakmont in 1973.  I played Marion, Pebble Beach in '82.  Had an opportunity to finish in the top 15 there and made 8 at the 14th hole, and it cost me not only getting back into the Open, but it cost me The Masters, too.  And I had never played in The Masters, so it was one of the goals.  I was thinking about it as I teed off that morning.  I said, "You know, a good finish gets me into both."  And a 8 there kind of derailed me.  I wound up missing by a couple of shots.

But my experiences in the Opens have always been pleasurable ones.  Tom Meeks will tell you that Greg Powers is one of the few players that will come up to you at the end of the first round of the Open and will tell you, make it harder.  Because I do.  I like an extremely difficult golf course.  I don't feel like I'm one of the best ball strikers in the world, but I feel like that I've got a lot of guts, and I've got a good short game, and I understand how to score on a U.S. Open type golf course, on a course where you really have to be precise.

I think one of the things that I look forward to in playing an open golf course is that, if you go out and shoot 70 or  '71, that's a good score.  You might get invited in to talk to the press with a score like that.

It just so happens that this is the first time I've qualified for the Senior Open.  I was 0 for 5 before this year.  And I had tried to qualify in Atlanta every year.  I talked to John Daly down at the PLAYERS Championship this year and he had told me about this course over in Mississippi that was extremely difficult, that he was affiliated with, with one of the Indian reservation casinos, and it was called Dancing Rabbit.  And so, I sent in my entry for Dancing Rabbit and I went over, and it was 55 guys for one spot.  I didn't like that all that much when I got over there.  I said, "You've got to be kidding me, one shot?".  I shot even par, 72, I 3-putted the 18th hole for 72.  And nobody else shot 72.  I got in without a playoff and I was shocked.  When you think, 55 pros and one spot, you think somebody is going to get it going, somebody will shoot it under.  It always happens that way.  But it was very, very difficult, and 72 stood up.  So I'm thrilled to be here, I'm really looking forward to playing Caves Valley.

MARTY PARKES:  Can you talk about your recovery from the automobile accident?

GREG POWERS:  I had just got through playing the Canadian Open in 1992, September of  '92, I had flown from Toronto to Nashville, Tennessee to do a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club with Vince Gill, the country music singer.  And the next day, I played the 8th hole, which is a par-3 at this golf course, 36 times with the same group -- I mean with different groups, all day long, it was a fundraiser.  And that evening I was on my way home to Atlanta and I got side-swiped.  A car came over into my lane, hit me, and I went off the road, down an embankment, I wasn't belted in.  And when the car hit the bottom of this embankment, of course it just stopped with a thud.  And I shot forward and my left knee hit up under the steering column and it drove the femur all the way through and out my rear end.  Drove it 8 and a half inches through the hip socket.  So -- this is the knee (indicating), it just exploded it right through.  And of course I had no hip socket.

When Jack Nicklaus a few years ago went in to get a hip replacement, he had a hip socket that the cartilage had been worn down, and that's the reason he had pain.  He had bone against bone.  Well, I didn't have a hip socket.  So, what they had to do, they had to go in with steel plates and screws and formulate all of the area that forms a socket, and all of the bone mass behind it, and I sat in a wheelchair for almost a year, crutches and wheelchair while all of that mass healed or mended.  And it was a long three, three and a half year rehabilitation process.  But during that time I had skated through life for 47 years, but during that very, very down time in my life where I kept saying, "Why me?"  I invited Christ into my life, and it was -- if there was every a life changing moment in my life, it was that moment.  I kind of felt like that my life took on an entirely new perspective.  I was now able to be productive for God.  I was now able to go out and talk to kids at camps about how important it is to make a stand for what's right at an early age, Christian beliefs.  So that you have something to fall back on.  If you don't have Christian beliefs, if you don't have a relationship with your God, you just are skating through life by yourself.

And after I made the commitment, His word says, ask for anything.  And the doctor said I would never play golf again.  I had no left hip.  I could not expect to rotate over on to this hip with no hip there.  So it's been, like I said, it's been a wonderful seven and a half year walk, and he's healed me.  And I'm here for a reason.

When you start talking about Christian things, Christian ideals, religion, it turns a lot of people off.  Well, it can't possibly turn me off, because it turned me on.  It got my life going again, and I've been able to work with some wonderful people over the last three or four years, Bob Bubka and Brian Katrek, here, I work with PGA TOUR radio, so that basically is my job now.  I haven't played any golf at all.  Last year, I played one tournament, the B.C. Open.  The year before that I played one tournament.  This year I haven't played any.

So, how I got here is through the goodness of Him.  There's no question at all, no question at all.  He's arranged for me to play in this event and I'm looking forward to playing.  I don't know how I'll play, but I've never been stronger.

I've got two ankle weights -- this is my bad leg, this is the leg that was basically a vegetable.  I'm going to play these next two days with ten pounds strapped on to this leg to work it, walk up-and-down these hills, and then Thursday morning the ankle weights are coming off and hopefully this leg will be -- it will feel light, as I walk around these hills.  But for the next two days I'm going to beat it up and hopefully Thursday morning it will be fresh.

Q.  Where was the accident?

GREG POWERS:  You probably know exactly where it is.  It was at Hobbs Road and Harding, where it T's.  I was approaching Harding Road going past the horse place out there on the right, and that's where it happened.  I got side swiped, off the road, down the embankment, in Nashville.

Q.  What are your expectations this week going into this?

GREG POWERS:  That is a good question.  In the flight up yesterday with Brian, we flew up yesterday, we were trying to formulate some sort of game plan based on what we had heard.  When I qualified, Brian immediately punched up Caves Valley on the Internet, he's a wiz with the computer, he punched up the score card and we took a look at it.  And we had heard that it was one of the favorite courses for the USGA in the fact that it was young.  And if it's a young golf course and the USGA goes to it, they really do like it.  Because usually they want you to have some history before they'll come to you with a major open like this.

So I thought, "Wow, this is going to be a very difficult golf course."  This is the kind of golf course that I could play well on because I haven't played well enough to go out and shoot 65.  Have I shot 65?  Many times.  But that was back in my heyday, in the '70s and '80s.  I haven't looked at 65 in quite a while.  So, on a golf course where hopefully the scores won't be low, I would like to be able to think that I could get it around here at 70, 69, 71, something like that, and just kind of stay in the hunt.  I'd like to be able to stay around for the weekend and then if you stay around on the weekend anything can happen.

James Mason a couple of weeks ago did a wonderful job in winning at the NFL, a dear friend of mine from down in Georgia, and there's other stories out there on the Senior Tour where players that have come out of obscurity and won, this is a perfect opportunity.  A USGA event is the type of event that I love to play in.  That's the reason that I've been so high on Opens and everything that the USGA has done through the years.

Q.  I have a follow-up.  After the accident what was your mind set?  Did you think to yourself after the doctor said you're not going to play golf anymore, did you give yourself a goal that I'm going to play?  Did you have any thoughts that you would play in a Senior Open one day?

GREG POWERS:  No, because I remember lying in that hospital bed the morning after the accident, and of course I was in traction.  It took 11 days, how is this -- they drilled a hole right through the knee and put a bar and then hooked up a pulley and dropped a 50-pound weight off the end of the bed, and it took 11 days to pull the bone into position where they could begin to formulate a plan to go in and try and fix the mess.

And the doctor, Dr. Paul Thomas, I'll never forget it.  He said to me, after the operation, he said, "Greg, when we cut you open, you looked like a parlor puzzle."  There was so much bone mass everywhere in all different pieces, all different forms.  And he said, "That's the reason we had to put so much metal in there, to try to piece all the bone pieces back together, and just hope that they mend."  And I even asked him, do you think I can ever play golf again, and he just shook his head.  He said, "We hope we can get you where you can walk again, forget golf."

So, after I invited Christ to come into my life, that's when I said, "All right, I'm going to put you to the test.  I want to play competitive golf again.  And I'm going to give you the glory and the honor if I'm able to."  So, that's the reason I'm here.  There's no question.  When He truly can use you, when He truly can -- you can be a pawn in the hand of the mighty God, that's when you really can kind of have a feeling that there's something special.

Q.  There was a time in your recovery, obviously, that you were not having the same religious beliefs you have now.  How did you handle that emotionally in the time before you invited the Lord into your life?

GREG POWERS:  Give me that again.

Q.  When did you make the spiritual connection with God?  There was probably some days before you -- after the injury, but before you made that decision, how did you handle that emotionally and mentally when you had not made that decision to change your religious beliefs?

GREG POWERS:  It was five and a half months since the accident, and I was still bemoaning the fact that I was a cripple, that I had to do my Christmas shopping in '92 from a wheelchair, wheeling myself around the department stores and buying Christmas gifts, never knowing if I was ever going to be a normal person again.  February the 7th of 1993, which was about five months after the accident my brother had sent me a series of tapes of an evangelist from out in California, his name is Dr. David Jeremiah.  He's got a ministry, it's called Turning Point.  And he's on over three thousand radio stations around the world, a tremendous man.  And I listened to this series of tapes where he was preaching on the book of Daniel, of all things.  People have said to me, "You got saved listening to somebody talk about the book of Daniel?"  What's in the book of Daniel that could possibly turn your life around?  He preached a message about Shadrak, Meshak and Abed-Nego, those are the three kids that stood before the King and when the King said, "You either bow down to me now, or I'm going to throw you in that burning fiery furnace, and I want to know who is the God who will save you from my hands."  And the way that he preached that message, and the way that those three kids stood up to The King and said, "Oh, King, we're not concerned about this matter.  Our God, whom we serve, He is capable of delivering us from your hands.  But even if He chooses not to, even if you kill us, we're not bowing down."  And I thought, I had never made a stand like that in my entire life.  I had never made a stand and said, yes, where it meant so much.  And that moment, I got down on my hands and knees and I said -- I said, "I have put you on the back burner all of my life, I have skated through life.  I have taken your name in vain.  I have used it in slang.  I have been in and out of bars, one night stands, all of the stuff that really bogs you down in the overall scheme of things, if you're trying to be productive for God."  That day I got down on my hands and knees, invited Him into my life, and I didn't wait.  That very moment I said, all right, you're in now and I said I want to play competitive golf again some day, and I want to give you the credit for doing it.

And so during the five months it was terrible.  It was painful. It was agonizing.  It was depressing.  I didn't think I'd ever be able to be a normal person again, because I knew the damage that was done to that area.  But I walked in here today through the goodness of Him, no question, no question.

Q.  Did you ever talk or see the person who sideswiped you and drove you in the ditch, have you ever had any contact with them and do you remember what it was like the first time you sort of went out on the golf course again, even on a driving range and tried to hit balls and was your family supportive of that?  Did they want you to kind of say, well, maybe you should just take it easy and not look past that part of your life?

GREG POWERS:  The person that ran me off the road, don't know who they were.  The car behind them saw me go off the road and they stopped.  That car just kept going.  And the first time I tried to hit a golf ball was in Naples, Florida.  I was down visiting a friend of mine, his name is Lou Conner, from Nashville, Tennessee.  It was 1995, it was almost three years, and I was still walking with a cane.  And I said, Lou, let me go out and see if I can't -- chip a few, because there was still a tremendous amount of pain in there and I had not ever kind of rotated over on to it.  I was always kind of fearful, because it always hurt and I didn't want to cause any damage there.  So I walked out on to the practice tee and I had a 9-iron in my hand.  And I remember hobbling up, trying to make sure that I didn't put a lot of weight on this, and I kept most of my weight on my right foot.  And I just sort of hit a few little shots like this (indicating), and I said, man, I'm a long way from hitting a golf shot, because doing this (indicating), is not doing this (indicating).

And so during that long period, that's where I began.  I began standing there, not rotating over on to my left at all and a couple of weeks later I went out there and did this every day -- a couple of weeks later I got a little bit more nerve and I sort of tweaked over on that left a little bit, it hurt, but I kept doing it.

And your prayer life during the course of your day, I never had a prayer life before this, and now I have one in the morning and I have one in the evening.  I thank Him for what he's given me, and -- the one thing more than anything else that keeps me going on a day-to-day basis is that -- not that I can play golf, not that I can broadcast on the radio, but that I can make a difference in somebody's life for Christ.  That is the only -- that's the thing that keeps me going.  If I won this golf tournament this week, that would be wonderful.  But somewhere during the course of maybe that Sunday, I might find somebody who might be a down and outer, who doesn't really have much to look forward to.  And I'd let them know that if you haven't made a decision for Him, he's there waiting.  And He can do -- He's not in awe of anything that you ask.  And this is probably not the type of interview that you normally have at a U.S. Open, but this is how I got into the U.S. Open, through the goodness of God, no question about it.

Q.  Was your family supportive?

GREG POWERS:  Tremendously supportive.  They loved me, they did everything in the world they possibly could.  My families and friends were incredible.  I didn't have hospitalization insurance.  I ran up bills over three hundred thousand dollars in bills.  Vince Gill did a free concert one month after my accident and raised over 125,000 to help defray expenses.  I was representing Westinghouse Corporation at the time.  I'd been carrying their bag and wearing Westinghouse on my shirts for about four years out on Tour.  Westinghouse did a fundraiser at a course down in Orlando and raised $175,000.  All the process, Payne Stewart came, Payne, he gave a -- they brought a bunch of things for an auction, Jack, Arnold, they all sent gifts, Greg Norman.  Payne donated an entire wardrobe of knickers, shirts, hats.  All this raised a tremendous amount of money.  Through those fund raisers, all of the three hundred thousand, other than the 25 or 30 got paid off.  And the hop, they said we're going to wipe off the rest.  So I went from owing three hundred thousand to the most wonderful gift, all of my friends got together and -- but, see, when you make that commitment, He then can start to work.  He then can help.  He then says, well, Greg's down there, he's in some serious debt, we've got to figure it out.  Well, He figured it out.  He figured out how to get me out of debt.  There's not anything I could have done to get myself out.  He did it.

Q.  Golf, I know from your past, golf has always been important to you.

GREG POWERS:  It was my life.

Q.  Well, what is it now?

GREG POWERS:  Well, one of my dearest friends, who I spend a ton of time with, Brian Katrek, he knows what the most important thing in my life right now is, and I think Bob and Janice do.  They know me.  That I'm productive, that I can move forward on a daily basis for Christ.  I started wearing this What Would Jesus Do bracelet, this rainbow color one, about four years ago, three and a half years ago.  A friend of mine sent me this black one it spells golf, GOLF,  those letters mean God Offers Life Forever.

And then I tell you how He works, I was in a prayer session three weeks ago, I was making some prayers for a friend of mine whose wife was -- has got cancer.  And I went to bed after saying some prayers for this lady and I had a dream, I dreamed that the Lord told me to go put on another, What Would Jesus Do bracelet, but He said, go get a red one.  And it's going to represent my blood, and He said there's going to come a time shortly in your life where you're going to have to fall back on my blood.  So the next morning I went right to the Christian bookstore, bought this red bracelet.  I came home, my wife said, what are you doing?  What's that?  And I said, well, He told me to put it on.  And so -- when you get that close on a daily basis, it's nice.

Q.  How many screws?

GREG POWERS:  48 screws, five plates and a total titanium hip.  And you ought to see me in the -- in the Hartsfield Airport yesterday.  They run that little thing, and it just goes off and he said, what's in there?  I said that's my hip and a bunch of plates and screws.  And he said, can I touch it.  So he runs his hand over it and it just -- and then he runs over the thing again, and it's beeping.  So I am, I'm a terror in an airport.  I've got a lot of metal inside of me.

MARTY PARKES:  Thank you very, very much for coming in, and good luck this week.

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