Ben Wright: The Beatles and Me
The return of the Open Championship to Royal Liverpool has me recalling the day I booked the Fab Four—out of sheer desperation—for a 10-minute gig at a rate of 500 pounds,
and how singularly unimpressed I was
Ben Wright: Short Shift
When Jack Nicklaus wrote The Greatest Game of All in 1969, he was in his prime and had not grown too old to compete at a level he, the ultimate perfectionist, could no longer accept. Alas, it happens to every golfer, each of us reaching a level of incompetence at which the greatest game of […]
Ben Wright: Miller Time
As the golf correspondent for England’s Financial Times from 1963 to 1989, I was lucky to witness some of the best final rounds in U.S. Open history, none greater than Johnny Miller’s 63 at Oakmont in 1973. It was better than Arnold Palmer’s 65 at Cherry Hills in 1960 or Ben Hogan’s 67 at Oakland […]
Ben Wright: Aussie Cool
When the professional golf tours were still to many just a game rather than big business—this was less than 30 years ago—two Aussie mates of mine, Jack Newton and Bob Shearer, were about as wild as they come. Their idea of preparing for the final round of a tournament was to down a skinful of […]
Ben Wright: Switching Channels
As someone who has spent more than 50 years in golf broadcasting, I often get asked my opinion of the Golf Channel, especially now that it has locked hands with the PGA Tour to air the first two rounds of every tournament (except majors). Numerous golf fanatics of my acquaintance are largely grateful for the […]
Ben Wright: The King and I
The first time I interviewed Arnold Palmer was at the Centenary Open Championship at St. Andrews in 1960. Palmer said he could spare some time between the final two rounds on Friday, and that I should meet him in the subterranean locker room. He had outscored Kel Nagle, the amiable but tough former Australian Marines […]
Ben Wright: Tripped Up
As soon as I heard of the plot in August to blow several American passenger aircraft out of the skies, I offered my three traveling companions from Maryland the opportunity to opt out of our Irish trip to begin the next day. Thankfully all three chose to go, like myself imagining we were probably flying […]
Ben Wright: Cart Blanch
The most regrettable day of my life in golf was the one I was first forced to use a cart. Until my inaugural trip to America in the mid-1960s, I had never even seen a golf cart. Now I was a guest at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, and my guide around the famed […]
Ben Wright: Greeted at the Gate
Euphoria marked my first-ever golf assignment, covering the 1954 British Open for the Manchester Daily Dispatch. Time can’t obscure the tingle I felt when the cab dropped me off at Royal Birkdale’s front gate that day. I had no qualms with our press headquarters, a nissen hut left over from World War II and outfitted […]
Ben Wright: A True Player
In a storied career that has netted nine major championships and more than 100 victories worldwide, Gary Player fashioned plenty of great golf shots under the fiercest pressure. With this year’s PGA Championship fast approaching, I can’t help recalling the greatest of these shots I ever witnessed—one that earned him the 1972 PGA title in […]
