Most of the duties that came with my former job as sports editor of The Island Packet seem distant to me after four-plus years as news editor. But it still feels odd watching the final round of the Masters without writing about it, and Bubba Watson's stirring victory Sunday really made me long for the old days.
Frankly, that doesn't happen often. I liked my old job but seldom miss it. Except when March rolls around, and I'm no longer very excited -- and a little bit frantic -- at the thought of getting my department ready for the RBC Heritage. Typically, I hopscotched from the Players Championship (before it moved to May), the Masters, the Heritage and the Legends of Golf in a span of five to six weeks. We also produced (and still do) the Packet's largest annual special section to preview the Heritage.
It's also a great change of pace for a newspaper that is firmly focused on local coverage, which means a lot of high school and recreational sports coverage. When the PGA Tour rolls into town, you get to deal with top-shelf professional athletes for a while and feel the electricity and excitement that goes along with it.
We stake a lot on our coverage of pro golf, even though we don't do it year-round. The fact we're not out there week in and week out like a lot of larger media outlets puts us a a bit of a disadvantage. Story ideas are easy enough to come up with, but sources are not. The best story fodder comes from people who know you and trust that you'll get it right. I suppose a lot of pro athletes also figure that a small-market newspaper, no matter how trustworthy, isn't really worth their time because they don't command a large audience.
Fortunately, pro golfers are a pretty accessible, friendly lot. Cliches can still abound in the interview room, but most will at least give you the time of day and a decent answer if you put a little thought into the questions you pose. I've no real basis of comparison because I've never regularly covered professional athletes in other sports, but it is difficult to imagine there is a better bunch of high-dollar guys.
What follows is a list of the 10 best professional golf sources I've encountered -- not the best 10 by reputation, and not necessarily the 10 best in the entire industry, since my window of exposure is narrow. Just some people I've enjoyed talking to through the years.
Arnold Palmer: Might as well start at the top, I suppose. I didn't get into this business until Palmer was well past his playing prime, but I was still thrilled by the few occassions I've had to talk to him in somewhat intitmate settings, usually small events associated with his golf-course design business. In the early 1990s, for example, I sat with a few other writers in a small meeting room that predated the clubhouse at Old Tabby Links on Spring Island and listened as Palmer talked about his newest creation. I could barely unlock my jaw to get a few questions off. A decade later, though, I was more comfortable in such settings and interviewed Palmer again, this time at an outing at Crescent Pointe Golf Club. We talked at length about a his recent comments in support for the casual golfer's use of the Callaway's ERC II driver, which violated USGA rules about "spring-like effect." Palmer's thoughts on the matter had gotten him in some hot water with the USGA, for which he was a spokesman. Nonetheless, he didn't dodge my questions or tell me to bug off. He spoke his mind firmly but graciously, which is Mr. Palmer's way.
Davis Love III: I think some in the national media perceive Love to be way too stiff and starched. But I've always found the five-time Heritage champ to be accommodating and thoughtful, almost to a fault. Once, during a group interview at the TPC at Sawgrass, I stopped taking notes and watched a throng of reporters slowly inch Love backward into an azalea. He kept right on answering questions, even after he nearly lost his balance. In my highly impressionable early years at the Packet, Love also took me to the far end of the practice range at the TPC and talked to me one-on-one for a half hour for a Heritage preview. I'm sure the fact that he is a five-time tournament champ (actually, four-time at that point) had something to do with his willingness to spend so much time with one reporter from a small publication, but that doesn't make me appreciate the time any less.
Steve Wilmot: If you stop to think about all the constituencies the longtime Heritage tournament director must serve -- players, sponsors, PGA Tour officials, local businessmen, fans, his bosses on the Heritage Classic Foundation board -- you would understand if Wilmot cringed every time his phone rings or a reporter poked a recorder in front of his face. To the contrary, Wilmot is conscientious about returning calls and always willing to talk, even when he knows tough or uncomfortable questions are coming. Occasionally, his answers can sound a bit scripted, but a thoughtful question will always yield a frank response. Wilmot also manages to be diplomatic with his wording without being condescending or deceitful. He's a class act and a credit to the tournament and the community.
Patsy Weekley: TTwo-time champion Boo Weekley is as unassuming and friendly as advertised. But his momma deserves special mention, too. I first met her as she followed her son around Augusta National. (Boo had qualified for the Masters by virtue of his victory in the previous year's Heritage.) I wanted to introduce myself because she had agreed to write a daily diary for the Packet at the next week's tournament. Her feature that week proved so popular because Patsy is so genuine. When Boo successfully defended his title, she agreed to do the diary again the following year. By the time she returned, Patsy was as much a celebrity at Harbour Town Golf Links as her affable son.
Stewart Cink: Whether he was on top of his game or in a swoon, Cink has always been open with his thoughts. My favorite interview with him was at his Ponte Vedra Beach hotel -- an economy place, by the way -- on the eve of the 2005 Players Championship. He agreed to meet me and Bob Gillespie of The (Columbia) State newspaper to talk about his Heritage title defense in a few weeks. We spoke for about a half hour over breakfast-buffet scrambled eggs and bagels. He didn't dodge a single question about the sports psychologist who helped him find his game again or the controversial shot from the waste area along the 16th hole that led to his 2004 Heritage playoff victory over Ted Purdy. I always come away from Cink interviews with plenty to write -- and think -- about.
Matt Kuchar: I played a round with Kuchar in the contestant-amateur event that preceded the first Players Amateur at Belfair. This was shortly before Kuchar turned pro in 2000. He won the first U.S. Amateur after Tiger Woods' run of three consecutive titles in that event, and Kuchar's smiling visage and sharp play at the 1998 Masters and U.S. Open won him a lot of fans. It also won him repeated questions from guys like me about whether he goofed up by not turning pro immediately after that success. He just smiled and answered politely. He also gave me good reads on several putts and made a point to compliment me on the only decent iron shot I hit all (very long) day.
Lucas Glover: I interviewed Glover several times at amateur events in southern Beaufort County, and he was always willing to talk, whether he'd just played the round of his life or left a dozen strokes on the course. Glover was raised in the Upstate, was a Clemson teammate of one-time Hilton Head Islander D.J. Trahan and, early in his pro career, played out of Berkeley Hall. As such, we treated him like a local where our coverage was concerned, and he always responded in kind, never rushing away from an interview and hanging around the scoring area or the interview room until the last question had been posed and answered.
Puggy Blackmon: Technically, I guess Blackmon has stronger ties to college golf than the professional game, but he continued to coach his former Georgia Tech pupil, David Duval, into his pro career. A Ridgeland native and the director of golf for the University of South Carolina, Blackmon has also coached Cink, Kuchar and several other notable pros. He's always offered up his time and offered interesting insights whenever we've asked him about current and former players.
Jose Coceres: He speaks barely a lick of English, and the language barrier made coverage of his 2001 Heritage victory a bit difficult. But he offered such a great storyline -- learning the game by whacking rocks with tree limbs; celebrating his Harbour Town victory by pulling the pillow case he filched from his rented villa and scrawling a message to the folks back in Argentina across it. Years later, after age and injury sapped his game and he played the Heritage on a champion's exemption, he and his interpreter told me all about his travails as we stood on the practice green after a Thursday round. Coceres smiled the whole time, flirted with the girls in sundresses as they strolled past and whiled time like he hadn't a care in the world.
Jay Haas: Has anybody ever said a bad word about Jay Haas? Has anybody ever had a reason to? The guy is as friendly as they come and a fine ambassador for South Carolina golf. His family history is also strongly tied to Harbour Town and the Heritage, and no matter how often we've hit him up with the same questions about meeting his wife here and treating the tournament like a family vacation, he never seems to tire of talking about it.
Now, here's the thing: I'm fairly sure at least seven of the people on this list wouldn't know me from Adam's house cat, and two of the other three probably know that, in the grand scheme of things, there's not a lot I can do for them by writing about them. They've been kind and cooperative, anyway.
Truth be told, if the PGA Tour was populated by jerks, I still would have loved this time of year when I was sports editor. But because it is not, I miss my old duties now that I'm news editor.
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