Scottie Scheffer said hello to second Masters win as Verne Lundquist bid goodbye | Golden
It was difficult to figure out what was cooler about Sunday’s final round of the Masters. We had several options.
Two stand out.
We could have gone with Texas ex Scottie Scheffler reaffirming his status as the best golfer on the planet with a second Masters title. And there also was broadcasting legend Verne Lundquist highlighting his 40th and final weekend working at Augusta in typical classy style: a birdie call on Scheffler’s march toward a second green jacket on the always dynamic par-3 16th hole.
While Scheffler’s takeover of the sport is in full throttle — Longhorns have now won 10 majors — I’ll go with Lundquist, a friend and a role model who lives in Austin and was already making a name for himself back in the 1970s while working as a sportscaster for ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA, hosting the wildly popular "Bowling for Dollars."
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The 83-year-old Lundquist, known lovingly as “Uncle Verne” by those who have followed him, called it a career Sunday though it’s obvious he still has plenty of juice left if he wants to come back and grace a broadcast in the future.
He called it all over the last seven decades: college football, Dallas Cowboys games on the radio, college basketball and so many others with the aplomb of the quick-witted but kind college professor so many of us aspired to be. This space isn’t big enough to list his best moments in their entirety, but those spring weekends among the spring azaleas listening to his baritone voice quietly documenting the action at 16 stand atop a bottomless list of career highlights.
"This is such a special place and I've had so many great moments here," Lundquist said during one of many tribute videos Sunday. "I love everything about this event. It's my favorite golf course ever and, again, just a lot of memories."
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Lundquist and longtime golf commentator David Feherty entertained a packed house at Austin's Headliners Club on March 26 and boy, did they have the stories. Lundquist is equal parts journalist, storyteller, historian and friend. To spend five to 10 minutes in his company taking in his many memorable moments is a joy to any sports fan.
The aging Tiger Woods, a five-time Masters winner hobbled by a bad back in the midst of the worst four-round Augusta finish of his career, sought out Lundquist on Sunday for a final handshake. It was Woods’ chip-in off the green on 16 that led to one of the most iconic golf calls in history in 2005, when the ball somehow found the bottom of the cup, highlighting his Masters win.
“Oh, my goodness,” Lundquist said as the ball inched toward its destination. It dropped in after hovering a millisecond over the cup, prompting arguably the greatest response to a historic golf moment in the history of sport.
“Oh, wow! In your life, have you seen anything like that?” he continued. Millions nodded in approval as they exchanged high fives in their living rooms and sports bars.
Nineteen years separated his call of Jack Nicklaus’ sixth green jacket at age 46 from Woods’ unbelievable chip-in. Another 19 passed before Lundquist bid Augusta goodbye but not forever. He said he and his lovely bride Nancy plan to return one day, most likely as fans.
Who knows where Lundquist ranks among the greatest broadcasters in history, but he resides on a very short list.
Will we miss his unmistakable baritone moving forward?
To steal a phrase, “Yes, sir.”
Cedric Benson merits TSHOF inclusion
Don't forget about Benson: Kirk Bohls and I attended the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 induction Saturday night in Waco, joining a packed house that honored an esteemed group of inductees, including Longhorns Jamaal Charles, Colt McCoy, Christa Williams and Bubba Thornton.
In the days leading up to the event, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the late Cedric Benson did more than enough to warrant inclusion into the hallowed hall.
Benson, who died in 2019 at age 36 after a motorcycle accident, was a grown man from the time he stepped onto a football field. He was the key to Midland Lee's three Class 5A state championships, scoring five touchdowns in each of those games. He signed with Texas and rushed for 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons, the only Longhorn to do so. The fourth overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft rushed for 6,017 yards over eight seasons, including three 1,000-yard campaigns with the Bengals. Not a great NFL career, but a good one.
As a member of the TSHOF selection committee, I will push for Benson’s inclusion in the Class of 2025. Sure, he had some personal issues off the field at times, but he also was an emerging philanthropist in his final years through his charity which was established to aid the underprivileged.
He was a true legend of Texas sports.
O.J. case captured the country’s imagination
Where were you?: We all have a where-were-you story when it comes to O.J. Simpson.
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Some of you have already shared vivid details of what was going on in your life on June 17, 1994 when that white Ford Bronco police pursuit chipped away at our basketball buzz as NBC decided that the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks would play second fiddle to the Juice, a prime suspect in the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
When news of Simpson’s death hit the news Thursday morning, my mind flashed back to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. I was in my second year as a sports reporter and our department was a high-traffic area for news reporters who gathered daily in front of the only television in the building at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to see what the local stations were reporting on.
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Well, on the day of the verdict, there was more newsroom traffic than usual at the TMT. The Simpson verdict was being announced live and every executive and reporter — there had to be at least 35 — sardined their way into our department and settled in around a small television set near the back of the room.
Just so you know, of the 35 folks cramped in that small space, only two were Black, me and a receptionist who worked downstairs.
The word soon came as America leaned in: “We, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder.”
My Black coworker let out a celebratory scream and quickly bolted out of the room toward the elevator, leaving me with what I felt were 33 very angry sets of eyeballs trained on me.
That trial divided the country, mostly along racial lines. Like it or not, most of Black America wanted him free while most of white America wanted him locked up for life, or worse.
The people in Sports that day were angry as hell. “He did it!” was the reaction I most remember. “How could they find him not guilty?” a few asked me directly.
The weird part of that day is I felt like they wanted me to explain the mostly Black jury’s actions. It wasn’t my place to do so. I lived in Texas and wasn’t there selected to serve.
“Hey, I thought he did it,” I told them, not because it was what they wanted to hear, but because I really believe that Simpson had committed two murders or knew who did. A Hall of Fame football career took a back seat to one of the most watched court cases in our history. It was a real game changer for the legal profession, forensic science and, yes, journalism.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Scottie Scheffer and Verne Lundquist were the stories of 2024 Masters
