JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When I took my first job at WCBD in Charleston, S.C. in 1978, I really didn?t know what to expect. I knew I really liked sports, and although my plans of playing third base for the Orioles or winning the Heisman at Notre Dame didn?t come true, I wanted to stay close to the games.
I started in May of that year, so I missed a lot of the spring sports in the Southeast, golf, tennis and most of the spring football games. Charleston had a Single A baseball team that was an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, the College of Charleston had a very competitive basketball team under not quite yet legendary coach John Kresse (he was actually brand new that year) and the Citadel played Division I sports across the board and they were also accepting women so that was a pretty hot topic.
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Charleston was the 138 largest market in the country, but sometimes jumped up to 120 when enough people from Hilton Head and Beaufort watched us instead of Savannah television. WCBD was (and is) Channel 2 and was an ABC affiliate at the time. We were a distant number three in the ratings. Tom Allen hired me. He was the news director as well as the main anchor and was a very good teacher. Reasonable, patient, not really that much older than me and a dedicated Texas Tech Red Raider fan. He always encouraged me to get out and do things and saw that I really liked the job.
It was a ?one man band? operation. I anchored and reported the sports but I also ran the camera, typed the ?Chyron? on the screen (the baseball scores and such that appear), produced the shows and generally stayed busy.
Tom let me cover all kinds of stuff, even buying my trip to New York to cover the Yankees weekend series against the Tigers over the July 4th weekend in 1978. At the time, the Yankees were 14 games back and dysfunctional as any team you?d ever seen. Of course, they became legendary for their dysfunctional comeback and subsequent World Series championship as well.
Future LPGA Hall of Famer Beth Daniel was just coming out of Furman, so I covered a lot of her preparation and qualifying for the Tour.
Being from Baltimore and Washington, which was mostly a ?pro market,? but Charleston was full of college sports with a big competition in town always between the University of South Carolina and Clemson. I morphed into a college football fan, covering both the Gamecocks and the Tigers and got indoctrinated into NASCAR for the first time.
I don?t know how, but right after the first of the year (I actually covered the Gator Bowl debut of Danny Ford as the Clemson Head Coach and the famous punch by Woody Hayes. I had played football at Clemson in my freshman year and knew a bunch of guys still on the team) I received an envelope in the mail, addressed to me with the return address simply ?Augusta National Golf Club.? I was being invited to cover the Masters that spring.
Channel 2 hadn?t had credentials for a while because of a rules violation. I jumped at the chance to go to Augusta and sent my credential application, along with a request for a photographer in the mail the next day. I was amazed when it was approved a couple of weeks later with a letter I had to hand carry to the Masters Press Center.
I didn?t have a photographer, but I did have a photo credential so I invited my dad to come along as my ?shooter.? He obliged and we rented a house through the Masters Housing Bureau for the week. I was pretty amazed with all that went along with the Masters and Augusta National. From the access they gave me with my credential to the spectacular beauty and nuance you couldn?t see on television.
When Fuzzy Zoeller won in a playoff on the 11th hole, for some reason the Augusta member who had Fuzzy in the cart brining him back to the clubhouse drove right up to me as I stood between the 10th and 1st tees. It was dark, so I had to flip a light on that looked like a flashlight overtop the industrial camera I had brought along.
As Zoeller walked over, I heard this voice, that I recognized as my dad?s, say quietly ?I don?t see him.? Fuzzy stood there as I turned around, grabbed the camera and pointed it at him. The eyepiece had come loose and while my dad was looking straight ahead, the camera had drooped straight down toward the ground! ?Oh, there he is,? my dad said matter-of-factly.
I asked Fuzzy a question about him winning and his wife being days away from delivering their first child. After his answer, I brought the mic back toward me and out of nowhere and into the pool of light my camera was throwing, dozens of other microphones appeared with all kinds of international markings on them. I thought to my self, ?Wow, this is a big deal!?
Over the years I?ve seen the Masters grow both in coverage, stature and impact on golf and sports in general. I?m in the 1981 yearbook waiting for an interview with Tom Watson. I?ve gotten the chance to play there a few times both as a guest, as a CBS guest and as a media member.
The number of media members has exploded; the physical grounds have changed dramatically. The press area is now a beautiful, technologically advanced building with the best of everything. Before, it was a Quonset hut where the clatter of typewriters could be heard at all hours. Sage, grizzled writers held court there and then at the Surrey Tavern at the top of the hill on Berkman.
Now beautiful homes have been built nearly adjacent to the National to host parties for that one-week a year. The golf course is more difficult, longer, but even more perfectly maintained than ever before. But the place still has its charm and tradition that don?t go away. The hospitality is unmatched. And polite is part of the culture. But yes is still yes and no is still no. Firmly, politely but resolute.
Year to year, the golf varies, mostly because of the set-up and the weather. This year both were perfect. And we were treated to some of the best golf in the history of the tournament. In one hour stretch on Saturday, there were more eagles and birdies and great swings than I can remember in one short stretch.
Phil Mickelson?s eagle-eagle-birdie (near eagle) stretch from 13 through 15 set him up as a force on the golf course with momentum. And he took advantage of it. Mickelson won his third green jacket with some superb play, some great scrambling, a hot putter, some imagination and a willingness to believe he could get it done.
Mickelson himself says he feels different when he gets to Augusta. That the golf course makes him feel good about his game.
Having been there for 32 Masters. I know what he means.