here's a nice excerpt about venturi in a past issue of golf digest...

When Byron Nelson was unable to be the honorary starter at the 1983 Masters, he asked me to fill in for him. Of course I agreed. After Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and I teed off, we decided to play the front nine. Much to my surprise, I made four birdies and one bogey and made the turn at 33. Boy, did I hit it good. My imagination started flying. "Gene, I want us to keep playing," I said. "I can lead this tournament." Sarazen saw the desire in my eyes, and we started walking toward No. 10. Suddenly, Gene stopped. "On second thought, to ---- with it," he said. "You can't lead anything, Venturi. Let's get some lunch." I just followed Gene into the clubhouse, like a puppy.

:-))

twitb (Tiger Woods is the Bomb!)   love it!!  :-)

but yeah.  i see what you are saying.  your

dad probably knew him as an announcer

way before i even heard of him.   i only got

to see who he was, as Tiger turned pro.

i think Sr. said Venturi and Nantz worked

together and yes. they were smooth as

Feherty stated in his tweet.   lol !!

but i appreciated his knowledge of golf. 

i mean.   the man knows his golf.  and i

appreciated his view of Tiger.   his early

comments about Tiger could be a little edgy,

(as was the case for many of the commentators, etc. )

but he was also the one who said of Tiger,

and of what Tiger could accomplish,

"that all things were possible." 

so.   i guess by the time i started

seeing him, he had matured quite a bit.   :-)

i was also surprised to learn that he kinda

of hob-nobbed with many of the celebrities

of that era, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra,

Dean Martin, etc.

:-)

TIGER WOODS IS THE BEST!

twitb,

thanks for the excerpt!!!

enjoyed it.

but with the problems Venturi

had with hands, and him playing as a

honorary starter,  and then  making

four birdies too.......   :-)

who knows what could have

happened.  

:-)

TIGER WOODS IS THE BEST!

yes.   Nantz and Venturi together announcing golf were smooth.

some of their early comments about Tiger were edgy and irritating,

but eventually,  they both spoke highly of Tiger.   

:-)

TIGER WOODS IS THE BEST!

Yes when Tiger was winning a lot Nantz liked him.
The past couple yrs Nantz has been one of the wedgy boys from sitting on the fence. As I see it.
For awhile in the past 2 1/2 yrs he was down on Tiger big time, lately he is up and down.

Sr.

i have heard that about Nantz and i am sorry to hear it.

another great couple of commentators who covered

Tiger were Curtis Strange and Mike Tiriko. (spelling)

Strange was a little edgy in his early comments but

also later spoke highly of Tiger.    Tiriko spoke well

of Tiger.   it was good to see them both again

commentating at the Masters this weekend.

:-)

TIGER WOODS IS THE BEST!

I have seen Curtis Strange and Mike Tirico work together a few times, like at this yrs Masters they do a really good job.

I don't think Tirico could say a bad word about anybody even if he wanted to.

Doesn't seem to have an axe to grind like so many of today's commentators.

Tirico seems like a really nice guy.

i don't think he knew that much

about golf when he started, but

he hung in and he and Strange

became a great team together.

:-)

TIGER WOODS IS THE BEST!

I recorded the show; but I have not watched it yet.

 I remember watching Ken Venturi win the 1964 US Open at Congressional. At that time, they played 36 holes on Saturday. Because of the unusual high temperatures that year, Ken really struggled with heat exhaustion, almost collapsing several times. The doctors on site wanted him to quit after 18 holes. After that us open, they changed it to have only 18 holes each day. Good for Tiger in 2008, I'm not sure he could have done 36 holes on Saturday.

If you remember back in 1998, I believe the old Phoenix open, Tiger got about a dozen fans ( not patrons) to move a large rock out of his line. Ken went crazy about it, saying that it was embedded. Anyway, it is still one of the funniest things that ever happened in a tournament with Tiger.