PART THREE: Favorite players to cover and memorable great moments
Is there a player in particular who has been your favorite to cover?
Scott Michaux: I started covering golf in 1997 when Tiger became the biggest story in sports. He has not let us down in terms of newsworthiness in the last 22 years. He has always been the No. 1 newsmaker in golf, for good or bad. Even when he’s injured, he’s the most talked about guy in golf. So I’ve really enjoyed covering the entire arc of his career from the highs and lows. You know it’s just it’s been a great challenge. It’s been a lot of fun. And you know people are reading it.
Dave Shedloski: I’m an Ohio guy, so Jack Nicklaus has always been my favorite. During my time, that was the player that I was most interested in and also who I identified with as an Ohioan. I’ve actually written two books with him and I’ve come to be pretty good friends with him, too.
Lorne Rubenstein: I’m old enough, so I was lucky enough to be around when Jack Nicklaus was still playing well and when he won that ‘86 Masters. But definitely right up there is one of my favorites, being Canadian, Mike Weir. I wrote a book about him winning the Masters. Then I got to know Tiger over the years, 2017 coming up to the 20th anniversary of his win on the ‘97 Masters when he was only 21 years old and wanted by 12 shots. I was there covering that and wrote a book with him about that Masters.
Jason Sobel: Not necessarily at the Masters, that doesn’t really change on a week-in and week-out basis. I wouldn’t say, “Hey, this guy at the Masters is the guy.” I will say, a big story for a few years we were doing the opening ceremonial first two shots. We go out there, at 8 o’clock in the morning, and they do the first two shots. Then they come into the interview room, and three of them would tell old stories for an hour and a half while everyone soaked it in.
Geoff Shackelford: Tiger Woods obviously brings a different level of excitement, but also many other former champions are great with their time when it comes to Augusta, like Adam Scott and Ben Crenshaw.
Melanie Hauser: I really don’t have favorite players because if you have a favorite player, then you’re ignoring some of the other players. But, I think everybody will tell you that I’m close to Crenshaw.
What was your favorite Masters moment?
Doug Ferguson: Third round, 1998. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m on the back nine. Jack Nicklaus at age 58 is hanging around, making birdies, moving his way up the leaderboard. On the 15th hole, there was a huge leaderboard with names on the left and their scores to par on the right under each hole. It was time for a change. They removed the numbers on one line, and then the name. They replaced it with new numbers that showed a string of birdies.
A green 2 (green was over par), a green 1, a 0, and then a red 1 (under par), red 2, etc. All that was left was the name. They pulled the slot back and 20,000 people went silent, waiting to see who’s name was going on the board. One voice — one — screamed out, “It’s Nicklaus!” And 20,000 people erupted in the loudest, spine-tingling cheer I have ever heard.
Steve DiMeglio: Jack is 58 years old. I’m in the living room with a bunch of my friends, and I swear only three of us were golfers. The other seven weren’t really golfers. But we were on the edge of our seat as we watched this 58-year-old Golden Bear almost win another Masters. That will always stick with me.
Sobel: It wasn’t one I covered. I’m a little too young, but I kind of remember Jack winning it in ’86. Phil back in ’04, that was the year before I started covering golf, I started covering golf a few months after that. I thought that was a really cool moment. I’ve got to know Phil really well over the last few years so, looking back, I really like that one. It would have to be my first one in ’05 when Tiger hit that chip on the 16. That’s probably 80 percent of the answers that you’ll get from people is that shot by Tiger. The next day I was lucky enough to get the chance to play. I got into the media lottery and played Augusta the next day.
Rubenstein: The 2003 Masters that Mike Weir won, the Canadian, because I was down there. He was playing well that year already and had won two tournaments already, but he was still coming in a bit under the radar. As I recall it, they didn’t even bring him into the press room before the tournament. He was ranked. One of the top players in the world and maybe even had gotten up to number three.
So anyway, I went to that Masters 2003 and I didn’t even have a contract for the book; we were just talking it. Then he won the Masters. So we changed the book to be called “Mike Weir: The Road to The Masters” and he gave me his full cooperation to help. It was exciting as a Canadian. It was the first time a Canadian man had won one of the four majors.
Michaux: Obviously, that first Tiger win was one of the most memorable Masters in history. He won by 12 strokes. On that Sunday, the clubhouse staff, many of them African-Americans, walked out on the balconies and walked out of the clubhouse to watch him walk to the first tee and tee off. Lee Elder flew up from his home and got a speeding ticket trying to get to Augusta. He was the first African-American to play in the Masters and he was ready to see the first African-American win the Masters. So it really was a historic and socially important moment for the sport and for the tournament. So that will always be my number one.
But I really have enjoyed other ones. Phil Mickelson winning his first one in 2004. The eruption of noise when he sank the winning putt on the last green and Ernie Els was standing there anticipating a playoff on the practice putting green behind him. I could see both of them from where I was sitting on these little bleachers that they used to have for us on 18. I saw Ernie’s shoulders slump. I don’t think he was ever the same after that. It really sort of crushed him that he wasn’t going to get his chance to go on to a playoff for the Masters.
Shedloski: I’d have to say Phil Mickelson’s win in 2004. It was his first major and he had been trying to win it for so long.
Shackelford: 1986 for sure. I was there all week with my dad and have memorized the broadcast thanks to my mom recording it on a VCR.
Hauser: Both of Ben’s [Crenshaw] Masters were. With the first one, with his wife and getting divorced. With the second one, the death of Harvey Penick, his long-time teacher who I also knew. Those two were great moments.
What moments can you recall seeing or hearing the crowd get most excited for?
Shackelford: When the ball hits the green and rolls or feeds to the hole, that’s one thing making it a different course than others. We all know the contours by now so when we see a shot hit that seems far away, but we know it can feed to the hole, there’s nothing more dramatic.
Ferguson: Tiger making a front-nine charge in 2011 was pretty dynamic, and there was one moment that explains why the sound of the Masters is underrated. We started out with the last group that day, and then Charl Schwartzel holed out for eagle on No. 3 and a lot of cheers were going on, and we figured we had better head back in. We had to wait to cross the fairway on the par-5 eighth hole, and while we couldn’t see the green beyond the rise in the hill, we heard an enormous roar. The marshal said Tiger had just come through. I know the Masters well enough to tell our columnist, “Tiger just made eagle.” He had done just that.
This is where it gets cool. We heard a huge cheer by the 18th green. And then another cheer from down around Amen Corner. Another cheer by the sixth hole. Another one by the 15th hole. Tiger had reached 10 under and was tied for the lead. The pockets of cheers we heard was from the gallery every time they posted his score on those leaderboards.
Rubenstein: In 1986, when I was down by the 15th green par five. I had gone up there and I watched some as Nicklaus eagled the 15th hole and then Seve Ballesteros, the great Spanish player, one of my favorites of all time, hit it in the water. I think he was playing behind Nicklaus. I mean there was kind of a gigantic roar for Nicklaus when he made that putt for the eagle. And as you can put it this way, there was a gigantic sigh of disappointment. There were two such dramatic moments, basically side by side, within a very few minutes of one another.
DiMeglio: In 2011, the earth shook. I was as close as I could get to the eighth green, and Tiger made eagle. That tied him for the lead. And that is the loudest noise I’ve ever heard at a golf tournament. The earth shook. My heart was beating out of its chest. Your ears hurt. That I’ll never forget. He didn’t win that year, obviously, but that moment when he eagled eight. He walked over to the ninth tee. It’s a very short walk for them, maybe 20 yards. And the place was just still going bonkers.
What do you remember from Bubba Watson’s miracle shot in 2012?
Shedloski: I remember thinking he was crazy for attempting this shot. But obviously, I was proven wrong because it turned out to be one of the best shots golf has ever seen. That was special.
Shackelford: Just how much the ball drew from left to right. I still can’t fathom how he did it and every day you walk down the 10th hole there are always patrons there looking at the shot! Still.
Ferguson: We thought the tournament was over and Louis Oosthuizen was going to win. He swings and you’re waiting for the thwack! of ball hitting tree. And it was stunning to see it not only hit the green, but spin to about 15 feet away. Can’t think of a more dramatic recovery.
Sobel: One of my favorite stories I’ve ever written. I had a guy named Chris, who had sent me an email earlier in the week, it was kind of a cryptic email. He was a golf fan, and asked if there were any cool spots you know about that are hidden on the golf course? I said, “I don’t know what you’re asking, what are you getting at?” He said, “I got my grandfather’s ashes, he lived in Georgia and was a huge golf fan. He loved the University of Georgia, and I want to put his ashes out.” I said, “Man, I know a lot of good places.” I may have suggested the trees over on hole 10, that would be cool.
He came up on Wednesday that week for a practice round. He brought his grandfather’s ashes in a plastic bag and placed them by the trees on the 10th hole. I didn’t think much about it, I was like that’s really cool and a nice story. Five days later, Bubba wins the Masters by hitting a shot from the trees on number 10. Of course, he was from the University of Georgia. I was thinking about Bubba and what stories I’m going to write. I got an email from Chris that said, “Wow, how cool is that? That is right in the spot where I put my grandfather’s ashes. He was a huge Georgia fan, he would have loved that.”
Michaux: The Bubba shot was just remarkable. By that point though, late in the day, when you have a playoff, very few media members are out on the golf course anymore because it’s getting so close to a deadline that you got to get back in there and start writing and you end up watching it on the broadcast. I was not actually out there for the playoff and that was the second playoff also. So you know by that point you’re hoping that they’re going to finish before darkness because if they go to another hole they’re really pushing that. Only the magazine guys who might not have a deadline immediately are out there.
DiMeglio: He hit it way right and we had no idea where it was. The one thing he had going for him was that he knew he was in trouble as he walked down the hill. He was way, way back. Bubba knew bogey could keep this playoff going. Louis is in the fairway but he’s not exactly in great shape. That calmed Bubba down, he later told me. Bubba’s lucky. He could have not done that shot if he was in the left side of the fairway, because he needed it to hook. We were just shocked as we were watching this. I’m on a deadline so I immediately start writing the lead: ‘Bubba Watson with the miracle shot out of the woods wins the Masters.’ It’s one of the best shots and most memorable shots in the history of the Masters.
PART ONE: First tournaments and the Masters’ popularity.
PART TWO: What is it like to cover the Masters in person?
PART THREE: Favorite players to cover and memorable great moments.
PART FOUR: Collapses and controversies.
PART FIVE: Tiger Woods’ impact on the Masters
