Hal Sutton on his two careers, his tour “regrets” and what makes him happy

Hal Sutton was a 24-year-old second-year pro when he won the 1983 Players Championship. Five months later, he defeated his idol Jack Nicklaus to win the PGA Championship at Riviera. He won four more times in the next three seasons. The “Bear Apparent,” as Sutton was known, was seemingly on its way to extraordinary heights.

But then came the drought, a nine-year winless streak that lasted from 1986 to 1995. “I took my foot off the gas,” says 66-year-old Sutton today. The Shreveport, La., native finally found gas again at the 1995 BC Open, the first of seven more Tour titles he would add to his resume. Sutton was also captain of a U.S. Ryder Cup team that lost at Oakland Hills in 2004.

Today, Sutton has shifted his professional focus from playing golf courses to building golf courses, including courses such as TPC Treviso Bay in Naples, Florida, and Boot Ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas, a job that Sutton says has brought him great joy. During a recent visit with Sutton at his newest design center – the Darmor Club in Columbus, Texas – GOLF.com spoke with the 14-time Tour winner about his career as a player and designer, his regrets and what advice he would give today – and -Arrivals.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

GOLF.com: How do you rate your playing career compared to what you have accomplished in your design career?

Hal Sutton: I’m so much happier as an architect than as a player. I’ve found that gaming disappears quickly, but architecture can remain forever. It gives me great pleasure when people enjoy my course [Darmor]and I think it’s getting better every day. … When I did Boot Ranch and this one, I was here every day, working on every hole and paying attention to every detail. No architect does that. They come about every six weeks and then move on. I completed a course in Florida at Arthur Hills and another in Japan; I just wrote my name on it. I want to spend my time here.

Your last PGA Tour victory came in Houston in 2001, and you haven’t played much on the Champions Tour due to hip problems. How much do you remember from your playing days?

I have some regrets and made some mistakes when I first started.

How come?

I got off to a good start with a PGA Championship and a Players title, but an experienced player I respected told me I didn’t know how to play for money. I asked him what that meant and he said I didn’t know how to play percentage golf and make some good checks when you didn’t win.

How did that affect you?

I took my foot off the accelerator on the course, put my foot on the brake and started playing percentage golf, which I regret. As a result, I did a lot less film scoring in the ’80s, but no one really cares. I didn’t win that much.

What advice would you give to today’s aspiring talent?

Don’t listen to people when it comes to your game, listen to yourself. When you go on tour, everyone is an expert. One of the problems I had when I first came out was listening to you [the media]. I assumed they were familiar with the game, and when they wrote to someone about me, I figured they knew something and listened. That was a mistake.

How important is it for young players to have mentors like you had with Jack Burke Jr.?

Get someone to call you when you don’t expect it. Jack was that for me – not someone who was after the almighty dollar. When you become a professional, everyone is an expert and everyone is trying to carve out a niche for themselves. You don’t need that.

Have you been misunderstood as a golfer?

To be honest, I never really thought about it. I suspect thinking about it would have meant I cared what people thought, and I really didn’t care.

Have you thought much about your hot start when you won both the PGA and Players Championships in 1983?

I didn’t really think about it at the time. When you’re a competitor, you never think things won’t go well. You don’t think about the other side. This is real wisdom for you.

It has become common practice to blame a loss in the US Ryder Cup on the US captain, as was the case with Zach Johnson last year. Would you like a mulligan with your own captaincy?

No, I have big shoulders, I can take that. I feel like I missed out on a few majors. I led on the back nine on Sunday and didn’t manage to finish the game. Of course, I never missed a short one [putt] also losing one. I haven’t really looked into it. I did my best and moved on.

What other good or bad memories do you remember from your playing days?

I like collecting art. I was in Carmel, California with my wife and saw a large painting of a train getting ready to pull out of the station and a man standing there watching it pull out. That really spoke to me because for most of my career I just felt like I was on a different plane, in a different car, just flying somewhere to a different tournament, a different event.

Is golf architecture your life now?

I love just being out here, teaching classes, watching people play, spending time with my wife and traveling with her. It’s very peaceful and it’s really hard to get upset about anything these days. I just want this [Darmor Club] It should be my contribution to the game that has done so much for me.