MT: Some people will hit me with what I said before Van de Velde’s putt in ’99. I said, you root for no one, you root against no one, but somehow you have to hope this goes in, because I didn’t want to see the guy not get a chance to win. That was a 25-minute just calamity just unfolding in front of your eyes. That was just incredible, with Bob Rosburg and Curtis Strange kind of leading the conversation from the ground in the booth, and I was in the middle of their conversation for the most part.
Jim McKay was with us. It was his second to last Open. McKay was sitting five feet behind me, and I’m like, it’s my third Open and we’ve got a calamity happening of legendary proportions and you just want to do the right thing and say the right thing, and I’ve got one of the icons, one of my idols like right behind me, not over my shoulder but really right behind me, and we got done with that, and McKay came over – we went through the break before the playoff, and Jim walked over, put his hand on my shoulder and he said, you’ll probably never see anything like that again, and you did a great job. That was like the best compliment I’ve ever gotten in this business.
I always like Tiger’s call here: He’s won them all, the Grand Slam, the youngest man in the history of the game.
And then when he did the career Grand Slam here the second time, I said, Tiger has won the Grand Slam again, completed the Grand Slam again at St Andrews.
Those kind of couple of things.
Yeah, I never was a stamp-the-call kind of guy. It’s just kind of react to the moment more than anything else, but those are a couple, and they’re all Opens.
I mean, I’m blessed to be associated with this thing for a quarter century. People who don’t come over here don’t get it. Even if you golf you understand it, but until you’re here, you don’t get it.
Q. Why do you think that is?
MT: I think it looks like golf played on the moon a little bit, right? And until you play links golf, until you truly understand how people fall in love with this, and to leave the first tee area, this is where it all started. This is why we play 18 holes. This is where every golf scorecard says out and in, because it’s out of town, in town. It’s everything right here. Until you get to experience it, I don’t think people can fully appreciate it.
It’s not their issue, it’s just hard to look at this and imagine it until you’re here. Until you stand in a bunker that’s half to three quarters your height if not taller than you, you just can’t get it.
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish