We are here live in Augusta on the campus of Payne College and alongside Jack

Nicholas and Gary Player you are one of the honorary starters for this

year's masters. Why did you decide to say yes this year to being a

starter and what does Augusta National mean to you? Well any time you

you're actually be a starter at Augusta Mountain you can't pass that up,

you especially after I had qualified in 1975 to play here for the first time.

And when the chairman asked me to be an honor of

starter, I thought that was a wonderful thing, you know, because there are a lot of

people that he could have asked and could have been there in my place.

After Arnold Palmer passed away, I felt that it would be a good chance for me to

and to get a situation like that. a good

situation like that and so when he asked me I jumped at it right away because I knew how much

I had wanted to pray at Augusta and also to have someone ask you to come and

perform in a situation like that. It was far superior to anything that I have accomplished in the game of God.

Let's go back to one of the questions that people always ask or will ask is why did you decide to pursue a career in

professional golf when there was so few black golfers playing at the time you

started your professional career? Well I didn't look at it that way and I didn't look at it that way, and I didn't look at how many black golf was that we had on the tour or playing, attempting to get on the tour.

I had become involved in a game that I loved from my brother to the golf course.

That's how I started in Dallas, Texas, and right away I just decided that, hey, this is a good time for me to perhaps pursue a career or something that I love. And I think that was the reason why I went that way.

And furthermore, the reason why I did was because there were only one black player on the tour at the time.

So I felt that it was a good chance for me to go out and

and be a part of it and to perhaps accompany him in any way that could, because I knew how hard it probably were for him to be out

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