As a Canadian, born in Scotland but lived in Canada most all my life, I have always had a strong Scottish influence from my mother Fay who is still going strong back in Portobello outside Edinburgh at 90, and my father Bill who almost made it to 100, passing at 97.
Golf has been a big part of my life as a result of dad, and I have always had a leaning towards the Open as the greatest tournament like most of us from anywhere but the USA, and grew up following all it's great international champions like Peter Thompson from Australia, Christy O'Connor from Ireland and was an 8 year old when I first saw Arnold Palmer in 1960 at St Andrew's lead the American migration back to the Open which we take for granted today. He lost by a stroke to Kel Nagle.
He and a stout young Jack Nicklaus were joined by a little South African called Gary Player who made up the big 3 and I was just drawn to his ability to play his game as well as them despite being overpowered off the tee. He became along with Arnie and Lee my 3 favourite players.
That David vs Goliath thing with Gary, has always made me pull for the underdog, like the Team Europe at the Ryder Cup..
In 1998 I was well established in my career at the Fan590 radio station, I had begun as the producer of a Saturday morning golf show we called Fairways in 1993 with Bob Durant and Bob Weeks. Durant only thought up the show to get free rounds of golf, and Weeksy was an assistant editor at Scoregolf magazine, just starting his great career.
I'd thrown myself as I always do, "all in" to my job and had become good at producing "great gets" for all my shows, in radio talk that means " big guests' and my roladex was growing by the day to the point I had over 12,000 numbers, as good a self earned list as any producer anywhere in Canada. I had also began my career on air when Weeksy was off on assignment, and soon became co-host of the show.
I learned how to get guests without the normal route of PR staff, but at Augusta, unless you were there, they had a very old fashioned set up.
I would phone the press room which had several women manning the phones, and request an interview.
They would write the details down including time and my numbers and affiliation. then stick the requests on the locker doors of the players
I had those stickers on Arnie's, Jack's, Greg Norman's, Tom Weiskopf's, Bernhard Langer's, you name it I had 20 in all.
We had only just started using cell phones, there was no social media, so I left 3 numbers on all the stickers.
On Wednesday night that Masters week, I was at my desk at home going over the morning show guests when our home phone rang.
' Bryan Angus ?" Yes
"This is Gary Player calling from Augusta Georgia"...Yeah sure, who is this!
"Sorry to call you at home but I tried the other two numbers and just got your answering machine".. Mr. Player I can't believe it's you !
"Well Bryan I was taught if somebody takes the time to call me, it would be impolite not to return the call"
We talked briefly, I had nothing at home to record him, nor was I expecting to hear from him. Could I possibly call him back in an hour so I could drive into work and grab a studio?
" Not to bother Bryan, I'm playing early tomorrow and will be back at the house around 4pm before dinner, call me here then and we'll do the interview and anything else you need, by the way how is Al Balding doing these days ?
That turned out to be the last year he made the cut, some 46 shots behind Mark O'Meara, he finally stopped playing in 2009.
We taped the interview the next day, and I also asked him to do some promotions for my show like, " "This is Gary Player and you are listening to Fairways on the Fan590" Well he couldn't get the Fan590 right for some reason. He kept saying " with the fans on 590".. I was embarrassed to keep after it, but he was so kind and we finally got it done and I used it on the show for years.
That my friends sums up Gary Player, the night before the Masters, he and his son Mark, sat down with all his requests at the home he rented, and spent the evening calling us all. You can imagine the list, from Butler's Cabin, the Letterman Show, every newspaper and TV/Radio outlet around the world and he called an unknown producer from a station he'd never heard of in Canada no less.
It began a life long contact with him where ever he was in his travels and he would oblige and come on a show for me whenever he could.
Never did one other player from the Masters answer one of my stickers in 20 years of doing Fairways although others did come on through their agents or through other contacts I'd established.
He's 85 this year, I should give a call to wish him all the best. He's probably out having a run, doing his 100 sit ups a day, or dancing !
Bryan Angus
