The only rookie to win the Masters in the last 87 years, Fuzzy Zoeller, owes much of his historic performance to the man in the white overalls who steered him successfully to the green jacket in 1979. There were no yardage books or greens books, and Zoeller’s full body of experience at Augusta National went all the way to the previous Sunday when he met Jeriah “Bubba” Beard.
Beard had already caddied in four handfuls of Masters – 12 of them with Don January – when he earned Zoeller’s bag in 1979. By the end of their first nine holes together the Sunday before the Masters started, Fuzzy had already gained faith in Beard’s ability to pull his clubs and read the greens.
“He told me what to do and I did it,” was Zoeller’s recollection 40 years later in 2019.
Beard attests: “I'm not just patting myself on the back but there's no way Fuzzy could have won without me. Because he depended on me totally. I pulled all the clubs and read every putt.”
A year later in 1980, Zoeller and Beard were in the hunt for second through three rounds behind runaway winner Seve Ballesteros. In 1982, they started off tied for second and finished T10.
Then came 1983. Just the November before, club chairman Hord Hardin sent a press release stating that Masters participants would no longer be required to use Augusta National caddies and could bring their own. One of the last vestiges of a once common tradition was dead, and Beard’s partnership with Zoeller died with it.
Despite Zoeller’s published promise that he was sticking with the man from the neighboring Sand Hills neighborhood who led him to a green jacket, when he arrived at Augusta on Masters week in 1983 he backed down from that promise and brought his regular tour caddie.
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