[ GOLF ]
NBC’s Rolfing still
talks a good game
KA'UPULEHU-KONA, HAWAII >> When Mark Rolfing talks, people listen.
As a golf analyst for NBC and the Golf Channel, Rolfing is here at the $1.6 million MasterCard Championship giving television viewers a behind-the-scenes taste of what the players on the Senior Circuit are thinking.
"The thing about Mark Rolfing as an announcer, whether he's in the tower, with me or walking as part of the Emmy-winning NBC sports team, you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody that is better prepared in all facets of the broadcast," Golf Channel commentator and broadcasting partner Jim Kelly said.
There was a time when Rolfing was on the other side of the microphone.
He wasn't the most sought-after player but if you hear Rolfing tell it, being a front-runner was something he wasn't quite ready for.
"As a player, I came close (to winning) a few times," he said.
"I never won a big tournament, but I do remember 1975 at the Scandinavian Open. I don't remember the exact finish, but I just remember choking really bad the last day. The back of my neck was hot, my knees were shaky. I shot 78 in the final round and I was a shot behind going into the round and I think it was that day I knew that I really didn't have it in me. That's when I pretty much changed directions."
It took three more years grinding away on the golf course and a chance meeting with Don Ohlmeyer for Rolfing to solidify his career move.
"It was during the 1978 Kapalua International and I went up to do an interview with Lee Trevino and Vin Scully," Rolfing said. "The producer, Don Ohlmeyer, thought I did a pretty good job and asked me to come back the next day. I ended up going up every day as sort of a guest (analyst). And he offered me a job to work the World Cup the next week."
It was the start of a career that has sent him all over the world and in the booth at the U.S. Open, Ryder Cup, the Players Championship and most every major event on the PGA, LPGA and Champions tours.
"Mark is the consummate pro in terms of preparation, talking to the guys on the range, on the putting green, getting anecdotes, getting little tidbits that nobody else would get," said Kelly, who has worked with Rolfing since 1987. "And then he has a very human way of relaying that to the audience at home ... never in the form of talking down to the audience ... almost making you feel like you're in the locker room swapping stories with him. So he humanizes the players, he knows the strategies, he gets you into the head of the athletes and the golfer when strategy and course management is a factor."
The biggest thing Rolfing worried about when he made the transition from player to interviewer was how the players would accept him.
"The players accepted me early on in my career, which I was worried about because back when I started the only real people that made it to analyst jobs in golf were the major winners," said Rolfing, who is in his 19th year as an analyst. "Arnold Palmer was one of them at the time. So was Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino. And I sort of came along even before Gary McCord, so I didn't know how they would accept me not having the great playing record. But they have."
Rolfing, who spends 22 to 24 weeks on the road and the rest at his home in Kapalua, recalls his first interview.
It was at the World Cup at Palm Springs and he was sent to talk to the Japanese team. Only problem was they didn't speak English and there was no interpreter around.
"That was pretty funny," Rolfing said.
"They baptized me. They said if I can survive that, they figured this guy must be tough."
Rolfing's most memorable interview? Easy.
It was with Palmer after his final round at the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont.
"He had said he's not going to play any more U.S. Opens," Rolfing said, "and when he holed out his final putt, went into the scoring trailer and came out there must have been 100 or 150 media waiting for him. We were on live on ESPN that day and he, for some reason, came straight to me. So I got the first interview.
"After being able to get out just barely a couple of sentences he couldn't talk. Tears welled up in his eyes. It was just a highly emotional experience for him. And when I was done, I had tears in my eyes and had to go sit down and regroup. It really made me realize at that point what Arnold Palmer had done for the game and the fact if it were not for him I would not have been involved in television.
"Who knows where television golf would have gone without Arnold Palmer, and here I had just done the interview."
Rolfing is still producing a golf show called "Golf Hawaii," which airs five nights a week beginning at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and there's no telling how long he'll be doing TV commentary.
"As long as I wake up and say, 'Man, I can't wait to get out and watch Jack Nicklaus play golf and talk about it,' I don't see that stopping for a long time."
Good shooting: Nicklaus carded three rounds in the 60s in the same event for the first time in his Champions Tour career when he carded a 68-66-67 for a three-day total of 201.
Merry Mex: Lee Trevino made his record 12th appearance in the event, fnishing 36th with a 216.