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 […]
Ben Wright: Heroes In Harmony
Of the four major champions crowned in 2004, clearly the most unlikely winner was Todd Hamilton at the British Open at Royal Troon. As Hamilton holed out on No. 18 to finish off Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff, my thoughts drifted back some three decades, to a celebration at that venerable Scottish links that […]
Ben Wright: Southern-fried Seve
In all my years of covering tournament golf, I never heard galleries react with quite the same passion as those at the Masters. From my perch behind the 15th green it was possible to distinguish the various cheers as they echoed through the avenues of pines. For instance, whenever a player got home in two […]
