Posted April 9, 2009, 12:00 am
BY

Staff Writer

One player from '34 tournament remains

'I'm the last man standing'

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Errie Ball, the only surviving competitor from the first Masters, goes to Willoughby Golf Club in Stuart, Fla., six days a week.
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Ball

STUART, Fla. --- The postman comes every business day to Willoughby Golf Club, dropping off another batch of requests for the last man standing.

"It's unbelievable," Errie Ball said of the fan mail that trickles in from strangers. "Every day, a couple of letters to autograph."

The 98-year-old never pre sumed that a letter he received 75 years ago would come to define his golden years. The letter was from his old friend Bobby Jones, and it was inviting him to a golf tournament he was starting at his new course in Augusta that spring.

"I was just tickled to death and just wondered why he would send me one," said Ball, who was 23 and in his first head pro job at Mobile Country Club in Alabama. "I had won the Southeastern PGA back then. I think that helped in getting an invitation."

Nobody really knew what this Augusta National Invitation Tournament was all about, but Ball, and everyone else, was certain of two things: If Mr. Jones invites you to anything, you say yes and it will be worth the effort.

"I knew that anything that Bob Jones had something to do with was going to be good," Ball said. "But I didn't expect it to get to the stage that it is today."

Today that little invitational is the Masters Tournament, and Ball is the only man still alive of the 72 who played the first one in 1934. His dear friend and playing partner that first year, Charlie Yates, died in 2005, leaving Ball as the last link to the birth of the most revered major golf championship.

"I'm the last man standing," he said. "I outlived all of them."

HE COMES FROM a long line of English golfing Balls from Hoylake. His uncle, Frank Ball, was the club pro at East Lake Country Club, Jones' home course. Eight-time British Amateur champion John Ball was his cousin.

"The better I played, he became my grandfather," Ball said jokingly. "I almost got him to be my father."

In 1926, at age 15, Ball was the youngest-ever competitor in the British Open, when Jones won his first claret jug. Ball was in the field again at Hoylake in 1930 when Jones captured the third leg of his Grand Slam. It was that week when Jones persuaded Ball to come to the United States to work for his uncle at East Lake as an assistant pro.

"He said, 'You'd do well over there,' " Ball said. "And he was right. I've done well. Thanks to him, it opened a lot of doors."

"I knew that anything that Bob Jones had something to do with was going to be good. But I didn't expect it to get to the stage that it is today."

Ball played often in exhibitions with Jones and Yates. Jones didn't forget Ball when he left for a job in Mobile in 1933, and invited him to his tournament. A letter dated Feb. 24, 1934, responding to Ball's RSVP on stationery from Jones, Evins, Powers and Jones, Counselors at Law, still hangs in the Willoughby pro shop.

Dear Errie,

I appreciate very much your recent letter and was awfully glad to hear you like your new place. I am sure that you will get along fine down there.

I am glad that you got your invitation to Augusta. I hope that you will certainly be with us.

With best regards, most sincerely,

Bob Jones

Augusta National didn't disappoint. Standing behind the clubhouse and staring across the wide-open rolling hills of the new course, Ball had never seen anything so green and pristine.

"I was thrilled with the condition that it was in," he said. "It was beautiful. Picturesque, which it is today as you see on television. It was the top. No question about it."

The tournament itself, however, was nothing like the Masters of today. It was more like a club social than a major championship, with kegs and corn whiskey available throughout the course. No more than a couple thousand spectators walked about freely.

"The first one was more relaxed," he said. "The competition was there, but it was more like a party and they had drinks around that you could have if you wanted to. We really had a good time."

The field of stars, including Walter Hagen and Denny Shute, didn't impress Ball.

"I didn't realize, because Bob Jones was my idol and he was the No. 1 by far," Ball said of the field. "So I kind of looked down on the others. But there's some good ones in there."

The original course was a little different. The nines were reversed that year, with today's downhill 10th hole playing as No. 1. The greens were quicker than anything Ball had experienced.

He entered the final round 7-over par and within reach of a spot in the money, which required a top 10 finish.

"I was in pretty good shape and figured if I could shoot a respectable round I could be in the first 10 and be invited back," he said.

After two pars, Ball hit his 6-iron to about eight feet on what is now the 12th. He couldn't take the putter back on the lightning-quick birdie putt, though. When he finally pulled the trigger, he stabbed it so hard that the ball lipped the cup and ended up farther away than where he started. He four-putted for double bogey.

"It took the wind out of me, and from then on I couldn't hit a thing," he said. "I developed the yips from it. We called them the twitches in England. It took me a good eight years to get over that."

Ball shot 86 in the final round, the worst score of the day, and finished tied for 38th.

"I was so disgusted that I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there and back to Mobile right away," Ball said.

THE TWITCHES didn't stop Ball's career -- or his desire to get another opportunity to play in what had become the Masters.

He broke a few course records in the Chicago area and got hired as the first golf director at Butler National. He aced two holes on the front nine at Oak Park. He qualified for 20 U.S. Opens and 18 PGA Championships. He played matches with Bobby Cruickshank, Johnny Farrell and Bobby Locke. He won state opens and PGA sectionals from Illinois to Arizona.

Nothing warranted a return to Augusta until 1956, when Ball finished among the top 24 at the U.S. Open at Oak Hill.

Twenty-three years after his first trip, a seasoned 46-year-old Ball returned to Augusta National in 1957. It's a record gap between appearances.

The tournament had changed, with a cast of characters that now included Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and some youngsters named Arnold Palmer and Billy Casper.

"It was a big difference," Ball said. "Then it became a major. It was almost like it is today."

Ball shot 75-78 the second time, missing the cut by three shots. Even so, he left more satisfied that time just because he had achieved his goal of making it back.

"Today they beat their brains out trying to get in it," he said. "I feel fortunate that I was able to play two of them."

Ball has never been back to Augusta National. Two years ago, he returned to East Lake to hit the ceremonial first tee shot at the Tour Championship, but that's as close as he's gotten.

"I felt like I was going home," he said. "They made a fuss of me there."

Augusta National has never invited him back, and at age 98 he doesn't need the hassles of travel.

"I can see it better on TV," he said. "I like to think of it like it was."

What he sees on TV is a beautiful beast that has evolved a great deal in 75 years from those open hills he first laid eyes on.

"It looks very good, but it looks too long," he said, believing his good friend Jones might not like all the changes to his course.

FOR FOUR YEARS Ball has remained the last man standing. Considering how active he still is -- going to Willoughby every day except Sunday and still giving the occasional lesson or clinic -- he might hold the title for some time.

"You are bionnic!" the fitness-conscious Gary Player wrote on a picture sent to Ball for his 95th birthday.

Ball doesn't play many full rounds since a heart operation in his early 90s. Ask him whether he can shoot his age, and he'll answer, "If I'm having a bad day."

He gave a clinic with Jack Nicklaus at nearby PGA National on his 98th birthday, and his grip and swing are still textbook smooth. His tales of bygone friends from Harry Vardon and Cruickshank to Locke and Snead keep everyone at the club entertained.

"He's like a living history book," said Gerry Knebels, the head pro at Willoughby and a longtime friend. "He talks about events that now you can only read about, and he can tell you, 'Here's how it was.' His recall is tremendous."

Ball is prouder of other accomplishments. He is the longest active member of the PGA of America, at 78 years and counting. Above everything else, he's devoted to his wife of 72 years -- the former Maxie Wright of Richmond, Va., whom he met on a ship while returning from the British Open.

His tie to the first Masters is what gets the most notice, however, and he dutifully tells the tale to anyone who asks: "I'm getting too much attention. It's wearing me out."

Handle with care, because Ball is all we have left.

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