The Press Box - Jim Nantz on Tiger, Phil, Rory, John Daly, and Calling the PGA Championship

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Reporting from the 2022 PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma Bryan is joined by CBS announcer Jim Nantz. They run through four past championships called by Nantz and discuss the most memorable moments, including John Daly’s remarkable win in 1991, the golf ball that may have been “kicked” during Tiger Woods’s run at the 2000 Championship, Rory McIlroy’s win in 2014, and finally, Phil Mickelson’s comeback in 2021. Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Jim Nantz Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. We're not just reacting to the NBA playoffs on my podcast. We're also doing it on The Ringer NBA show and the Mismatch podcast. They are coming after some of these NBA playoff games. Check it out, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights on the Ringer podcast Network. Hello, media consumers. Welcome to Pressbox. Brian Curtis of the Ringer here, along with producer Erica Servantes.

I am coming to you today from the beautiful city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Why? Because the P. championship is here, and my guest today is the guy who has called this tournament 32 consecutive times, CBS's Jim Nance. I recruited Nance for a series I have here at the press box called announcer anthology. Here's how it works. I take an announcer who has a long history with a sporting event, then we slip back in time and revisit what it was like to announce a few memorable additions of that event. It's like visiting an actor's IMDB page, but only stop it.

on the four-star movies. Nancy and I picked four PGA championships to revisit today. The 1991 edition, won by John Daly. The 2000 edition won by Tiger Woods. 2014, which was won by Rory McElroy in near darkness. And finally, last year's tournament, won by

that's right, Phil Mickelson, who isn't even playing this year after his comments about the Saudi-backed golf tour. I think you'll hear a very interesting many history of Nance's own broadcasting career, which begins here when he was just 32 years old, still calling his CBS colleague Mr. Summerall. When Nance and I talked this week at Southern Hills Country Club, it was the day after his 63rd birthday.

Here's Jim Nance. All right, Jim, let's start with the 1991 PGA Championship. John Daly at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana. You were 32 years old when you called that tournament. You've been at CBS six years. Where are you in your network career in 1991? Honored to be a part of the CBS golf team. That was a big deal to me.

I'm going through the cycle now, working football, basketball, including a role with the NCAA tournament. Earlier that year, I would have called my first final four in championship after five years of hosting it. So now we come to crooked kick stick with a lot of excitement because we haven't done it.

CBS had the PGA, like back in the 50s, and then had a long run with ABC sports. The whole Terry Chastro and producing and Jim McKay and Chris Shankle and Dave Marr and all those voices of my youth. So I was thrilled to have a PGA. They had not had the most exciting PGA the year before we took over. It was a Shoal Creek in Birmingham. It was the controversy around Shoal Creek. in its membership makeup. Wayne Grady won the tournament,

and it wasn't memorable, let's say, from at least from a golf historical standpoint, competitively. So now we come on board in 91. What is this? We've had the Masters, and I've been a part of the Masters now

at this point for six years, and we were landing in Carmel, Indiana, just outside of, outside of Indianapolis, and there was just a lot of excitement. We wanted to put the major championship treatment on this and hope that there would be a bigger story to unfold golf-wise than they had had in recent years. And we walked into, I think, to this day, I know we always want to kind of favor things that just happen in current space.

But I still think it has the legs to hold up as maybe the greatest Cinderella story that golf has ever seen in the modern era. I'll qualify it that way with John Daly winning. gentleman's story like one we have never seen before. John Daley, your PGA championship winner. Congratulations to you, John. You called it 91. The greatest thing to happen to golf since Jack Nicholas won the Masters in 1986. Well, there I'm using my own personal history there, I guess, because that was my reference point.

My first Masters was Jack in 86. What a thrill to be there of 26 years old at the time. Absolutely scared out of my mind. I mean, mortified that I was going to make a mistake. I mean, truly, truly was, it was too big. Now that I look back on it, now that I'm in my 60s, and I was less than four years out of graduation from Houston. And this was the dream.

And now I land at the 86 Masters, and I'm on the 16th hole. I'm not that there's anything wrong with being at 10 or 11, 12, or whatever. But you're late in the game. and the action is building to a frenzy. And now you got Jack Nicholas making a charge that no one saw coming. So it was a very weighty assignment. And it feels like to me now that it was all a dream.

Did it really happen? Was I really there? I'm just so blessed or fortunate to be able to say that I was there. And I didn't screw it up. I was trying to make sure I was good enough to make the cut. You know, we always go through the graphics at the end, Top 12 and ties will be invited the next year. Sure.

It was top 16 back then. Now it's been reduced. I was just wanted to be top 16 in ties. I wanted to be back for 87. Anyhow, on the master's side, I've been there now 37, 37 masters. But this was our first PGA. And I have, it's funny, my memory, when I dial up that file in my brain, things pop up that I don't even know we're still in there. But one of the first things when you set up the question was I remember only the Thursday or Friday, there was a lightning strike.

There was a weather delay. And our compound was out in this area where they had like general parking. And a lightning strike hit a guy in the parking lot and he was killed. And I was doing the late night show as well as the daily coverage. And we actually like went to the hospital to try to get a real. report for the late night show. Tragically, the man died. He was a father of two young girls and come Sunday afternoon.

John Daly, who probably didn't have 10 cents to his name, takes home not only the Wanamaker, but $230,000. That's what first paid. I don't remember that because he took the 30 off of 230 and right there with my mic in my hand asking about how much the scope of this win. And the first thing he did was he said the first 30,000 is going to a college scholarship fund for those two girls who lost their daddy this week. And I just, man, it was a powerful thing. But there were all kinds of interesting things that Brian were going on behind the scene that week.

You know, as this story is emerging, you heard as the week was building about him driving into the night from Dardanelle, Arkansas and not even getting really a practice round, getting in because Nick Price's wide. Sue goes into labor and has delivers a son. So here's Nick who's going to win two of the next three, by the way, PGA championships. He names his son Greg, Gregory, after his best friend at the time, Greg Norman. And they're all the way down to ninth on the alternate list. And number nine, which you never get to nine. Not at a major was John Daly. and he never won on tour. And I read he never won in college at this point. Nothing.

There was no record there. You just knew that he could hit it. The whispers were out there. There's this guy John Daly who takes the club back way past parallel. And he hits it longer than anybody's ever seen. And you knew about that. And almost like it was a circus act. And he comes in in the middle of the night,

he ends up getting Nick Price's caddy, Jeff Squeaky Medellin, who I knew really well because he was my man, Freddie Couples, former caddy. So Squeaky got on the bag, Daly shot 69 the first day, and was up there pretty high. And now the second day, he doesn't fold. He actually gets either in the lead or closer to the lead. The story's building. And now Frank Chirkinningan, who's sitting in the truck, the godfather. Sure. Of golf television.

And he knew how to document stories. He was a drama major, a theater major at Penn. And he sees this opportunity to build this drama up about this unknown guy, this Paul Bunyan-like character, who's now emerged at the last minute, last guy in the field. And he's in the mix going into the weekend. So it was a lot of fun. Summerall and Venturi were at 18. I can't remember.

I was on one of the outer holes. 15 maybe. But on Saturday, he was right there. I wish I could tell you the scores, but the point is he was going to be in contention. And he was relishing all the media attention. You could see it. And open-hearted, open, not hiding anything as candid as can be. And one of the stories that came out was he was a high school place kicker.

So the Colts were playing. preseason game number one on that Saturday night at the old Hoosierdome. And the Colts invited John Daly at 54 holes, I believe it was the leader, invited him to come to the game as their guest and kick a field goal off a tee, of a kicker's tea between the first and second quarters. And he accepted. Nothing going on in my life right now. I'll go to a preseason NFL game. And I'm going to go blow out my hamstring, trying to kick a field goal from 40 yards and have to WD the next day.

So, of course, I went over to cover it. That was my Saturday night. And I could remember for whatever reason. I ran into Reggie Miller as I was coming into the Hoosier Dome, talked to him for a long time. I had known him from his UCLA days. And I was just there for one purpose, not to watch the football, but to see this kick.

and John Daly came out and kicked the football and got away uninsured and he was a straight on kicker by the way not a sidewinder I believe he knocked it through and we headed the Sunday to cover one of the great Sender Rebel stories sports has ever known.

This is an interesting story from Saturday at that PGA was that CBS viewers spotted Daley's caddy, squeaky. 11th hole. Committing a potential rules violation. What do you remember about that? I remember that in commercial, Frank warned all the commentators that there might have been a rules and fraction against Daly back. I believe it was the 11th poll.

I bet on it. And all of us were deflated. We're all in on this amazing story. And now you're going to take it away from him. The thought was that Squeaky had taken the flagstick out and an attempt to show him the line had actually made contact. with the bottom of the pole on the putting surface. And that was the question in that time, if you touch the ground,

that would be, I can't tell you exact language on it, but that was not allowed. So the broadcast ends and a whole brigade of PG of America officials descend on our compound to go into our videotape trucks and look at it. And it was ruled

that he never made contact, and the event went on with no penalty. But for a while there, it was like, really? You guys, somebody's going to call this one in and ruin this magnificent story and take this away from the kid? But thankfully, that one went away, and he did prevail. You mentioned Frank Chicanian, the godfather of televised golf. What was the like to work for him? One of the thrills of my life was to be mentored by Frank. and I was 26 when I started working with him.

And I was a yes or no sir kid growing up. So I was always saying yes, sir, no sir, Mr. Trickeny. And he wouldn't have any of that. After about my second week out on the tour with Frank, he called me in his office and said, listen, this is this nonsense has got to stop, you silly son of a, you know what? Frank was not. Oh, Frank didn't mix his words like I am trying to right now. But he wanted me to feel like I belonged.

I was calling on the air, I was calling Pat, Mr. Summerall. Let's go back to 18. Mr. Summoral? You were doing that on the air? On the air, my first year. Wow. I didn't know better.

I'm a kid right out of college. I'm just raised to be respectful of people, my elders. It's Pat Summerall. It's Pat Summerall. I was in awe. I mean, what am I doing with these guys? We went out to dinner with them every night. It's crazy.

But Frank put an end to that. He tough loved me though, Brian. That's how I would describe it. He was really rough on me. And it was good for me because I knew everybody had said if he beat you up a little bit verbally, that means he cares. He thinks you got talent and he wants to make you better. The Ayatola. That's what Summerall nicknamed him.

And well, I'll say it. I don't say this very often because it sounds like a self-serving. But he knew I went to Houston masquerading as a golfer. And I was surrounded by really good golfers who played on the tour, one of whom Fred Couples, who won the Masters and went on to a Hall of Fame career. So he knew I understood the game, even though my modicum of talent wasn't anywhere close to being good enough to be at that level, not even close. But he said to me early on, he said, I've never had. had a guy that I can put my hands on and mold him into what I believe a golf anchor is supposed to be.

I've always gotten guys who've come over from other sports. I've had Scully come over from baseball. I got Pat coming over from football. Now, he's not disparaging them. It's just that wasn't viewed as their primary. They didn't have that background. I had a background in golf. So he thought, I can take that golf knowledge.

I can take this kid who's raw. And I can mold them and sculpt them and yell. on him and tough love him into what I think that role should look like. And he took that on. And he's been gone since early March of 2011. I got to present him into the World Golf Hall of Fame posthumously. I love the man. I think about him all the time. And I still walk into that booth trying to make him proud to this day. Always think about, man, I wish I could pick up the phone. ask Frank, what can we do better? He was not one who would throw out a lot of compliments, which I'm fine with that. I don't need to be stroked, but I would like the feedback in his

view of what worked or what primarily didn't work. I have, when Frank passed, he had very little left. He had made some poor investments. He had been retired for about 15 years, 96, was his last year working. He died again, 2011. When he passed away, his lady friend at the time said, I wish I could give you something. He considered to be like a second son. And he said, all I have of Franks are his cocktail glasses. And I would like to give him to you. There's crystal cocktail glasses. And I knew instantly the symbolism of that. Frank was a hardworking man, creative genius at five o'clock never was never saw him inebriated were a lot of legendary stories about cbs guys of the past drank a lot some of which we might have already mentioned go ahead

yes that's true frank was controlled but at five o'clock he'd pour himself a little shot of vodka one and he'd sit back with that glass and he would reflect on his day and it would relax him it'd make him feel at peace and unwind so i'm i'm not having a cocktail once a day or not even once a week, but those glasses are sacred to me. And when it comes time to pour myself a little cocktail, I go right to the Trichanian crystal and I pour it and I feel like I'm toasting. I'm sipping from the same, you know, chalice as Frank Trichanian. It means something to me, okay?

A lot. And how lucky am I to have had that background with Frank? give me an example of something of a way he molded you of a habit he broke of yours when you're young now i'll keep it to major championships i'm at augusta and it's 86 and back then they didn't give you the pensheets where now they do the work for you they'd show you that the whole locations four steps off the left 21 steps off the front you go out and get your own whole locations So I had gone out early that Sunday morning, April the 13th of 86 to see where it was at 16 just to confirm. It's not always, but usually it's that back left.

People forget in 75 when Nicholas won. It was back right. He made the 40 footer up the hill. But anyway, I went out there and confirmed my suspicions and I walked into his office. And I said, Mr. Trichinian, so I'm still on that stage. I said, I just had some thoughts today. you know, that hole is back there where there's a lot of action. What would I say if somebody knocked it in for a hole in one?

Well, you know, Vern gets that now about every year. Sure. He said, are you serious? I said, yes, sir. I mean, I don't have a lot of experiences. How would I handle that? He said, I can't believe you're asking me such a silly-ass question. You would say nothing.

I said, really? He said, oh, my God. this is a visual medium. And if you screw up my pictures, I am going to walk out of the truck while we're on the air, and I'm going to come down to 16, and I will throw you out of the tower. So he said, me,

okay, sir. Now, get the hell out of my office and don't be late for rehearsal. That's a good pre-round note. Yeah, I'm going to throw you out of the tower if you mess up. But, you know, this was the thing, off-air, rough, tough. You know, he was a tiny guy, like five foot three. in stature, but his voice sounded like he was seven foot six. He had this beautiful, booming baritum.

When Jack Nicholas is standing on the tee at 16 in 1986, the moment again is one of the larger moments the sport's ever known, he's just eagles 15. We had a little break, one minute commercial breaks, remember? And I know coming back, the whole world's going to be focused on Jack, now tied for the lead at age 46. This is impossible to get your mind around. We're in commercial.

Suddenly I hear Frank, and this is the way he talked to you while you're on here. Jimmy, Jimmy, now listen to me, son. I know you know. There's a lot going on out here, but I want you to know one thing. You were born to do this. I have 100% faith in you that no one can handle this moment better than you can. Now just remember, I've got the pictures. You chime in when you think there's something worth saying, and I know you'll handle it well.

It's almost whispering, lulling me into a trance. Five, four, three, two, one, and we're live at 16. Jack Nicholas on the T here at 16. If there's anyone who's ever owned the 16th hole, it's Jack Nicholas. When he won here in 63, he made a pivotal birdie on his way to his first green jacket. And, of course, who can forget 75. Locked in a match with Johnny Miller and Tom Wisecoff. He made that 40-foot putt up the hill on his way to victory.

Now, dispense with all this. And I've walked Jack right up to the point where he's ready to pull the club back. Big Trichinian rule. Never talk over a golf swing. These days, I think those rules have long been violated and kind of tossed aside across all broadcast realms with this sport. That would drive Frank insane. But I got right to the point Jack was ready to pull the club back.

And all of a sudden, he backed off the shot. He started picking up grass, tossing it up in the air. The winds had switched or shifted. Now I thought, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do now? And he's probably 42nd reset here. I've got to get him back, you know, deliberating and switching clubs, walk back up. I've got nothing, man. My bag is empty.

Bring in Chirkin in. Bring in Weiskoff, says Trichita. Tom was in Butler Cabin. Tom Weisgap. You've known Jack Nichols, your whole life, Ohio State, all these tournaments through the years. Of course, Tom, parenthetically, the all-time bridesmaid at Augusta four times a runner-up.

I said, Tom, what is going through Jack Nicholas's mind? right now. He's storming along this famed second side. It's just made Eagle of 15. I'm looking for 25 second fill. Tom says very succinctly. Jim, if I had any idea what was going on in Jack Nichols is mine, I would have won this thing two or three times myself. That was it. Which was a good line. It was a great line. It's a line I get asked about it pretty often. It's an evergreen line. I love Tom Weiss-Kopf. He's battling cancer. these days and just communicated with him this week.

But anyway, eventually Jack got back over the ball, hit the shot. Frank had one of those inset views of him as they're watching the ball soaring against the sky. That time of day at 16, the ball looks like a beach ball coming to you from that camera and an ounce tower behind 16. The sun is behind you. So that ball is like it's illuminated. I mean, it really looks like this huge soft. officer coming to you when you're back there announcing it.

And I could tell off the face after four days of sitting there that this thing was going to be pretty close. And it hit right on the slope, perfect spot. And it started to trickle down and it trundled to about three feet below the hole, perfect spot to make it pretty. But it did flirt with the hole. And I basically said nothing. I may have said, oh my, I may have had a little Dickinburne moment there, but I basically

said nothing. And I didn't say anything as Frank stayed with it. theater major. He watched Jack walk along Water's Edge. Didn't cut away. Eventually he did because he was playing with Sandy Lyle and Sandy still had to finish his business at 16.

But when we got back, Jack's over the putt. And I believe, I said something like Nicholas for Bertie. Of course, he knocked it in. And then I said, The Bear, there's no doubt about it.

The bear has come out of hibernation. and Jack's walk into 17T, he's brandishing his putter up in the air, and this place is electric. I have chill bumps up and down my arms. My teeth are chattering over that call. I thought for sure, because the mic is right in front of your lips. I thought there was some foreign sound that was probably coming out over the broadcast. My teeth clicking. Thankfully, I went back and looked at the tape.

It wasn't there. But I really couldn't gain hold of myself. So I kept it short and sweet. I made that one line. And off Jack went to victory. There were still guys to come through. Kite, Norman, Sevy, and we covered all the action.

But I stayed put until we went off the air. Watchjacket, that historic sixth green jacket. And now I began to have doubt, as all young broadcasters do. Maybe even some old ones do too from time to time. but I had doubt just consume my brain. Where did that line come from? What made me say that?

Oh, I know where it came from. Somebody else has already said it on the broadcast. I have just parroted something either Bob Murphy said down at 10 or Steve Melnick said at 11, 12. I don't know who said it, but it was probably an hour ago. It was stuck in my brain and I'm never coming back here again. So anyway, it was a big show, as you know. Some say the greatest golf broadcast and tournament of all time.

And once I got back to the compound, Frank came over to me and he gave me a huge hug. Of course, again, I towered over him, 6'3 and I'm just engulfed in a hug. And I said, he's a great job, Jimmy. Way to go, kid. I said, well, thank you, sir. I'm really sorry about that line. So now it's become a reality. I've turned, you know, this whatever.

I have definitely plagiarized this. I'm obsessing over it. And I've turned it into my own reality. And I said, I'm really sorry about the line. He said, what are you talking about? I said, the bear has come out of hibernation. What are you sorry about? It's a great line.

And I said, well, I believe somebody else said it earlier in the show. He said, only you, son, only you. And I was the only one who said it. And I still don't know where it came from. But I'm just grateful it got me back. and back a few more times after that too. I was watching the last hole of the 91 PGA. So Daly's making the big walkdown 18.

Crowds yelling Wu Pig, Sui. Oh, yeah. Everything's going. Ken Venturi, by the way, has a great line to Pat Semmerle. He says, you know this chant, Pat? Pat played at Arkansas, obviously, and people don't know. Yeah. Daly wins a tournament.

Goes in to sign his scorecard. For whatever reason, the satellite footage is posted on YouTube. And you can hear you going, where's Daly? Because he's gone to sign the scorecard, and he started giving interviews to journalists instead of coming back to the green to talk to you. Well, I've got to present the trophy. I'm not going to do a standalone interview. I'm actually going to conduct the Wannemaker Trophy presentation. And you're sort of like, where's John? That came out over the air. Well, no, it was just over the satellite feeds. He could hear during the break.

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. You're looking for him. And he's so dazed and sort of excited. And it's almost, I was going to ask you what you remember about that trophy presentation. It's almost like he was a little dazed and you were having to explain to him or remind him about what he has just done at the PGA. I notice it. Really, Brian, I notice it in Butler Cabin. When they come in with Butler Cabin, they are totally in shock. Most of them are in shock.

And that's what you just described. I have the only recall I have of that trophy presentation is that I see it sometimes in these montages. I was wearing a very ugly tie. I remember that. Psychedelic colors. I don't know where that came from. Secondly, I just remember Daley on the spot saying he was going to give the first 30,000

to those two young girls who had just lost their daddy. And it was a touching, it was amazingly touching moment. And it launched for us a run now of PGA championships. This is our 32nd this year. And I can still remember it when it was our first. There are only four of us, we figured it out earlier today, who were there in 91, who were working this one at Southern Hills. And that includes our director, Steve Milton, our replay producer, who is our NFL lead producer, Jim Rickoff, and Mark Dibbs, who's our AD on our golf telecast. And between production and the on-air broadcasters, we're the last four that have been for all 30.

of them. There was a little post script here. The next week was the International at Castle Pines. Daly had bought a house at Castle Pines. Earlier in the week, Frank comes up with this idea. Remember, there's not this

20 hours of coverage that you now have or more of Thursday through Sunday coverage of golf. We were basically just entering some Thursday, Friday coverage years. It was very rare. But you come on Saturday. And Sunday and Saturday, it might be a 90-minute show.

It might be two hours. And Sunday was usually a two-hour final round broadcast. But Frank had a crew go out and Daly agreed to do it. And he took him to an airport near Castle Pines over there near the Broncos facility. I think it's called Centennial Airport. And he had John D. up a driver on the end of the runway. and get a measurement to how far the ball actually went. They've hit a straight one, and it just keeps on going.

He was trying to get him to on record and on CBS have the longest drive that's ever struck. And he did it. And we put it in our show on either Saturday or Sunday, and I reported on it. John Daly, just being the sweethearted guy, is invites the crew over for dinner. Okay. Talking Pat, Ken, Frank, the whole announced crew, Frank, and a few other members of the production team. And we went over to John's house off the 15th Holy Castle Pines. No one had ever really done that. I mean, if you had, but they had been veteran legendary players like

Ray Floyd or Jack Nicholas had the crew over to their house through the years. But John Daly cooked stakes for us, a matter of days after he won the Wada Baker Trophy. We love this guy. He was, he's one of us, you know. We were drinking wine and having a great time. And I don't know, this is very special. You know, time, unfortunately, takes. away at some of that uniqueness. I appreciate you bringing it up because it gets lost. But if you really measured it head-to-head against anything else, as improbable in golf to ever happen,

if it was really given a fair view, you would say there's nothing to get over top that. Second, PJ, I wanted to ask you about 2000, Tiger Woods at Valhalla and Louisville. Now, a couple of big things have happened at CBS Sports. CBS has lost the NFL rights a few years before. Pat Summerall, the aforementioned, has gone to Fox. That was like six years earlier. And is that the event that makes you the lead guy on golf, or was that happening anyway?

Oh, the 2000 PGA? No, no, no. The Pat going to Fox in 94. I was Pat's, I guess you could say understudy. Honored to be his understudy. If he was still here, I would relish the chance to this day be his understudy. I never had to have that seat. I love the man.

He was just a great friend. And I love those years. And I think he actually knew that I was not out to one day unseat him. I was a kid just loved being a part of the team. Still do. But yes, when he went with the NFL package over to Fox, which had been announced in December of 93, there would be a few more tournaments.

where Pat would remain the anchor of golf. His last being the 94 Masters. So my first time as the full-time golf anchor, and I'll qualify that, explain in a minute, at a major was in 1994 at Southern Hills and the PGA. Now, between 86 and Pat's departure from the golf crew at the Masters in 94.

I filled in for him a number of times and worked with Ken. Pat would take some weeks off. Sometimes, in fact, there were even a few health issues along the way, and I would sit with Venturi at 18. And when Pat would come back, you know, I would return to the 15th or 16th tower and happily go on my way. I first anchored at 87 Castle Pines. I think Pat had a preseason football game conflict.

so Frank summoned me up to the anchor chair. But 2000 was a doozy. That was... It's right in the middle of Tiger Media. No, yeah. He's won the last two majors. Right. It was right in the middle of the Tiger Slam.

Did his rise change the way you guys showed golf on CBS? Oh, I don't think there's any question. It changed the way everybody showed golf. How so? Just you had to know, you had to let your, audience know where he was and what he was doing. And never before had anybody been pretty much guaranteed they were going to get wall-to-wall coverage in the broadcast windows.

Reaction and the popularity in Rise of Tiger was so immense. Golf was growing. The interest in the game was growing. You couldn't ignore him no matter what he was doing. But the odds were pretty good. He was going to be doing well and he'd be in the thick of things anyway. But, you know, you just mentioned it. He had won 2000 at Pebble in June.

This would be seven weeks before we got to Valhalla and the PGA in 2000. He won the Open Championship at St. Andrews in July. Those are not CBS broadcasts. I went to both of them as a fan. Wow. Yeah. Just bought a ticket. He just bought a ticket.

Got a ticket. I walked in the gallery. Yeah. I wanted to be there for two different reasons. One pebble, I could never get enough of it. It's still my dream. It's my heaven. My oasis on earth.

It really is deep in my heart. And I wanted to be there for the U.S. Open. So I followed the action all four days just as a fan. Didn't want any special treatment. They didn't want any press credential. I just wanted to be a golf fan attending a major championship. And now I get to the 2000 Open. remember Tiger won at Pebble by 15 shots.

He was 12 under. Second was a tie for second was plus three. I mean, it was, I think, the most dominating performance that the game has ever known. And I got to be an eyewitness to it. But now he's going to go to St. Andrews and he's out to win not only of Claret Jog, but what would give him then the career grand slam.

I needed to see that. And it was one other thing that was happening that week. It was going to be Jim McKay's last show. Oh, yeah. And I needed to be there for that. Long time CBS broadcaster, people don't know. ABC. ABC, excuse me.

Yeah, it's fine. You know, one of the true icons in the history of this business and a true hero to me, wrote him letters as a kid, wrote me back. I mean, I had a wonderful friendship with Jim McKay, dating back to when I'm in my teens. So he's 79 years old and he's announced this is it. He would actually show up and do a few pieces in 2002 at the Salt Lake Olympics for NBC. We're not going to count that. He gave up full-time commentary at the Open in 2000.

So I reached out to him and said, hey, if you don't mind, I'm not stalking you, but I would really like to come to St. Andrews and see you on your last day ever on air. He said, okay, sure, come on. I'll be staying at the Rusack's Hotel on the 18th Fairway. So I do this. I fly over to Scotland on my own, and I take it a few days early and walk around and watch the golf. you know outside the ropes not inside i climbed the wall at the old town cemetery and went on the midnight the night before and read the tombstones of old and young tom morris and did all those

things that i love to do connecting to the soul of the game and on sunday morning the day that tiger's going to complete his career grand slam i showed up at the appointed hour at the roussack's hotel i called him from the house phone he said come on up i'm in room whatever i'm I was expecting the presidential suite. Nothing could be grand enough for my man Jim McKay. It had to be some over the top, three-bedroom suite, baby grand piano overlooking the 18th. Much to my astonishment, it was actually the view was over the street side, not of the

golf course. And the room at best was maybe 10 by 12th. There was a little, almost like a cot. It was a twin bed. There wasn't a second twin bed. There was a tiny, tiny bed for Jim, McKay. Now, he was not a large man either, but I mean, give Jim McKay a king-sized bed. Would he please somebody? So it was interesting. I can still see walking out

room. There was a little desk in a chair, and he had some notes there. I could see it actually would come back to his room, and he would work on his craft. In the windowsill overlooking the street was an open bottle of red wine with a cork replaced. It was about three-quarters consumed. And a little wine glass next to it. I had a little wine glass next to it. imagine maybe he had himself a little nightcap and he prepared his thoughts for the next day. I sat there and had at least an hour with McKay. He had had a really difficult time getting to St. Andrews. He got stuck in Heathrow on a connection and all he wanted to do was to get home.

He missed Margaret, sweetest relationship. he and Mrs. McManus, Mrs. McKay. And all I want to do is talk about why roll the sports, the Olympics. And I'd had these discussions other times, but I kind of wanted to get the brain going down the path of nostalgia. This is the last show. I'm sitting in the dressing room with Pavarotti before the last concert. That's what is to me. And he had tears in his eyes.

And it wasn't because the career was coming to a close. I really believe it had to do with the fact that he had to go back the next day, connect in Heathrow, take that long flight across the country. Here's a guy that traveled the world when travel wasn't easy. Went to the Great Wall of China and everywhere else in the world. He brought us back this first ever view of what these countries and cultures looked like. We had no idea back then. There was no internet.

But he was done. This road warrior whose very life, I wanted to live. He was, he was, he, he, he did not have another road trip in him. And all he kept talking about was getting home to Margaret. So anyway, at some point, after about an hour, the house phone rings. He says, okay, I'll be right down. And there was a young fellow downstairs who works for us.

He's on this show this week named Jeff Shaptur. He was a runner. And he was going to drive him by cart from the Rusacks over to the ABC supertel. which was right of the first tee. So all he had to do was get in a cart and somehow navigate getting across 18 fairway and one fairway. And then he would walk up the stairs and he'd be in the booth for the last time. I stood on the back of the cart.

He sat in the passenger seat and Jeff drove the cart. And we got there. I gave him a hug. He thanked me for, he couldn't believe I'd come all the way over there to see this. And I could still see him climbing up the steps. And I stood there and watched. I was going to go back and blend into the gallery and watch Tiger complete it, the Grand Slam. And he got to the door and I half wondered, will he look back?

And he opened up the door and he looked back. And he looked at me and gave me like a thumbs up and a wave. I still see him. Wave and I wave goodbye and watched the door shut. And that was it. That was the end of Jim McKay's career. And obviously one of the lasting memories of my life is being there for that. That's incredible.

That's really incredible. You just wanted to be there. I had to be there out of respect for someone who was so good to me. And hey, you're a kid. And I hear from young people all the time. Got a college broadcasting, sports broadcasting award that's named after me. It means a lot to me. It's like in its 12th of 14th year.

And everybody just wants someone to make them feel like you believe in them. And this is possible. This dream you have. It's attainable. Jim McKay made me feel like this crazy idea I had in my head since I was 11. This could happen. He believed in me. I can't begin to tell you how emboldened I was by that to know that a giant in the industry

would take the time to return a letter or speak to me. And I would go from a kid writing fan letter to June of 2008. He passed away June 7th, 2008. I died three weeks to the day before my dad passed away, same month. And I would be a pallbearer at his funeral and deliver one of the eulogies along with guys like Doug Wilson and some of the other ABC greats. Five of us got to speak and stand up and present the last words about this remarkable life. I go from one side of being a kid and a fan to one day I get to speak about him. at the memorial service.

It's an amazing part of my life and journey. What do you remember about Sunday at the 2000 PGA? You got the story here of David and Goliath. I hate to make it sound like a cliche, but I mean, if there's ever a place to use that, tried and true comparison, this was the occasion. You got Tiger Woods coming off these two majors. He's dominating the game.

He had won the PGA the previous year at Medina. You got Bob May, who was a rival of his as a, junior out in Southern California, but there is no way Bob May is going to hold up against Tiger Woods. This is no way. And what do they do? They go out

shot for shot. I mean, they ran away from the rest of the field. I can't even begin to tell you what third place was. It might have been Thomas Bjorn, maybe, but he had to be five, six, seven shots back. So they shoot 31 on the

back nine coming in. Think about that. Five birdies and four parts. coming in, the race to the finish. They get to the last total of regulation. This is what I remember, Brian, is the two putts they hold on 18 green. Tiger, I've heard people say it was like a six-footer.

I think it was more like an eight-footer. And it was right below us. But first, Bob had a putt that wiggled, I guess you could say it had a double break. And it felt like it took about three years to get to the hole. I mean, I've never seen a put that, from that distance that took longer to get to the hole. And of course, no one thought May was going to make it.

And damn if the ball didn't drop. And now Tiger had to make his to force the playoff, which was going to be the first aggregate three-hole playoff. We've seen in majors, I believe. Yeah, maybe it wasn't. But I think it was the first time for the PGA. They had a three-hole aggregate playoff. But anyway, Tiger stood over that put.

And it's Tiger. Is he going to actually be defeated by Bob May? Is Bob going to slay the giant? Well, Tiger gets up and knocks it right. I can still see his kind of low fist pump. And off we go to a playoff, which was a really good playoff. There was one birdie on the first hold, which was 16. Tiger dropped the putt from a long range and was pointing at the hole as he was walking after it.

Yep. And Gary McCord Hatfought had one of the great calls in golf history. he saw it. We were watching the ball and the frame was on the ball. But of course, Gary's sitting in a tower behind there, and he can see Tiger walking and pointing afterwards.

We always see the replay version of the putt, the live version of the putt. You're tracking the ball. But Gary's call was, oh, he's going to make it. He's walking right after it. Something of that effect. It's a very good impression, by the way.

Yeah. Yeah, I've got to get really high pitched and really excitable. But he knocked it in, and Tiger won the tournament. And that was three straight on his way to completing the Tiger Slam the following April in Augusta. The really funny moment on 18, the first time they're at 18, right at the end of the fourth round, Tiger's Drive goes way left. And it looks like it's going into a bush.

And all of a sudden it just shoots out of this bush. And there's a kid running in the vicinity. And there's this whole question of did the kid kick it out of the bush? I remember now. I forgot that there was a, and Kenny Venturi, my partner in the booth, was absolutely convinced that someone had done something with that golf ball. What happened with that ball? Did you think someone either kicked it or threw it back that direction?

I don't know. It didn't react naturally, did it? No, it didn't know. I sure hope someone didn't slap it back. Bob May, though. And I've been to Valhalla for several of these majors, all of their majors except the Ryder Cup. There is an incline, a cart path.

I'm not sure it still exists. And it's a pretty steep rise in that driving landing area if you're far enough left. So if you were to take a golf ball and throw it against a 45 degree angle, I'm not saying this car path was 45 degrees. I'm not saying that. But you know how a ball would like maybe bounce back at you? That's what it looked like. I mean, you saw it.

It was a little unclear because it was being shot from the camera belonging to Ricky Blaine. It was our 18th old cameraman. Got rest of his soul. And he was trying to frame it from 270 yards apart. He was that far away. He was the one tracking the ball flight. And it was in his lens and his framing that you saw that ball with some trees that were also obscuring the view. Just kind of go haywire.

What happened over there? And you know, nobody to this day, there are a few, I think, eyewitnesses to it. I don't think anything funny happened. But you're right. for a while it became this big mystery what went on over there but um you know tiger went on and you know it's one of the memory though i think you you've got to come up with for 2000 and that was friday it's jack nicholas's last pGA championship he played with tiger and he played with vj sing the first two rounds again thank you for for freeing up some of this um ram space in my head i've been holding on

these stores. I didn't even know they were in the crevices of my brain, but they've been waiting to be dispensed for a long time. Jack was, well, he was 60 years old. He had said goodbye, right? He had said goodbye to the U.S. Open at Pebble and knocked it on in two at 18 at Pebble in his last U.S. Open hole and three put it. But here he got to Friday and he had like an 80-yard wedge shot, pitch shot. He had to hole it for Eagle to make the cut. Do you remember it? I read about it this week, but I don't remember seeing it. Go to YouTube this, folks. It hit right shore the hole, went past the hole and spun back. I mean, it looks like there's almost no chance it's going to miss maybe 80 yards away and ended up a foot below the hole. They finished with a birdie and

it was over. And there was a point where Tiger pointed him and Jack pointed right back at him on the 18th green. It's like you've got it now. I've got it. Thank you. I'm just going to hand you the torch. Okay, I'll take it. It was like almost a not a literal, you wouldn't call it, but a figurative passing of the torch on that green on Friday.

And on Sunday, you know, Tiger was on that green, becoming the first since Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a year. That was a big storyline for us that week. I remember that. You got a great shot of the two of them in that round where they both had their, they're kind of a fist behind their back. Tiger and Jack? Yeah.

And they were in the exact same pose standing next to each other. It was wild. Yeah, it was I totally know the shot you're talking about. And we still use that shot. And it was an honor. It was on Turner, but Kenny and I called that 18th hole. And it meant a lot to be able to call,

you know, Jack's last go at it at the PGA. Of course, he's tied with Walter Hagan for the most. with five PGA championships. But, you know, his mom had passed away that week. And he came to Valhava with the service, maybe even on Wednesday. No one thought he had a chance to, was even going to play. And, you know, he represented himself really well.

And he and Tiger had some fantastic moments together visually that were very fitting for the game. Jim, our third PGA championship, 2014. Rory McElroy wins again at Valhalla. This one's interesting because there's a big rain delay on Sunday. And what happens in the CBS truck when everything gets pushed back like that later into the day? Yeah, I remember the fill. I remember the players trying to get them to come out of the clubhouse to help us fill some time. And those are never fun shows when you have to fill basically the length of a football game.

with a bunch of backup programming or live programming, making it up on the fly. Hard work. It's not hard labor, but it stretches you pretty thin. All you're thinking about when you're going through this delay, you're speaking of, is are we going to finish on Sunday? Are we going to be able to finish and crown a champion, or is this thing coming back to Monday? I know, everybody hates Monday finishes. People go on their way, talking about viewers, fans.

they have to go to work the next day. And it loses its sizzle, doesn't have the same impact. But we got it in. That 2014 PGA, I've never seen a tournament. Well, one other one, it involved Tiger at Firestone, finish any later than what we had when Rory putted out with like a six-um coming up 18 to finish the PGA. You're sitting at 18.

Could you see the ball? No, not a chance. You could not see the ball in flight at all. Not even a chance. I was playing it all off the monitors. So I couldn't see anything. I thought they really were maybe past their time as they were halfway up the 17th. And now you had two groups coming in.

Remember, you had Phil was in the middle of this. You had Rory's going to win it. You had, like, Henrik Stenson's in this movie. You had Ricky Fowler. Ricky Fowler actually made a pretty good play at. tying this thing up on the 18th Green with a long-range putt. And anyway, they get to the 18th Green and one group waves the other one up. I mean, suddenly this has turned into from a PGA championship to like a club championship.

Hey, guys, come on. Let's fight through. We got dinner to catch. And it was so surreal. But in the end, the right guy won. But, you know, it could have been catastrophic in golf, parlance. If Rory had thrown this away, he actually had a drive. David Faradie was down there

that at first we thought it was going in the water and Dave was able to see it and identify it and say he was up and play and all Rory had to do in the end was make a five a par which he did to win by one. And there was doubt all the way to the last put that he wasn't going to say, look, I can't read the green right now.

I'm just going to have to come back tomorrow. I don't know how he did it. The other thing about Rory though, he was coming in I think running on fumes. He had won at Hoy. at Hoy Lake, the Open, took a week or two off, and then he went to Firestone, and he won that gathering of all the best players in the world. That's the old World Golf Championship event that we had on the South Course at Firestone. So now he shows up at Valhavut. Come on, he's not going to beat the

best players on the world. Three consecutive starts. There's no way. And he did. He managed to do that. You opened up the irises on the CBS cameras. So for people at home, it looked slightly dark but mostly normal. They couldn't see how dark. They couldn't appreciate how dark it really just so they could see anything. You can't see. You can't see. I'm going to test your memory.

Do you remember what you said when Rory won the tournament? I know something about a shining star at. We have a shining star at sunset. Sunset, yeah. And we have a shining star at sunset. When do you start thinking of those? Well, that one,

and I don't really recall exactly when I would have come up with that. It would not been on Saturday night, it would not have been during a rain delay on Sunday. You know, you don't know it's going to be a race against darkness. You know, they're coming up 18. I'm going to guess here. You know, you can see if he finishes out here that the darkness is going to be part of the story. I try to sum up these moments with something that when they play the clipback, oh, it helps define what that moment was. Tiger had won a tournament at Firestone by 11 shots.

You remember this? On the last hole, the 70-second hole, he had an 8-iron from like 178 yards, and he knocked at a foot or two feet to close out, an absolute landslide victory. And I can remember sitting in that tower looking down some 20 yards away from the pen, I can't see it. I can't see the ball. I can't see the pen. from 178, there's no way he sees the flag stick.

I mean, I can't imagine. If there's any kind of illumination that could give him maybe a little optics on where the flag stick is, and from 178, he knocked it a foot, knocked it a foot. And now on that one, I know I said something about lights out for Tiger or something all on that line. But is this all kind of come into a conclusion, you start thinking, how do you frame it? How do you frame it? Now, a lot of times you don't know you're about to frame a moment.

knocks on a put from 30 feet and you know you have that shock and awe on your voice a Marco Miro wins the masters with a final old birdie but I think most of the time it's coming down to the wire and it just kind of comes to you know that last minute or two before there's that last stroke and you want to capture you're not trying to be smaltzy here you're trying you're trying to help define a clip that's going to be played back forever and I think sometimes you know I get asked about this a lot by fans and sometimes in like radio talk And they want to know what the process is. But you think about it.

What sports do you really define moments like that? On a weekend and week out NFL game, do you define it at the gun at the end of the fourth quarter? Not really. Not necessarily, no. No. But it was Super Bowl or a UFC championship game. You might. Probably not because a lot of times it's a kneel down or something like that.

It's not like it's a moment that you're going to, it's going to house these kinds of memories. But when I'm entrusted with at CBS, I get a national championship game in college basketball. I think that moment, confetti's about the fly and a ball's being heaved into the air in celebration 100 feet high. I think it kind of demands that you say something other than Kansas has won the championship. It needs to fit the moment. But golf, I think this is where I'm getting to. I have events. Super Bowl shows up on my dance card every third year, an AFC championship game every year, a national championship game every year, the Masters every year, the PGA championship every year.

If you're at 15 or 16 or 17, no one's asking you to define it. You know what I'm saying? You might have the critical stroke, but it's not really in your job description. to put a final statement together about that event. And I don't know. It's just the way that watching these broadcasters of my youth, I noticed in golf they usually had a great summation line, like Pat Summerall.

There's your champion. I can hear, you know, Pat having some of these lines through the years. And with, maybe this was John Daly. Listen to the roar. Because he was coming up 18. You were describing to go up 18. It's a challenge. And most of the time it's happening on the flyer.

It's happening on the very moment. Phil, 04, Masters. Is it his time? Yes. It long last. I didn't have any clue. I was going to say that. I walked out of the booth, went down and presented him the green jacket.

Somebody said, great, call at the end. What did I say? I had no idea. And I know over a replay, we had it covered from six different angles. There's a shot at him with his eye. with his eyes watching the ball track to the hole. And I said something like, watch his life change right here. In that very instant, when the ball went in the hole, there was a realization, life would

never be the same for him again. How many people in their lives have a camera trained on them when their life goes in a completely different sphere? What is it? Birth of a child. Is a camera on you? As a dad? What is that moment?

Yeah, I'm okay, a wedding. But talking about career. changing life altering. Phil's O' Four Masters win. He was 32 years old. He had been he had been dogged with that question for years. Is he ever going to win a major?

And so that shot of him not the winning putt is at his time. The sequence, replay sequence that followed after it. Watch, watch right here. Watch his life change. What does that look like when that very instant you realize you've captured something you could only dream of since you were for him three years old? It's never going to be the same again.

So anyway, there was a shining star at sunset. The one that was pre-planned the most of all time in my career. Not even closer. There's nothing else I could even compare it to was Tiger 1997. The win for the ages. He had a nine-shot lead on Saturday night. My instincts tell me that this is going to be one of the most historically relevant days in the history of the game, both the significance that far transcends a sporting event.

That clip, that last stroke, wherever it comes from, a tap-in, a 15-footer, whatever it is, that clip will be played back at every master's tournament, every master's opening, every tease in the next 25, 50, 100, 200 years from now. 200 years from now, someone's going to open up the master's tournament with the opening teas, which I absolutely treasure that responsibility of trying to put that together. But inside that little montage, there's going to be a win for the ages. And I knew that. I knew that on Saturday night, how can you condense the narrow,

narrative to that video clip to something that historically holds up. I can't just like free wheel it and freelance and say, there's your champion. What was bigger than that? Tiger wins it. Oh, he makes his part. Whatever it is, some mundane nothing. I thought it should mean something.

And that's what I came up with on that Saturday night in 1997. And that one was pre-planned. After that, I got a lot of, hey, you planned that one, did you? kind of like a gotcha. Said, damn right, I did. I was doing my job, right? Like if you were there to cover it and you're writing the game story on the Masters, I guarantee you on Saturday night with a nine-shot lead,

you would be putting together thoughts in your head of how you were going to write the lead. Got to get this thing. I got to get off to a start that's going to live up to the, this could be commensurate with the level of this tournament. If you didn't do that, you weren't doing your job. He's got a nine-shot lead. And, you know, I had that one in my head. And I felt the presence of McKay and Whitaker and Summerall and Chris Shankle and Dick Inberg.

I really truly figuratively felt their presence like they were bearing over my shoulder. They were all alive. They're all gone now. They're all heroes to me. And I knew I had this little game in my head. The next day they're going to be watching. They all felt invested in my career. I had friendships with all of them.

And I felt like they were going to be watching to see how I handle it. See how Jimmy handles this. It's a big moment here. What's he going to say? And I felt that. And I wanted to make them proud. And I hope I did. I think I did.

I think it was the right line. One last PGA championship, Jim. 2021, Phil Nicholson wins. Kewa Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. I'm talking about Phil in a very different context, obviously, over the last couple of months. So set this backup. What do you remember about calling the final round last year? Just a matter of, is there any chance?

chance he's going to hold up. When are the wheels coming off? When is it going to be the wayward T-shot that, you know, hits off the hospitality tent at the 18th hole or something bizarre? He bogeed the first hole, if I've memories there. Kepka Bertie the first hole. So he lost the lead right on the 50th hole of the tournament, meaning he had the lead through three rounds.

And you thought, oh boy, what's going to happen here? And then he holed the shot from the sand on the fifth. and Vern Lunk was called that one. I remember, oh my gracious. I love, I love Vern. And I love when Vern uses the word gracious. That's one of his really kind of go-to words and he says it better than anyone.

Wonderfully. Good gracious. Southern, isn't it? Yeah, it's just the way his voice hits those notes. I love him. No, it got a little shaky for a moment for Phil on the back side. He had a T-shot in the water. 12 or 13 and all of a sudden you felt like you know this is this is like serious nail biting time i mean

we kept bringing up that julius burrows held the record for the oldest to ever win a major championship that had been in 1968 at pecan valley of course it doesn't even exist anymore outside of san antonio and um phil somehow because he loves the vomit he got on the 16 only is playing with Brooks Gapka. And Phil hits a T shot that was measured at 360-something yards. It was the longest drive the entire week on that part five. It happened from the 50-year-old guy on his way to winning. It's obviously an emotional round for a lot of people watching at home.

Do you get emotional in the booth? I hope you could hear it sometimes. And I can't help, but that's just who I am. I get knocked around sometimes from people about being too syrupy and too dramatic. It's just what I feel. You know, I learned a long time ago, and it's going to sound like psychobabble here. I can't tell you how you should feel, nor should you tell me how I should feel. People have different feelings.

And I think we understand others better when we like respect that. And that's just the way I'm wired. You know, my, my mom is still alive. She's 91, very sentimental lady. And she tears up over anything. And I see moments that that really touch me. I can't, I can't hide it. In fact, I have a hard time sometimes even getting the words out.

I'm just touched by it. And it can be maybe indistinguishable and decipherable for the guy at home because I'm not on camera. I have the luxury of being a play-by-play guy. We're seldom on camera. I like it that way. Don't ever put me on camera. I'm happy. Behind the camera when you're doing play-by-play, you can have long lapses of silence.

Again, as Frank's your kidding and said, it's a visual medium. And you can gather yourself. you don't have to be talking all the wall. It's far better, as Frank would say. Use silence as a sword. It's a weapon. But sometimes that silence is generated by the fact that I'm so choked up. And my voice, if I am going to speak, is going to be a quiver.

And people are going to be able to maybe not only have a hard time understanding what I'm trying to say, but wondering why am I so touched by something that I'm struck by that I've just seen. So you feel, and this was, this was in 2001, you felt this way. There were moments when you were choked up. I think if you went back and I never seen it again, if you went back and listened to me signing off the air that night after he hold out, this was not a sports production. That's just like the Masters. This is a totally different world or realm.

We fall into the category at things like the sports Emmys as, oh, best live show, PGA championship and the Super Bowl. It's like completely two different universes. One's a football game. And today, the enormously talented people in our industry, the way they can shoot it, and all the different Atlas cameras and everything else, I mean, it's gorgeous. But golf in a major, you're talking, I'm going to just use ours as an example. Not to discredit anything.

NBC does a great job with there, too, the U.S. and the Open Championship. take the masters, take the PGA, take the PGA at Kiowa. Dron footage, these aren't sports productions. They're not at all. These are cinematic. These are cinematic productions is what they are. There's not sports television. In my book, it's a piece of, it's a theatrical production.

That's what it is. Visually, it just jumps off the screen. If you never even watched them, golf on a weekly basis, you sit back and just watch it, I think you would be struck by the talent of the technical and the production team. Forget those announcers. Just look at the way they present something over a span of 200 acres, not inside the boundaries of a stadium where you know the ball is going to be inside that stadium.

This is an event that takes place over again, several hundred acres. Ball can go anywhere. Five balls are in the air at any given moment at one time. You're jumping around, you're trying to cover it all, and you got to, of course, hit your commercials and other things you're obligated to. But it's, I was really proud of our crew at Keowah. It was one of the first things we had coming back out of COVID. Now, they said they had 10,000 fans a day.

It felt more like 20, 25. I don't know if anybody ever really kept count. But watching Phil bust through the crowd on 18 as the people's champion. Yeah. And that wonderful melody that is our people. BGA championship music and now we're trying to sign off. I'm trying to sign off and I'm trying to sum it up. I don't have notes.

I haven't written this. This is all like I'm talking to you right now, off the top of my head. What did I feel? What was it to struck me about this? How do you frame this? It's crazy, but I can totally remember being choked up about, about Phil's victory there. I mentioned a while ago.

is it his time? Yes, at long last. I wanted to use the word time. It struck me as he was coming up 18. Nobody's ever picked up on this. So obviously, I guess maybe it didn't work. Yeah, Phil defeats Father Time. Then I just, that again, that was coming up 18. I just thought I got to do something with time to play it off of his first. This is going to be his last major. Is it his time to fill defeat's father time? And I repeated it going off the air. And whatever, I was trying to wax. without a note. And I think I said something about, was it his time? Yes, it was. And it's a time we'll never forget. Something like that. The very end, I'm talking, he's been given the trophy. And I think it's an underappreciated part of the business of what you're trying to do as a commentator, as a lead commentator, these moments of summation. You don't have a keyboard in front of you. He hadn't written the previous night. You know, it's extemporaneous speak. and it needs to fit the moment and you have to hit a time to the second for the network. So your words are going to be in the length of your story is going to be dictated by what they present you. You've got 35 seconds to take us off the air. Well, I've got to frame this in 35 seconds. And I can't go 37 because boom, they're gone.

And you're going to be cut off in mid-sentence. I don't remember a whole lot about that whole sequence. I was kind of been a trance, but it was exciting to be there to see. it. And I rank that one up there with, you know, top 10 things I've ever covered. Last one for you, Jim. Al Michaels called a Super Bowl this year at age 77. You're going to be calling golf majors when you're 77? I sure hope so. I'll take it actually if I could. If I could be blessed enough to call, I will take extras, but I would like to be able to work until the 2036 Masters. And that would be for me, the 50, first.

time I called the master's tournament. I'll leave you with this. I one time said, and Venturi really framed this for me. I was coming back after Jacks won in 86. He pulls up at a golf cart, offers me a ride. He says, Jimmy, I love the fact they call me Jimmy. My dad was Jim. I'm Jimmy to all my closest friends, my mom, my wife.

Jimmy's always been my name because I'm the third. But he says, Jimmy, he said, how old are you, son? It was very parental the way he said that. And I said, I'm 26, sir. He said, I'm going to make a prediction for you. You're going to be the first guy that ever says he broadcasts 50 of these. Whoa. But I can promise you this.

This was his point, I think. You will never live to see a day greater than this around Augusta. And I thought, I had a whole lot of emotions. He called me Jimmy, called me son. I'm going to do 50. Wow. that's outrageous. And what a compliment.

What a nice thing to say. But then the downer, it's never going to be this good, man. All the rest are going to be an afterthought. Kenny was right about almost everything. That one I can't say he was right about. Because we got to live through Phil's 04, Tiger 97, Tiger 2019. And best of all, for me on a personal level, Freddie, 1992,

to see my old college sweetmate, see his dream fulfilled and to be there to give him a green jacket. It has been a dream, every single step of it. So I'm making a speech at Bel Air Country Club. I'm getting some L.A. Sportsman of the Year award. I asked Venturi and Jack Whitaker to be my presenters,

as crazy as this sounds. These two guys are going to introduce me. So they do jointly. And I tell the story that I just told do about Kenny telling me one day you'll do 50 of these. I was very proud of myself. And I announced my retirement that night, April the 8th, 2035. The master's ends on the second Sunday in April. And I looked it up. That's going to be April 8th when it finishes in 2035. That night, we're out for a nightcap and Whitaker says, hey, I heard what you said up there about 2035. He said,

your math's off. I said, how's that? He said, you need to do another. year. You need to go to at least 2036. I said, why is that? He says, because in 2036, that will be the 100th playing of the Masters. He said, you need to be there for that. And Augusta's going to want you to be there for that. And I thought, again, he just redefined a career goal. Okay. And God willing, my health can hold up and people still want me to do it. Put it again in. context with Al, I would be at that point, I would be 76 years old. He's 78 calling Super Bowls and the NFL and he's still the greatest. So I think I can do it. I'm trying to take care of my health. I want my kids to be able to see that. And it's getting closer though, Brian.

Unfortunately, that date's kind of sneaking up on me. So I'm going to beg one of these days probably for a new goal or a new view. But if I could broadcast 51 Masters, and that would mean I did a lot of football and a lot more Super Bowls. And we'll see, maybe a few more final fours, you know, for sure. It's been the childhood dream come true. Jim Nance, thanks for coming on the press box.

Good luck editing this. All right, it's time for the second weekly edition of David Shoemaker, guess is the strained pun headline. All right. Monday's headline, which was actually the title of Adam Lefko's Tumblr, was Out of Lefco Field.

Today's headline comes to us from Dan Barbosa. Or Barbossa. Sorry, Dan. It's from the New York Times. David, it's an article about motorcycles. Jay Shia, David, the subject of the article, is the proprietor of Madhouse Motors, a 6,000 square foot motorcycle shop

in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Madhouse performs routine maintenance and repairs, refurbishes vintage at bikes, provides winter storage and completes customization projects. Ms. Shea also maintains a studio there where she creates artistic yet rideable motorcycle sculptures. Okay. For servicing the bikes, we're also doing motorcycle art.

What was that? the New York Times's strained pun headline. It's a place that does auto, like motorcycle service and motorcycle art. Mm-hmm. Is there anything about the, man. What if you think about timeless, timeless bestsellers? Oh, Zen in the art of motorcycle maintenance. Mm-hmm.

So we're going to play with that. Oh, um, um, um. Something. Art. Let's say art is the first word. Art. Art and the Zen of motorcycle maintenance. Art and the...

What's a good word for a place where you're hanging out? Art and the pen and the din of motorcycle maintenance. Art in a den of motorcycle maintenance. That's really good. By the way, the New York Times is web headline striking a balance between art and motorcycle maintenance. Prince Better, folks. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis production magic by Erica

Cervantes back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See then, David. See you later, Brian.