Reardon’s Scoop

Guest Columnist

Dan Reardon

U.S. Open Memories: A Norman Scoop

(Editor’s note: Dan Reardon has covered golf for KMOX NewsRadio 1120 AM for some 35 years.)

If there actually is a U.S. Open this year, and if media are allowed to attend, it will be my third trip to Winged Foot Golf Club - which includes Davis Love III’ s “rainbow” PGA win in 1997 and Phil Mickelson historic U.S. Open collapse in 2006.. Comfortably north of 100 majors on my golf coverage resume, I often am asked about all-time favorites. Jack Nicklaus at Augusta in 1986 and Hale Irwin’s 1990 U.S .Open win at Medinah frequently come to mind. Seldom do I mention one that has a personal element of pride involved, the 1988 U.S. Open at the Country Club at Brookline, won by Curtis Strange. Brookline is one of the most historic venues in golf, a charter member of the USGA. It’s the site of the greatest upset in golf history - amateur Francis Ouimet’s U.S. Open win in 1913. But the club has not frequently played host to professional golf. Since Ouimet’s epic win, the U.S. Open (1963) has returned only once to Brookline, although the national championship is set to return in 2022. In my third year of covering golf for KMOX in ‘88, my primary on air duties were leaderboard updates in hourly newscasts. But I thought of myself as a correspondent and looked for news that I could use to flavor my reports. I made a point to spend time on the course each day, a lesson I learned from the legendary Herbert Warren Wind. With second-round play well underway in the late morning, I was walking the course when I saw a crowd gathered near a first aid tent in the vicinity of the tenth hole. I didn’t need to be Bob Woodward to investigate. As I got closer, I saw Australian Greg Norman was the focus of the galleries, and easily recognizable with his cowboy style golf hat. They were placing ice on his left wrist, which already rested in a sling. I found a marshal who had been with Norman’s group and asked what happened. He said that on the niith hole - one hole earlier - Norman played a shot out of long grass and struck a buried rock with his swing. At the time, Norman was the No. 1 player in the world and had been for the better part of two years. Armed with the injury news, I hurried back to the media center. When I arrived, I asked at the USGA information desk what they were saying about Norman. They had no idea what I was talking about. I realized then that I had a scoop! Not scheduled for a report until later that day, I nonetheless called the sports office at KMOX to relay the news. I told the radio personality on duty that “Greg Norman was withdrawing from the Open with an injured wrist.” Mindful I was a school teacher moonlighting in the media, the veteran broadcaster challenged the information. He emphasized there was nothing on the wire to corroborate my story. I stood fast, reiterating that Norman was iced and in a sling - and I didn’t care what was on the wire. With that, I left it in the hands of that KMOX personality to make the call. Norman, in fact, withdrew and afterward said, “It’s probably the lowest point in my career. I’ve never pulled out of a tournament before.” More than 30 years later I still don’t know if the station put my scoop on the air. What I do know is that I reported it and to this day, it remains a moment of pride.