Golf In America: Jeff Clark and Mavericks Surfing (16:58)

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Surfing legend Jeff Clark, who god-fathered big wave surfing in Northern California, also is club champion at Half Moon Bay Golf Links. Win McMurry visits with Clark and his mavericks surfing group to discuss their love of both surfing and golf.

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We begin in Half Moon Bay, California, where a half mile into t...

We begin in Half Moon Bay, California, where a half mile into the Pacific Ocean lies a monster known as Mavericks, a winter surf break. Considered the Augusta, a big-wave surfing. Local surfer Jeff Clark discovered the wave as a teenager in the 1970s and rode its 25-foot-plus swells for 15 years before the rest of the surfing world even dared. As when McMurray reports, these days Clark is discovering his talents on a different field of play while finding out his passion for surfing now has a rival. -Jeff Clark is the man who conquered Everest in the big wave surfer. -From the time he was 17 on, he would surf Mavericks by himself, which is a big swim in California. -To me, he is the guy who introduced the biggest tidal wave ever into the mainstream. -You're really an icon Jeff. How would you describe Jeff Clark? Who is Jeff Clark? -Who is Jeff Clark? Wow! A guy that really thirsts for adventure. -Oh no. -The dangers, if you choose to look at them, we have really big waves that break into rocks, great white sharks. You're half mile offshore. For some, it's the most horrifying place that could exist. -Jeff Clark, he's a local boy. He knows what's up. He's been around the block a few times and he knows all the Local Swags. He's surfed a lot bigger stuff than most guys. -When it's 40, 50, 60 feet out here, it's the most exciting magical place I could ever wanna be. -Tell me how you came to find this place. This place is now so legendary. How did you first discover it? -The first time I saw Mavericks I was a kid and we were surfing in the cove just in the north below that tower on the bay and we could see this giant wave just exploding all the way out here. As soon as my ability and that wave got closer, I knew I was gonna go out there. It's such a magical place and now we have people traveling from all over the world to come surf Mavericks. It's become our Augusta. -Ten years ago, Jeff's passion for surfing took on some competition as Clark picked up the game of golf and what started as a hobby has now turned into a full-blown addiction. -It's horrible. It's horrible. Every time I call him he's either on his way to the golf course or I can't gonna hold of him, leave message after message. Yeah, I'm like, like do you surf still, like you surf every once a while because he is on the golf course and I swear like almost everyday. -With golf, like surfing giant waves, giant waves, they pressurized you. You know, they put it all on the line. And competition in golf, it's all on the line and how can you just step up and hit that putt like you don't need it. That's the magic in golf. It's controlling your mind and your body and being able to, you know, it's those challenges that golf brings and that makes me love it. -All right, you can play that. -There's Jeff Clark, the legend, and there's Jeff who to me is just this magical person who is so passionate about life, about surfing, about golf. He has an energy and a drive that I've never seen in anybody else. The passion he has in his eyes when he talks about those sports as an equal, is golf [unk] -We have the edge right now. -There are times when golf definitely has the edge. He sees that putt ahead of him and you can see his eyes sparkle and that excitement he gets and he has that same excitement when we're driving down the street and there's a great south swell heading and he gets squeaky, you know. He just likes so excited. -Sometimes the pressure surfing is really intense. The waves are really powerful and now if you're not on the top of your game, it will drill you and hold you down and hold you down like your money, all right? It's just a funny thing and I think in a funny way that comparison between 40-foot waves and making a putt is comparable. Oh, you gotta hit it. -Clark isn't the only big-wave surfer trading in his wetsuit for wedges, irons, and drivers. -I'm gonna trust it. -Gotta trust it. -Tyler Smith, Josh Loya, and Matt Ambrose are three fellow Mavericks riders and professional surfers who look to golf as a release from their death-defying day job. -Dollar skins or something like that? -All right, -It's the most nervous tea shot in my life. -Oh, butter. -Uh-oh. Fore! -The wheels are coming off. - Why do you guys come up behind me like that? -Finally! All right, man. -Hits the ball so damn far and straight, man. It's driving me crazy. -You know what, there we are. -Why golf? It's the challenge. The challenge to make that little ball that's just sitting there static, you know, get down there into that hole. -I think it just takes a certain type of similar personality to be able to keep coming back. -You could walk into a round and just kind of feel that you're gonna have a good day and that it's kind of the same thing with surfing and especially big waves. It's like you get that feeling where things are in motion and they're happening for the right reason because you're putting an effort. It's peaceful out there on the course and I guess it's, you know, peaceful out in the ocean too for the most part, unless you're caught inside and it's 20 feet. It's a culmination of a life of commitment too, whether it would be surfing or realizing all the practice you put into golf. It's kind of what we'll all be doing for the rest of our lives, I think. -That's pretty cool. -In 2007, Clark surprised himself and members at his home club, Half Moon Bay golf links, by taking home the 36-hole match play club championship. Jeff said the focus he used to surf giant mountains of water at Mavericks was crucial in helping him raise the championship trophy.

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