I was paired with Bruce Crampton in the third round of the Phoenix Open. I had never played with Bruce. He was portrayed as a grump by the press so I was a bit reserved as we teed off on #10 at 8:00 am. All three of us hit the green and Bruce was to putt first.

We had one guy as our entire gallery. (It was too early for our usual huge gallery) As Bruce bent over his ball to hit his putt, our gallery guy, who was right behind Bruce, started bobbing back and forth. Bruce stopped. I thought that Bruce was going to do something violent to the guy. But he didnt even look at him. He re-read the putt and tried again.

Once again the gallery guy bobbed back and forth as Bruce got over his ball. Once again I am expecting some violent reaction from Bruce. Not a word or even a look. He lined up his putt once more and this time the bobbing gallery guy got the idea and stopped moving.

Bruce putted and MISSED! Now I was sure that the full wrath of Bruce was about to boil over and it did. He walked over to me, put his arm around my shoulder and said in his great Australian accent, The natives are a bit restless today, arent they, John?

The papers had him all wrong. He is a good guy with a great sense of humor. We had a good time playing golf that day. He also spent a morning with me when we were in Australia playing on their tour. He wanted me to understand his country and its people.