Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
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.
|
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."
|
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.
0 comments
