David Feherty will be in my town next week for the Ryder Cup at Medinah. Among his many duties for the Golf Channel will be doing a special Chicago-edition of Feherty Live with Michael Phelps among the guests. It will air Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
Feherty usually pokes fun at his game, or lack thereof. However, he was a member of the 1991 European Ryder Cup team and had three top 7 finishes in majors, which meant he was a pretty good player in his day.
Feherty, though, decided to walk away from the game at the relatively young age of 37. In my special feature looking at people’s first job in the business, he discusses why he took up CBS on their offer to become an on-course analyst in 1996.
Here’s David:
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I was standing at the bar at Akron, Ohio. I had won some tournament in a communist country and qualified for the World Series of Golf. I was drinking vodka and Gatorade because I still was an athlete. I was approached by two gentleman who said they were from CBS. Immediately, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is 60 Minutes.’ I was drinking so heavily and hooked on narcotics and painkillers. I thought they’ve been through my room and found the stash.
They said they just lost Ben Wright and were looking for someone to report from the fairway. And they said I knew the players and knew the caddies. I’m thinking, ‘I know the caddies alright.’
It quickly occurred to me, ‘Wait a minute, they’re offering me a job?’ Then they told me how much they were going to pay me and I said, ‘Do you want to buy a set of clubs?’
I was 37 and I knew these jobs don’t come around very often, and I knew it was something I wanted to do. I thought, ‘Well hell, I’ll take a crack at that.’
On his first tournament: I worked the PGA Championship that year. I played a limited on-course role. I was very nervous. I had to wipe my ass with my microphone shield that particular tournament, as I recall. I wasn’t sure when I should speak and when I shouldn’t.
I just knew where I should be. As a player, I knew how close I should get. The caddies knew me and I got information from them that people hadn’t been getting before. What clubs and exact yardages? I sort of fell into it. I got it very quickly.
On transition from player to broadcaster: There was a period of time for the trust factor to mature. I went so quickly from being a player to broadcaster, there was a little confusion at first. But the players immediately knew I wasn’t just an ordinary journalist. I was a player. I wasn’t going to move my eyelashes. I was a piece of furniture that they knew wasn’t going to be a problem to them. I had that advantage.