Beers and Tears on the golf course...

Here’s a recent tear sheet from Golf Digest of Roger Maltbie, on course tournament commentator extraordinaire…This dude used to be a pro, and was now on the other side of the game now as an analyst and commentator. I knew he was going to be awesome and he was, in spite of our 7am call time for the shoot in Louisville…I knew it would be a good shoot when I showed up at 7 and he was outside smoking a cig and offered me one… He’s one of those guys that everybody likes, players and fans alike. Roger was never an awesome player or force on the pro tour, but he did win a few tournaments, but no majors. But what he did do is he got to play on the tour during the golden age of golf, in the 70’s with Nicklaus and Palmer and Player and Watson and Chi Chi…before tiger ruined it all and made golfers realize they must be in great shape and awesome overall athletes in general and spend lots of time at the gym, not just time on the course…must have been so much fun in Rogers day…. And Roger was known as a guy that lived life to the fullest, you could always count on finding him in the bar after a round hanging with the guys and caddies. The most notorious story of him happened in 1975. He won a tournament, was celebrating in a bar that night, and lost the $40,000 winners check. True story, I asked him during the shoot and he did indeed confirm. Of course he did get them to issue another check, but so funny that he actually lost it in a bar…and roger hasn’t really slowed down much…when he offered me the smoke, I told him I quit a few years ago and he shared with me a recent story…he was at his doctors office and the doc told him he needed to quit drinking and smoking for his health, as his health isn’t great. He told his doc quitting both would indeed kill him for sure, so he would slow his drinking down but he still needed to smoke, quitting both he just couldn’t do…the idea for the shoot was to get him in as many animated expressions as possible, as he is very animated and has been known to cry on camera during an interview. So we had some eye drops to do a crying shot too… ..for 7am he really went through an awesome range of expression…the crying shot was great too, but it didn’t make the magazine, so here it is for your viewing pleasure…