Thanks for watching ISC Sports Network!

You can watch us anytime at ISCSportsNetwork.com, Comcast 81 (Indianapolis, Lafayette, Fort Wayne), or anywhere on Roku, ChromeCast, Fire TV, Apple TV, or the ISC Sports Network app in the iTunes or Google Play store. You can also follow us on our social media platforms:

Twitter: @iscsportsnet
Instagram: @iscsportsnetwork
TikTok: @iscsportsnetwork
Twitch: twitch.tv/iscsportsnetwork
Facebook: facebook.com/iscsports

Walter Hagen one of the Immortals to have won the PGA Championship in fact he won it five times only matched by Jack Nicholas in 1924 when Sir Walter won the PGA it was at frenchlick Indiana the last time a major championship was played on hooer soil now the greatest

Golfers in the world have come to Crooked Stick just due north of Indianapolis for the last leg of the 1991 Grand Slam what you do [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Ladi and gentlemen story like one we have never seen before John Daly your PGA a championship winner congratulations to you John thank you it feels great I just want to say I don’t that I love them to chicken Sal to everybody and these fans I want it for

Y’all and this beautiful woman right here couldn’t have done it without you wow who could ever forget that historic moment uh what a moment not just for the membership at cricket stick but also the game of golf 1991 PGA Championship at the crcket Stick Golf Club in Carmel Indiana who

Else better to talk about it than a man himself who actually worked the major for CBS uh Jim Nance we welcome here with us this evening Jim thank you so much for taking the time to join us and 1991 my friend that was the first PGA Championship right for CBS also we know

Was the first major for cricet City Golf Club it was a big week for us it’s great to be with you my friend and everybody out there that uh cares about Golf and and Crooked Stick you’ve got yourself a spectacular site I have so many fond memories of that week and other later

Visits to that great Club but 91 meant a lot to us to CBS we were getting into the PGA Championship business for the first time since 1958 and now of course we’re still partners with BJ of America and uh it’s still hard to find any storyline that

Beats what happened that year back uh 32 years ago 32 years ago so take us through it 1991 some guy named John Daly 25 years at the time winning his first major of course of PJ Championship what was it like and and how did he actually get into this

Championship well first I have to say that when I got to in the Anapolis that week and made our way up to Carmel we were staying up that way not in downtown it was staggering to see the support the turnout before the tournament even began you know Tuesday and Wednesday the the

Crowd turnout was unlike anything I had ever seen before so everybody was revved up for a great championship and as I said for us as CBS to Showcase It For The First Time In Our Generation was a big deal um and now all of a sudden on W

Wednesday night this one kind of under the radar event happened Nick price pulled out of the tournament and that brought in the ninth alternate on the alternate list it doesn’t usually get to number nine gets in eight eight is a lot but the last guy in because

Nick had the pull out is John Daly Nick’s wife Sue goes into labor on that Wednesday night of course Nick at that point was very highly ranked in the world and he was in a time frame when he was winning majors in in the next couple

Years and was ranked number one in the world but anyway Sugo’s in the labor they have a little boy named Gregory named for his close friend at the time Greg Norman and he leaves Indianapolis and some guy from Dell Arkansas jumps in a car and drives to Indianapolis because

He’s afraid of flying and uh he rolls in in the middle of the night without the benefit of a practice round he does have the benefit of taking Nick’s cat who stayed behind Jeff Medlin was his name one of the alltime great guys on the tour squeaky was his nickname

Because his voice was very squeaky he’s passed on he was a wonderful guy but his help was uh something that’s worth remembering how much he guided John around the golf course because he had been there for practice rounds and he had you know laid out a strategy for his man Nick now he’s

On the bag for John John shoots three under the first day kind of unnoticed really because there’s you know so many good scorers and it’s not right at the very tip top it it’s just oh there’s a guy right there who probably goingon to shoot 80 tomorrow but instead he came

Back with another low round and now all a sudden fact it was so low he’s going into the weekend as a part of the story and now you’re seizing this opportunity those of us in the storytelling industry to be able to try to Cobble together a profile of who he is because America

Didn’t know all we knew was he hit the ball forever and then he drove in the middle of the night to get there without a practice round because he was the ninth alternate into the field I mean it is this is stripped stuff coming out of Hollywood yeah and then on Saturday lo

And behold um he you know he takes the lead at the PGA Championship there was an incident interestingly on the 11th green that third round squeaky was lining up a H for him and he had the flag stick in his hand like it was a javelin and he pointed where he thought

The putt should be aimed but he didn’t touch the putting surface if he had that would have been a rules violation so when it was a big um controversy at the time phone calls were coming in you know how viewers used to call in and try to

Be uh the golf rules police at home so when when John finished this amazing round undaunted by the weight of the occasion uh we had to stay on the air as John was brought in the golf cart to our CBS compound and into our videotape

Truck to look at what they had seen back at 11 ultimately they did not they did the right thing they did not penalize him but it was a scare um now during the course of the week a I’ve been trying to develop a friendship with John and and he’s been

Gracious with his time about his story I mean I had it all I had everything that you couldn’t find you know in a media guide let’s say even though he wasn’t of a stature to even being a media guide but I had devoted a lot of time and on

Saturday night the Colts were playing their preseason opener against the Seahawks John had told me that he was a place kicker back in Dell Arkansas on his high school ball team he was a straight on kicker you know not not a Sidewinder somehow I maybe dispens with

That story on Friday I’m sure it was in the in the local papers and somewhere along the line someone invited him from the Colts organization to come to the old whoer Dome I think it was between the quarter change between the first and second quarters they tried to John out

On the field PA they announced that this was our leader here at Crooked Stick you know everybody was aware of his story by now it was happening here in town and we know what happened on Sunday it was the coronation yeah was this um impressive walk onto the stage worldwide debut a

Bigger than life Figure Paul bunyanesque you know this guy that could come out of the trees so to speak and arrive and just slay the world of golf with this ability to hit it like no one ever has before and to take the club back to

Here not to parallel wish I could get there but John was like there it was it was a swing that no no one thought it was capable physically of getting there and he was just bringing the course to his knees and and he won yeah Jim you

Know when you look back at the videos online and just that moment in 1991 I think of just the crowd the the scene uh you look at the 18th hole around the water all those fans there take us through what was that like at that time it was hard to get around

Because so many people turned out for the event um again I I at that point had been with CBS since 1985 so I had covered a lot of golf tournaments but I had never been introduced to anything like that an outpouring like that it was a it was a

Community that was obviously embracing this chance to have the world’s best there in front of them um know we had on Thursday a tragedy happened a a thunderstorm rolled in and I I had just I had just been in that area before it was kind of close to our

Compound but a father of two was struck by lightning on Thursday and he was killed and there’s another story though that um touched everybody’s lives and it came full circle when on Sunday when John Won I was on the 18th green to present him to be there when

They presented him with the w maker Trophy and to conduct that interview his first prize check was $230,000 by today’s pro golf standards it sounds like an appearance feet but um that was what you what you got and the first thing he did was he thanked everybody in the Indianapolis area for

The love and support and here was a guy that hadn’t made it hadn’t made it financially at all $230,000 was gonna was lifechanging for him he said the first thing I’m doing is I’m taking $330,000 off the top and I’m starting a college scholarship fund for those two

Little girls who lost their daddy on Thursday now that was above and beyond it was such a beautiful gesture no one saw it coming and you know he described it right there on the spot when I was asking about the meaning of this Victory it’s first thing he wanted to note those

Girls I know there’ve been a lot of stories in a local paper there by now of course they’re they’re uh they’re in their 40s they did go to college thanks to a scholarship fund that John started they both were exceptional students High achievers and John made a difference that day and

They’d be the first to tell you that uh they never forgot the gift wow what what a story there couple questions about the 1991 PJ championship at cricet stick one scene that love is him walking down the Fairway of 18 and he’s like waving his hand here yeah yeah

What was that like how cool was that well you know I I I was I I was hosting the tournament but the anchor was Pat sumerall sitting in 18 with my future partner in kin Venturi and that over that Shot Pat who was a minimalist he had a very simple line the

Way he would intone that baritone voice he said listen to the roar that’s what he said over all that and just built it was like perfect little tiny narrative um no it was Goosebump Goosebump time for sure and you know the course looked so daunting on the

Air the water in play and it made it looked like it was impossible to shoot a low score there but John was was driving it past a lot of the trouble and you know the story started big and it just got bigger it kept building but in

1997 I was back in in one of my favorite cities on the planet you know how I feel about Indianapolis and I was there for a final four and on the Sunday uh between the semi-final games and the Monday night Championship I I I have some free time

And I I like I like to clear my head a little bit I it’s still ringing in my head from having a headset on and all the fevered pitch excitement and adrenaline so I like to just kind of take a drive and I took a drive with my

Sister Nancy and brother-in-law Don and I wanted to drive back out to to Crooked Stick just to kind of drive around see if I could get in and just kind of like look at the landscape six years later we pulled into Crooked Stick and it was kind of an overcast chilly early April

Day there was no golf but I parked the car and I went into the shop I think was still the pro there and um I just you know wanted to make sure that they knew I was on the grounds and I wasn’t up to any mischief and I walked over to to

Look at at one and I walked to look behind the 18th to look down that Fairway where I kind of figuratively could still hear the Roar and it dawned on me that that John was in was in rehab at this time and his long battle with

Alcoholism and I felt a emptiness in my heart that I was here I saw him become an overnight Superstar and he is somewhere sheltered trying to get his life back in order so I went into the shop a second time and I asked them if they had any stationer with letterhead

From the club and they did and I sat in the pros office and I hand wrote a letter to John I wanted to be authentic so I wrote it at Crooked Stick in the Pro Shop in the office of the head professional and I wrote a letter to Dear John about what

This place meant to me what he meant to the game of golf what he meant to his friends and how all of us admire his efforts to try to get his life back and that I hope from this time this place six years later that you feel somehow channeled the warm wonderful

Glow of embrace and support and love that you felt here that’s out there waiting for you in the world when one day you you leave I believe it’s a Betty Ford when when you get back out in the world so I sealed it put in an envelope

I didn’t have his address on me but I mailed it like a day or two later and I sent it to John but I wanted to write it on the spot there at at CR Jim you know you talk about just how much uh that tournament and how um you

Know it it not just you know changed the game of golf and what he did but also it changed cricket stick and just as far as um the recognition that the the club received on national TV and just what took place during the PJ championship

And I I want to ask you about um I know you have a big love uh for Cricket sck but also Pete Dy as well give me your thoughts on just the appreciation of of him and what he did for the game and of course we know the amazing designs he

Had um throughout his entire legendary career well first off Pete was a a very normal guy but had a scientist brain and but he had a very approachable demeanor he he did not look like someone that was living at a different level he looked like us was just a normal guy who

Was this uh mad scientist when it came to to to shaping the land and building something special and of course he was an Indiana man so it meant a great deal to Pete to have a PGA Championship there at his course at Crooked Stick and I got

To walk the course with Pete early in the week before uh before the championship started this is something that you know he would do uh as a favor to me when we had an event at one of his courses and he was on site he did it

Crooked Stick for the very first time was generous with this time I walked the course with him and he told me what he saw and why holes were shaped the way they were why this bunker is over there so U that this was uh in 91 this was a

One of the biggest moments I believe of Pete’s legendary Hall of Fame career was to bring a major back to his home state you could feel it it meant the world to him and um I can’t think of crooked stick without thinking about Pete dy I can’t think about Pete di without

Thinking about Crooked Stick the place is U listen it’s worthy of having the biggest events in golf I’m really glad that to know there’s a senior open coming up I know sounds like in some ways it’s a long way off we all know how fast time flies is going to be here

Before we know it um by the way I’ve got tiger as the early favorite right now in 28 he will be senior eligible that time he’ll be 50 he’ll be 52 years old as of December 30th before the tournament so um yeah look at out it’s going to be

Special I hope I get a chance to be there I know you had a chance to spend some time at cricet State couple uh just last year and through our conversations you tell me time and time again how special this place is um you played a

Lot of golf forces you’ve been a lot of places um when it comes to you know the game of golf um what makes Cricket sick is membership so special well first off a great Club begins with the quality of the membership and I know you have that

There at at Crooked Stick uh and you guys are committed to protecting and building the legacy of the club you have to have a lot of people dedicate their time to to uphold what what you have and what you want it to be first off every hole is interesting at Crooked Stick there’s

There’s not a replica hole out there where they look two of them look the same um I mean it was just it was a masterpiece when it was first built and it is today I mean I think it’s worthy of Hosting any championship event you

Can come up with in golf uh it’s one of the best courses I have ever laid eyes on and um it’s just it’s a great experience I can’t thank you enough my friend for taking the time to join us and before I let you get out of here on

This I want to just say congratulations to you on the PJ of America Hall of Fame that you were inducted to the Hall of Fame class just last week in Texas congratulations and thank you for all you do for the game of golf hey golf

Has meant the world to me it’s uh it’s given me the chance to to see the world and more importantly to be able to nurture some wonderful friendships like the one I have with you I need golf like I need oxygen I I can’t live life

Without either one of them so to be able to spend a few minutes talking about Crooked Stick uh it’s my great pleasure

Write A Comment