Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
A look at the life of Bob Rosburg
Bob Rosburg, who became more famous as a commentator for ABC Sports than as a major champion, died Thursday morning. "Rossie" had been battling cancer for the last year and a half, but the cause of death was a head injury suffered in a fall coming out of a restaurant in Indio, Calif. He was 82.
Rosburg won six times on the PGA Tour, the highlight being his victory at the 1959 PGA Championship. Instead of becoming a club pro in the mid-1970s, when his PGA Tour days were over, Rossie turned to television. He had dabbled in TV during the late 1950s and '60s, but when ABC hired him in 1974 Rosburg took on a special assignment. He became golf's first truly on-course announcer.
The idea to have an announcer walk with players was hatched by Roone Arledge, the head of ABC Sports, and golf producer Chuck Howard. Their first stab at on-course commentary involved Bud Palmer, who was stationed on a tower behind the 15th hole were he did commentary until the last group past his hole. He then put on some special gear and would pick up the final group and follow them in. Palmer was a very capable announcer, but he was a fish out of water in terms of on-course analysis. Howard quickly realized that the job needed to be handled by a player. He was hunting for a special player and Steve Reid, who was the television coordinator between ABC and the PGA Tour told him about Rosburg. He interviewed for the job and got it. In talking with Howard 20 years later, he said that Rossie was just what they wanted because he knew the players, so they didn't feel it was intrusive when he looked over their lies and assessed the circumstances for viewers. Rosburg figured out early that his job was to tell what kind of lie a player had, what kind of shot that player had to execute, what the conditions were, and how well the player succeeded. Rosburg perfected the art of the roving announcer, thus paving the way for Judy Rankin, Roger Maltbie, David Feherty, Mark Rolfing and others.
Rosburg was with ABC for 31 years, making him the longest serving active golf announcer on television. He didn't do much work for ABC after 2000, but the network did make sure he was aboard for their last PGA Tour telecast, the Tiger Woods Target Challenge in December 2006.
Rossie was a renown story teller. As a Tour player, he competed against and socialized with Ben Hogan, Billy Casper, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Dave Marr and Raymond Floyd. When Rosburg first came on Tour, he became friendly with Hogan and played a lot of high stakes practice rounds with Hogan and Claude Harmon.
Rossie lived among some of the greatest names in golf, meaning he witnessed not only their triumphs, but also their frailties. In an era when "tell all" books by athletes have become so popular, Rosburg could have made a fortune with his anecdotes. Instead he chose to regale only his closest friends.
Bob Rosburg was born and raised in San Francisco. His father, a doctor, introduced him to golf at an early age. Eleanor Rosburg, Bob's wife, showed me a picture of Rossie swinging a club at 2 years old. He played junior golf at Olympic Club and at 12 he faced baseball great Ty Cobb in a club championship match. Rosburg won 7 & 6, and the resulting ribbing from friends prompted Cobb to quit playing at Olympic.
Rosburg played baseball and golf for Stanford University, where he graduated in 1949, later becoming a member of the school's Athletic Hall of Fame. Choosing golf over baseball, Rossie turned professional in 1953 and played full time through 1972. He made 528 career starts, winning six times. He notched 112 top 10s, including runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open in 1959 and 1969.
In the 1959 PGA Championship at Minneapolis Golf Club, Rosburg rallied from a six-shot deficit after 54 holes and won by a shot over Jerry Barber and Doug Sanders. His biggest disappointment came at the '69 Open at Champions in Houston, where he was tied for the lead on the 72nd hole but snap hooked his drive, then hit a shot into a greenside bunker. From there he hit a fabulous recovery shot to within three feet of the hole, but he was very nervous. He quickly addressed the putt without even looking at the line and jabbed the ball, with it coming up short of the hole, leaving him one shot behind Orville Moody.
Rosburg finished among the top 10 in 11 majors. Although he rarely told anyone, he felt slighted because the PGA of America never made him a Ryder Cup captain. Rossie speculated that some people at the PGA didn't like him taking the side of the newly forming PGA Tour and believed he had difficulty controlling his temper.
Rosburg's last victory, at age 45, came at the 1972 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. The feat took on added significance because Rossie lived in Palm Springs and helped run the tournament. He was among those responsible for devising the five-round, pro-am format when it started in 1962. He also helped tournament host Bob Hope with pairings and entertaining important guests.
Four years ago, Rosburg wrote several stories for GolfObserver.com. Among them was the story of his 1972 Hope victory and how he did it with the help of a bartender at Indian Wells. It seems that when making the turn in Round 2, Rossie had a 45-minute wait inbetween nines. He was talking to the bartender and told him he didn't know how his nerves would hold up.
Let me give you a suggestion," the bartender said. "I think I can help you with that."
"What are you telling me?" Rossie asked.
"Well, you know, it has to do with your stomach," the bartender said, explaining that the contents of your stomach affect your nerves. "I'm going to give you a little blackberry brandy. You take a shot of it and see what it does."
So Rossie tossed back a small shot of blackberry brandy. As he said to me, "You know it's not real strong; it's almost like cough medicine. I went out and my nerves were really good. I shot 33 on the back nine for a 66, and I thought, "man that's pretty good stuff. I'm going to try that again."
So in between nines of every round, Rossie got himself a shot of the brandy.
Since play was slow during the pro-am rounds, it was no problem getting the brandy during the 3rd and 4th rounds. But during the final round, when Rosburg was in the midst of battling Palmer, Jerry Heard, Johnny Miller and Lanny Wadkins, he realized that it was going to be tough getting that brandy at the turn.
"On the other days, when you were playing with amateurs, you had time at the end of nine to go and get something; you didn't have to worry about it," Rossie told me. "But when you are out there with 20,000 people you can't say, 'I'm going into the clubhouse to get me something to drink.' So I sent my son-in-law in to bring out a little blackberry brandy in a Styrofoam cup and on I went. It calmed me down and I was able to hold on for the win."
Having started work at ABC not long after Rossie came aboard, I became quite friendly with him. Despite suffering from cancer the last 18 months, he continued to speak with me and others regularly via phone and I popped over to Palm Springs to have lunch with him at his favorite spot, Cactus Jack. I will miss those phone calls and lunches at Cactus Jack in Indio, Bob Rosburg was an incredible person whom players and announcers alike should thank. He was a pioneer on the course and on the air, but most of all is a valuable part of the history of the PGA Tour that hopefully won't forget him.
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Again there are hundreds of Golf stories that Rossie has told our inner circle at ABC Sports. One of the best was when Rossie was working the Western Open in the 90s and two men came up and introduced themselves to him. They said that Rossie didn't know them, but that they were part of his gallery in the 1962 Orange County Open.
That event was won by Tony Lema and he did it in a playoff against Rosburg. It was Lema's first PGA Tour victory and before the start of the final round when some media were talking with him and saying that if he won, he would have to buy all the reporters beer, Lema piped in with a "If I win, Champagne for all". Lema was true to his word, he beat Rosburg with a birdie on the third playoff hole and when he returned to the clubhouse at Mesa Verde in Southern California, he ordered bottles of Champagne for all in the media. From that day forward, he got the nickname "Champagne Tony".
Lema went on to win ten more times on the PGA Tour, including the 1964 British Open. He was a very talented man that unfortunately had his life cut short by a plane crash in 1966.
So how does this all tie in with the gentleman that Rosburg met at the Western Open in 1998? The reason that these two gentleman introduced themselves to Rossie was because they had for over 35 years something on their minds. The two explained that they were in the gallery for the playoff. At the time they were Marines stationed down the road at Camp Pendleton and were rooting for Lema who was a former Marine. But it seemed that on the first hole, Lema ducked hook his drive and both Lema and Rossie were surprised to see it barely inbounds. Lema was able to keep up with Rosburg and birdie that first hole.
What the two then told Rossie was an unbelievable story and one that probably wouldn't happen in a tournament today. Seems that they saw Lema's drive go out of bounds, hustled over and threw the ball back in bounds. They apologized to Rosburg for interfering with the match and helping Lema win. Rossie smiled at them and instead of yelling or getting upset at the two said that he understood and didn't wish any ill will on them. But in his goodbyes to them, he ended the conversation by telling them that he was a very good friend of Lema's and that earlier in the week Lema confided in him that if he didn't win that week in what was one of the last events of the year, that Lema was going to take a club pro job and quit playing competitive golf. So Rossie told them bluntly that if they hadn't changed the course of the match, Lema would of lost, took a club pro job and live happily every after and wouldn't of died in the plane crash four years later. Always get a chuckle on that story.
Just before I started Golfobserver in 2004, I got together with Rosburg and he was kind enough to write 15 stories for our first year. They are real gems, telling us about the man and a bygone era in golf. We have resurrected these stories and present them in this blog, so that you can all enjoy this special man and learn what the PGA Tour was like 40 years ago. We also have put up links, to an hour interview that Rossie did two years ago for the Stanford University golf team. The video is raw and uncut but a very entertaining hour.
Condolences at to his wife Becky, who married Rossie almost two years ago and help him get through the tough times with cancer and made life enjoyable, even with the pain. Also condolences to his children and Rossie Jr., who I grew up with in my years at ABC Sports. Bob had a special career on both the PGA Tour, ABC Sports and the folks that he touched, we will all miss him.
So enjoy his writing, he was a one of a kind person.
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Al Barkow
A tribute to Rossie from a man that knew him for over 50 years.
With the passing of Bob Rosburg the other day another and fast diminishing link to
Mid-20th century American golf history, and especially the development of the tour, is gone. As it happened, just three weeks before he died I had a long chat with Bob at his home in La Quinta, California. His cancer was in remission, and although he appeared physically frail his mind was as sharp as ever.
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A graduate of Stanford University, he played on the school’s team that won the 1946 NCAA championship, but didn’t turn pro until 1953, at the age of 26. That was rather old to start up, but he had married for the first time early in his life and had children, and because the purse money was paltry even when winning he was leery about making out as a tour pro. Still, he wasn’t too crazy about selling retail in a department store or cars for a San Francisco dealer, and when a pro named Jackson Bradley offered him a job as his assistant at the Edgewater CC, in Chicago, he made the move. A year later, with a $1,500 “loan” from some Edgewater members, he took his first fling at the tour. He got off to a good start, although the money barely made it seem so.
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Later that year he won the Miami Open, the last one on the annual schedule, took in $2,000, and at $8,600 was in the top 30 on the money list. $8,600! Walking around money on today’s circuit. Still, the total got him a full exemption into the next year, when he again finished in the top 30. And when he won the 1959 PGA Championship, he was exempt for life.
How did a fellow make out on such skimpy takings? “We drove our own cars, and caravanned. Players shared a room. I bunked with Arnold Palmer one winter. I traveled with my wife and kids during the summer. The rooms were probably a hundred dollars a week. A lot of players stayed at the same motels. We hardly ever ate out. We did barbecues, and baby-sat for each other. If I had an early starting time the wife of the one of the guys would baby-sit our kids. There weren’t many outings to do between tournaments, and make some extra money. Occasionally you might get fifty dollars to play with a group of guys.”
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Course conditions prompted more than a few withdrawals by those of temperament. T Bolt, for example, who one year on a rainy day in New Orleans Bolt walked in from the far end of the course and when asked why he was w/d-ing said, “Because I cain’t read mud.”
Rosburg was among the w/d gang. Indeed, “they used to spell my name Rosburgw/d,” Rossie recalled, with a wry smile. “In those days you didn’t get ten thousand just for making the cut. There were 70 who made the cut and only 30 money places. So I thought if I didn’t have a chance of winning any money I was wasting my time playing the last 36 holes.”
Those with a temper back in the day and who displayed it were not fined, as they might be today, and it didn’t hurt otherwise given the short list of money places. As a result, temperament involved more than withdrawing if things weren’t going well. Bolt was famous for tossing clubs in anger, and so was Rosburg, which didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. He always appeared somewhat petulant, even when going good, and when not he had the good arm of someone who pitched some good baseball as a youth to give the club a healthy heave. Temper guys bond with those of that ilk, and Rosburg had a good story on the subject.
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Nowadays, as we know, the tour pros have a retinue that includes a psychologist, and Rossie admitted that a “shrink” might have helped him with his temper. There weren’t any swing “gurus” in his day, either—no Leadbetters, Smiths, Harmons, et al —although there was never a shortage of advice from rival players. However, you had to be careful of it. Not all those tipsters could be trusted. Gene Littler, early in his tour career, had rabbit ears, as they used to say, and nearly blew his career listening to those who would liked to have seen him disappear and put one more paycheck on the table. The classic story of the old pro who asked the young up-and-comer how he hit the ball so well with “that grip” was not a fable. It happened more than once.
None of that would have bothered Rossie, though. He never took a lesson in his life, and rarely practiced. He was not a ball beating range-rat in the Hogan mode. Fact is, he reminded me that when he won the PGA Championship he never hit one practice ball all week. Not even a couple or three warm-ups. “It was really hot in Minneapolis that week,” Rosburg said, “and the practice range was across the road and down in a hollow. I’d watch these guys coming back up from the range all sweaty and I said to hell with it. I’ll never forget the first hole, a 470-yard par four, hardest hole on the course. Every day I hit a four-wood on the green” Drive and a four-wood, the first shots he hit every day on the way to winning his one major.
They don’t ‘make ‘em like that anymore.
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Bob Rosburg
Winning the Crosby in '61 and thoughts on Pebble Beach
First on GolfObserver: February 6, 2004
Once again, we're pleased to bring you some memories from Bob Rosburg, one of only nine golfers to have won both the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby tournaments in his career. The others are Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, Johnny Miller, Phil Mickelson, Tom Kite, John Cook, Peter Jacobsen, and Steve Jones. Not bad company to keep. But not only has Rossie won both events, he's also been a part of television broadcast teams for both. In that combination of winning and broadcasting these great events, he is in a company of just one.
Below Rossie gives us his thoughts on winning the Bing Crosby in 1961, the man who started the "Clambake", playing with James Garner, Cypress Point and Pebble Beach.
Now as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie."
- GolfObserver editors
--------------------------------------------------------Winning the Bing Crosby in 1961
I knew Bing fairly well, and he had a really fantastic tournament. Bing did a great job bringing in his friends to play, and it showed. Every year it had a great field of players and top-notch celebrities . Nobody wanted to pass on this tournament.
It always got the best television ratings, and most of the time it was played in such crappy weather, that it was always a tough tournament to play in. On top of the bad weather play was slow, and you had to play three different courses. Still, I had the greatest time every year I played in it.
You would never see a harder working guy than Bing getting the event prepared. In the '50s and '60s I would come out to the L.A. Open to help them set up the teams and their handicaps. Between Bing, Ed Crowley, Bob Roos, Maurie Luxford and myself, we just about knew everybody that was playing. And we used to adjust the handicaps to what we thought they should be. It was a whole lot closer golf tournament when we did that than what it became afterwards when they would just go on what the guys sent in. Handicapping was a tough thing to legislate, but Bing wanted it that way. He kind of knew everybody, and if a guy didn't like it, that was too bad because everybody wanted to play. We'd go both ways with guys. We wouldn't just cut people; we'd add some to people. Phil Harris would always send in a 15 or 14. Well, we'd give him 17 or 18. Lemmon was the same way. He'd try to be honest, but he never made the cut so we'd try to get him there, try and give him something. And those were great days.
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I'll never forget the year I won, in '61. I was eight shots behind going into the last round. I had played with James Garner in the first three rounds, and we had missed the cut. Unfortunately we had made a double bogey at the 16th hole at Pebble Beach, which cost us the cut. So, the next day I played with three other pros, and it was one of the toughest days to play golf I've ever seen in my life. Like I said, I was eight shots behind and ended up winning shooting a 72. Goes to show you how poor the weather was. It never rained or anything like that, but the wind really blew hard that day. That made the greens hard as a rock. It was just a tough day to play.
I wasn't in the last group, so I had to wait around after I finished my round. When play was finally finished and I was the winner, Bing came up and congratulated me. Told me how great I played, and that I really knew how to play Pebble Beach, and if a U.S. Open came here I would do well in it. I thanked Bing for the kind words and told him, "let's go up and have a cocktail." Crosby told me that he couldn't right then, because he gave an award every year to the amateur who helped his pro the most, and he needed to get together with his people to chose the winner of that award. Well I said to Bing, "you don't have to think about it this year. Just give the award to Garner for going home and leaving me alone on the final day." Well wouldn't you know it, Bing used that at the dinner that night. Garner heard about it, and he didn't speak to me for about two months. It was great fun, and Garner and I have been laughing about it ever since.
Bing was really great. You asked him for something, and he went out of his way to get it done. When I first had some horses, I had this trainer called Tom Eskimo. He was a pretty good golfer, about a 7 or 8, and would always ask me if I could get him into the Crosby to play one year. I went to Bing about it one time, and he told me that he would see what he could do. Of course, he got a spot for Estimo to play, but he got in a bit of trouble over it. It seems that he had one spot left, intending to put Estimo into it, but forgot to put his name down. Crosby's wife saw that there was the one spot left and wanted her dentist to play in that spot. In the confusion my trainer got the last spot over the dentist. A couple of days later Crosby's wife asked him: "Well Bing, what about my dentist, did he get in?" Bing said: "No, I gave it to Rosburg's friend, the horse trainer. I can get better tips from him than I can from the dentist." That's what kind of a guy Bing Crosby was, a comical guy with a dry sense of humor. A really nice guy.
I really think that the tournament lost some of its luster when Bing died, but I don't think the tournament was quite ever the same when they got rid of the Monterey Peninsula course and replaced it with Spyglass. Not that Spyglass isn't a nice course, but I think it was too hard for most of the amateurs. And then it really lost it's luster when they took Cypress Point out. The amateurs just loved to play at Cypress, and so did I. There is no better place in the world to play than at Cypress Point.
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I must have played there 100 times and loved every round. One thing you may find hard to believe is that I never went for the 16th green, never. I laid up to the left. I just thought the risk was too great. Yes, in practice I'd take out a driver every now and then and try to put it on the green. But during a round that we were actually playing for I never took a shot at it.
I've always said that if I had one place or round left to play I would pick Cypress Point. It wasn't that hard a course. It wasn't that great a golf course, but it was always in wonderful shape, and it's pretty. The deer would run around, the wild life and everything. Of course, there weren't many people around either. You could play quickly, and I always liked that.
- Thoughts on Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach is a good course. Some great holes, some not so great holes. It has charisma, or whatever you call it. So much has been said about Pebble Beach. If it hadn't been for the weather,
I'd never thought Pebble Beach was really that hard, as hard as everybody thinks it is. The one thing about the place is how beautiful it is with all those holes running along the ocean. I don't know, I was always in awe with the place when I went there. Maybe I've gotten a sour taste in my mouth lately because it has gotten so commercial. They say it's a public course, but of course you have to pay so much money, and it takes six hours to play. I think it's hurt what people think of the course.
Photo: ©
Scott Halleran/Getty Images Pebble Beach could be the prettiest golf course in the world.
I've played there since 1940, when they had the state amateur there (Pebble hosted the California State Amateur every year). I was runner-up three times, which meant I lost three times in the finals. Oh well. Still I am a winner at Pebble with my victory at the '61 Crosby. It was a great win. I thought I played a great last round thinking my way around the course. I hit it in the bunker at 17. The wind was blowing so hard I took a 1-iron and hit the bunker on purpose. I didn't want to hit it on the green, because it was so hard that I thought it would bounce over the green and into some really bad trouble. I made a 4 (bogey), but then made a 20-footer on the last hole for a 4 (birdie) to win the tournament. It was a tough day to play, and at that time they had as good a field there as you were going to find anywhere. And of course I won the pro-am nine years later playing with John Brodie, who is a great buddy of mine. I think that was almost as big a thrill as winning the tournament. It was really fun.
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Bob Rosburg
Winning the Bob Hope in 1972, with a bit of help
First on GolfObserver: January 20, 2004
I can only think of a handful of people who have not only played golf for 75 years but experienced eight different decades of competitive golf. One is Bob Rosburg, who started playing golf right around the time of Bobby Jones' heyday in the late 1920s. Rossie played on the PGA Tour during the peak of Hogan, competed and won in the era of Palmer, Nicklaus, Casper and Player, and was winning golf tournaments right around the time that Lee Trevino and Tom Watson came onto the golfing scene. After his playing days on the PGA Tour finished in the mid-1970s Rosburg became a commentator and perfected the art of being a roving announcer. He is the longest active golf announcer on television, and in his 30 years behind the mike has witnessed the ending of Nicklaus' PGA Tour career as well as the rise to prominence of Watson, Norman and a kid name Woods, who was born just after Rossie starting working for ABC Sports.
Even though Rossie won the PGA Championship back in 1959, he may be best remembered for his television work and being one of the greatest storytellers around. Every week for GolfObserver.Com, Rossie is going to give us examples of why he has the reputation as a great storyteller as he looks back at his career and all the different people with whom he has been associated.
In the story below this, Rossie had some thoughts on the legendary Bob Hope. Today Rossie tells us about his winning the 1972 Hope tournament, a victory he treasures as one of his greatest moments.
So as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie":
- GolfObserver editors
-------------------------------------------------Winning the Bob Hope in 1972, with a bit of help
I hadn't won in 11 years; the last tournament I won was the Crosby in 1961. One thing that really helped me was that I had just gotten married to Eleanor in October of '71. We were both very happy.
I played the first couple of tournaments in '72, and I really played well I thought. I had a chance to win the tournament in Hawaii, finished sixth (with a closing round 65), and I came to Palm Springs knowing that I was playing well. Still, by then the big problem was that I didn't know how my nerves would hold up under the gun.
On the opening day of the Hope I just happened to get the first tee time at Indian Wells. It was great because there was no waiting the first nine; we just played away. We started on the 10th hole, which I think is the hardest par 4 in the whole desert. I managed to make a par on that hole, and ended up shooting 33 on the front side.
After the nine I went into the clubhouse since we had about a 45-minute wait because we played pretty fast. I went into the locker room at Indian Wells to watch a little television, and this kid that I knew, who was the bartender, asked me how I played. I told him that I was playing good, but I didn't know how my nerves would hold up.
"Let me give you a suggestion," he said. "I think I can help you with that."
"What are you telling me?" I asked.
"Well, you know, it has to do with your stomach," he said, explaining that everything in your stomach takes care of your nerves. "I'm going to give you a little blackberry brandy. You take a shot of it and see what it does."
So I took a very little shot of this blackberry brandy. You know it's not real strong; it's almost like cough medicine. I went out and my nerves were really good. I shot 33 on the back nine for a 66, and I thought, "man that's pretty good stuff. I'm going to try that again."
After the 66 Rossie shot 69-72-70 and went into the fifth and final round in 2nd place, two behind Jerry Heard. We pick up the story on the final day.
I didn't shoot a great last round, a 67. Palmer was right behind me, and Jerry Heard was leading the tournament. But Heard hit a couple of balls out of bounds, and Arnold hit one out of bounds. At that time the guys I was trying to beat were Johnny Miller and Lanny Wadkins, and their ages combined were the same as my age. They were 22 and 23, and I was 45. Things were tight after the front nine, and I was fighting those nerves again. On the other days, when you are playing with amateurs, you had time at the end of nine to go and get something; you didn't have to worry about it. But when you are out there with 20,000 people you can't say, "I'm going into the clubhouse to get me something to drink." So I sent my son-in-law in to bring out a little blackberry brandy in a Styrofoam cup and on I went. It calmed me down.
I thought I kind of lost the tournament because I didn't birdie the last hole at Indian Wells; it's a very easy birdie hole. But I ended up winning, and it was probably the best day of my life. Winning the PGA was wonderful, and winning the Crosby and everything like that. But not having won for so long and being able to win again was a great feeling.
Wadkins shot 67 to finish one back of Rossie. Miller and Heard were two back. The key to Rossie's week was that over the course of 90 holes he never drove it out of bounds and didn't have a single three-putt green. To this day all of his friends love the blackberry brandy story, and we sometimes wonder what would of happened if anyone back then had found out.
I'll admit it. I probably would have been fined if they'd known I'd done it. That's the way it went. I guess I needed the brandy. I ended up winning the tournament, and with the win it just kind of gave me new life for a little while. I really played well the rest of '72, and then it kind of caught up with me. Still, winning the Hope got me quite a few corporate outings. That helped, and it kind of showed people that I could still play a little.
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Bob Rosburg
Memories of Bob Hope
First on GolfObserver: January 19, 2004
I can only think of a handful of people who have not only played golf for 75 years but experienced eight different decades of competitive golf. One is Bob Rosburg, who started playing golf right around the time of Bobby Jones' heyday in the late 1920s. Rossie played on the PGA Tour during the peak of Hogan, competed and won in the era of Palmer, Nicklaus, Casper and Player, and was winning golf tournaments right around the time that Lee Trevino and Tom Watson came onto the golfing scene. After his playing days on the PGA Tour finished in the mid-1970s Rosburg became a commentator and perfected the art of being a roving announcer. He is the longest active golf announcer on television, and in his 30 years behind the mic has witnessed the ending of Nicklaus' PGA Tour career as well as the rise to prominence of Watson, Norman and a kid name Woods, who was born just after Rossie starting working for ABC Sports.
Even though Rossie won the PGA Championship back in 1959, he may be best remembered for his television work and being one of the greatest storytellers around. Every week for GolfObserver.Com, Rossie is going to give us examples of why he has the reputation as a great storyteller as he looks back at his career and all the different people with whom he has been associated.
This week we have a double treat for you. Today Rossie talks about the legendary Bob Hope, the tournament that was his until his death last summer, and how it got its unique format. On Friday Rossie talks about winning the '72 Hope and the advice a bartender gave him in settling his nerves.
So as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie":
- GolfObserver editors
-------------------------------------------------Memories of Bob Hope
Bob Hope was a lot better player than a lot of people thought. The first time I ever played with Hope was in 1949. I was an amateur traveling with Freddy Haas and his wife. We came down here (to Palm Springs) and Freddy said, "Do you know Hope?" I said, "Yeah," and he said he sure would like to play with him. So I called up and talked to Dolores (Bob's wife). We met Bob down at O'Donnell, a little 9-hole course down here, and we played with him. We played 9 holes; Bob didn't play much more than 9 in those days. Freddy gave him three a side and I gave him two a side, and I think I shot 33. Freddy shot 32 and Hope shot 31. So, he killed us, and he took our money too. But Bob was great. He was great for the game. He was a very, very nice man and did a tremendous amount for his tournament because he would get the celebrities to come in and play because he would go play in their events. That was extremely important. We had the Glen Campbell L.A. Open, the Dean Martin tournament, the Andy Williams tournament, the Bing Crosby tournament, and all those guys came and played for him. That's something of course they don't have today, tournaments named after people anymore. The celebrities, we had a lot of them. I think it really helped the tournament. Bob was a good man.
- Playing with Bob Hope
It was a lot of fun. He was great. He'd bet. He could play pretty good. He was just a guy, a regular guy. I'll never forget one time we played at Lakeside up in L.A. right near his home. Raymond Floyd and I were in L.A., called him up and made plans for a game. We were suppose to play like at 12:00, and he didn't show up. He was late, finally showing up about 1:00. So Raymond and I went out and played. Back then we were great fans of the Dodgers and it was right in the middle of the playoffs, going down to the wire. We were going to the ballgame that night. We got to the 15th hole and Raymond came over to me and he said, we've got to leave. So, I went over and told Hope that Raymond and I had to leave to get to the ballpark. Hope always told me it was the only time that anybody had ever walked off the golf course on him. And he said it was his fault; he was late. He's that kind of guy. Good guy.
- Rossie on the start of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and it's unique format
The Hope tournament has been a great thing. It's been a tremendous thing for Palm Springs, and I feel very involved in it because I happened to be the chairman of the tournament committee (when it first started in the early 1960s). The people who were trying to put this thing together wanted to get some kind of a different format. They had me come down here (to Palm Springs), rented a house over at Bermuda Dunes, then I spent 3 days putting together the format of the Bob Hope, and it wasn't easy. There were no computers. I did it with yellow paper, some colored pens, and a ruler. I was the one that set it all up: how the players switched, how the amateurs switched, how you switched times, how you kept score, everything. It really was a pretty difficult thing. I am very proud of the fact that the only time they ever tried to go away from that format, to add a few more amateurs, it just didn't work. The play was so slow that they couldn't do it. And they went back to the fact that there were 128 pros and 384 amateurs and that was about all you could play and you had to switch courses and the logistics were kind of tough. I don't think anyone has ever complained. We always had the pros play two days late, two days early, and things like that. But, it enabled the charity to make a tremendous amount of money because of the amateurs. Really, I think it has worked great.
- Rossie on the future of the Hope
People say, "Now that Hope's gone, will it change?" I think regardless of age, people will remember Bob Hope. Something else happened here in the desert when they took Dinah Shore's name off the Nabisco tournament, which I thought was a tremendous mistake, but that's not for me to say. But a lot of people are saying maybe Arnold Palmer will take it over, because Arnold is a great fan of this area, and a great fan of Hope and the tournament. He's played in it forever. I certainly don't think it's the answer to get some younger celebrity to put his name on it. I think the Bob Hope will be the Bob Hope. I really believe that the Crosby lost a little by being the AT&T, rather than the Bing Crosby tournament. I think that was a mistake too.
Another big question will be if they turn it into a regular four-day tournament in Palm Springs. My answer is I don't think so. I think the amateurs have made this tournament. They've come out and put their money up. I think if you just play four days here, it doesn't work. I don't think a lot of people want to see just a regular golf tournament in Palm Springs; people want to see something a little different.
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Bob Rosburg
He's got no Shot
First on GolfObserver: March 20, 2004
Bob Rosburg was a pioneer in golf television as the first announcer to walk the fairways and give a players'-eye view of the shots, starting in 1975 for ABC. He was known for supplementing his reporting of yardage, lie, wind, etc. with his own thoughts on what the player should or would do. By "Rossie's" own admission, the players sometimes surprised him. He became known for the phrase, "He's got no shot," a pronouncement that was sometimes proven wrong.
Unfortunately we don't get to see and hear much of Rossie these days on television, but he will be doing this week's telecast of the Kraft Nabisco Championship. So we thought it would be appropriate to give us some of Rossie's thoughts on how he first gotten started doing television and of being a part of ABC's Golf telecasts.
Now as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie."
- GolfObserver editors
--------------------------------------------------------------I kinda did a little television while I was playing. I'd come in, television was in its early stages, a lot of them were just local things. I'd go up and help out after I'd finish playing, on some local things. I hurt myself before the PGA in Aronimink in 1962. I worked with Jack Whitaker in the booth there for the 2 days in those days.
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Then in 1964 I got my big break, of course I was still playing. IMG hired me to be the host of the Big 3 Golf. I did the 8 matches between Palmer, Player and Nicklaus. I think that really helped me, it was a big thing in those days. Nowadays with all the tournaments on TV, it wouldn't be such a good thing. At that time it was pretty big. It got good ratings, and I think that kinda set the tone for the fact that I might be able to do television when I quit playing.
When I quit in 1974, ABC decided to put somebody down on the ground, and they contacted me through Steve Reid, who was working for Deane Beman as the TV coordinator. Steve recommended me for the job, and I went back and met with Chuck Howard and Terry Jastrow in New York, they hired me. It was a great thing. I was in the right place at the right time.
Working with Chuck Howard, who at the time was the ABC producer, I felt was great. I thought he was a wonderful producer, he was tough on everybody. He wanted perfection. I think that helped. Really it wasn't a big deal. I didn't offer him much. I'd get on about 20 times in 2 hours, not say a whole lot. Try to bring the viewer something that they might not know about the shot. The lie. Where the wind was at, coming from. In those days, it was fun, it was great. I knew all the players of course, and it made it very nice. It was a good thing for me to do. Kind of a natural transition. I think I did 15-18 tournaments that first year, and then it progressed after that.
I've been fortunate to be part of ABC golf broadcasts for 30 years now. I realize that if there's one thing people know me for in my role as a roving announcer, it's, "He's got no shot."
People ask me how that got started, it was a way to give the viewer what I thought. If you wait until the shot has already been made, then you say something, well everybody knows that. You don't have to be a genius to do that. I thought it might be good to give the viewer a picture of the shot from another player's eyes and how he felt about it. I think mainly it worked out pretty good.
Of course, sometimes it turned out that the player was able to pull off the shot. But I was just trying to tell the viewer what I think. I know that I couldn't have pulled the shot off. But there were some guys that could perform miracles out there.
I remember what was probably the first one. It was Jack Nicklaus in the third round of the 1975 PGA Championship. He was leading by a few shots coming to the 16th hole at Firestone, the long par five. He hit his drive into an unplayable lie on the left, took a penalty drop, then hit his third into trees on the right.
He had a downhill lie right in the middle of the trees, and there's a pond in front of the green. I said, he's got no shot to hit it on the green. He's going to chip it out here and try to make six. Well, he took an eight-iron, hit it over the trees to about 25 feet from the hole, and made the putt for a birdie.
I always tried not to let the players hear what I was saying, but Nicklaus heard me say something because afterwards he came up to me and said, "Hey, you didn't think I could play that shot?"
Then on the 18th hole of the same round his drive ended up under one of those little fir trees, and he had to get on his knees to play it. I told him, "Jack, if you get this one on the green, you're all right. You have no chance here, either."
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Actually, to this day, the shot that Nicklaus hit on 16, I still think it was wrong. It was a bad decision. He had a big lead and he could have made a nine. With that kind of lead, I thought he would pitch out. But he was smarter than I was, I guess.
I would have said the same thing about Tom Watson's chip shot on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach in the final round of the 1982 U.S. Open. I didn't think he had a chance to get it close. But they never called on me, thank God, because he holed it.
As for my future working in television, I think I'm about finished now. My future is not going to be working all the time, I know that. I realize that with the changes that go on in television, at the network, there are going to be times you get a little bitter at what is going on. But, I realize you have to have somebody coming up. I've been out here for 30 years now, and if anybody had told me when I started that I'd be out here 30 years later, I would have told them they were crazy. I realize that ABC has been so nice to me, I've never had any squabbles with them. I have disagreed with some of the things they've done, but nothing serious though. No discussion, no bad feelings about money, anything like that. But as I said, I think I was around when golf television was fun and great.
I'm not sure the rover is going to be with us much longer, though. There's so much technology. With lasers, everybody knows exactly how far each shot is. They've got machines to tell you where the wind is coming from and how hard it is blowing. The hand-held cameras get right on the ground and show you the ball in the divot. I think the game, and the telecasts, have become too technical.
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Bob Rosburg
How many times I was close at the U.S. Open
First on GolfObserver: June 13, 2004
Bob Rosburg called shots for many ABC broadcasts of the U.S. Open, but before that he was a player who played some of his best golf at that event. Rosburg finished in the top five in five U.S. Opens, including runner-up finishes in 1959 and 1969, one shot back both times. In 1971, he finished third, two out of a playoff. Here he looks back at those near misses--and those of some players he played with.
Now as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie."
- GolfObserver editors
--------------------------------------------------------------I was never a tremendously long hitter, but I was long enough, and I always felt I could drive the ball into the fairway. I think that's what helped me so much in the Open. Also, I could putt very well when the greens were fast. The faster they got, the better I liked them.
My first chance to win an Open came in 1955 at Olympic in San Francisco, the course I grew up playing, where I tied for fifth. I thought I had a pretty big edge knowing the course as well as I did. I had never seen it with rough like that, though. I couldn't believe how tough the rough was. I played a practice round with Gene Littler, we were playing for a dollar a stroke, and he shot about an 86.
I opened with a 78, then I shot a 74 on Friday and was eight shots behind. The final day was 36 holes and I started getting it going in the morning, and when I got to the 18th I think I was tied for the lead. I bogeyed it to shoot a 67 and went into the final round two behind the leader, Ben Hogan. I could never get it going in the afternoon and shot a 76.
I remember seeing Hogan in the locker room when they told him Jack Fleck needed a birdie on the 18th to tie. He said, "I hope he makes par or eagle, because I don't think I can go tomorrow. I've never been so tired in all my life." Then I went up to the clubhouse and looked down at 18 when Fleck made that miracle approach shot and made a birdie. I guess Hogan was tired, he lost the playoff the next day.
At Southern Hills in 1958, I played three practice rounds against Hogan and Claude Harmon with Frank Stranahan as my partner. In fact, we won quite a lot of money off them. I played a lot with Stranahan as a partner because he had a ton of money; he'd put up the money and I'd play. That was good for me because I didn't have a whole lot.
I kept thinking that since I was beating Hogan and Harmon, who was a great player, too, I had a chance. I did play well and finished fifth, but I had to birdie the last four holes to do it. Tommy Bolt played great with 283 on a really hard course and routed the field.
One of my best chances came at Winged Foot in 1959, and that was after a terrible first round, a 75. After a 70 and a 67 I was tied for third entering the final round, four shots behind Billy Casper and one behind Hogan.
That was still during the time of 36-hole finishes, but they ended up playing 18 on Sunday because of rain on Saturday. They didn't do the pairings by scores then. Hogan and Casper went off early and I went off late. When I was playing the 14th hole, I found out that Casper had finished with a 74 on a pretty tough day, and I knew I needed one birdie to tie. Those are hard holes, though, and I never had a birdie chance from inside 35 feet.
I gave myself a chance when I holed out from a bunker on 11 and holed about a 50-footer on 12 for birdies. Then I made a double bogey on 13. It was a great, great experience, it really was. All the best players in the world were there and I had a chance to win. The double at 13 hurt, but before that I had performed two miracles.
In both 1961 and 1962, I was tied for the lead after two rounds and didn't play well in the 36-hole finish. At Oakland Hills in 1961, I ended up 21st and at Oakmont in 1961 I was 13th. Both times I wasn't too far back after three rounds, especially 1962 at Oakmont where I was only one back.
That was probably the toughest day I ever played in my life as far as the crowd and everything. I was tied with Arnold Palmer after 36 holes, so I played with him in the third and fourth rounds. That pairing might have hurt me, not that Arnold did anything bad, he was great to play with. But there was a tremendous amount of pressure--and on Arnold, too, because he was playing in his hometown.
I was leading going to the 17th hole of the third round, a short par four where Arnold drove the green and made an eagle while I made a five. In the last round I stayed fairly close for six or seven holes, then folded my tent, I played awful. After the same thing happening in 1961, it was kind of a sickening feeling. But, hey, that's the way things go. And things can go south very quickly at the Open. You get going a little bad on a tough golf course, and you can make a lot of bogeys. Still, if you give yourself a chance to win the Open it makes you feel halfway good.
I ended up taking a club job in St. Louis in 1967 when I was having problems with my hand, but by 1969 it was better. I still wasn't playing the Tour regularly, but I qualified for the Open and I went down to Champions in Houston and easily could have won it. I had a three-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would have tied Orville Moody, who was playing behind me. It was straight uphill and into the grain. The funny thing is I wasn't really nervous. I thought I hit a pretty good putt, but it stopped on the front lip and didn't go in. That one hurt more than any other putt I ever missed.
At Merion in 1971, I was involved in a very strange situation. On the 18th hole of my second round, my drive hit a tree and dropped down. When we got there, a forecaddie had marked the ball. It was a Titleist 4, which is what I was playing. Then an official comes running across the fairway and says that isn't your ball, I saw yours trickle down that hill and it's in that bush down there. So they went down and found about 10 balls in the bush. One of them was a Titleist 4.
I called for another ruling. The fellow said, I can't say anything because I wasn't here. I said whose ball is that at the top of the hill? Your man right here said that's my ball. We went on and on, and it was ruled that I had to play the ball from the bush. I was able to advance it about five feet, and when I hit it out you could see that the ball was gray. I ended up making a 15-foot putt for a six, and I was fuming.
It turned out that I had about a 25-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would have gotten me into a tie, and I three-putted. I'm not sure I would have won if the incident hadn't happened. It was only the second round, and it probably made me play better the last two days. But it left a very bitter taste in my mouth.
In fact, I never got along with the USGA when I was playing. But there was a changing of the guard, and when I got to know them when I started broadcasting, things were a lot better. Probably I mellowed, and they changed a little bit. We had the U.S. Open at ABC for a long, long time, and I think it's the best tournament in the world.
It doesn't bother me that much that I never won an Open. You can go back and look at it and say, man, I could have won two or three of them. But that's something that happens. I was lucky enough to win one major, the 1959 PGA Championship, and if you can win one, that's pretty good. The funny thing is that in 1959 I probably should have won the Open at Winged Foot and I probably shouldn't have won the PGA. Things even up in the long run.
I wasn't the only one who wasn't able to win one. I played with some people in the final round who also had their frustrations. In 1959, I played with Sam Snead, who won 82 tournaments but never an Open. On the 11th hole, I think he may have been tied for the lead and he hit a four-iron to about two-and-a-half feet. That's the hole where I holed out from a bunker. He missed that short putt and that was the end of him. I think he bogeyed five of the next six holes.
I had played with him for the first two rounds in 1955. Then I sat with him at lunch between the third and fourth rounds when he was one stroke back of Hogan. I said, Sam, if you're ever going to get it, this is an Open for you to take. Hogan was one shot ahead, but he was tired and it was hard for him to walk. I said, Sam, you can win. He said, nobody can win the Open and miss as many putts as I've missed this week. That's the way Sam thought. As soon as he said that, I knew he wasn't going to win.
In 1961, I played with Doug Sanders on the final day, and he finished one back of Littler. When you're playing with a guy, you're almost rooting for him. I can't say I was rooting for him, because I was a great friend of Gene, but I did feel sorry for Doug. He never did win a major, which is a shame, because he had the game to do it.
Then I was with Palmer in 1962 when he tied with Nicklaus in regulation and ended up losing the playoff. None of us knew Jack very well, he had just started on the Tour. I think everybody was rooting for Arnold. I remember on the last hole I putted out and Arnold had about a 20-footer to win the tournament. I went over to him and said, man, if you ever made one, make this one, will you? He ran it about four feet by, and it looked like he was going to three-putt another one, but this time he made it. He three-putted everything that day. He should have won the tournament easily. He played beautifully, but putted awful.
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Bob Rosburg
Gambling, Gamblers and golf
First on GolfObserver: October 10, 2004
Bob Rosburg has never been averse to a little wager on a round of golf. He's also seen and played with a few characters who were known to get into some big-money games, like Martin "Fat Man" Stanovich, Smiley Quick, and a young Raymond Floyd.
Now as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie."
- GolfObserver editors
------------------------------------------------------------When I was growing up in San Francisco, there were a lot of good players around who liked to play money games. Of course, I didn't have much money as a teenager and my dad didn't want me to play for a lot. But I would get involved as somebody's partner, and if we won I would get 10 percent or something.
These weren't huge money games--$50 Nassaus or something like that. But it made you want to win. I think it was good. A lot of the kids in San Francisco in those days, Ken Venturi, who's three years younger than me, and George Archer, who came along later, used to play in that kind of game. I really think it made everybody a better player.
Nowadays, kids don't seem to play for any kind of money. They go to college on scholarship and they go first-class in airplanes. They're brought up in a different world.
One of the guys in San Francisco in those days was Martin Stanovich, who was known as the Fat Man. He could really play. I don't think he could play as well then as a younger man as he did later on when he started hustling everybody in Florida, but he was a good player.
I played with the Fat Man a lot in those days. Everybody called him a hustler, and in those early days he probably was. But he became a lot better player as he got older. I remember one winter, after Ed Furgol had won the U.S. Open in 1954, he played Stanovich for about two straight weeks, every day, down in Florida. He was giving Stanovich just one shot a side, and he was the National Open champion! And Stan was no kid then, he must have been close to 50.
Some people complained about Stanovich. But I knew him all of his life and he had a big heart, took care of a lot of people. Sure, he liked to beat you out of your money whether it was betting horses, basketball, football or anything. He probably won a lot of money playing golf, but he probably lost more betting the other things.
Another guy that I played with was Smiley Quick. He lived in Los Angeles, but I got to know him through amateur golf, starting in the 1940 California State Amateur when I was just 14. He was a feisty little guy. He was gruff. He just wanted to beat the hell out of you, whether you were 14 years old or 60, it didn't matter.
Smiley was a great gambler. He didn't have the greatest game in the world, but there's nobody who tried harder and was a better competitor. If you wanted to bet your life on a putt from 10 feet, you might have taken Smiley. He could really bear down, and he'd beat guys that were really a lot better players than he was.
Not that he was a stiff. He won the U.S. Public Links in 1946 and was runner-up in the U.S. Amateur the same year. Until Ryan Moore swept those events this year, Quick came the closest to doing it. He lost in the U.S. Amateur final on the 37th hole when he missed a three-foot putt. If it had been a big money match, I think he probably would have made it.
Smiley later turned pro when he was almost 40 and he played a lot of money games with Doug Ford, Dow Finsterwald, and Jerry Barber. Ford was a great player, a Masters champion, and Smiley held his own. Smiley was co-champion of the Bing Crosby Pro-Am one year, but he was better in a $1,000 Nassau than he was on the Tour. When everybody played for somebody else's money, that wasn't quite Smiley's forte. He liked to beat you out of your money.
The biggest money games I ever got into were with Raymond Floyd in his early years on the Tour. Raymond used to play for a lot of money. We would play around San Francisco, and he and I would be partners. These were games where you could lose $15,000 or $20,000 in a day. Of course, we usually had backers then. At the time, we didn't have that kind of money.
We'd win some and we'd lose some. It was a lot of fun, there was no animosity with the guys we played against. They were good friends of ours. Every time, no matter who won, we would go out and have dinner with them.
I had been on the Tour about 10 years when Raymond came along. We both liked the same things, we both liked to gamble and bet the horses. We liked to go out and have a few drinks, though Raymond was never a big drinker. We both liked baseball and got very close to the Dodgers and Cubs. It was a tremendous amount of fun for me. It kept me a lot younger, I think, than if I hadn't traveled with Raymond.
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Bob Rosburg
Thoughts on the Ryder Cup
First on GolfObserver: September 25, 2004
Others have had their say about the recent Ryder Cup matches. Here is what Bob Rosburg thought.
Now as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie."
- GolfObserver editors
--------------------------------------------------The victory by the European team at Oakland Hills gives them four wins in the last five Ryder Cup Matches. I think one reason that they might be better at team golf is that most players on the European Tour travel together, they stay in the same hotels, they eat together. They are a lot more friendly with each other than our guys.
The American players are more aloof. They travel to tournaments on private planes and you rarely see guys go to dinner together. They're 12 individuals and that makes it dificult for the captain to pair players in foursomes and four-balls. It didn't look like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were enjoying themselves out there.
The other thing is that our points system might not be giving us the players who are playing the best at the time. Points are given out over a two-year period, and this time it was three years because of the delay from 2001 to 2002, so there are some players on the team who piled up their points quite a while ago. Going into the match, it looked like our team wasn't playing as well.
Still, I don't think America losing the Ryder Cup is cause for any great alarm and I think our players and captains shouldn't be so harshly criticized. This isn't what the Ryder Cup should be. It's gotten to be way too much of a media frenzy. When guys are ready to jump into the ocean when they lose a match, I don't think that's quite right. I don't think that's what it should all be about.
I know Curtis Strange had a pretty rough time. He lost as a player and he lost as a captain. It's something he'll never live down. I just don't think it should be that big of a thing.
I only got to play in the Ryder Cup once, in 1959, and I think it's the best thing that ever happened to me. It was a nice, friendly game, where the guys really tried to win, but they also had a great time together. We had dinner every night with the British team. We got to meet some great people, and a lot of them are still my friends. I think that's what Samuel Ryder had in mind when he started the competition.
I would very much like to have been a Ryder Cup captain. That's one thing that really sticks in my craw. I thought I should have at least been considered, and I don't think I was. I had won the PGA Championship and the Club Pro Championship, I was the tournament chairman with the PGA, I was chairman of the policy board. It could have been that I was a little controversial. I don't think they should have ever looked down at you if you backed the split of the PGA Tour from the PGA of America, but I'm not sure that didn't have a little to do with it. I might have been a little controversial.
That's in the old days, though. I wouldn't like being a captain as much the way it is now. It's really a tough thing to be captain. You're subject to so much second-guessing.
I do think it was a little better this year. There was a little more camaraderie between the two teams and the gallery wasn't out of hand. I still think it's too much, though, and it puts too much pressure on everybody. It's gotten too late to scale it back. They sell too many tickets and I think there's too much greed involved as to how much money is made off of it. With the amount of tickets they sell, nobody can see, especially on Friday and Saturday when there are just four matches at a time.
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Bob Rosburg
The Temper Twins, Bob Rosburg & Tommy Bolt
First on GolfObserver: October 31, 2004
Bob Rosburg admits that he had trouble controlling his temper when he played on the PGA Tour. He earned more than his share of fines, but Rossie's exploits were overshadowed by the legendary tantrums of "Terrible Tommy" Bolt.
Now as Dave Marr said for almost three decades, "Back to you Rossie."
- GolfObserver editors
-----------------------------------------------When people think about players with a temper, they always think of Tommy Bolt. But I have to admit, I had a problem with my temper in my playing days, too. I could get just as mad as Tommy on the golf course. I usually just buried my clubs, I guess I didn't break as many as he did.
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I think both of us regret the way we handled things when we were younger. I don't know how much it bothered our careers. I don't think it ever caused me to lose a tournament. It probably did cause me to, instead of finishing fifth, finish 15th or something like that.
Tommy's temper might have cost him some tournaments. We both walked in a lot. I used to walk in, or not play the next day, when I played badly. But it didn't matter how he was playing. If he hit a couple of bad shots, he might walk in even if he was leading the tournament. I think it really cost Tommy a lot of money, way more than it cost me.
Both of us were pretty bad. The caddies used to say, how do you spell Rosburg? R-O-S-B-U-R-G-W-D. I'm not proud of it, and I wish I'd handled things differently. I wish I had finished every round. It's a hard thing to change once you start doing it. You do hurt a lot of people. I hurt myself and I hurt my family. It's something I deeply regret.
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As for Tommy, temper aside, he was the greatest player I ever saw hitting the ball. He could hit more shots than anybody, and he did it for a long, long time. I played a couple of rounds with him when he won the 1958 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, and he played so well it was scary. He ended up winning by four shots on a really hard golf course.
I didn't spend a lot of time with Tommy when we were on the Tour, but I've gotten to know him in senior golf. There's no sweeter guy in the world, he'd give you the shirt off his back. I think he's kind of sorry now. Of course, he's 86 years old, but he looks as good now as he did 20 years ago.
The greatest matches I ever had with Tommy in our playing days was in a made-for-television event called All-Star Golf. We had our first match at Crystal River in Florida, his home course, and I was one shot down going to the last hole. It started to pour rain. Tommy knocked his tee shot under a tree and he asked the referee for a drop because of casual water.
He probably should have gotten a drop, but they didn't give it to him. When he hit it, water shot up and everything. I ended up with a five-foot putt to beat him, and I missed it.
Then we came out to Palm Springs and played at La Quinta. I had some problems with my hand, and it had been in a cast for three months until just before the match. I hit balls for maybe three days before the match, but I couldn't hit a drive more than 200 yards. I told Jimmy Demaret, who was doing the announcing, Jimmy, you're really going to have to lie for me today.
Of course, I could still putt in those days. I one-putted 10 of the first 15 holes, and I was still two behind. Tommy was playing beautiful golf. Well, the 16th hole, he put it to eight feet, I put it to 40 feet, and I holed it. The 17th hole, I hit it to about 30 feet, he hit it to about six feet. Again, I holed it, he didn't, and now we're even. As we were walking to the 18th tee, he looked at the crowd and said, I'll tell you one thing (only he added an extra word), we're all lucky this is on television or nobody would believe it.
We tied the match, and it was so good they decided we should play again the next day. On the first hole, I made a 35-footer and he missed from 10 feet. He said, that's it, I'm done. He didn't walk in, of course, he kept playing, and I played well and beat him. Those were a great three matches.
I got fined a bunch of times for things I did on Tour. When I buried a club, I always said I was just trying to show the caddie where the divot was, but that was a lie. I didn't throw too many clubs, but when you throw them, you want to throw them ahead of you. That's one thing I had to tell Jim Garner, the actor, when we played together at the Crosby one year.
It was raining, a miserable day. We were playing at Monterey Peninsula, and we had a pretty good crowd watching us. Jim hit a bad shot at the 15th, and I'll never forget it. He started to throw the club, but at the last second hr decided not to and tried to hang onto it. He hung on, but then it slipped out at the end and whistled right over the people's heads in the gallery. Everybody was shocked, and he was just mortified.
The caddie said, I'm not going back to get that club. So, Jim had to walk back and get it. And I said, Jim, you've got to always throw them the way you're walking. It's a lot easier to pick up.
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