An Interview with Curtis Strange
The two-time U.S. Open winnter and recent Hall of Fame inductee talks about fishing, golf, and life as a 'pretty doggone normal' guy on the Crystal Coast.
by David Hall
During his best years on the PGA Tour, Curtis Strange was dubbed “The Piranha” by Lee Trevino, who added, “If he gets the chance he’ll eat you up.”
And Strange didn’t go hungry, especially in the 1980s, when he was widely regarded as the best golfer in the world. His three PGA Tour
money titles and 16 of 17 career victories during the decade, along with U.S. Open championships in 1988 and ’89—he’s still the only man to win back-to-back Opens since Ben Hogan in ’50 and ’51—back up the notion that Strange was perhaps the closest thing there was to the Tiger Woods of his day.
In 1988, Strange won four times and became the first PGA Tour player to eclipse the $1 million mark in a season. He was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year. He played on five Ryder Cup teams, and he was the U.S. captain in 2002. But after the ’89 Open, he never won again.
Growing frustrated with his game, Strange turned his attention to a TV career. He spent eight years as an ABC golf analyst, sitting
alongside Mike Tirico. Strange’s most notable moment as a broadcaster came in 1999, when he famously called Jean van de Velde’s
historic meltdown at the British Open, as it unfolded, “the stupidest thing in sports.”
Strange and ABC parted ways in 2004, the year he and his wife, Sarah, a New Bern native, moved to Morehead City full-time. The network wanted Strange to spend the first part of his 50s—potentially the most lucrative years of a Champions Tour career—in the broadcast booth. In exchange, Strange wanted guaranteed years after that, and the sides couldn’t reach an agreement.
Strange joined the senior circuit in 2005, and while he hasn’t yet won, he’s finished in the top 10 four times. An avid fisherman—he and
Sarah and their two sons had vacationed on the Crystal Coast for years before they bought a house here—Strange has had his interest
split between the driving range and his boat, the Lady Sarah.
Last November, Strange was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, an honor he described during his induction speech as “beyond any dream one could have.”
Strange was born Jan. 30, 1955, in Norfolk, Va.. His father, Tom, was a club pro in Virginia Beach who died of cancer when Strange and his twin brother, Allan, were 14.
Strange went to Wake Forest University on an Arnold Palmer Scholarship. Even then, the intensity for which he was known during his
professional career was becoming apparent. “He’s the only player I’ve known who plays better when he’s mad,” his college coach, the late Jesse Haddock, once said.
At Wake Forest, Strange won the NCAA individual title in 1974. The Demon Deacons won the team title that year and repeated in 1975,
winning by the largest margin in tournament history. The ’75 team, which included Strange, individual champ Jay Haas, David Thore and Bob Byman, was dubbed the greatest college team of all time by GolfWorld magazine in 2001.
As a pro, Strange saw the advent of early-round TV broadcasts and boom mics, a combination that, along with a tendency to express
himself freely when he was struggling, cost him thousands in fines and helped earn him a reputation as one of the game’s more fiery
players.
Today, Strange splits his time between playing on the Champions Tour, working on his game and enjoying his boat. He is on the board of directors of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament. He’s passionate about his involvement in the Calcutta Wahoo Challenge, a local fishing tournament that benefits the Take A Kid Fishing Foundation and Hospice of Carteret County.
From 1990-2000, Strange ran the Curtis Strange Shrine Classic in New Bern, a charity event in which he’d invite three celebrity golfers to play a round with him at The Emerald. Guests over the years included Michael Jordan, Arnold Palmer, Nancy Lopez and Tiger Woods, who played in the final event. In all the Classic raised more than $1 million for Shriners Hospitals and burn centers.
Children have long held a special place in Strange’s heart. He ended his Hall of Fame induction speech with a plea to pass the game on. “We will do that by continuing to give the kids a chance to play,” he said, “because there’s a young boy or girl out there who is dreaming, dreaming about winning their Open.” Clearly, he feels the same way about fishing.
Crystal Coast Magazine’s David Hall sat down with Strange at his Morehead City home, shortly before Strange left to do TV analysis at the U.S. Open in San Diego. The Open was to be Strange’s first foray into broadcasting in several years, and he was excited about returning. “I found Strange to be extremely sharp, passionate and opinionated on a wide range of topics, from fishing to golf to TV to baseball,” Hall reports. “But the most striking thing was how cordial he was. He’s been known to shoot down a dumb question, but he answered everything, and then some. We spent nearly two hours together, much of it just chatting and laughing about this or that. It felt less like an interview than a friendly visit.”
Below are excerpts from the interview, in which Strange talks about the appeal of fishing, golfing with presidents, the van de Velde
incident, what a U.S. Open winner gets to keep and life as a famous person on the Crystal Coast.
Crystal Coast Magazine: What’s your schedule like these days? You haven’t done TV for a while, but you’re getting more into
playing, right?
Curtis Strange: Well, I’ve been playing since I turned 50, on the senior tour, playing 20 weeks a year. I’m busy corporately another two
or three weeks, four weeks. Last year I was on the road probably 24 weeks or so. That was plenty. I’ll play about 18 or 19 (events) this
year, work the Open for TV. Things are about the same. I’ll be on the road about 24 weeks again. It’s part of my life. I don’t mind the road too much. It’s just kind of something I’ve always done. I’m staying busy—just try to stay busy. And then come home and fish and hang out and catch up. Next thing I know, the year’s gone by.
CCM: And you’re on the Big Rock board?
CS: Yeah. They asked me to do that. Moving into a new community, I’m the outsider. I’ve always been very careful. I tread lightly. And
they asked me to do that, and as much as I enjoy fishing and knew most of the people on the board, I said, “Sure, that would be a great
way for me to get involved in the community and the fishing and promoting the fishery and conservation and the whole thing.” So I said yes, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve learned a great deal. Fishing tournaments are very much like golf tournaments as far as running the background. There’s a lot of leg work and a lot of details, most of which the fishermen and the golfers never see. But it’s very similar--promotion, the events, the planning.
We do the Wahoo Challenge specifically to raise money for two charities. I did the golf thing in New Bern for 11 years. And you want to do something; I didn’t want to get involved in another golf event, so we’re doing the fishing event to raise some money. I’ve enjoyed it. I mean, the people are fantastic down here. They’re very nice—small town, small fishing village, kind of. It’s been a lot of fun.
CCM: You could live anywhere in the world, I assume.
CS: Yeah, as long as there’s a decent airport by, and that’s questionable here. (Laughs) It’s all give and take, and it’s all where you want to live. I lived in Williamsburg for 28 years. The kids grew up there. Same thing there: We didn’t have a great airport, but you live where you want to live. That’s the good part of my profession: I can live anywhere I want. We chose this because Sarah’s from here. We enjoy the water. We always have. We’ve vacationed down here since we’ve been married, which will be 31 years. (He raises his voice and says, “Thirty-one or -two years?” Sarah replies from the next room, “It’ll be 32.”) Going on 32 years. We’ll be here for a long time. We’ll be here forever because we enjoy it. My life has revolved around more of a rat race—playing golf and traveling in and out, the hotels, the restaurants, every week a different city for going on 32 years. So it’s nice to come home to a quiet community, and that’s what Williamsburg was all those years, a smaller community, the same as Morehead and Beaufort. So we enjoy it.
CCM: How long have you been fishing?
CS: I’ve been fishing since I got on tour. A couple of friends on tour got me started back in ’76. I just kind of picked it up, one thing after another. I enjoyed it. It was a way for me to get away from golf and do something else outdoors. One thing evolved after another. You go from little fish to big fish and cheap fish to expensive fish. I didn’t fish as much; when I was on the road for 30 weeks a year or more, it was tough. But when I did get home, I enjoyed the fishing. Sarah’s always been great about letting me go. It’s just a way to get away-- escape and get off by yourself. I enjoy fishing by myself, just to get away. You can think. Quiet time. I’ve always enjoyed that part of it. Now when you get into off-shore fishing and big fishing, that’s great fun. I enjoy the fishing. I enjoy everything about it. I enjoy running the boat, but I enjoy the boat itself. My boat is my pride and joy. But I also enjoy the backwater fishing where it is quiet—more like bass fishing, and not an all-day affair. I enjoy everything about it. It’s what keeps me busy at home. There’s a project every day with the boats,and I enjoy that.
CCM: You hunt, too, right?
CS: Yeah, I don’t hunt as much as I used to, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I enjoy the guys. I guess that’s a part of the hunting and the
fishing: You enjoy the people and the camaraderie, and it’s totally so different. Most of the people don’t play golf, and they don’t give a
rat’s ass that you play golf. We’re all the same. In a duck blind at 7 o’clock in the morning freezing your tail off, nobody cares about what everybody else does, and it’s just fun. Same thing in fishing. It’s just an escape, something else outdoors to get away from the game.
CCM: Do you think you could fish professionally?
CS: No. I have said this, and I hope you write this: I would never, never think about insulting the professional fishermen and think about
saying that I am on par with them. I enjoy my fishing. I catch fish. I try to catch fish. But I am in no way, shape or form on the same level of people that do it for a living. There’s more to it than meets the eye. The more I get into it, the more I learn, the more there is to learn. I learn from them. And I keep my eyes and ears open. There’s always something to learn. There’s always a new rigging technique. There’s always something going on. And I listen, and I watch. And that’s fun for me, to learn something new. I’ve been getting into a lot of red fishing the last two years, and that’s kind of a new technique in water and tides and boats. That’s just another example of something else you can learn in this area. You know, the fishing—we forget, and I think the people in this area take it for granted how good this fishery is in Morehead and Beaufort and Atlantic Beach. Maybe other than Hatteras, it’s the best fishing on the East Coast. That’s why we have the Big Rock. That’s why we have the wahoo tournament. That’s why there’s a tournament every weekend. There’s fish out here 12 months a year when you include the bluefin in the winter months, whereas in Virginia, we were striper fishing, bass fishing. A lot of guys blue fished. But offshore fishing is not near as prolific as it is down here. There’s offshore fishing boats, but it’s not near as good. So I enjoy the learning and the process of everything. I really actually do. And the (boat captains) have been nice to me. They have their group, and they’ve included me, which is very nice and hospitable because they don’t have to. And they know I’m serious about it, too. I guess when you’re competitive, you try hard. You lose a nice fish, you get pissed off. (Laughs) Somebody screwed up. We don’t go too much that way, but it’s fun. It’s competitive—especially some of the tournaments, very much so. But it’s still fishing. My God, there’s luck involved, but I guess there’s luck involved in golf, too.
CCM: You mentioned the wahoo tournament and the charities that it benefits. What are those?
CS: Take a Kid Fishing Foundation and the Future Hospice House of Carteret County. (The Hospice) is such a worthwhile, needed
department of this county. We’ve all used Hospice. Sarah’s father just died six months ago, and they were wonderful. They truly are
angels. They’re just people who come in and deal with the end of life. So we actually like to say we deal with both ends of the spectrum: the kids and fishing, and the end of life. It’s been very rewarding to try to get that working, to get that going more than it already is in this county. We’re doing well.
CCM: Why is it important to teach kids to fish?
CS: Well, it’s the same as teaching kids to play golf. It’s the next generation. And the Take A Kid Fishing Foundation, they take more or less underprivileged kids and give them a chance to experience fishing, where otherwise they might not have been able to at this point and time in their life. They bring in over a thousand kids in one day and fish right around here. They get head boats, charter boats, private boats to take these kids fishing. It’s just a way for them to get out of their environment and experience something else. It’s been widely successful, and the kids have had a ball. I think the adults have just as much fun or more fun than the kids. It’s wonderful, it really is. And the same thing with golf: That’s the future. That’s your investment in the future. It’s the same in anything: You’ve got to educate the kids and give them a chance to experience other things, especially with the underprivileged. Fishing is just like golf—expensive. But you can still go out and cast a line right out here and enjoy fishing. It’s very worthwhile, and to see the faces on the kids is just extraordinary, it really is. They have a ball.
CCM: Have you seen a correlation between fishing and golf? If you’re good at golf, does it help you be good at fishing?
(Strange pauses.) And have you every heard a stupider question?
CS: No, it’s a fair enough question. I don’t see it. I look at it completely different. Golf is my career. It’s been my life and will always be my life. Fishing is a way for me to do something else and relax more. Fishing is a hobby that I dearly love, and I want to be as good as I can be at it. But I’ll never be but so good because I don’t have the time to put into it, because I have this other career. But I enjoy it. I fish to get away from golf. It’s just something else to do. When you stay busy, you go home to do stuff. My life is backwards from most people: I come home for a vacation and I don’t play golf. Other people go on a vacation and play golf for a vacation. Mine is just backwards from most people. So when people see me kind of not doing much at home, that’s the purpose, is not to do much at home—fish a little bit and hang out and work in the yard or whatever it might be. My life is pretty much on the road and always has been.
CCM: When you’re here, do people recognize you a lot?
CS: Yeah. But that’s fine. That’s fair enough. And you know, the novelty’s over, whatever that means. (Laughs) The novelty’s over. We go out and see old friends and see new friends, and we enjoy it. Obviously, you learn in a hurry years ago that you don’t go to a tourist
destination venue, because it would be hectic. But you have your spots in town you know where to go and when to go and that kind of
thing. But people are very nice. It’s not trouble at all.
CCM: So they pretty much leave you alone?
CS: Yeah, and we know everybody in town now. These people are so friendly in North Carolina and this county. I’ve thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. You know, it’s the first time I’ve ever lived out of my home state of Virginia. Virginia’s still home, and I will always call that home. But to move and live someplace different, I guess you’re never quite sure how you’re going to be accepted or what it’s going to be like. And I guess Sarah went through it when we got married and she left Carolina. But it’s been easy. It’s been easy. People are nice.
CCM: You haven’t done TV for a while.
CS: When I was 49, I got out of TV to play again. Basically, what happened in a nutshell is that they wanted me to commit long-term, or for two years, which were my first two years on the senior tour—potentially my two best years. And I said, “That’s fair enough, but
guarantee me the next TV contract, another four-year deal if you’re in golf, that’s all.” The deal was on the table and it was on the table,
and it was taken off because a new guy came in. I saw the handwriting on the wall; the new guy didn’t care much for me. So I just said, ‘That’s fine. I have another career waiting out there at 50, the senior tour.” So I just did that. It was very, I guess, amicable, and I just kind of went on and did this other thing. I’ve enjoyed the playing. Eventually I’m going to have to cut back the playing, just the older you get. I’d like to get back into TV a little bit. We’ll just see how (the U.S. Open) goes and what the future holds with that. It might not be anything. So I’ll continue to play as long as I enjoy it. The senior tour is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It’s a blessing that we still can continue to play golf professionally, which is something we’ve always done. It’s also a curse because at 53, I don’t play like I’m 23 anymore, or 33. And your skills do diminish. I work on my game just to kind of hang on by the skin of my teeth. A lot of times I don’t play as well as I think I should, and so with that I’m not aging very well. I’m not accepting my golf game very well, and that’s frustrating. People say, “Why not? You should relax and enjoy.” Well, they don’t understand. They don’t understand. That’s what I mean by it’s a curse sometimes. But it’s still fun to go out and be with the guys you’ve been with for 30 years. And they compete hard. You don’t change somebody’s stripes just because they turn 50 or 60. They still want to beat your ass or beat your brains out or be as good as they can be. We don’t have all these illusions that we’re still good and we can still compete on the regular tour and all that stuff. It’s not the case. But the senior tour has been great because it fills a niche. A lot of people do follow it. It’s been good for the sponsors and the fans, I think. And every week, they raise a lot of money for people in need. So it ain’t so bad.
CCM: Have you missed TV?
CS: I’m not going to say I missed it, because it was so different, and it was foreign from what I always did my whole life. But I did it for
eight years, and I miss the people. I miss Mike Tirico. I still talk to him once a month. He became—and still is and always will be—a dear friend. I miss the people. I had some very, very good friends I worked with. I miss being in the middle of the game on the regular tour. I’ve lost touch. When I played the last four years and didn’t have the need to really stay up with some of the younger guys, I’ve lost touch a little bit.
And that’s not my job, either, to know the wife and how many kids they have. My job is to know their golf game and know what’s going on at the U.S. Open. So there’ll be a little homework done. I miss being in the middle of the regular tour. When something’s your life for
pushing 30 years, it’s hard to turn away, and I never will. It’s the biggest game in town, the best players in the world, and when you play
well it’s an accomplishment, because there’s a lot of great players out there, and they’re getting better all the time.
CCM: We talked about your celebrity status around here. As a celebrity or a famous person...
CS: I don’t look at it like that! I don’t look at it like that. I think I’m pretty doggone normal. I guess other people don’t. (Laughs) You’d
have to ask them.
CCM: No, I’m going another way. As a famous person of any level, you’re often put in situations where you meet other
famous people. Has there been anybody you’ve met over your career that’s just seemed really weird to meet—really surreal?
CS: Well yeah, but it’s because you’re involved in what you do and you’re around people like that all the time. Maybe when I was younger on tour and you would be around somebody like that, it was pretty cool—and it still is, don’t get me wrong. But you were awestruck the first time you meet Bob Hope or Bing Crosby or guys like that. Clint Eastwood was one of those guys. But then as you get involved and you’re around them all the time—I guess we take for granted that we play with the heads of business in pro-ams all the time, the heads of state. People want to be around you because they love the game of golf, so it works both ways. I’m awestruck early on, but they’re also nervous as they can be because they’re playing with me, or a top player. It works both ways because they’re in my office now. They’re in my environment, and they’re nervous. (Recently) on the senior tour in Birmingham, I played with Pat Sullivan, Steve Spurrier, Bo Jackson and a businessman in town. I had three Heismans playing with me. When you think about it like that and think about the talent of these guys, it’s pretty neat. And I take it for granted. They’re nervous playing with me, and I enjoy that. I played one time in the hope with Glavine, Smoltz and the Rocket. Well, I had, at the time, six Cy Youngs, which turned into about eight or nine Cy Youngs. That was pretty neat. I didn’t think much of it, but the fans thought it was a hell of a thing. You don’t take them for granted; that’s the wrong word. But you’re just around them more, and you’re more comfortable. And I’ve been able to meet three or four presidents, and that’s still the highest, I guess, honor anybody could have, is to meet the president—either the sitting president or former presidents. And they all love golf! They’re around. I mean, (George Bush) 41 is liable to show up at any golf tournament and hang out. And for being a former president, I explain that he’d be the nicest granddaddy. He’s just that kind of guy. I understand where you’re coming from, and I don’t mean to be flip about it. But I just think that when you’re around it a lot, it’s kind of neat. You play with people that are nervous because they’re on the golf course, because they’re out of their environment. But they go back to their office, and they’re running the country or doing something in business.
CCM: And they’re nervous about you watching them swing.
CS: Exactly, exactly. So it works both ways. But I sure the hell don’t want to go into their boardroom. (Laughs)
CCM: Some reports I’ve read say you’ve mellowed.
CS: (Laughing) God, I hope not.
CCM: Any truth to that?
CS: Not lately on the golf course. I tried to justify my intensity over the years whenever it would come up, and it would come up a lot. And I look back on that, and I should not have tried to qualify just because I played hard and competed hard and didn’t accept mediocrity. That’s what made me me. Unfortunately over the years, there was a lot of negative written about that, that I looked like a gruff on the golf course. Well, I probably did. But I was out there to be the best I could be, and I was out there to pay the bills. It was not a smiling contest, so I didn’t endear myself to some of the press, and then it’s like wildfire. Jesus Christ! I guess the unfair part about it is that once you’re identified as a certain way, you spend your whole lifetime trying to change that. And we’re all human, so you do. As you get older, you realize looking back on it—and Golf Magazine just did the article—if there’s one thing I would do differently, it’s to try to be more outgoing, maybe, a little bit—try. But it just wasn’t my personality. I’ve got a twin brother who has a great personality. That’s what I do: I’m very serious about what I do on the golf course, and that’s just the way it was. So you ask if I’ve mellowed. Well, age does that. Things aren’t quite as important as they used to be. But I still get frustrated with my golf game, so if you watch me play golf, you might not think (I’ve mellowed). But we all slow down a little bit and enjoy some of the things we didn’t have time to enjoy before. People forget that when you go and play a sport or starting out—we were married at 21 and 20—I didn’t know where the next meal payment was coming from. And it was serious business. You had to perform. It’s not that I could go and use my brain and be out of shape and not use my physical abilities; everything was physical abilities with golf. And so if I didn’t perform—stay in shape, perform, always on edge—then we didn’t do well. So I don’t think anybody can ever criticize anybody in anything unless you’ve experienced it. I laugh all the time about this reality TV. The best reality TV there is going is sports, because none of us know what’s going to happen the next minute. We watch it all the time; we just don’t realize it. It’s more reality than any of this crap they have on TV, because half that’s staged. But anyway, you just kind of go, and you don’t know where your next good paycheck’s coming from. We didn’t have a whole lot in the bank. You eventually grow and grow and grow, and eventually things go well. But you don’t change your stripes. The better you get, the more you want. I always looked at it as the better you get, the harder I have to work because somebody’s there to knock you off. That was the mentality I used, and that was my mentality to start with. I guess I was wound that way. So be it. (Laughs) Screw it. What are you gonna do? You gonna change your stripes? If we all acted like a comedian out there, that wouldn’t be good either. You know, when I did TV, I was always very cognizant of the fact that I have to be me. If I tried to be funny, if I tried to be somebody I wasn’t, that guy in Fargo, North Dakota, is watching TV—he knows I’m faking. He does. You can see it, you can hear it. So you just try to be as normal as you can and talk golf. You always have the analogy: Talk like you’re talking to your body on the couch. Well, we tried to, and I think that’s the best way to do it—just have fun with it. And people always understood that Tirico and I were good friends because it came off that we were good friends. You can’t fake that stuff. And if we have fun, then the viewer’s going to have fun. It’s the same with the golf course.
CCM: Do you get more attention this time of the year because of the Open?
CS: Yeah.
CCM: And has it been even more this year because it’s been 20 years?
CS: Yeah. I was just talking with an AP writer the other day, and Golf Magazine did an article. It’s fun. It’s fun to reminisce. It’s the only
time I do. It’s always fun to talk about the Open, because it’s our national championship. That’s why I’m very excited about going out
there and working TV. I’ve never worked the Open. I was always playing. It’s the biggest event we as Americans can play in, and so it’s a big deal. It’s fun to watch the guys prepare and get ready to play in a hard, hard golf tournament on a hard golf course.
CCM: You haven’t won yet on the Champions Tour. How much is that eating at you?
CS: Well, it’s not so much the not winning; it’s that I haven’t played as well as I would’ve liked to have played. I never try to get the cart
before the horse. If I do my job the way it should be done, the winning or playing well and finishing well will take care of itself. I just
haven’t performed or played as well as I would’ve liked. I work enough at it to play better. I could work at it harder, but at 53 I don’t
particularly want to. I have other things I like to do—sitting out the back door. I enjoy everything. I’m very, very happy right now, other
than I wish I would play a little bit better. But you know, I still search for it. I haven’t given up yet.
CCM: Are you still dabbling in course design at all?
CS: Yep. Actually, I’m trying to get more involved in it now because I have the time now. I never had the time before, and I never
understood these guys who were trying to play, design golf courses, do everything. But now I do have the time, so I’d like to get involved in it a little bit more.
CCM: What’s the appeal of that?
CS: Again, you’re involved in the game. You build a golf course, it’s going to be there for a long, long time. I’m trying to do something that is a whole lot harder than you think it is, to build a good golf course. It takes a lot of thought and a lot of money, and it’s a challenge. I guess it’s the challenge to do something that people will like and enjoy playing. Those of us who just play a lot of golf—I don’t care if you’re amateur or professional—think we can build a golf course. We’re all kind of amateur architects in our own mind. And so to actually get a chance to get out there and try to do it, to me, it’s a hell of a challenge. It really is. It’s fun and it’s a challenge.
CCM: Has the Hall of Fame sunk in yet? It’s been a few months now.
CS: Yeah, and it’s still as exciting to think about it right now as it was then. It’s something you can’t hardly believe. You get in the game to do the best you can. When you get in the game professionally, you realize it is a profession. Amateur golf is fun; there’s not much riding on it. There’s a lot riding on it professionally, between reputation and money and making a living and being the best you can be—all of the above. But you don’t ever think about a hall of fame or the Hall of Fame because it’s too far out there. It’s too much of a stretch. It’s too much of a dream. And when it happens it’s truly hard to believe. It really is. It was a great couple of days. I was just with my brother this weekend. He introduced me (at the induction ceremony). And so we talked, and for the first time we talked about how nervous both of us were. But still, truly, it’s the highest honor I could ever have. It’s exciting to be involved and be associated with some of those people in the Hall of Fame. It really is.
CCM: How’d you find out you made it?
CS: (Tim) Finchem called me, the (PGA Tour) commissioner. He calls everybody.
CCM: I guess they have some of your memorabilia?
CS: They’ve got everything. I gave ’em everything.
CCM: Like what?
CS: Trophies—just everything. Awards, medals, photos—everything, from college on. Because it was all in the attic here. I’m not one to
display. We have three things on display: We have copies of the two Open trophies in there, and then the Ryder Cup trophy that my
players gave to me when I was captain. And that’s it. Everything’s in the Hall of Fame. Let somebody else have it. My kids have a couple of things. Other than that, (the Hall has) the Open medals, they have college stuff, a little amateur stuff. Basically, they try to tell the story of a career, and that’s what they have. They’ve got everything from my junior golf days through professional golf.
CCM: It’s got to be just bizarre seeing that.
CS: You know what? They did such a nice job. I’ve got to tell you, I was moved. (Pointing) I guess it’s almost like the size of this wall, the display. They have these little plaques they wrote up, and they tell the story. It really is kind of neat. And I guess I gave them as much as anybody, because there’s not a lot of memorabilia down there because the Hall of Fame is relatively new. And all these great old players have their own museums in their hometowns or something. Nicklaus doesn’t have much there, Palmer doesn’t have hardly anything there. Hogan doesn’t, Nelson. For instance, Hogan has all of his really, really neat memorabilia—trophies and medals and athlete of the year awards—at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, where he grew up. It’s a little bit different as far as that, but it’s a neat place. And I guess in the future there’ll be more and more stuff there. But they did a heck of a job. They did a heck of a job with the display.
CCM: Twenty years ago you were the first million-dollar winner on tour, and now guys win that in a week.
CS: (Laughs) I know. I don’t look at it like that, because it’s still golf scores and it’s still tournament wins. People will think I’m crazy
saying this, but it’s the truth: The number as far as money winnings is just a number. And to be the first to win a million dollars is a nice thing to have, but it means pretty much absolutely nothing, to be honest with you. Palmer was the first one to win a million in a career, and it’s all relative. Sam Snead was, to me, the greatest player of all time—not the greatest champ, but the greatest player. And what’d he win, $450,000 in his career? So it means nothing, really. He won 88 times on tour, and he won $450,000.
CCM: That’s unimaginable now.
CS: Well, it is. It was a milestone, I guess, for tour standards. Somebody was eventually going to be the first one to win a million dollars. Purses have gone through the roof, and corporate America and their support has gone through the roof, and now you’ve got a million dollars in a week. So it’s changed.
CCM: This is a weird question, I guess, but what do you get to keep when you win the U.S. Open?
CS: A medal. They give me a medal that’s that big (making a silver dollar-sized circle with his fingers), and that’s it. It’s a medal. It’s a
nice medal. Then we—the individuals, the winners—are allowed to make a three-quarter-sized replica of the trophy. There’s a guy in
London, a silversmith in London that has the model for a three-quarter-percent-size. They won’t let you make a 100-percent size. It’s a
three-quarter-size replica of the trophy—at your own expense, of course, which I always thought was ridiculous. But anyway, I made two replicas. And hey, I enjoy it. The medals are nice, and they’re in the Hall of Fame. But the two replicas I have here. I never do, but if I ever got them out, just look at the names on the trophy. Starting from Day 1, it’s pretty neat. And I’ve got all the names on there. That’s what you get.
CCM: Do you get to keep the actual trophy at all?
CS: You keep it for a year. And I kept it in the house a little bit, but I put it up at the club when I was in Williamsburg. People should enjoy that. I wanted to share in it, and people should be allowed to see the U.S. Open trophy. God Almighty, it’s a neat thing. It’s like anything ,else of our national championship; I don’t care of it’s the America’s Cup or the Major League Baseball World Series or something, I think the public is entitled to enjoy this because they’ve been a big part of it.
CCM: We talked about the prize money now and how it’s inflated. Do you have any thoughts on the state of the PGA Tour
right now?
CS: I’ve never gotten into the politics of the tour too much. I’ve always believed you should put your trust in your commissioner and his people. That’s the way I’ve done. It’s very, very solid. It’s very lucrative for the players. I hope the players appreciate what they have to start with, and I’m sure they do. The older you get the more you appreciate things, and I hope they do appreciate what they have. I hope they appreciate those who came before them—not meaning me, but the true pioneers: Snead and Hogan and Nelson and all of the true pioneers who started this tour. Because they certainly have a story to tell, and it’s certainly a whole lot different than what the tour is now. I think the commissioner and his people do a heck of a job. We always are leery about the economic situation of America. Companies use golf to enhance their company bottom line. They have different choices in how they spend their money, and we are very fortunate that a lot of them choose golf. So as long as we keep our noses clean, and as long as the commissioner does a good job, they’ll stay with us. But it’s all relative to the economic times, and right now they’re not so good times. They’ll stay with golf because they’re still going to spend money, but we have to be careful not to force the companies to come up with so much money. We have to be careful in our rights fees. We have to be careful in how much we demand from corporate America, because golf is still small potatoes when compared to other sports. It really is. And TV ratings are small compared to other sports. So as long as they still think they’re getting a bang for their buck—corporate America, that is—we’re in good shape. And right now we’re in good shape. Golf is so different. It’s a week-long event. They get to entertain their clients and customers for an entire week. There’s a pro-am. They can entertain and play with a professional. There’s dinners. So it’s a week-long event versus a Super Bowl for a day, or buying ad time on the Super Bowl. A golf tournament might cost a sponsor anywhere from 10, 12, 14 million dollars now with all the expenses of client entertainment. With that said, do you do that for a week, or do you buy three Super Bowl commercials for $14 million? That’s what they have to juggle now: How can they reach the most viewers?
CCM: And the right viewers.
CS: And the right viewers. So right now golf is still, I think, a decent buy. I think they hit the people they want to hit, and so far, so good.
Hopefully it lasts forever, but nothing lasts forever. Hopefully the economy lasts forever. But hey, it’s just like anything else. It’s like
newspapers: The cost goes up and everything, and somebody gets hurt. I’m not going to say we’re disposable income, because the
companies have to spend money to make money. But we’re certainly on the top of the list to cut back when companies cut back. I think they’re all fine, though. (Laughs) I’m boring the s--- out of you.
CCM: No.
CS: But it is a business. It’s a business. And I think that’s why you see some changing of sponsorships every three or four years, because it is so expensive now.
CCM: What’s your proudest moment as a fisherman?
CS: Ooh. I like good catches. I love to watch people catch fish on the boat. I guess (it was when) I caught an 11-pound, 2-ounce bass one time in Florida, which is a pretty neat catch, a pretty good catch—a hell of a catch, I think. I released my biggest blue marlin here about three or four weeks ago, somewhere around 500 pounds. I wasn’t angling. I don’t even want to angle anymore. I’ll run the boat. I enjoy the challenge of running the boat when a nice fish is on. I never won any tournaments or anything like that, nor do I anticipate winning any tournaments. (Laughs)
CCM: You’re not going to win the Big Rock someday?
CS: (Laughs) Well, I could get lucky. I could get lucky. But not this year, because I ain’t fishing it. I don’t know, I just enjoy everything
about it. Proudest moment? That’s hard. I really don’t have one, I guess. The bass was pretty neat.
CCM: What about as an analyst? Where does the Van de Velde situation rank?
CS: You’ve done your homework. That was a very tough scene to call as an athlete/golfer. To see anybody fail like that is a tough thing to call on television. You want to do him right, but at the same time I have to tell the viewer what was going on—how self-destructing this thing is. As an athlete, I’d rather see an athlete always perform beyond his wildest dreams and perform beyond his capabilities. That’s what we love to see. But it’s the failures that we remember. And it was tough to call. When I said it was the most stupid thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I still think it was the right thing to say. I would say it again. I might say it stronger. But I always had this filter: The guy has family and friends at home, unlike some. To me the announcers have become too much part of the show. The players of their particular sport are the show, and the announcers are just there to bring the viewer closer to the game. “SportsCenter” has changed that. And in golf, I’m not going to be the show. There were a lot of things I could’ve said about Van de Velde, but the picture’s telling the story.
CCM: You just said the obvious.
CS: I just said the obvious. But we’re always reminded at the British Open that we have a large viewership, and a lot of those people don’t play golf. But they’re watching the British Open because it’s so different, and without talking down to the real golfer, you have to inform the new viewer. So we keep that in mind, and I had that in mind when I said that. I actually hit the talk-back (button) to my producer, and I said, “Can I say this?” And he said, “Go now.” So there’s a filter there. There always was a filter. But when somebody self-destructs like that, you have to tell the viewer, from my experience, how much of a debacle this really is. This isn’t Bill Buckner missing a grounder at first base, because that was a reaction. That was a physical mistake. Van de Velde was nothing but mental mistakes.
CCM: Deliberate stuff.
CS: Well, not deliberate. Mental mistakes that he had a chance to think about, and have options. It was still to this day the most stupid
thing I’ve ever seen in sport. It really was. But stupid is a term you don’t want to use on somebody too often. Me not being a wordsmith, stupid comes to mind. Dumbass. Idiot. (Laughs) Those are things you wanted to say, and everybody in America was thinking that. But it was tough to call. That was a proud moment, because I think we did him justice and I think we did the golf tournament justice. I really do. I watched immediately when I came home to see how it came off. I was concerned. The playoff after that—nobody remembers there was a playoff—was the most anticlimactic thing I’ve ever done in my life. I could’ve cared less, because the story was over. It didn’t matter who won; the story was over.
CCM: Yeah, nobody remembers who won.
CS: Hell, no! That’s my point! Nobody remembers. You don’t get those opportunities to make an impact very often in TV. And Mike Tirico always told me, “You have to do your job. You have to do your due diligence because that time is going to show up when you least expect it, and you have to be prepared.” And because he kept drilling that in me, we were prepared. You’re just on top of your game. Honest to God, it was something I had never done before in my life. My producer hit me on the 18th tee and said, “Everybody else shut up. Rossie and Curtis, go. And that was it. (On-course announcer Bob Rosberg) was on the golf course, and it was just he and I. And we didn’t talk much. And that’s the other thing: You learn so much. You know the most dramatic noise on TV in sport? Silence. Think about it. In a big situation, if you shut up for 15 seconds before that guy comes to the plate or makes the pitch or the timeout—whatever it is—it’s dramatic. So we didn’t talk much. We just set up the shot really quickly, and then got out. You watch sports now, and they don’t get out. They talk right until the guy shoots. They talk over a shot now in golf. I’m swinging, hitting an important shot, and the guy’s just talking right over the top of the shot, like he’s more important
CCM: You’ve cited your national title in college as your proudest moment in golf. Has that changed?
CS: Well, it’s one of two or three. We went to Wake, and Wake had a grand history of great players and great teams but had never won a national championship. And here we are, Jay Haas and David (Thore) and Bob (Byman) and I—a bunch of young kids that were all of a sudden in a position to win the biggest tournament in our lifetime at the time, and we did as freshmen and sophomores. You look back on it, and it was pretty neat. Of course, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it wasn’t for Wake Forest. Coach gave me a chance to play with three of the best players in the country every day and go to Wake and mature as a player. It was really exciting. I mean, we were just stupid enough and young enough to not realize what we were getting ready to do, and we did it. And then after the fact, we said, “Wow! How the hell did we do that?” And then we came back the next year and lapped the field, so it was fun to be able to back that up. It was fun times. My gosh, everybody says college is your best years of your life, and it’s exactly true. And we happened to be good at the time, so we enjoyed the golf as well.
CCM: Every time a new guy wins the U.S. Open, different from the guy who won it the previous year, does that get a little bit
sweeter in your mind?
CS: No, no, no. I’ve been asked that the last couple of weeks. No, not at all. I root for them. It’s not like I’m the only guy ever to do it.
There’s four or five of us. It’s not what I did so much; it’s what others have not done. And it really is surprising that Nicklaus or Palmer or Watson or Trevino never won back-to-back Opens. It’s a strange thing. I guess it’s because the Open is so big, and it’s played at a different venue every year and that type thing, and it’s a year removed. But I certainly expect one young man to do it, in Tiger, and when he does I’ll be the first one to call. I’ll call him right in the press room, because I think it’s my obligation—and it’s just a nice thing to do. I never heard from Hogan. Never laid eyes on the man. But I never heard from him after that, and there was enough written about it. Let me tell you something: He knew. There was enough written about the first guy to do it since Ben Hogan in ’50 and ’51. I don’t care. I never heard from him, never one ounce—not a note, not a call. Sam called me. Arnold called. Jack. Everybody called. Byron wrote a note. It’s what you do.
CCM: You don’t know of any reason at all?
CS: No, there was no reason. It’s just the way he was. That doesn’t bother me one bit. That’s fine. That’s exactly fine. But I won’t be like
that. I’ll call because it’s just something you should do. Any new guy that wins a major championship, I write a note. I mean, I enjoy the
notes of congratulations. Why shouldn’t I? He might toss ’em, but I want to explain to him that you’ve done a good thing. You’ve
accomplished a lot, and congratulations.
CCM: You’d be sending a lot of notes to Tiger.
CS: I actually call his agent. I used to call him. I don’t want to mess with him anymore. I call his agent all the time because I’m good
friends with his agent. He relays the message.
CCM: You obviously, at one point, had a good relationship with him.
CS: Oh, I have a good relationship now. I’ve just lost touch. When you go to the senior tour, you really lose touch because your paths
never cross with anybody on the regular tour, unless it might be an outing or a pro-am. In Tiger’s case, I used to see him all the time. But I wasn’t going to call him too much. I mean, he’s a generation removed from me, so I figured if he ever wanted to talk to me, he’d call me. We talked for a while, but then when I got on the senior tour, your paths don’t ever cross anymore. It’s simple as that. And if I need something from him—a signed flag or something like that—I call his (assistant), who I’ve known for years. I don’t mess with him. He ain’t gonna get it done anyway. The girl gets it done. He has his agent, but then he has his girl at home who does all of his day-to-day.
CCM: With as much as you have to work at golf, if you have a day with nothing to do—a nice day in October—do you go work
on your game or do you go fishing?
CS: (long pause) I actually try to do both. I always hit balls in the
morning and fish in the afternoon. That’s pretty much my schedule. So I try to do both because I feel obligated to hit balls, because that’s what’s in my blood. I never go so many days without going out and hitting some balls. But I want to go fishing as well, so I try to do both. I really do. Somebody asked, “Would you rather win the Senior Open or catch a big blue?” And my response, which has kind of been funny, is “How big is the blue?” (Laughs) No, I’d rather win the Senior Open.
CCM: What kind of boat do you have?
CS: I’ve got a 53-foot Jarrett Bay.
CCM: And most of your fishing is offshore?
CS: Yeah, most of it. I’ve got a Parker that I inshore fish a lot with. But it’s half and half. I inshore fish half and offshore fish half.
CCM: What do you like to go after?
CS: Well, we all like to catch blue marlin, but that doesn’t happen very often. I like to catch fish in general. Offshore you never know
what’s going to bite your hook. I guess if I had one day to fish—honest to God, if I had one day to fish, I’d like to be on a quiet lake in a
bass boat with your favorite partner, catching bass. That would be kind of neat. That’s a quiet, nice, fun atmosphere.
CCM: Do you play much golf around here?
CS: I don’t play too much. I hit balls, practice, exercise a little bit. I guess I’m the same way everybody else is: It takes too long. I’ve got
a project on the boat, I want to maybe go fishing. So I hit balls for a couple of hours and come on home and do that.
And Strange didn’t go hungry, especially in the 1980s, when he was widely regarded as the best golfer in the world. His three PGA Tour
money titles and 16 of 17 career victories during the decade, along with U.S. Open championships in 1988 and ’89—he’s still the only man to win back-to-back Opens since Ben Hogan in ’50 and ’51—back up the notion that Strange was perhaps the closest thing there was to the Tiger Woods of his day.
In 1988, Strange won four times and became the first PGA Tour player to eclipse the $1 million mark in a season. He was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year. He played on five Ryder Cup teams, and he was the U.S. captain in 2002. But after the ’89 Open, he never won again.
Growing frustrated with his game, Strange turned his attention to a TV career. He spent eight years as an ABC golf analyst, sitting
alongside Mike Tirico. Strange’s most notable moment as a broadcaster came in 1999, when he famously called Jean van de Velde’s
historic meltdown at the British Open, as it unfolded, “the stupidest thing in sports.”
Strange and ABC parted ways in 2004, the year he and his wife, Sarah, a New Bern native, moved to Morehead City full-time. The network wanted Strange to spend the first part of his 50s—potentially the most lucrative years of a Champions Tour career—in the broadcast booth. In exchange, Strange wanted guaranteed years after that, and the sides couldn’t reach an agreement.
Strange joined the senior circuit in 2005, and while he hasn’t yet won, he’s finished in the top 10 four times. An avid fisherman—he and
Sarah and their two sons had vacationed on the Crystal Coast for years before they bought a house here—Strange has had his interest
split between the driving range and his boat, the Lady Sarah.
Last November, Strange was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, an honor he described during his induction speech as “beyond any dream one could have.”
Strange was born Jan. 30, 1955, in Norfolk, Va.. His father, Tom, was a club pro in Virginia Beach who died of cancer when Strange and his twin brother, Allan, were 14.
Strange went to Wake Forest University on an Arnold Palmer Scholarship. Even then, the intensity for which he was known during his
professional career was becoming apparent. “He’s the only player I’ve known who plays better when he’s mad,” his college coach, the late Jesse Haddock, once said.
At Wake Forest, Strange won the NCAA individual title in 1974. The Demon Deacons won the team title that year and repeated in 1975,
winning by the largest margin in tournament history. The ’75 team, which included Strange, individual champ Jay Haas, David Thore and Bob Byman, was dubbed the greatest college team of all time by GolfWorld magazine in 2001.
As a pro, Strange saw the advent of early-round TV broadcasts and boom mics, a combination that, along with a tendency to express
himself freely when he was struggling, cost him thousands in fines and helped earn him a reputation as one of the game’s more fiery
players.
Today, Strange splits his time between playing on the Champions Tour, working on his game and enjoying his boat. He is on the board of directors of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament. He’s passionate about his involvement in the Calcutta Wahoo Challenge, a local fishing tournament that benefits the Take A Kid Fishing Foundation and Hospice of Carteret County.
From 1990-2000, Strange ran the Curtis Strange Shrine Classic in New Bern, a charity event in which he’d invite three celebrity golfers to play a round with him at The Emerald. Guests over the years included Michael Jordan, Arnold Palmer, Nancy Lopez and Tiger Woods, who played in the final event. In all the Classic raised more than $1 million for Shriners Hospitals and burn centers.
Children have long held a special place in Strange’s heart. He ended his Hall of Fame induction speech with a plea to pass the game on. “We will do that by continuing to give the kids a chance to play,” he said, “because there’s a young boy or girl out there who is dreaming, dreaming about winning their Open.” Clearly, he feels the same way about fishing.
Crystal Coast Magazine’s David Hall sat down with Strange at his Morehead City home, shortly before Strange left to do TV analysis at the U.S. Open in San Diego. The Open was to be Strange’s first foray into broadcasting in several years, and he was excited about returning. “I found Strange to be extremely sharp, passionate and opinionated on a wide range of topics, from fishing to golf to TV to baseball,” Hall reports. “But the most striking thing was how cordial he was. He’s been known to shoot down a dumb question, but he answered everything, and then some. We spent nearly two hours together, much of it just chatting and laughing about this or that. It felt less like an interview than a friendly visit.”
Below are excerpts from the interview, in which Strange talks about the appeal of fishing, golfing with presidents, the van de Velde
incident, what a U.S. Open winner gets to keep and life as a famous person on the Crystal Coast.
Crystal Coast Magazine: What’s your schedule like these days? You haven’t done TV for a while, but you’re getting more into
playing, right?
Curtis Strange: Well, I’ve been playing since I turned 50, on the senior tour, playing 20 weeks a year. I’m busy corporately another two
or three weeks, four weeks. Last year I was on the road probably 24 weeks or so. That was plenty. I’ll play about 18 or 19 (events) this
year, work the Open for TV. Things are about the same. I’ll be on the road about 24 weeks again. It’s part of my life. I don’t mind the road too much. It’s just kind of something I’ve always done. I’m staying busy—just try to stay busy. And then come home and fish and hang out and catch up. Next thing I know, the year’s gone by.
CCM: And you’re on the Big Rock board?
CS: Yeah. They asked me to do that. Moving into a new community, I’m the outsider. I’ve always been very careful. I tread lightly. And
they asked me to do that, and as much as I enjoy fishing and knew most of the people on the board, I said, “Sure, that would be a great
way for me to get involved in the community and the fishing and promoting the fishery and conservation and the whole thing.” So I said yes, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve learned a great deal. Fishing tournaments are very much like golf tournaments as far as running the background. There’s a lot of leg work and a lot of details, most of which the fishermen and the golfers never see. But it’s very similar--promotion, the events, the planning.
We do the Wahoo Challenge specifically to raise money for two charities. I did the golf thing in New Bern for 11 years. And you want to do something; I didn’t want to get involved in another golf event, so we’re doing the fishing event to raise some money. I’ve enjoyed it. I mean, the people are fantastic down here. They’re very nice—small town, small fishing village, kind of. It’s been a lot of fun.
CCM: You could live anywhere in the world, I assume.
CS: Yeah, as long as there’s a decent airport by, and that’s questionable here. (Laughs) It’s all give and take, and it’s all where you want to live. I lived in Williamsburg for 28 years. The kids grew up there. Same thing there: We didn’t have a great airport, but you live where you want to live. That’s the good part of my profession: I can live anywhere I want. We chose this because Sarah’s from here. We enjoy the water. We always have. We’ve vacationed down here since we’ve been married, which will be 31 years. (He raises his voice and says, “Thirty-one or -two years?” Sarah replies from the next room, “It’ll be 32.”) Going on 32 years. We’ll be here for a long time. We’ll be here forever because we enjoy it. My life has revolved around more of a rat race—playing golf and traveling in and out, the hotels, the restaurants, every week a different city for going on 32 years. So it’s nice to come home to a quiet community, and that’s what Williamsburg was all those years, a smaller community, the same as Morehead and Beaufort. So we enjoy it.
CCM: How long have you been fishing?
CS: I’ve been fishing since I got on tour. A couple of friends on tour got me started back in ’76. I just kind of picked it up, one thing after another. I enjoyed it. It was a way for me to get away from golf and do something else outdoors. One thing evolved after another. You go from little fish to big fish and cheap fish to expensive fish. I didn’t fish as much; when I was on the road for 30 weeks a year or more, it was tough. But when I did get home, I enjoyed the fishing. Sarah’s always been great about letting me go. It’s just a way to get away-- escape and get off by yourself. I enjoy fishing by myself, just to get away. You can think. Quiet time. I’ve always enjoyed that part of it. Now when you get into off-shore fishing and big fishing, that’s great fun. I enjoy the fishing. I enjoy everything about it. I enjoy running the boat, but I enjoy the boat itself. My boat is my pride and joy. But I also enjoy the backwater fishing where it is quiet—more like bass fishing, and not an all-day affair. I enjoy everything about it. It’s what keeps me busy at home. There’s a project every day with the boats,and I enjoy that.
CCM: You hunt, too, right?
CS: Yeah, I don’t hunt as much as I used to, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I enjoy the guys. I guess that’s a part of the hunting and the
fishing: You enjoy the people and the camaraderie, and it’s totally so different. Most of the people don’t play golf, and they don’t give a
rat’s ass that you play golf. We’re all the same. In a duck blind at 7 o’clock in the morning freezing your tail off, nobody cares about what everybody else does, and it’s just fun. Same thing in fishing. It’s just an escape, something else outdoors to get away from the game.
CCM: Do you think you could fish professionally?
CS: No. I have said this, and I hope you write this: I would never, never think about insulting the professional fishermen and think about
saying that I am on par with them. I enjoy my fishing. I catch fish. I try to catch fish. But I am in no way, shape or form on the same level of people that do it for a living. There’s more to it than meets the eye. The more I get into it, the more I learn, the more there is to learn. I learn from them. And I keep my eyes and ears open. There’s always something to learn. There’s always a new rigging technique. There’s always something going on. And I listen, and I watch. And that’s fun for me, to learn something new. I’ve been getting into a lot of red fishing the last two years, and that’s kind of a new technique in water and tides and boats. That’s just another example of something else you can learn in this area. You know, the fishing—we forget, and I think the people in this area take it for granted how good this fishery is in Morehead and Beaufort and Atlantic Beach. Maybe other than Hatteras, it’s the best fishing on the East Coast. That’s why we have the Big Rock. That’s why we have the wahoo tournament. That’s why there’s a tournament every weekend. There’s fish out here 12 months a year when you include the bluefin in the winter months, whereas in Virginia, we were striper fishing, bass fishing. A lot of guys blue fished. But offshore fishing is not near as prolific as it is down here. There’s offshore fishing boats, but it’s not near as good. So I enjoy the learning and the process of everything. I really actually do. And the (boat captains) have been nice to me. They have their group, and they’ve included me, which is very nice and hospitable because they don’t have to. And they know I’m serious about it, too. I guess when you’re competitive, you try hard. You lose a nice fish, you get pissed off. (Laughs) Somebody screwed up. We don’t go too much that way, but it’s fun. It’s competitive—especially some of the tournaments, very much so. But it’s still fishing. My God, there’s luck involved, but I guess there’s luck involved in golf, too.
CCM: You mentioned the wahoo tournament and the charities that it benefits. What are those?
CS: Take a Kid Fishing Foundation and the Future Hospice House of Carteret County. (The Hospice) is such a worthwhile, needed
department of this county. We’ve all used Hospice. Sarah’s father just died six months ago, and they were wonderful. They truly are
angels. They’re just people who come in and deal with the end of life. So we actually like to say we deal with both ends of the spectrum: the kids and fishing, and the end of life. It’s been very rewarding to try to get that working, to get that going more than it already is in this county. We’re doing well.
CCM: Why is it important to teach kids to fish?
CS: Well, it’s the same as teaching kids to play golf. It’s the next generation. And the Take A Kid Fishing Foundation, they take more or less underprivileged kids and give them a chance to experience fishing, where otherwise they might not have been able to at this point and time in their life. They bring in over a thousand kids in one day and fish right around here. They get head boats, charter boats, private boats to take these kids fishing. It’s just a way for them to get out of their environment and experience something else. It’s been widely successful, and the kids have had a ball. I think the adults have just as much fun or more fun than the kids. It’s wonderful, it really is. And the same thing with golf: That’s the future. That’s your investment in the future. It’s the same in anything: You’ve got to educate the kids and give them a chance to experience other things, especially with the underprivileged. Fishing is just like golf—expensive. But you can still go out and cast a line right out here and enjoy fishing. It’s very worthwhile, and to see the faces on the kids is just extraordinary, it really is. They have a ball.
CCM: Have you seen a correlation between fishing and golf? If you’re good at golf, does it help you be good at fishing?
(Strange pauses.) And have you every heard a stupider question?
CS: No, it’s a fair enough question. I don’t see it. I look at it completely different. Golf is my career. It’s been my life and will always be my life. Fishing is a way for me to do something else and relax more. Fishing is a hobby that I dearly love, and I want to be as good as I can be at it. But I’ll never be but so good because I don’t have the time to put into it, because I have this other career. But I enjoy it. I fish to get away from golf. It’s just something else to do. When you stay busy, you go home to do stuff. My life is backwards from most people: I come home for a vacation and I don’t play golf. Other people go on a vacation and play golf for a vacation. Mine is just backwards from most people. So when people see me kind of not doing much at home, that’s the purpose, is not to do much at home—fish a little bit and hang out and work in the yard or whatever it might be. My life is pretty much on the road and always has been.
CCM: When you’re here, do people recognize you a lot?
CS: Yeah. But that’s fine. That’s fair enough. And you know, the novelty’s over, whatever that means. (Laughs) The novelty’s over. We go out and see old friends and see new friends, and we enjoy it. Obviously, you learn in a hurry years ago that you don’t go to a tourist
destination venue, because it would be hectic. But you have your spots in town you know where to go and when to go and that kind of
thing. But people are very nice. It’s not trouble at all.
CCM: So they pretty much leave you alone?
CS: Yeah, and we know everybody in town now. These people are so friendly in North Carolina and this county. I’ve thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. You know, it’s the first time I’ve ever lived out of my home state of Virginia. Virginia’s still home, and I will always call that home. But to move and live someplace different, I guess you’re never quite sure how you’re going to be accepted or what it’s going to be like. And I guess Sarah went through it when we got married and she left Carolina. But it’s been easy. It’s been easy. People are nice.
CCM: You haven’t done TV for a while.
CS: When I was 49, I got out of TV to play again. Basically, what happened in a nutshell is that they wanted me to commit long-term, or for two years, which were my first two years on the senior tour—potentially my two best years. And I said, “That’s fair enough, but
guarantee me the next TV contract, another four-year deal if you’re in golf, that’s all.” The deal was on the table and it was on the table,
and it was taken off because a new guy came in. I saw the handwriting on the wall; the new guy didn’t care much for me. So I just said, ‘That’s fine. I have another career waiting out there at 50, the senior tour.” So I just did that. It was very, I guess, amicable, and I just kind of went on and did this other thing. I’ve enjoyed the playing. Eventually I’m going to have to cut back the playing, just the older you get. I’d like to get back into TV a little bit. We’ll just see how (the U.S. Open) goes and what the future holds with that. It might not be anything. So I’ll continue to play as long as I enjoy it. The senior tour is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It’s a blessing that we still can continue to play golf professionally, which is something we’ve always done. It’s also a curse because at 53, I don’t play like I’m 23 anymore, or 33. And your skills do diminish. I work on my game just to kind of hang on by the skin of my teeth. A lot of times I don’t play as well as I think I should, and so with that I’m not aging very well. I’m not accepting my golf game very well, and that’s frustrating. People say, “Why not? You should relax and enjoy.” Well, they don’t understand. They don’t understand. That’s what I mean by it’s a curse sometimes. But it’s still fun to go out and be with the guys you’ve been with for 30 years. And they compete hard. You don’t change somebody’s stripes just because they turn 50 or 60. They still want to beat your ass or beat your brains out or be as good as they can be. We don’t have all these illusions that we’re still good and we can still compete on the regular tour and all that stuff. It’s not the case. But the senior tour has been great because it fills a niche. A lot of people do follow it. It’s been good for the sponsors and the fans, I think. And every week, they raise a lot of money for people in need. So it ain’t so bad.
CCM: Have you missed TV?
CS: I’m not going to say I missed it, because it was so different, and it was foreign from what I always did my whole life. But I did it for
eight years, and I miss the people. I miss Mike Tirico. I still talk to him once a month. He became—and still is and always will be—a dear friend. I miss the people. I had some very, very good friends I worked with. I miss being in the middle of the game on the regular tour. I’ve lost touch. When I played the last four years and didn’t have the need to really stay up with some of the younger guys, I’ve lost touch a little bit.
And that’s not my job, either, to know the wife and how many kids they have. My job is to know their golf game and know what’s going on at the U.S. Open. So there’ll be a little homework done. I miss being in the middle of the regular tour. When something’s your life for
pushing 30 years, it’s hard to turn away, and I never will. It’s the biggest game in town, the best players in the world, and when you play
well it’s an accomplishment, because there’s a lot of great players out there, and they’re getting better all the time.
CCM: We talked about your celebrity status around here. As a celebrity or a famous person...
CS: I don’t look at it like that! I don’t look at it like that. I think I’m pretty doggone normal. I guess other people don’t. (Laughs) You’d
have to ask them.
CCM: No, I’m going another way. As a famous person of any level, you’re often put in situations where you meet other
famous people. Has there been anybody you’ve met over your career that’s just seemed really weird to meet—really surreal?
CS: Well yeah, but it’s because you’re involved in what you do and you’re around people like that all the time. Maybe when I was younger on tour and you would be around somebody like that, it was pretty cool—and it still is, don’t get me wrong. But you were awestruck the first time you meet Bob Hope or Bing Crosby or guys like that. Clint Eastwood was one of those guys. But then as you get involved and you’re around them all the time—I guess we take for granted that we play with the heads of business in pro-ams all the time, the heads of state. People want to be around you because they love the game of golf, so it works both ways. I’m awestruck early on, but they’re also nervous as they can be because they’re playing with me, or a top player. It works both ways because they’re in my office now. They’re in my environment, and they’re nervous. (Recently) on the senior tour in Birmingham, I played with Pat Sullivan, Steve Spurrier, Bo Jackson and a businessman in town. I had three Heismans playing with me. When you think about it like that and think about the talent of these guys, it’s pretty neat. And I take it for granted. They’re nervous playing with me, and I enjoy that. I played one time in the hope with Glavine, Smoltz and the Rocket. Well, I had, at the time, six Cy Youngs, which turned into about eight or nine Cy Youngs. That was pretty neat. I didn’t think much of it, but the fans thought it was a hell of a thing. You don’t take them for granted; that’s the wrong word. But you’re just around them more, and you’re more comfortable. And I’ve been able to meet three or four presidents, and that’s still the highest, I guess, honor anybody could have, is to meet the president—either the sitting president or former presidents. And they all love golf! They’re around. I mean, (George Bush) 41 is liable to show up at any golf tournament and hang out. And for being a former president, I explain that he’d be the nicest granddaddy. He’s just that kind of guy. I understand where you’re coming from, and I don’t mean to be flip about it. But I just think that when you’re around it a lot, it’s kind of neat. You play with people that are nervous because they’re on the golf course, because they’re out of their environment. But they go back to their office, and they’re running the country or doing something in business.
CCM: And they’re nervous about you watching them swing.
CS: Exactly, exactly. So it works both ways. But I sure the hell don’t want to go into their boardroom. (Laughs)
CCM: Some reports I’ve read say you’ve mellowed.
CS: (Laughing) God, I hope not.
CCM: Any truth to that?
CS: Not lately on the golf course. I tried to justify my intensity over the years whenever it would come up, and it would come up a lot. And I look back on that, and I should not have tried to qualify just because I played hard and competed hard and didn’t accept mediocrity. That’s what made me me. Unfortunately over the years, there was a lot of negative written about that, that I looked like a gruff on the golf course. Well, I probably did. But I was out there to be the best I could be, and I was out there to pay the bills. It was not a smiling contest, so I didn’t endear myself to some of the press, and then it’s like wildfire. Jesus Christ! I guess the unfair part about it is that once you’re identified as a certain way, you spend your whole lifetime trying to change that. And we’re all human, so you do. As you get older, you realize looking back on it—and Golf Magazine just did the article—if there’s one thing I would do differently, it’s to try to be more outgoing, maybe, a little bit—try. But it just wasn’t my personality. I’ve got a twin brother who has a great personality. That’s what I do: I’m very serious about what I do on the golf course, and that’s just the way it was. So you ask if I’ve mellowed. Well, age does that. Things aren’t quite as important as they used to be. But I still get frustrated with my golf game, so if you watch me play golf, you might not think (I’ve mellowed). But we all slow down a little bit and enjoy some of the things we didn’t have time to enjoy before. People forget that when you go and play a sport or starting out—we were married at 21 and 20—I didn’t know where the next meal payment was coming from. And it was serious business. You had to perform. It’s not that I could go and use my brain and be out of shape and not use my physical abilities; everything was physical abilities with golf. And so if I didn’t perform—stay in shape, perform, always on edge—then we didn’t do well. So I don’t think anybody can ever criticize anybody in anything unless you’ve experienced it. I laugh all the time about this reality TV. The best reality TV there is going is sports, because none of us know what’s going to happen the next minute. We watch it all the time; we just don’t realize it. It’s more reality than any of this crap they have on TV, because half that’s staged. But anyway, you just kind of go, and you don’t know where your next good paycheck’s coming from. We didn’t have a whole lot in the bank. You eventually grow and grow and grow, and eventually things go well. But you don’t change your stripes. The better you get, the more you want. I always looked at it as the better you get, the harder I have to work because somebody’s there to knock you off. That was the mentality I used, and that was my mentality to start with. I guess I was wound that way. So be it. (Laughs) Screw it. What are you gonna do? You gonna change your stripes? If we all acted like a comedian out there, that wouldn’t be good either. You know, when I did TV, I was always very cognizant of the fact that I have to be me. If I tried to be funny, if I tried to be somebody I wasn’t, that guy in Fargo, North Dakota, is watching TV—he knows I’m faking. He does. You can see it, you can hear it. So you just try to be as normal as you can and talk golf. You always have the analogy: Talk like you’re talking to your body on the couch. Well, we tried to, and I think that’s the best way to do it—just have fun with it. And people always understood that Tirico and I were good friends because it came off that we were good friends. You can’t fake that stuff. And if we have fun, then the viewer’s going to have fun. It’s the same with the golf course.
CCM: Do you get more attention this time of the year because of the Open?
CS: Yeah.
CCM: And has it been even more this year because it’s been 20 years?
CS: Yeah. I was just talking with an AP writer the other day, and Golf Magazine did an article. It’s fun. It’s fun to reminisce. It’s the only
time I do. It’s always fun to talk about the Open, because it’s our national championship. That’s why I’m very excited about going out
there and working TV. I’ve never worked the Open. I was always playing. It’s the biggest event we as Americans can play in, and so it’s a big deal. It’s fun to watch the guys prepare and get ready to play in a hard, hard golf tournament on a hard golf course.
CCM: You haven’t won yet on the Champions Tour. How much is that eating at you?
CS: Well, it’s not so much the not winning; it’s that I haven’t played as well as I would’ve liked to have played. I never try to get the cart
before the horse. If I do my job the way it should be done, the winning or playing well and finishing well will take care of itself. I just
haven’t performed or played as well as I would’ve liked. I work enough at it to play better. I could work at it harder, but at 53 I don’t
particularly want to. I have other things I like to do—sitting out the back door. I enjoy everything. I’m very, very happy right now, other
than I wish I would play a little bit better. But you know, I still search for it. I haven’t given up yet.
CCM: Are you still dabbling in course design at all?
CS: Yep. Actually, I’m trying to get more involved in it now because I have the time now. I never had the time before, and I never
understood these guys who were trying to play, design golf courses, do everything. But now I do have the time, so I’d like to get involved in it a little bit more.
CCM: What’s the appeal of that?
CS: Again, you’re involved in the game. You build a golf course, it’s going to be there for a long, long time. I’m trying to do something that is a whole lot harder than you think it is, to build a good golf course. It takes a lot of thought and a lot of money, and it’s a challenge. I guess it’s the challenge to do something that people will like and enjoy playing. Those of us who just play a lot of golf—I don’t care if you’re amateur or professional—think we can build a golf course. We’re all kind of amateur architects in our own mind. And so to actually get a chance to get out there and try to do it, to me, it’s a hell of a challenge. It really is. It’s fun and it’s a challenge.
CCM: Has the Hall of Fame sunk in yet? It’s been a few months now.
CS: Yeah, and it’s still as exciting to think about it right now as it was then. It’s something you can’t hardly believe. You get in the game to do the best you can. When you get in the game professionally, you realize it is a profession. Amateur golf is fun; there’s not much riding on it. There’s a lot riding on it professionally, between reputation and money and making a living and being the best you can be—all of the above. But you don’t ever think about a hall of fame or the Hall of Fame because it’s too far out there. It’s too much of a stretch. It’s too much of a dream. And when it happens it’s truly hard to believe. It really is. It was a great couple of days. I was just with my brother this weekend. He introduced me (at the induction ceremony). And so we talked, and for the first time we talked about how nervous both of us were. But still, truly, it’s the highest honor I could ever have. It’s exciting to be involved and be associated with some of those people in the Hall of Fame. It really is.
CCM: How’d you find out you made it?
CS: (Tim) Finchem called me, the (PGA Tour) commissioner. He calls everybody.
CCM: I guess they have some of your memorabilia?
CS: They’ve got everything. I gave ’em everything.
CCM: Like what?
CS: Trophies—just everything. Awards, medals, photos—everything, from college on. Because it was all in the attic here. I’m not one to
display. We have three things on display: We have copies of the two Open trophies in there, and then the Ryder Cup trophy that my
players gave to me when I was captain. And that’s it. Everything’s in the Hall of Fame. Let somebody else have it. My kids have a couple of things. Other than that, (the Hall has) the Open medals, they have college stuff, a little amateur stuff. Basically, they try to tell the story of a career, and that’s what they have. They’ve got everything from my junior golf days through professional golf.
CCM: It’s got to be just bizarre seeing that.
CS: You know what? They did such a nice job. I’ve got to tell you, I was moved. (Pointing) I guess it’s almost like the size of this wall, the display. They have these little plaques they wrote up, and they tell the story. It really is kind of neat. And I guess I gave them as much as anybody, because there’s not a lot of memorabilia down there because the Hall of Fame is relatively new. And all these great old players have their own museums in their hometowns or something. Nicklaus doesn’t have much there, Palmer doesn’t have hardly anything there. Hogan doesn’t, Nelson. For instance, Hogan has all of his really, really neat memorabilia—trophies and medals and athlete of the year awards—at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, where he grew up. It’s a little bit different as far as that, but it’s a neat place. And I guess in the future there’ll be more and more stuff there. But they did a heck of a job. They did a heck of a job with the display.
CCM: Twenty years ago you were the first million-dollar winner on tour, and now guys win that in a week.
CS: (Laughs) I know. I don’t look at it like that, because it’s still golf scores and it’s still tournament wins. People will think I’m crazy
saying this, but it’s the truth: The number as far as money winnings is just a number. And to be the first to win a million dollars is a nice thing to have, but it means pretty much absolutely nothing, to be honest with you. Palmer was the first one to win a million in a career, and it’s all relative. Sam Snead was, to me, the greatest player of all time—not the greatest champ, but the greatest player. And what’d he win, $450,000 in his career? So it means nothing, really. He won 88 times on tour, and he won $450,000.
CCM: That’s unimaginable now.
CS: Well, it is. It was a milestone, I guess, for tour standards. Somebody was eventually going to be the first one to win a million dollars. Purses have gone through the roof, and corporate America and their support has gone through the roof, and now you’ve got a million dollars in a week. So it’s changed.
CCM: This is a weird question, I guess, but what do you get to keep when you win the U.S. Open?
CS: A medal. They give me a medal that’s that big (making a silver dollar-sized circle with his fingers), and that’s it. It’s a medal. It’s a
nice medal. Then we—the individuals, the winners—are allowed to make a three-quarter-sized replica of the trophy. There’s a guy in
London, a silversmith in London that has the model for a three-quarter-percent-size. They won’t let you make a 100-percent size. It’s a
three-quarter-size replica of the trophy—at your own expense, of course, which I always thought was ridiculous. But anyway, I made two replicas. And hey, I enjoy it. The medals are nice, and they’re in the Hall of Fame. But the two replicas I have here. I never do, but if I ever got them out, just look at the names on the trophy. Starting from Day 1, it’s pretty neat. And I’ve got all the names on there. That’s what you get.
CCM: Do you get to keep the actual trophy at all?
CS: You keep it for a year. And I kept it in the house a little bit, but I put it up at the club when I was in Williamsburg. People should enjoy that. I wanted to share in it, and people should be allowed to see the U.S. Open trophy. God Almighty, it’s a neat thing. It’s like anything ,else of our national championship; I don’t care of it’s the America’s Cup or the Major League Baseball World Series or something, I think the public is entitled to enjoy this because they’ve been a big part of it.
CCM: We talked about the prize money now and how it’s inflated. Do you have any thoughts on the state of the PGA Tour
right now?
CS: I’ve never gotten into the politics of the tour too much. I’ve always believed you should put your trust in your commissioner and his people. That’s the way I’ve done. It’s very, very solid. It’s very lucrative for the players. I hope the players appreciate what they have to start with, and I’m sure they do. The older you get the more you appreciate things, and I hope they do appreciate what they have. I hope they appreciate those who came before them—not meaning me, but the true pioneers: Snead and Hogan and Nelson and all of the true pioneers who started this tour. Because they certainly have a story to tell, and it’s certainly a whole lot different than what the tour is now. I think the commissioner and his people do a heck of a job. We always are leery about the economic situation of America. Companies use golf to enhance their company bottom line. They have different choices in how they spend their money, and we are very fortunate that a lot of them choose golf. So as long as we keep our noses clean, and as long as the commissioner does a good job, they’ll stay with us. But it’s all relative to the economic times, and right now they’re not so good times. They’ll stay with golf because they’re still going to spend money, but we have to be careful not to force the companies to come up with so much money. We have to be careful in our rights fees. We have to be careful in how much we demand from corporate America, because golf is still small potatoes when compared to other sports. It really is. And TV ratings are small compared to other sports. So as long as they still think they’re getting a bang for their buck—corporate America, that is—we’re in good shape. And right now we’re in good shape. Golf is so different. It’s a week-long event. They get to entertain their clients and customers for an entire week. There’s a pro-am. They can entertain and play with a professional. There’s dinners. So it’s a week-long event versus a Super Bowl for a day, or buying ad time on the Super Bowl. A golf tournament might cost a sponsor anywhere from 10, 12, 14 million dollars now with all the expenses of client entertainment. With that said, do you do that for a week, or do you buy three Super Bowl commercials for $14 million? That’s what they have to juggle now: How can they reach the most viewers?
CCM: And the right viewers.
CS: And the right viewers. So right now golf is still, I think, a decent buy. I think they hit the people they want to hit, and so far, so good.
Hopefully it lasts forever, but nothing lasts forever. Hopefully the economy lasts forever. But hey, it’s just like anything else. It’s like
newspapers: The cost goes up and everything, and somebody gets hurt. I’m not going to say we’re disposable income, because the
companies have to spend money to make money. But we’re certainly on the top of the list to cut back when companies cut back. I think they’re all fine, though. (Laughs) I’m boring the s--- out of you.
CCM: No.
CS: But it is a business. It’s a business. And I think that’s why you see some changing of sponsorships every three or four years, because it is so expensive now.
CCM: What’s your proudest moment as a fisherman?
CS: Ooh. I like good catches. I love to watch people catch fish on the boat. I guess (it was when) I caught an 11-pound, 2-ounce bass one time in Florida, which is a pretty neat catch, a pretty good catch—a hell of a catch, I think. I released my biggest blue marlin here about three or four weeks ago, somewhere around 500 pounds. I wasn’t angling. I don’t even want to angle anymore. I’ll run the boat. I enjoy the challenge of running the boat when a nice fish is on. I never won any tournaments or anything like that, nor do I anticipate winning any tournaments. (Laughs)
CCM: You’re not going to win the Big Rock someday?
CS: (Laughs) Well, I could get lucky. I could get lucky. But not this year, because I ain’t fishing it. I don’t know, I just enjoy everything
about it. Proudest moment? That’s hard. I really don’t have one, I guess. The bass was pretty neat.
CCM: What about as an analyst? Where does the Van de Velde situation rank?
CS: You’ve done your homework. That was a very tough scene to call as an athlete/golfer. To see anybody fail like that is a tough thing to call on television. You want to do him right, but at the same time I have to tell the viewer what was going on—how self-destructing this thing is. As an athlete, I’d rather see an athlete always perform beyond his wildest dreams and perform beyond his capabilities. That’s what we love to see. But it’s the failures that we remember. And it was tough to call. When I said it was the most stupid thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I still think it was the right thing to say. I would say it again. I might say it stronger. But I always had this filter: The guy has family and friends at home, unlike some. To me the announcers have become too much part of the show. The players of their particular sport are the show, and the announcers are just there to bring the viewer closer to the game. “SportsCenter” has changed that. And in golf, I’m not going to be the show. There were a lot of things I could’ve said about Van de Velde, but the picture’s telling the story.
CCM: You just said the obvious.
CS: I just said the obvious. But we’re always reminded at the British Open that we have a large viewership, and a lot of those people don’t play golf. But they’re watching the British Open because it’s so different, and without talking down to the real golfer, you have to inform the new viewer. So we keep that in mind, and I had that in mind when I said that. I actually hit the talk-back (button) to my producer, and I said, “Can I say this?” And he said, “Go now.” So there’s a filter there. There always was a filter. But when somebody self-destructs like that, you have to tell the viewer, from my experience, how much of a debacle this really is. This isn’t Bill Buckner missing a grounder at first base, because that was a reaction. That was a physical mistake. Van de Velde was nothing but mental mistakes.
CCM: Deliberate stuff.
CS: Well, not deliberate. Mental mistakes that he had a chance to think about, and have options. It was still to this day the most stupid
thing I’ve ever seen in sport. It really was. But stupid is a term you don’t want to use on somebody too often. Me not being a wordsmith, stupid comes to mind. Dumbass. Idiot. (Laughs) Those are things you wanted to say, and everybody in America was thinking that. But it was tough to call. That was a proud moment, because I think we did him justice and I think we did the golf tournament justice. I really do. I watched immediately when I came home to see how it came off. I was concerned. The playoff after that—nobody remembers there was a playoff—was the most anticlimactic thing I’ve ever done in my life. I could’ve cared less, because the story was over. It didn’t matter who won; the story was over.
CCM: Yeah, nobody remembers who won.
CS: Hell, no! That’s my point! Nobody remembers. You don’t get those opportunities to make an impact very often in TV. And Mike Tirico always told me, “You have to do your job. You have to do your due diligence because that time is going to show up when you least expect it, and you have to be prepared.” And because he kept drilling that in me, we were prepared. You’re just on top of your game. Honest to God, it was something I had never done before in my life. My producer hit me on the 18th tee and said, “Everybody else shut up. Rossie and Curtis, go. And that was it. (On-course announcer Bob Rosberg) was on the golf course, and it was just he and I. And we didn’t talk much. And that’s the other thing: You learn so much. You know the most dramatic noise on TV in sport? Silence. Think about it. In a big situation, if you shut up for 15 seconds before that guy comes to the plate or makes the pitch or the timeout—whatever it is—it’s dramatic. So we didn’t talk much. We just set up the shot really quickly, and then got out. You watch sports now, and they don’t get out. They talk right until the guy shoots. They talk over a shot now in golf. I’m swinging, hitting an important shot, and the guy’s just talking right over the top of the shot, like he’s more important
CCM: You’ve cited your national title in college as your proudest moment in golf. Has that changed?
CS: Well, it’s one of two or three. We went to Wake, and Wake had a grand history of great players and great teams but had never won a national championship. And here we are, Jay Haas and David (Thore) and Bob (Byman) and I—a bunch of young kids that were all of a sudden in a position to win the biggest tournament in our lifetime at the time, and we did as freshmen and sophomores. You look back on it, and it was pretty neat. Of course, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it wasn’t for Wake Forest. Coach gave me a chance to play with three of the best players in the country every day and go to Wake and mature as a player. It was really exciting. I mean, we were just stupid enough and young enough to not realize what we were getting ready to do, and we did it. And then after the fact, we said, “Wow! How the hell did we do that?” And then we came back the next year and lapped the field, so it was fun to be able to back that up. It was fun times. My gosh, everybody says college is your best years of your life, and it’s exactly true. And we happened to be good at the time, so we enjoyed the golf as well.
CCM: Every time a new guy wins the U.S. Open, different from the guy who won it the previous year, does that get a little bit
sweeter in your mind?
CS: No, no, no. I’ve been asked that the last couple of weeks. No, not at all. I root for them. It’s not like I’m the only guy ever to do it.
There’s four or five of us. It’s not what I did so much; it’s what others have not done. And it really is surprising that Nicklaus or Palmer or Watson or Trevino never won back-to-back Opens. It’s a strange thing. I guess it’s because the Open is so big, and it’s played at a different venue every year and that type thing, and it’s a year removed. But I certainly expect one young man to do it, in Tiger, and when he does I’ll be the first one to call. I’ll call him right in the press room, because I think it’s my obligation—and it’s just a nice thing to do. I never heard from Hogan. Never laid eyes on the man. But I never heard from him after that, and there was enough written about it. Let me tell you something: He knew. There was enough written about the first guy to do it since Ben Hogan in ’50 and ’51. I don’t care. I never heard from him, never one ounce—not a note, not a call. Sam called me. Arnold called. Jack. Everybody called. Byron wrote a note. It’s what you do.
CCM: You don’t know of any reason at all?
CS: No, there was no reason. It’s just the way he was. That doesn’t bother me one bit. That’s fine. That’s exactly fine. But I won’t be like
that. I’ll call because it’s just something you should do. Any new guy that wins a major championship, I write a note. I mean, I enjoy the
notes of congratulations. Why shouldn’t I? He might toss ’em, but I want to explain to him that you’ve done a good thing. You’ve
accomplished a lot, and congratulations.
CCM: You’d be sending a lot of notes to Tiger.
CS: I actually call his agent. I used to call him. I don’t want to mess with him anymore. I call his agent all the time because I’m good
friends with his agent. He relays the message.
CCM: You obviously, at one point, had a good relationship with him.
CS: Oh, I have a good relationship now. I’ve just lost touch. When you go to the senior tour, you really lose touch because your paths
never cross with anybody on the regular tour, unless it might be an outing or a pro-am. In Tiger’s case, I used to see him all the time. But I wasn’t going to call him too much. I mean, he’s a generation removed from me, so I figured if he ever wanted to talk to me, he’d call me. We talked for a while, but then when I got on the senior tour, your paths don’t ever cross anymore. It’s simple as that. And if I need something from him—a signed flag or something like that—I call his (assistant), who I’ve known for years. I don’t mess with him. He ain’t gonna get it done anyway. The girl gets it done. He has his agent, but then he has his girl at home who does all of his day-to-day.
CCM: With as much as you have to work at golf, if you have a day with nothing to do—a nice day in October—do you go work
on your game or do you go fishing?
CS: (long pause) I actually try to do both. I always hit balls in the
morning and fish in the afternoon. That’s pretty much my schedule. So I try to do both because I feel obligated to hit balls, because that’s what’s in my blood. I never go so many days without going out and hitting some balls. But I want to go fishing as well, so I try to do both. I really do. Somebody asked, “Would you rather win the Senior Open or catch a big blue?” And my response, which has kind of been funny, is “How big is the blue?” (Laughs) No, I’d rather win the Senior Open.
CCM: What kind of boat do you have?
CS: I’ve got a 53-foot Jarrett Bay.
CCM: And most of your fishing is offshore?
CS: Yeah, most of it. I’ve got a Parker that I inshore fish a lot with. But it’s half and half. I inshore fish half and offshore fish half.
CCM: What do you like to go after?
CS: Well, we all like to catch blue marlin, but that doesn’t happen very often. I like to catch fish in general. Offshore you never know
what’s going to bite your hook. I guess if I had one day to fish—honest to God, if I had one day to fish, I’d like to be on a quiet lake in a
bass boat with your favorite partner, catching bass. That would be kind of neat. That’s a quiet, nice, fun atmosphere.
CCM: Do you play much golf around here?
CS: I don’t play too much. I hit balls, practice, exercise a little bit. I guess I’m the same way everybody else is: It takes too long. I’ve got
a project on the boat, I want to maybe go fishing. So I hit balls for a couple of hours and come on home and do that.
