UPON FURTHER REVIEW
Almost three weeks into my “off season” and I’ve had some time to look back on the 20 weeks spent on the road with CBS this year. A few themes have emerged, so here’s my personal take:
Chasing Fowl Photography
First, travel. I’ve been a bit of a road warrior since I was a toddler—bouncing all over as Dad played professional baseball, so travel is the norm. This season’s 20 weeks entailed 45 flight legs, 88 car rental days, and seven “drive trips” to tournaments. All of this movement and only three significant cancellations or mixups. Maybe I should have labeled this first theme “luck” instead!
Second, weather. It felt like we worked through everything imaginable and while a bit of an exaggeration, we definitely had our fair share of highs/lows and precipitation. A wacky frozen mix at Pebble Beach in February was followed by a Masters week that saw a high of 89 degrees on Wednesday afternoon and a windchill of 37 Sunday morning when play resumed after 2+ inches of rain fell between Saturday and that chilling Easter morning restart. Late spring and summer were relatively predictable but then we closed the season with the heat of the last four weeks, topping out with an index of 113 in Memphis for the first event of the playoffs. Kudos to everyone on the team for their resilience, creativity, fitness and patience working through it all as suspensions, delays and restarts were plentiful. I was pretty convinced our Jim Nantz had become The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore at one point!
Third, appreciation. Not only appreciation for the job I have and the front row seat (literally) to watch the best in the world, but appreciation for the insight I was able to gather and share from the players’ teachers and supporters. From Pete Cowan talking about what makes Brooks Koepka’s swing fire or mis-fire during the PGA Championship to Julie Elion letting me pick her brain about her work with Wyndham Clark and Max Homa from a performance coach’s perspective or Kourtney Schenk simply sharing how fatherhood has changed Adam’s perspective on the game and daily routine, I love continuing to learn what makes these players excel (or fail) and how to more quickly be able to identify their tendencies while sharing that concisely with the viewer. I particularly treasure the contact I’ve made this year with Randy Smith, Scottie Scheffler’s long-time swing coach… not because of the insight to the mechanics they consistently work on, but because of his delivery: no-nonsense but nurturing, simple yet superior. Such similarities to my relationship with George Pulver—it is almost as if I am talking to Mr. Pulver again when I talk or text with Randy.
Rupert at Pebble Beach
Finally, the simple things. The simple things like taking Rupert to Pebble Beach (with his PGA Tour credential that got him better access than mine, of course), having your niece at a tournament with you for the first time in over 20 years at the PGA Championship, sharing a home with one of the greatest storytellers of all time, Verne Lundquist, for Masters week, an after-dinner trip around the Wee Links at North Berwick with laughter aplenty and a rainbow in the sky, and the exquisite sound of Rory McIlroy perfectly struck 2-iron on the final hole of the Scottish Open, setting up a final hole birdie to win by a shot. The hair on the back of my neck stood up with that one!
Wee Links at North Berwick | Scotland
Just a bit more than four months before we begin again at Torrey Pines.
Thank you all of for spending so much of your time with us. While this rest and reset is great, we’ll all be itching to get back at it on January 26.
