The last time I spoke to Jim Dent, native son of Augusta, Ga., was a month before this year’s Masters, aka the Rory McIlroy Dance Party . Jim, in his wooden-driver driving prime, drove the ball about as well as Rory McIlroy . He died on May 2, at age 85.
Jim was a large man with a gentle soul and a generous heart, and he was a legend in Augusta, in certain parts of it, anyhow. You could ask him most anything about golf in Augusta, and on this early-March day I had a specific question for him few others could have answered and maybe nobody.
I wanted to learn something about Charlie Choice, a lifelong friend of Jim’s who later became John Gotti’s driver. Limo driver, though Choice had golf tips for the golfers in the Teflon Don’s circle. He cooked for Gotti, too. When they were young, Charlie Choice was a stick like Jim Dent was a stick…