Pro Opens Up About Choking
It's really not something that you want to talk about
Welcome back Keegan Bradley. He ended a 1,498 day win drought by winning the Zozo Championship. The bigger story may have been Fred Couples shooting a 60 in the final round of the PGA Champions’ SAS Championship. He’s 63 years old, for cryin’ out loud. Way to go Freddie.
This week, the PGA TOUR plays the CJ Cup In South Carolina at the Congaree Golf Club. This tournament was first played in 2017 and it’s being played on a course that was established in 2018 (the first three CJ Cups were played in South Korea). There’s not a lot of history to draw from so we’re going to spotlight a pro who talked about choking, and then did something about it. Scroll down to read about Forrest “Fuzzy” Fezler and how he overcame the bridesmaid label.
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Forrest “Fuzzy” Fezler Sheds Bridesmaid Label and Proves He’s Not a Choker
Forrest “Fuzzy” Fezler at the 1974 U.S. Open (photo: Getty Images)
It is Sunday, September 8th, 1974, Forrest “Fuzzy” Fezler, has just made the turn in the final round of the Southern Open. On the front nine, Fezler lit up Green Island Country Club in Columbus, GA, for a five-under-par 30. He was looking for his first win of his career. He finished as the runner-up in the 1973 Southern Open, a position he was all too familiar with. In three years on tour, Fezler had finished second a total of five times. He’d gotten a reputation as a bridesmaid and some even whispered that he was a choker.
With his burst of birdies that Sunday, six in the first 10 holes, Fezler came from one-stroke behind the leaders, J.C. Snead, Ben Crenshaw and Tommy Aaron, to leading by three strokes. But then he started missing greens with his approach shots. Was he choking? Let’s backspin and see.
Tony Lema once told a reporter, “It’s all right for me to say I choked, but if somebody says it for me, he better be ready for a fight.”
One did not take calling a player a choker lightly. But a May 1974 issue of Golf Digest suggested just that in a feature article titled, “Can Forrest Fezler Shed His Bridesmaid Image By Shaving His Mustache?” by Larry Dennis, Associate Editor. Fezler earned his nickname, “Fuzzy” for being one of the few players on the tour at the time who sported a mustache.
In the lede of the article, Dennis wrote:
His pals still call him Fuzzy . . . even though the mustache is gone. Others call him something less endearing, although not to his face. There are whispers that Forrest Fezler is a choker, that he gags under pressure.
The article documents how Fezler threw away a two-shot lead with three holes to play in the 1973 Inverrary Classic and then missed a five-foot putt that would have regained him a tie. Jackie Gleason, the tournament host, called it his single most memorable moment in the tournament’s history.
“I know people were saying I’d never come back after missing that putt at the Gleason”
And then later that summer, it happened again. At the American Golf Classic, Fezler led going into the 54th hole and faced a five-footer that would have extended the lead to three. He missed the putt, in front of a national television broadcast audience. He faded to a fifth place finish the next day. Even though he won a total of $106,390 in 1973, it was the near misses that dogged him.
“I know people were saying I’d never come back after missing that putt at the Gleason,” Fezler told Dennis. “It hurt me a little that they’d think I was that type of player, but I got over it. It doesn’t bother me now.”
“He wants all the pressure to be on him, win or lose. He says a lot of people don’t want it that way, because they’re afraid to fail. That brought home to me the attitude I have to have.”
Obviously, Fezler had heard the whispers and was retrospective when it came to thinking about choking. He even went to Jerry West, the Los Angeles Lakers great, for some counseling.
“He says when he gets in a tight situation in the last few seconds that he wants to take the shot, because he has the confidence,” Fezler related to Dennis. “He wants all the pressure to be on him, win or lose. He says a lot of people don’t want it that way, because they’re afraid to fail. That brought home to me the attitude I have to have.”
Fezler also realized that you have to be in a situation where choking is a possibility in order to learn from it.
“Maybe in the first couple of times I was in position last year I didn’t think I was capable of winning,” he admitted. “I didn’t know what it was really like. But at those moments, I wasn’t thinking like that. At the Gleason, I thought I had it wrapped up after 15 holes and I think I got a little bit too relaxed. I let my concentration slip, I hit a bad chip shot and all of sudden I’d lost the tournament.
You just have to learn to control your emotions in pressure situations, and the only way you can do that is to be in those situations again and again.”
“What went wrong at Firestone (in the American Golf Classic), I think, is that I was trying too hard to win the tournament instead of worrying about scoring, about shooting the lowest round possible. It’s a learning process you have to go through.”
Fezler talked much more in the article about what happens when you are under pressure.
“When you’re under pressure you get pumped up, your heart beats faster,” Fezler said. “So you try to slow down, to take deep breaths and be relaxed. But it’s hard to do. You never get over it . . . I don’t. Jack Nicklaus doesn’t, nobody does. You just have to learn to control your emotions in pressure situations, and the only way you can do that is to be in those situations again and again.”
So, how would Fezler handle the situation now that he found himself in contention at the Southern Open just four months after the Golf Digest article was published? He had captured the lead after 10 holes, but then began missing the greens with his approach shots. He would miss a total of five greens on the last eight holes.
But the turning point, at least in Fezler’s mind, came on the thirteenth hole when he drove into a bunker, hit his second shot into a greenside bunker, and then almost holed his explosion shot. Saving par injected Fezler with a shot of confidence.
“That was the shot of the tournament. It was the turning point of the round,” Fezler explained to reporters after the round. “I could just as easily have made bogey at that hole.”
“I didn’t watch Snead’s putt,” Fezler admitted. “I went on down to the tent because I didn’t want to see it. When the crowd yelled, I thought he made it.”
Fezler got another break two holes later when his approach shot hit a woman in the gallery and bounced onto some hard mud by a cart path. He got a free drop and then chipped up and saved his par.
Fezler made a par on the last hole. J.C. Snead and Bruce Crampton faced putts at the last hole that would tie him. Crampton missed his 25-foot birdie putt and by this time, Fezler couldn’t watch any more.
“I didn’t watch Snead’s putt,” Fezler admitted. “I went on down to the tent because I didn’t want to see it. When the crowd yelled, I thought he made it.”
He didn’t. Snead narrowly missed his 13-foot putt and in one fell swope, the labels of bridesmaid and choker were lifted from the shoulders of Fuzzy Fezler. Nobody could call him a choker, now.
Forrest Fezler reacts to missing putt at the Jackie Gleason Inverarry Classic in 1973 (photo: Getty Images)
Was it the mustache? Scroll down to read our Bonus Story.
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Tour Backspin Quiz | 1974 PGA TOUR Trivia
How many first time winners were there on the 1974 PGA TOUR
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Bonus Story
The Golf Digest article highlighted the fact that Forrest Fezler had shaved the mustache that had earned him his “Fuzzy” nickname. He grew the droopy mustache on-and-off during the 1973 season, but started 1974 clean-shaven, and the magazine shared that it was apparently for good.
“I’m through with the mustache,” Fezler chuckled. “It never really grew like I wanted it to grow, and Marilyn (his wife) likes me better without it. She says it was hiding my face too much.”
Apparently, Fezler, and his wife, changed their tune by the time the Southern Open rolled around. Newspaper articles described him as “the mustachioed Fezler” in reports of the final round.
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Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Ten. Leonard Thompson, (Jackie Gleason Inverarry Open), Lee Elder (Monsanto Open), Rod Curl (Colonial National Invitational), Bob Menne (Kemper Open), Tom Watson (Western Open), Richie Karl (B.C. Open), Victor Regalado (Pleasant Valley Classic), Forrest Fezler (Southern Open), Terry Diehl (San Antonio Texas Open), Mac McClendon (Walt Disney World National Team Championship, teamed with Hubert Green).
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