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.
1 comment
McHacker --- May 15th, 2009 12:20 pm
| Thanks for this Sal. Loved Rossie's work for GO. |
