Not many people knew about John Daly prior to the 1991 PGA Championship, but the CBS golf team knew enough to realize what kind of story they had on their hands. Gary McCord had heard of Daly’s exploits, and Jim Nantz and Lance Barrow teamed to produce a feature on him earlier in the season during the PGA Tour stop in Greensboro, N.C.
Still, there was more to the story.
“The ‘Daly
Express’ was a
runaway train, and
he was drawing
everyone in,” Nantz
recalls about that
magical week nearly
20 years ago in
suburban
Indianapolis. “We all
knew the story, of how he was the ninth
alternate and drove all night to get to
Crooked Stick after Nick Price withdrew,
but as the week went we continued to
find out more about this remarkable
underdog from Dardenelle, Ark.”
On Saturday night after the
completion of the third round, Nantz
headed to the Hoosier Dome (later
known as the RCA Dome, which was
demolished in 2008) where Daly, firmly in
control of the tournament, nonetheless
kept an appointment to attend the
preseason NFL game between the
Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks.
As Nantz recalls, word got out that
Daly had once been a kicker in high
school, and between quarters the golfer
was invited onto the Astroturf gridiron
to attempt a field goal. Daly obliged
and booted a football off a tee through
the uprights.
“All he did was walk on the field and the
place went bonkers,” Nantz says. “Then
he made the kick and you could just feel
the energy of the
crowd responding to
John. Everyone just
took to him so readily.
It was amazing the
electricity he
created.”
But the feat that
Daly pulled off on
Sunday is what still
sticks in Nantz’s mind
most distinctly. It
wasn’t the three-shot
victory over Bruce
Lietzke – as
impressive as that was – but what Daly
decided to do with a portion of his
$230,000 winner’s check. Daly, then just
25 years old, donated $30,000 to the
family of Tom Weaver, an Indianapolis
man who died after being struck by
lightning during a violent storm that
marred the first day of the 1991 PGA
Championship. That money, put into a
trust, eventually funded the college
education of Weaver’s two daughters.
“That was an incredible gesture from
a young guy who to that point had had
very little success or had not earned any
real money,” Nantz says. “That was the
crowning moment of the tournament
to me.” —Dave Shedloski
John Daly: Rags to riches story for CBS
(That was, in fact, the first golf tournament ever shown on the small screen.) The network used six hard cameras and perched their anchor team of Jim McKay and Jimmy Demaret on the roof of the clubhouse.
“We did the PGA (Championship) from
1958 to ’ 64 and then lost the rights to ABC,”
recalls Frank Chirkinian, the longtime
mastermind of CBS golf who was the
producer at that very first broadcast in ’ 58
and served as both producer and director
until he retired from CBS Sports in 1996.
“We bought the rights for 5,000 and six
years later lost it when we only bid
$400,000. It became a big deal very quickly,
and it was a very big deal when we had the
chance to do the PGA Championship again.”
“No one on our crew except Frank, and
maybe a few others, had worked before at
the PGA Championship, so I remember
that we all were pretty excited about the
opportunity (in 1991),” recalls Barrow, who
succeeded Chirkinian as lead golf producer.
Above right: Lance Barrow is the lead golf producer for CBS Sports. Right: PGA President Jim Remy (left) is interviewed on air by Jim Nantz during the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
COURTESY CBS SPORTS
168 THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM OF THE 2010 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP