One perfectly struck golf shot, at a perfectly opportune moment. That is Larry Mize’s legacy.
The shot came in the 1987 Masters, at No. 11 at Augusta National, at appropriately enough, “Amen Corner.” Mize, battling Greg Norman in a playoff, chipped in from 140 feet to stun the Australian superstar and win his first and only major, in his hometown no less.
Is there a player more identified with one shot than Larry Mize?
So when Mize chatted on the putting green Tuesday at Baltimore Country Club he was asked if he ever revisited the place he made history.
“Never. I’ve never gone back to that spot and I’ll never go back there again, unless I hit one there in the [Masters],” he said. “It’s a pure memory and I like that.”
Mize, who turned 50 last month, is now a rookie on the Champions Tour. He will play his second event this week, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. The tournament, the final major on the Champions circuit, runs Thursday through Sunday at BCC.
Mize, who has won $190, 804 in 16 events on the PGA Tour this year, has been anxious to join the Champions Tour. At 6-foot, 165 pounds, he is in excellent shape.
“I’ve not been wishing time away,” said Mize. “But I have been looking forward to it, getting out here, playing with old friends.”
And perhaps winning another major.
