NBC’s GOLF TEAM PREVIEWS THE PLAYERS
“I’m choking in the booth just looking at those holes.” – NBC’s Miller on difficulty of TPC Sawgrass
The most significant golf championship in the world that is a non-major – NBC’s Maltbie on The Players
NEW YORK – April 30, 2009 – NBC Sports today conducted a media conference call with golf host Dan Hicks, analyst Johnny Miller and course reporter Roger Maltbie to preview its 22nd year as the broadcast home of golf’s fifth major, THE PLAYERS, entering its 36th year overall. NBC will broadcast weekend coverage, with limited commercial interruption, Saturday and Sunday May 9 and 10 from 2-7 p.m. ET. Highlights of the call follow:
MILLER ON HIS EXPERIENCES AT TPC SAWGRASS: “To be honest with you, I just freaked out when I got on courses with water. I just didn’t like them. I can play out of the trees, I can play out of the long rough, but I just can’t play out of 10-foot deep water, so it just freaked me out. I’m choking in the booth just looking at those holes.”
MALTBIE ON THE PLAYERS STATUS: “I don’t think there is any other way to view this event than as the most significant golf championship in the world that is a non major. There’s no other way to put it. It has the best field; it’s a magnificent golf course. I think it’s playing much more how Pete Dye would have envisioned the golf course would play for a championship of this caliber. I think this golf course and this finish demands the best from the players as they try to win this championship.”
HICKS ON THE PRESTIGE OF THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP: “The event stands on its own, and one of the great things about the event is that we’ve seen a variety of players win it. A lot of other venues, you see the same type of players win. Look who we’ve seen win the Players Championship, guys who have power, guys who have finesse. It’s at the point where it doesn’t need Phil or Tiger or even Sergio Garcia to win it every year to legitimize it. It has the respect of the players and the field speaks for itself.”
MALTBIE ON TPC SAWGRASS: “I really think it’s the kind of golf course that is very constricting, very exacting. It’s the kind of golf course that I would say when it plays like it should, it’s not fun to play for from a player’s perspective.”
MALTBIE ON TIGER’S CHANCES: “I don’t think it is the kind of course in my view that Tiger would really like to play. That’s not a knock on the golf course, it’s just the type of golf course it is. It’s a second-shot player’s golf course. I’ve always felt that way. It can be a very confounding golf course from the players’ perspective. With that said, Tiger’s the best player on the planet no matter where he plays, and if Tiger plays well then there is certainly no reason he couldn’t or shouldn’t win.”
MILLER ON THIS YEAR’S FIELD AND TIGER: “The big guns are really not dominating right now. It’s sort of an open forum for who might win. It’s hard to pick who will do well. Tiger’s game does not suit The Players that well, winning it just one time. I think he would like to get revenge on The Players course. I think he feels a little uncomfortable there.”
MILLER ON HOW TIGER COULD WIN: “If he would just eliminate the driver and hit a lot of stinger 3-woods and a lot of long irons off the tee like at the British Open the last time he won there, that would give him the best chance to win The Players. That was an amazing performance, maybe the most impressive performance of precision I’ve ever seen. That’s what I would recommend for him. Almost forget the driver.”
HICKS ON TIGER’S STRUGGLES AT TPC SAWGRASS: “The stadium course has a certain amount of claustrophobic feeling to it. It’s not the kind of course where you can get on the tee and rip it. The escape factor at the stadium course is a lot tougher than it is at most golf courses, and that is part of the reason why Tiger has struggled there. He’s been the Houdini of all Houdinis on the PGA Tour. It’s less of an escape factor at the stadium course for Tiger.”
HICKS ON MICKELSON: “There’s no doubt about it. Phil’s got it all. Phil in many ways is more entertaining to watch than Tiger is. As far as rivals to Tiger, Phil is it right now. There’s really nobody else that has stepped up. He’s just got so much game, and he’s got that type of incredible game that can bail himself out and that helps him stay close to Tiger when it gets tough. A rival yes. On equal footing, he’s still a long way away.”
MILLER ON MICKELSON: “If Tiger never existed, Phil would be Tiger. Phil’s got as much horsepower in his car, it’s just that the lug nuts aren’t always tightened down enough.”
HICKS ON VIJAY SINGH: “I think he’s going through a period where he’s coming off of the surgery and he’s lost a little confidence and he’s looking to get back the swagger he had. But Vijay will work through whatever he needs to do to get back to where he was. Can Vijay win another major? Absolutely. There’s no question in my mind that he can. All you have to do is look at the guy’s work ethic. Even at Vijay’s age, I don’t think he’s lost that competitiveness that you need and he’s got a lot of really good golf left in him.”
MILLER ON SINGH: “These guys in their late 40s can still play. And they always say a great fighter always has a least one great fight left in him, and Vijay’s got more than one great fight left.”
MILLER ON THE PLAYERS: “In my estimation, there only ought to be maybe five or six events that you can put c-h-a-m-p-i-o-n-s-h-i-p behind it, and the rest are all just tournaments. This is one of them.”
MILLER ON FINISHING HOLES: “Those last three holes really expose the choke factor and the heroic factor, too. It’s a phenomenal course that really requires good ball striking.”
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