Mike Tirico Talks Tiger, LIV & Much More-Sunday, -Golf With Jay Delsing

This is golf with Jay Delsingh. A two-time college All-American at UCLA. A participant in nearly 700 PGA Tour events.

Seven professional wins to his credit. Over 30 years of professional golf experience. This is Golf with Jay Delsingh.

Hey, good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delsingh. I'm your host, Jay. And welcome to the show. We have got a special edition of the Golf with Jay Delsingh show this morning.

We have no Pearly. You can't fire somebody that you don't pay, so he's not fired, but we have a special guest. I got to sit down this week with Mike Torrico, the fantastic broadcaster, commentator, his accomplishments. The segments go on and on, so we're going to have a different sort of show. A special Golf with Jay Delsingh show. We formulated the show the same way, though. We formatted it like a round of golf.

And the first segment is called the On the Range segment. And it's brought to you by the Gateway section of the PGA. And we thank those men and women for all they do for our game. We are giving away a dozen TP5 golf balls. Just send me an email.

Jay at jdelsinghgolf.com and put the word balls in the subject matter somewhere and you will be entered. I want to thank Bob and Kathy Donahue. 314-805-2132.

For the inside or the outside of your home, call these folks. They are super, super busy, but they're great people and they will help you beautify your home. 314-805-2132. The Gateway Spotlight this week has been a guy that I've known forever. Played junior golf with. Just a terrific guy. Terrific player.

His name is Bob Gauss. He's been player of the year over 10 times. He had been the dominant player in our section for probably the last 25 or 30 years. So you're going to get to hear a little bit from Bobby. I want to give a nice little shout out to Jay Williamson. He had a good finish last week. My buddy at PGA Tour Champion Shaw Classic finished tight for 32nd.

We are going to do the tip of the cap. The tip of the cap is brought to you by my friend Colin Burke. 314-966-0303. Colin runs Dean Team Volkswagen of Kirkwood. Folks, if you need any sort of vehicle, Colin's your guy. If you want me to personally introduce you to Colin, send me an email.

That's jdelsongolf.com and I'll get you hooked up with Colin. Today I'm thanking and tipping the cap to the physical therapist, the chiropractors, the massage therapist, all of those men and women that help work on our bodies, help us work out some of the aches and the pains, some of the cracking, the rubbing, all of the things that these folks do for us to get us back out on the course. I had a bad neck.

I've been dealing with it for about a month. Went and saw my buddy Josh Borgenmeyer. Josh is the best in town, folks.

He is fantastic. That's the tip of the cap. It's brought to you by Dean Team Volkswagen of Kirkwood.

314-966-0303. Thank you, Colin. Folks, that wraps up the On Range segment.

Don't go anywhere. We've got Mike Tirico on the front nine. This is Golf with Jay Delson. On the Range is presented by the Gateway section of the PGA.

Find out more at PGA.com. It is not too soon to be thinking about the holidays and the opportunity to bring your family together. Make the most of the holiday season and discover the beauty, culture and cuisine of Hawaii while space is still available. Luxury suites, villas and vacation rentals that can accommodate multi-generational family gatherings are filling up fast. AAA travel and pleasant holidays will help you immerse yourself in the aloha spirit with an all-inclusive dream vacation, including sightseeing tours through the islands. Call a AAA advisor today to book your Hawaiian holiday experience or visit AAA.com slash travel. You're listening to Golf with Jay Delson for golf tips, news on the latest equipment and everything golf.

Log on to Golf with Jay Delson dot com. The front nine is coming up. I want to officially welcome Darty Business Solutions as the new title sponsor of this show. So who are they? Well, first of all, they've been headquartered in St. Louis for the last 37 years. They're the number one largest I.C. consulting firm for the St. Louis Business Journal. They're also the number one largest software development company for the St. Louis Business Journal. They were voted number one top workplace in St. Louis for large companies.

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That's d a u g h e r t y dot com. It's time for the Gateway PGA Spotlight on Golf with Jay Delson. Good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delson. I'm your host, Jay. I'm sitting down this morning with Bob Gauss. Bobby, we have known each other for, man, over 40 years, at least.

And we used to play a little Gateway PGA Junior golf together for high school. So, you know, I'm 61 now. So it's definitely been maybe maybe 45 years. That's how long it's been.

Well, first of all, it is crazy. And thanks for joining me this morning. Let's tell the folks a little bit about you have been the predominant player in our section for the last at least 25 years or so. You played in major championships.

You've won just about everything there is to win around the section. But just last week, you qualified for the National Senior Club Pro. Yeah, you know, I've had I became a member of the PGA in 1995. I kind of waited a little too long to do that.

I wish I'd started there early. But since then, yeah, I've been very lucky. I've I mean, I think I've won the player of the year like 10 or 11 times. I have won a lot played in seven majors, five PGA's. Thanks to the PGA of America, a couple of U.S. opens. And it's been a quite a good run.

And as you get a little older, you kind of wonder if you can ever keep it going. And then the other day I played at Old St. Albans and played Tavern Creek, which is it's not easy if you've never played there. It's it's it's a challenging little golf course, very narrow. You know, I shot even part of the first day, a couple of bogeys, a couple of birdies to make it even. And second day played bogey free.

And then which was nice. And even in some wind with about six holes to go. But when you get a little older, you never know if you can keep that stuff going. But right now, I'm hitting the ball good and I'm even putting better. That's what's even that's the best part of it. I'm putting good again.

This game is it's just maddening because certain components of it come and they go. But the fact that you've had the longevity, the fact that you've been in this area, and I know you do a ton of teaching and I know you love the game and want to grow the game. Tell the folks a little bit about what your days are like, how they can hang out with you, get a lesson from you or even just talk to you and talk about the game. Well, I mean, I'm at family golf just about every day other than the days we play a few events.

You know, I'll start at seven thirty eight fifteen, give four or five lessons in the morning, take a couple hour break and do three or four in the afternoon. And, you know, it's hard to believe the PGA of America has tried just about everything to get people to play golf. And along comes this crazy pandemic, this covid. And all of a sudden here we are. I've never been so busy as I've been the last three and a half years.

And so it's every day, eight, nine lessons, five or six on the weekends. But I'm around there. If you ever need to see me, that's where I'm at. Old family golf every day. There's a bunch of us there.

We just we march along. It's pretty impressive what's going on right now with the golf business. It really is. And who the hell would have ever thought it took a global pandemic to get the boost on golf? But man, Adam Betts, our buddy, you got to take your hat off to him and what he's done at family golf.

Well, he came on at the right time. That's for sure. And Adam has done a great job. Redid the whole building. We've put in some new putting greens.

He's done more than that. It's just a nice range. Everybody likes it there. The whole crew gets along.

Him and RJ are running the show, RJ Villaforado. And they do a fantastic job. So we're all lucky after being a Tower T for, gosh, 28 years. I mean, I've just I got lucky again. Now I'm in another great place and I couldn't be happier. Things are good there.

There's no doubt about it. We so appreciate the fact that you've been in our section for so long. You've been growing the game. You've been playing the game.

You've been teaching the game. We wish you all the very, very best of luck. And good luck and keep doing what you're doing. Yeah, I hope I can keep it going for a while. I mean, I stay in shape. I'm working out. You know, hopefully I can have a few more good rounds and keep it going.

Who knows how long it could last, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. That's great, Pop. Thanks so much. That was the Gateway PGA Spotlight with Jay Delsing. Up next, an interview with NBC's Mike Tirico. This is golf with Jay Delsing. I am proud to welcome the Gateway section of the PGA back to my show. Whether you're pulling into your favorite driving range, public golf course or country club, there is an excellent chance that the staff there is part of the over 300 men and women PGA professionals and over 100 facilities that make up our Gateway section. I grew up watching so many of these fine men and women getting to the golf course at dawn, leaving at dusk, spending their entire day running events, giving lessons and growing this great game. PGA Reach, Drive Chip and Putt, PGA Hope and the fantastic PGA Junior League are a few of the examples of the programs run by these same PGA professionals. Go to GatewayPGA.org to learn more or to find your next PGA professional for your next lesson, go to PGA.com. The Gateway PGA, growing the game we love. The Ascension Charity Classic returns September 6th through the 11th. Once again, St. Louis will host golf's greatest champions. Players like Bernard Langer, Ernie Els, Jim Purick, John Daly and returning champion David Toms.

But no matter which legend wins this year, the real winners will be North County charities because all proceeds from the tournament stay right here in St. Louis to benefit our communities. Tickets available now at AscensionCharityClassic.com. Folks, do you need a new car, truck or SUV? Then the Dean Team of Kirkwood is the place for you to go. 314-966-0303 and go see Colin Burt. He just got me into a new SUV and I love it.

Boy, did they make the experience painless and super, super easy. Most dealers don't have any cars in their lots, but at Dean Team of Kirkwood, Colin has an entire parking lot full of new and used cars. You don't want a VW?

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The Dean Team, for all your car buying needs. Hi, this is Peter Jacobson and you're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. The front nine is presented by the Ascension Charity Classic. September 5th through the 11th at Norwood Hills Country Club.

For tickets, AscensionCharityClassic.com. Hey, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing and we are going to the front nine. It's brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic.

First week of September, folks. Best players in the world at Norwood. Don't forget about the APGA tournament as well at Glen Echo that week. All right, let's go listen to the phenomenal rock star Mike Tirico, currently with NBC Sports. Mike, gosh, thanks for taking the time to join me this morning.

Hey, Jay. Good to be with you. Great to catch you up. A lot of common friends here along the way and good to connect via the telephone. Yeah, no, I sincerely appreciate it. Gosh, Mike, I sit here prepping for this interview and I'm just blown away by your accomplishments.

And we'll get to some of these in a little bit, but take us back a little bit. You're a Queens guy. You grew up in one of the greatest cities in the world.

Talk to us a little bit about what it was like. Yeah, well, New York was a fun place to grow up. You know, sports is so much a part of what I do now and sports is such a great part of the fabric of New York. You know, you almost identified as are you a Yankees or Mets fan?

Are you a Giants or Jets fan? Since those teams, the Mets and Jets came along a little bit before I was born in the early 60s. And obviously you have the Knicks and the Nets and the NBA and the Rangers, Islanders. And then later on, the New Jersey Devils and hockey. So while you don't have a major college per se, St. John's Basketball was big when I was a kid, but not on the football side. You have nine professional sports teams. So there's always a home game somewhere in the tri-state metropolitan area of New York City and the coverage of it equals that.

You'd have nine broadcasters, dozens of beat writers with multiple newspapers, columnists, all the TV coverage. So for someone who loves sports, wasn't the best athlete of my generation, to say the least. It was a way to stay connected with sports and I've enjoyed every second of it. Did you play a lot of sports growing up, Mike? Did you actually get to play golf at all?

Yeah, not much in terms of that. Some baseball right before high school got started, but that was it. Mostly the golf exposure that I had was very limited to maybe two, three rounds before I was off to college. And I was at a public golf course at the mouth of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens, New York called Clearview Golf Club. And it actually was a New York City public course.

It was a pretty nice layout as memory serves me correct. And go back and see it. And it's been a while since I've been back there. It's a really unique area in the New York City area because we think of so many great golf courses like Westchester Country Club. Obviously, Wing Foot, all the private clubs through Westchester on into Connecticut and even in New Jersey, you go a little bit south of New York City and then through Jersey to Balsas, Rawl, Ridgewood, you go through many, many beautiful golf courses in that area. But not in the five boroughs of New York City land is at such a premium.

You know, our our backyard, the grass, our backyard consists of a small patch that with a hand mower, you go by five times to be done cutting it. So it was more of a concrete existence than a dirt and grass existence for kids growing up in New York City area. So you going to Syracuse University and being the first recipient recipient of the Robert Costa Scholarship Award. That had to be a thrill. It really was. You know, the influences. Yes, from a college choice perspective for me were Bob Costas and Marv Albert and Dick Stockton and a local sportscaster named Len Berman in New York. Also a legendary sportscaster who folks of an older generation might have heard of in Marty Glickman. They were all Syracuse alums and had very prominent roles, whether nationally or in New York. And finding out the connection of Syracuse's Media School, the Newhouse Communications School with that for me made so much sense. And I was lucky enough to get the support of my family, be the first in my family to get to college and go to Syracuse. It was a great experience. And the Costas Scholarship was certainly one of the highlights of that. And getting the chance to meet Bob as I got my college career started was was a big thrill for me.

And the friendship with Bob over the years and getting to know Marv Albert and getting to know a lot of other people along the way was just really special for me. Tell us a little bit about what WAER radio was like at Syracuse. Is that a school run station?

Yeah. What a great spot it was. You know, if you think of golf and you think of all the college golfers who came out of the same place in the same program, like in Oklahoma State or in Arizona or Texas or Wake Forest and you can go on and on to different schools. It's a lot like that at our college radio station. If you watch an NFL game, if you watch NFL TV on CBS, you'll see Ian Eagle and Andrew Catalon. Sean McDonough was the play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football and now calls the Stanley Cup final for ESPN and ABC. If you watch NFL films, your highlights of the Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl run, Dan Hord's The Voice of the Bengals.

If you watch Arizona Cardinals highlights or if you watch NBA college basketball on ESPN, you hear Dave Pash. All of us were within a six year stretch working at the same college radio station, plus about a dozen others who've gone on to a variety of different jobs, news and sports. So it was a great place to be for experience, but also for your peer group as well. And it really helped I think all of us get pointed in the right direction and here we are now still in the business some 30, 35 years after that great experience together. A lot of guys start off in radio and then move to TV and you've had kind of both a solid career in radio almost before TV with the Scott Van Pelt show, the Mike Tirico show.

I know you just did the Masters last year with Curtis on XM radio. And so talk to us a little bit about the difference because for us that just love you love listening to the game that we don't really know the difference. It's interesting you think of the differences, Jay. I say the simplest difference is in radio. You have to paint a word picture on TV.

You don't have to say how green the grass is with Augusta or really talk about how it's a downhill tee shot. You can see a lot of those things. So you have to pick out when you're broadcasting on radio. What are the most important things that the viewer can see on TV that they can't see when they're a listener on radio? You try to pick out those things and then you try to imagine maybe an experience you had driving in a car and listening to something on the radio.

So if announcer says that it's an overcast day or that's a sun splash sky or the sky is blue or the fans are bundled in cold weather gear. You can help paint a picture in your mind of what exactly it looks like. So if you are on the radio and can describe what something feels like and looks like to a listener who can't see it and then they see a highlight of it or a picture of it.

Hopefully your description set the tone for them that when they see that picture, they'll say, OK, that's exactly what I expected it to be. So it adds more words. It adds unique challenge. I would say in total, the genre of radio is much more of a medium for the play by play announcer and less for the analyst. I think in television, my opinion is that the analyst is the key person and the play by play man or woman is there to provide the information and set up the analyst more than it is in the radio side where it's the play by play person.

Probably having a higher percentage of words spoken along the way. Yeah, it's so interesting, isn't it, Mike? Because I know the hard work that you put in before your NBA call, your NFL call, you know, the Super Bowls, the Olympics and things like that. But there's also an entire degree of this that's unscripted, isn't it, that comes from the heart, that comes from your perspective. And I think that's a real differentiator for that make you one of the best guys in the business.

That's fine. Yeah, I really lean on the folks who we work with will put us in position for that it's a great research team. In addition to great producers who help hit the right chords and give us the opportunity when needed to add the context that may be a moment or play or an event require to help the viewers fully understand it. I think what I like to describe broadcasting a football game as it's an open book oral exam for three and a half hours, and you have all week to study for it.

And you don't know what's going to be the story of the moment, will it be the quarterback, the running back the defensive end the GM who made these acquisitions the owner who's given them the free agency money to make these acquisitions, those types of things. Same with golf, we get in the tower we have no idea who's going to show up and shoot 61 or 62, or that camp Smith was going to make five birdies in a row, as made the turn through the loop at St Andrews to really get past Roy McIlroy and win the open you don't know those things. When you get to the golf course, so you have to be prepared for them and you know that's the kind of moment where you're sitting on 17 and 18, and okay are you comfortable saying that's one of the best back nines in the history of major championship golf, and you just have your preparation over years, and over weeks in a more acute way to be in a comfortable spot to say those kinds of things at those moments and feel like they'll, they'll stand the test time, and that's what our challenge is and it's a lot of fun doing it because you get to watch sports you get to read about and talk to the athletes involved. So for me that's still a very enjoyable part what is honestly, the most I'd say stimulating part of the job even today, Mike Do you have anything scripted ahead of time, or do you just have just a bank of things in your head that you're going to let kind of come to you with with what transpires. It depends on the situation, I would say for something like our update on the live golf situation when we were at the US Open this year. I had pretty much put together a roadmap for some video that was going to run before that. And then had some bullet points for the commentary I was going to use the back end. And I just pretty much spoke to the audience extemporaneously, knowing the bullet points and prepared just to keep my thoughts in order. There are other situations where maybe it's a lead to a feature short 15 or 18 seconds set up to a story.

Sometimes that might be on a teleprompter you've written it, sometimes you might just add limit and get to it. And if the broadcast itself, I'd say 99.8% of that is extemporaneous the promos, maybe a lead to a little vignette might be scripted in some way we might take those for it, but when you get out there and you go, it's, it's up to you. So, when a player's coming up a team Dan Hickson Jim Nance do that I don't do that as much now but if I'm in the booth, doing some of the events that I call. I don't have notes in front of me what to say when a player makes a birdie or Justin Thomas makes Eagle usually that's off the top, almost always that's off the top of your head and that's the joy of the job, I think there's nothing wrong with preparing for a moment, if you know a big moment might be coming.

I'm not a fan of writing down that that word or two or phrase to deliver it I, I think that's up to us to be good enough to deliver in the big moment without having notes in front. All right folks that's going to be a break of the front nine, but don't go anywhere we have more Mike Torrico on the back nine. This is golf with Jay. Folks, are you in the market for some additional protection for your ride, you need to call my friends at vehicle assurance, their number is 866-341-9255. Sherry Fain is the owner and president and she and her team are committed to helping you with your unexpected auto repair bills, they are committed to finding the right protection for you, your budget and your family, they only work with the top vehicle service providers in the country, get the protection and the peace of mind you deserve.

That's vehicle assurance 866-341-9255 for a free quote 866-341-9255. The Ascension Charity Classic returns September 6th through the 11th, once again St. Louis will host golf's greatest champions, but no matter who wins, the real winners will be local area charities and communities. Tickets available now at ascensioncharityclassic.com. How would you like access to 90 holes of golf? Well that's what happens when you join at Whitmore Country Club. You get access to the Missouri Bluffs, the links to Dardeen and the Golf Club of Wentzville.

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He is a terrific guy and he will help you with your game and show you around. And don't forget there are golf leagues, skins games, members tournaments and couples events available all year round. Visit whitmoregolf.com.

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We are headed to the Back 9. It's brought to you by my friends at Family Golf Centers. Just call CJ.

Real short message. Call CJ. 314-647-8054 or visit them at ProAmGolfUSA.com. Alright folks, we're jumping right into more of Mike Tirico. I'm looking at this roster of accomplishments in ESPN from 1997 to 2015 that included college football, college basketball, World Cup soccer. You anchored the U.S. Open tennis in 2009.

I mean, with the Olympics. Do you love it all, Mike? Is there something that sticks out in you that is more of your favorite? I really do treat the next one as the one I'm looking forward to the most. I think that keeps it healthy for the viewer. You may have a hardcore golf viewer who's not a hardcore football fan. So I want to give them the best, whether it's at the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open or the Tour Championship, and not say, boy, when we get to the NFL, start of the NFL season, I really want to be there.

Because I really want to be there implies that you don't want to be where you are right now, right? So I've kind of come across doing multiple sports to try and treat the next one as the one I enjoy the most and the most important. I'd say from a preparation standpoint, I enjoy the challenge of football because it is a challenge. It's especially now with analytics, so much information available. Football has become the largest challenge. You could stay up every second from the end of one Sunday Night Football game to the other and find new, interesting, different data or video to go back and look at. I just got an email clip the other day that has for me 100 pass rushes by Von Miller with the Rams on their run to the Super Bowl.

I can go back and look at that, be ready for Von Miller playing in the opener that we have for the Bills and the Rams. So you've got to take your spots, but certainly there's so much out there. So I think that's the hardest challenge to prepare for. But in general, I enjoy the variety and I was lucky to be in that variety helped prepare me for something like the Olympics where you run into 25 to 30 different sports in the summer games within a two week stretch.

When we did our prep for golf when I was working for Fox, I was inundated. I can't even imagine what the Olympics would look like with with all the varieties, all the names, Mike, from oh my gosh, from around the world. That is another challenge. Yeah, that's that's one of the most difficult parts of the Olympics and you have to remember, especially living here in America. There are so many fans of athletes or teams from other nations because the melting pot nature of the US.

So you really have to do it as authentically as possible and have to take great accuracy and trying to make sure that you have the right names in the right places at that. We come close to perfect, but we don't always get it. But that is that's one of the joys. I'll tell you, Jay, what I learned in the four Olympics that I've covered with three doing the primetime role that we broadcast the Olympics in a much more journalistically balanced way than other countries do. When we play back the moments of a country's great success at the Olympics, I'm thinking of the 30 minute stretch where Italy won the 100 meter dash of the 200 meters, excuse me, and the field event, the high jump. The broadcasters from Italian TV were screaming at the top of their lungs like a local college radio announcer with their alma mater having success where in the US, if that happens with US teams, if we did that, we would be accused of Homer ism when all of our viewers are living in America.

We can't be seen outside of the United States. It's an interesting dynamic that unless I traveled and seen more of the international broadcasters that they call the Olympics, I wouldn't have had a feel for that. So it's it's a fascinating, fascinating place that I think we find ourselves in general, broadcasting America, we're trying to hold up to journalistic standards when in fact, maybe our fans want us screaming that the US is winning and we as opposed to the United States team or Team USA. There's so much criticism and so many platforms nowadays, Mike, I mean, it's hard to win. I mean, you just have to what you're doing and how you stake your professional opinion out there is wonderful. And you're always going to get take shots.

I think it's just inevitable in these days. And you know what, Jay, that that comes with the top golfer in the world, right? You know, there's always criticism of Tiger. Now Rory doesn't win enough, right? All these guys, they they get criticism when you take a step back, they're better than almost anybody who's ever done it. I think, you know, Serena Williams recently announces her retirement, she's won 23 majors. And the next line there was, well, she's one shy of the all time record.

Well, 23 in this year is, is pretty darn amazing to be doing it at a very high level at age 38 and 39, as she did for a couple years before these last few years. I think that is part of the criticism, not just here. I think it's part of the criticism in the entertainment world, in the political world. It is just we are a more negative society and social media, while giving many a voice, have also given folks an unedited voice have also given folks a voice where they don't have to face any feedback, they can just do it blindly. So it's a different time.

It's a change. But I think everybody who's involved in this is aware of it. And people will be critical of golf coverage, people will be critical of our football coverage. All you can try to do is take your sensibilities and your abilities to the best job you can for everyone involved in the broadcast, all the athletes, coaches, fans, players, and leave at the end of the day, knowing you did your best to represent what was going on and documenting, informing and entertaining the audience. That's the three things I think of with a broadcast.

Our main priority is we have to document the game. Then we have to inform the fans of stuff that maybe they don't have the access with the time to find out about through the access that we get. And then the last part is to entertain. Because at some point over three and a half hours you have for a football game or six hours for a golf broadcast.

You have a lot of other options out there, getting out of your own house and doing something with your family. So the longer we can make it an entertaining broadcast, that doesn't mean make it all humor. It means the video elements and things like that. We can do that. Then I think we are servicing the audience the way we should. This is golf with Jay Delsing and I'm visiting with the great Mike Torrico. Mike, I want to kind of shift gears and focus a little more on golf.

Yes, now I'm happy. I'd much rather talk about that. Oh my gosh, I so appreciate the background though. Your career has been amazing and this is kind of a glimpse behind the curtain where people don't understand the things that you're trying to do.

And it is not easy. You make it seem like you're in a rocking chair pal. And we are sitting in our couch or whatever we're doing and we're listening, but there's so much more to it. And so I really want to talk a little bit about Tiger. I want to talk about the generational or multi-generational athlete that he is and what he's done and the significance of him playing at Augusta. And I know you were there with Curtis. I listened to a couple things that you said about an odd location and that you were actually through the broadcast having to use your golf voice and it was really kind of interesting.

I'll handle the second part first, you know, at Augusta we do the radio broadcast. You are outside. You're about 20 paces, golfers left off the 18th green. It's something that if you could, you know, close your eyes and imagine it. It's like a three-sided fish tank. It's open behind you to get in, but then you're surrounded by plexiglass on three sides, but not above you. So obviously if you're talking, people can hear you 20 yards away.

So you have to be really careful with how loudly you speak there. It's a unique spot, but it's also one of the great spots here in this amazing area to watch play at one of the most famous finishing holes in the world, the 18th of Augusta National. So the opportunity to do it the year Tiger won and then again to do it this year was something that I really, really enjoyed.

You mentioned Tiger. You know, I think Jay, I was very, very fortunate to start doing Network Golf at ABC in 97 and Tiger debuted in August of 96 in Milwaukee. Hello World makes a hole-in-one, the Labor Day tournament, Brown Deer Park at the Greater Milwaukee Open goes on to win a couple of events at the end of that calendar year. And then in 97, the first event I got to do was the Tournament of Champions was the Mercedes Championship at that time. And that was at La Costa just outside of San Diego and Tiger won a one-hole Sunday playoff with Tom Lehman. And that was the start of that 97 year that culminated in the Masters and we know the rest is history. Well, we've seen Tiger for 25 years through many ups and downs, so many major championships.

And, you know, I think when you look back and see the number at 15 where it will likely stay given Tiger's physical condition, but you never count him out, right? It was just an amazing opportunity to see one of the great athletes of this or any generation up close. And Jay, I thought Tiger was going to have many impacts on the game and he has made it more popular, made it cool. I thought for a while there it might bring more minorities to the game and I think it still might over time at that impact, but I think the biggest impact for me has been Tiger has brought great athletes to golf. You look at the average size and you are taller players, you really can understand this from your days. You look at the average size of the major champions of Watson and Player and Nicklaus and Palmer, though Strong wasn't exactly a 6'3 guy and you go all the way through Corey Pave and Ian Woosnam. Most of the golfers who were the major champions, although Woosie didn't win one, Woosie did win one, excuse me, Pave won that US Open.

They were not these tall, big, athletic guys you could see as a tight end or a shooting guard in pro basketball. Now it's different and even the guys who are smaller in stature, like a Justin Thomas or a Will Zalatoris, they are so darn strong and use the great strengthening of core muscles and all this other stuff and quads and legs to build this powerful swing that they have. I think Tiger has made golf more athletic, he has made golf cool and he has added some substance to the physicality of the sport that in some ways has changed the game to where we see everybody drive a 320, 315, 310 and they're not as concerned with being in the fairway.

They'll hit it in the rough and wedge it out and find a way to make a putt. So I think that has been one part of the impact over this quarter century that I didn't see coming and really has added some juice and excitement to the game. You know you think a DJ, you might mention JT, I mean he looks like he could be a middle infielder or a midfielder playing in the EPL, you can tell these guys are athletes. Our generation, I think you're so right, we just didn't have a lot of that. Well, in a lot of ways, Jay, for your generation, and I say that respectfully, we're all in the same age bucket here, that wasn't part of how you played better golf. Strong and muscular was not something that we really looked towards and it'll be fascinating to watch how quickly these guys break down in this world. I look at Tom Brady and Tom Brady is playing pro football at 45 and he may be some sort of cyborg.

I don't know what Tom has never done is Tom has never built big muscle he's always been about elongation, and his opportunities to train have paralleled the motion of throwing long throwing motions that's all his weight stuff now, and I think it's fascinating to watch Tom's creative pliability, flexibility, elongation, those are the keywords he'll use often when talking about the TP 12 method and the way he has stayed really healthy if you think about Brady at 45, he hasn't had an arm that has significantly impacted tens of thousands of passes and practicing games and all that stuff. We'll watch the evolution here now of golfers finding that pickle strength and something that keeps the elasticity in muscles as they continue to try to extend their career and not put the stress on a knee or a back because we've seen that take out too many golfers over the years. And it's interesting Mike that not quite as many my minorities jumping into the game because I was first so impressed because Tiger refers to himself as a multiracial guy because of the African American. His dad was in the Taiwanese mom, and I was like man these these doors need to be open this game, you know we play so many events that are referred to as open. They need to have these doors open, and hopefully they will I think it'll be better for the game it'll be better for all of us. I think you're seeing that now and I think it's just taking time because it's taking time for the game to spread and grow, getting clubs and hands and opportunity and earlier age. And I think we've watched and we're seeing it now on the men's tour like we did on the LPGA circuit. I think we're seeing the approach from South Korean players and their formative year, I think we're seeing that impact with a significant ratio of the best in the world that is eye opening relative to the population of a country of South Korea, the way they go about the academy and getting their players involved and all of that, we are going to start seeing that and I think that costs money, and the opportunities are there now more than ever for young athletes to get involved in golf.

We all know this is an expensive sport to play it's an expensive sport to get started access is difficult, but programs like the first tea programs like midnight golf and cities, those different programs are now starting to give us a little bit more of a seed to grow representation from underrepresented groups in the, in the world of golf and I think that's important to the growth of the sport long term. I totally agree and I hope you're absolutely right, Mike. When I walk across this walk on bridge, I got to play in the 95 open, and I got to get an autograph from Arnold Palmer his last open championship there, it hit me in such a different way watching tiger across that bridge I sincerely hope that's going to go around.

What were your thoughts what how did you take in that moment. Okay, I think all of us share that same thought we're all watching very closely to see if tigers gonna stop as he walked across the bridge, looking back reflective moment where you're looking you're on the bridge you're looking back, and the RNA clubhouse is in the back. But I think his mindset was so that he can keep going he can keep doing.

So he's not going to stop just yet. I think it wasn't farewell to the opens I think he'd really like to play next year at Royal Liverpool, a place where he won. You know, who knows if 2030 will be the last open the next open at St Andrews or if they'll sneak one in and 26 or 27 perhaps before 2030. In either case, there was that thought, and I think you saw tiger you caught up in that moment a little bit.

Look, nobody, nobody is more focused or disappointed. When he stopped playing well than tiger. If you ask what the strength was in Tigers bag I always said it was the 15th club I thought he out thought people better than anybody else his mind was the best of the game that I've been around. In my 25 years 100% Mike and Jay I I know Tigers so into what's going on, that he had to be really disappointed that he wasn't playing well. So for the sentimentality and the emotion of the crowd at the moment to hit him as he walked up a team that that lets you know how powerful that moment was for him.

And if, if you had to wager, not knowing the calendar you think it's the last time that you'll see him there and if so, you know, shame. But thanks for the great moments that he's given us there at St Andrews in, in his victories there, and his play there over the years. You know Mike a couple of things dawned on me when talking about Tiger Woods and the Masters and what he had to do to get himself to the weekend at Augusta was just absolutely staggering, the fact that he made the cup, another massive accomplishment that none of us can probably fully appreciate because of all the appreciation. I mean, because all the preparation that it took to go in, but man to watch him, try to play at the British Open where he hasn't had any competition. It was so obvious to me Mike I've never seen him putt poorly, you could just see that he almost needs to play more to get to where he wants to be and I don't know if that's possible. Yeah, I don't think that's possible and he said he's not gonna play a full schedule of events so it might just be the Masters in the open I don't even know if he'll play US Open.

Given what a grueling challenge that is I guess it all depends on how the next six or seven months ago with his continued hopeful rehabilitation and return to health, but Jay you know this because you did it at the highest level. Those of us who do it at a very very very poor level, even know it, you can have a swing thought. And I want to hit this here, and one of two things happen physically you don't pull it off, or somewhere after that whole mental process as you look at the ball and the shot dollars, you get over and yet I'm going to jam this in there the heck with it, right, the shot the second shot on the first hole comes to mind. If there's anyone who I thought would be 2015 paces back behind the flag and not messing with the burn, it's tiger that just kind of started the whole spiral for the two days that's in Andrews, and you saw that Augusta to shots that he is used to pulling off somewhere between the physical, because of the injury and the physical because the rest of not playing for a long time.

Just can't do it. And now we have to remember, we kind of look at tiger and we just simply forget the guys in his mid 40s. It's rare that we've seen people play better golf in their mid to late 40s in the history of this sport.

Right. I know Mickelson won the PGA 50 and DJ played well in his 40s I think we'll see more guys do it over time. But those guys didn't undergo all the back and neck and knee surgeries the tiger did so it's really hard to expect somebody to come out at 46 or 45 and just, you know, pick up where they left off. And that's just the reality I think that we're seeing and as opposed to the focus and conversation of another five years of. Well, we'll see him what it's gonna, what would it look like what will it look like, excuse me. I'm kind of focused on thrilled that we've had 25 years to see it, and for some of us get to see it up close.

We'll cherish seeing all of that action over the years. All right guys that's gonna wrap up the back nine, but don't go anywhere we've got the 19th hole coming and more of the Mike Torrico interview. This is golf with Jay Delson powers insurance is a family owned agency right here in St. Louis, that specializes in providing personalized coverage for the client who has a lot going on at powers, they understand that you and your life, do not fit in a simple box.

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Call 618-556-7951 or visit them on the web at graftonloadingdoc.com for more information on their live music schedule, the Riverside flea market and more. The loading dock, the new official 19th hole of the golf with Jay Delsing show. Hey, welcome back. Golf with Jay Delsing here. We are headed to the 19th hole. Want to shout out to my buddy Peter Allen at the loading dock up in Grafton. Thanks Peter for joining in the show. You are official 19th hole of the show. We appreciate the heck out of you. Just wrap up this Mike Torrico interview.

Mike, what are your thoughts on, on LIV? I mean, is it true competition? I mean, I think it'll help sharpen the PGA tours knife here, but boy that no one's talking about golf more at this point in time and in my entire career than we are right now.

Yeah, I'll give you a few headlines and then I'll give you the executive summary at the back end. Just dive into the genesis of this. You know, this is clearly the Greg Norman vendetta coming to life here, right? And Greg has, and Phil have pushed this hard and they've, I'm not being critical of them. They've said it very clear, quotable terms, their desire to change the way the PGA tour does business. And you know, they're, they're part of the people who've helped make the tours. They certainly have the right to try and do that. Now the methodology and how it's gone about over these years.

I don't know. I'm not privy to all of the efforts they've made or the conversations they've had with multiple commissioners over the years. I'd say as a sports fan, I'm very disappointed that they've really set out to significantly damage the organization that made them who they are. Their talents certainly helped make them, but nobody gives a damn about Phil Mickelson or Greg Norman or any of these other guys. If not for Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson and Gary player coming here to help globalize the tour. And all of your contemporaries, all my friends like Andy North and Curtis strange and you and Billy Cratchit and Fairfax and Billy Andrew, all those people help make the tour and to then sit there as individuals and go out publicly and express a desire to damage that in the long run is just a thousand percent selfish.

And I'm not, I'm not a fan of it for that reason. I do think competition has always made companies and businesses better in America. And I think that live has done some things that will help the PGA tour.

Become a better organization and run a better league. I think that's been at core of American business growth over the years. So I do think there are some longterm gains within how the PGA tour is structured and does business in 2022. That there are being forced to do because the list, but at the end of the day, the loser is golf and the losers, the golf fan.

Although a lot of us inside the industry are just overwhelmed by it. So many reporters and so much coverage. Golf is a very niche sport.

We just broadcast the preseason NFL opener, which is seen by just under 6 million people. That's an entire golf tournament. Most weeks that's less than almost all the final rounds of the major championships saved for a masters in the U S open. So golf is really a niche sport in America, a big niche, but it's a niche and a lucrative niche, but a niche. And I think what this comp with this battle between live and the PGA tour is doing at the end of the day is it's watering down something that's not very big. And that's not good for the sport. Long-term people who say this is good for golf are dumb. This is not good for golf at all. Cause at the end of the day, we're taking some of the best players in the world and they are not competing against the best players in the world.

The biggest events, that's what makes events big. Uh, so we're going to take 10, 11 guys out of the 48 who are on the lift tour who could compete and win a major at this point in their career. I'm eliminating Poulter and Westwood and those guys that they're probably not winning a major, but I'm going to take a Patrick Reed bubble when he's healthy. Those guys can certainly compete and win and we're taking them out of the mix with major championships.

That's not good for golf. I'm really struggling to see some sort of combination where these things can co-exist right now. And I guess maybe it's just too early. Here's my question about that, Jay.

And I look, I, I'd love to see it all work out. What do you say to Justin Thomas or Jordan Spieth or any of the guys who've been offered and turned down live? What do you say to them when you let Bryson DeChambeau come back after he's made over $150 million or whatever his number is in live?

What do you say to them that, Hey, we're going to let these guys compete with you. By the way, he gets to keep his hundred, whatever million dollars you've gotten on it. Is that fair? Is, is, is that ridiculous? It's ridiculous.

Yeah. It's not fair to the guys who stayed loyal to the tour. So while people say, maybe there's a place we can all get together somewhere down the line, I don't know if the rank and file of the PGA tour want those guys. I thought, Jay, what was interesting when they went to court this past week, so the three players who were trying to sue their way back into the FedEx cup. I thought it was really interesting to hear the few players who were tour veterans, like a Kevin Streelman, who were at Memphis already, who just said it will not be a warm reception for those guys. And showed that even though they were friends that look, they, you made a choice to go somewhere else.

Go don't come back, leave. So I don't see those guys coming back in the very near future as something that can make this work. You know, I think it would have to be some sort of events that live does outside of the PGA tour structure that combines the players. But then if you're the PGA tour, you might have events where the best 20 live players, the best 20 PGA tour players are playing. I don't have the bandwidth, the intelligence or the crystal ball to say how this works out. I just know that if we go to majors and these guys aren't playing and more young players go to live and we don't see them on a regular basis on the PGA tour or see the best players together.

I think that's not good for the game and I don't think the game is big enough to be okay siphoning off some of its best names and best talent. Mike, I so appreciate your time. Your insights were wonderful.

Your friendship. Thank you so much for jumping on with me today. I really appreciate it. Well, Jay, it's great to talk to you. I'm so glad we could connect through, like I said, some of the many friends we have and always appreciate the opportunity to speak with somebody who has been out there and done it and gotten to our dark side of the golf world, holding a microphone instead of a golf. I always laugh when golfers, former tour golfers say, boy, you have no idea how hard it is to hold a microphone and do this. You have no idea how hard it is to do what you did for a living, go hold a golf club and hit shots in front of people. I love the fact that we can all connect with each other's true professions as we build the second one and I'm so grateful you had me on.

So thank you for your time, too. All right, folks, I hope you enjoyed the Mike Tirico interview as much as I did listening to him. He does the Olympics. He's done NBA, U.S. Open tennis. He's done Notre Dame football, NBC Sunday Night Football. Folks, that's going to wrap up the show. Thanks for listening. We will be back next week with more golf with Jay Delson. It is great. Peloton, let's go this holiday with the right music and the right motivation from world class instructors. We're going to pick it up a notch.

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