|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 9, 2014David CannonBill FieldsLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY JULIUS MASON: Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining you for a very special moment in time for two very special gentlemen. As you can see from the television monitors, we're Celebrating 100 Years of Majors. But in actuality, we are celebrating the PGA Championship here at Valhalla Golf Club, being the 100th major that these two gentlemen have actually covered in a lifetime. Pretty remarkable, right? (Applause.) And while they are nowhere near Dan Jenkins' records of 223 major championships of this particular stage, the PGA of America is certainly very pleased that you are able to mark this particular journey with us in Louisville here. So for openers, Bill, I will start with you. If yo wouldn't mind making a couple of comments and maybe some reflections on making it this far. BILL FIELDS: Sure. Thanks very much, Julius, and the PGA of America. It's very nice of you folks to do this. As Julius said, this is really semi‑pro stuff compared to Dan and Art Spander and some other guys. Sal Johnson told me today how many majors he's been to, so we're minor leagues, really. But a lot of fun. I mean, this is my 60th major as reporter. I did the first 40 as a photographer, trying to match wits with this guy, which was not very easy to do because he's one of the best. Lots of memories. I think I was lucky to get past the first one, the 1984 PGA at Shoal Creek because storm detection wasn't what it is now and we got caught out there on a Sunday in a very bad storm. We survived and then I survived late night, overnight drive back to North Carolina with Dick Taylor, and I was glad we made it. Dick got a little sleepy. I think I did take over the wheel at one point. Lots of memories, lots of nice people, lots of wet cameras, lots of late Sunday nights. A few years ago for Golf World, I got the idea to say, okay, I'm going to Herb Wind of the 2000s and write a 4,000 or 5,000 word story on Sunday night. Well, I did it a few times and I hope they were okay, but I think I got few gray hairs as a result. But Dave and I are old enough to remember when there weren't hole location sheets and the press badges were pinned to your shirt and things were a little more low key. A lot of nice memories and lot of fun. So thank you very much. JULIUS MASON: Awarding-winning journalist, Bill Fields, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Cannon, do share, please. DAVID CANNON: For me, it's been incredible journey. I've got two passions in life: I love golf and I love photography. I don't think I could have been luckier to have been doing what I'm doing. It's great, Julius, to be here, because I think without a doubt the PGA of America and the PGA Championship is the friendly major as far as I'm concerned. It's great that I'm here this week, and I still can't believe I've made 100. I'm going to gun for 150. You never know, I could still be trolling up and down those hills. It's been an amazing journey, and I love the fact that, in a funny sort of way, I think still photography still creates history. It's a very important of the history of the game, and if I've made a contributions to that, I'm thrilled to have done it. I've worked with an amazing team at Getty Images. It was all sport in the early days. It was where I started on my own at these big events. Now I'm part of a big team. Honestly, I think I couldn't work amongst a better set of people. It's been just a fantastic journey. I've got many, many highlights. Luckily for us, it's quicker than Bill's because you have to read his stories. But you can look at single images with us. I think that's the power, to me, of the still image. Hopefully we'll be here for many years to come. The game gets more and more exciting, I think, the way the young players are coming through now. You go through generations, and I think they are sort of 10‑ to 15‑year cycles. I think we are in a big change of the guard right now. Really excited what's going to come for my next, shall we say, 25. Hopefully I'll be there for them. Thank you again for making this very special for me to be here this week. JULIUS MASON: Award‑winning photographer, David Cannon. (Applause.) Something's about to happen that's never happened before in their lives, I think, ladies and gentleman. That's where we're going to go to Q and A right now. For the question that is voted the most complicated question to answer for these two, there will be a prize awarded. But I do see a hand up in the back from what might be a local journalist. Q. First off, gentleman, congratulations. What sets this tournament apart? It's number 100? Is it the rain? Is it waiting for Tiger to enter? What is so memorable about No. 100 here at Valhalla? BILL FIELDS: Well, PGA wraps up the season and there's some good story lines developing obviously this week and a great leaderboard. So it's just nice to be here and have a chance to cover it. DAVID CANNON: For me, this week could be really special if Rory can manage to hold on. I've been lucky to photograph him from his teens, basically, all the way through. And it's just so amazing to see the talent coming through like it is. I like Valhalla. I mean, we've been here four times now for two prior PGA Championships and the Ryder Cup, and the course is great for pictures if the sun comes out. Let's hope it does tomorrow or at least this afternoon. It's a great town. Q. Where are you from? DAVID CANNON: I'm from Sussex, in England, just south of London. Q. What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you? BILL FIELDS: Okay. David will‑‑ I was not at the 17th green when Nick Price eagled the 17th hole at the '94 British Open and that was not a good day. I was supposed to be there. So that's right up there. DAVID CANNON: I missed that, because both Steve Monday and I were already on the 18th green. It's a bad feeling when you hear the huge roars from somewhere else on the course. Personally for me was when I had a rogue camera go off on the 18th tee at St. GeorgeÂ’s. Literally I was about four feet from Rory, six feet from Rory. He's just at address and just about to go. This thing starts going click, click, click like that. So I threw it on the ground and it was still going. So he knew that it was actually an accident. But that was pretty bad. At least it was with Rory, so hedid ‑‑ I think his quote was ‑‑ I think he said, "Are you done, Dave?" Q. Mr. Cannon, on days like today and yesterday, what all extra things do you have to do prepare for your job? DAVID CANNON: Well, you try and stay dry. Again, the way the world's changed, we've got these amazing decent covers for the cameras now, so we can actually work a lot longer out in the rain. The cameras are better in poor light. When we started on film, we'd had been out on the course on a day like yesterday because unless you were shooting black‑and‑white, it was a no‑go zone. You make sure you have got ‑‑ keep your cameras dry and good footwear. Waterproof socks are a brilliant invention, trust me. Q. I'm from Beijing News. The Republic of China, the golf history is just 30 years. So it's a shame to say that in front of you. My question is to these two gentlemen is: Have you been to China to report China golf, and what is your best writing memory or photo memory of Chinese golf? BILL FIELDS: I have not been to China. I went to South Korea once to cover a golf tournament and report a story, but that's my only time in Asia, unfortunately. DAVID CANNON: I've actually only been once to China as well. It's such a physical job that we have. We kind of spread our season. And my colleague Andrew Reddington, he's our Chinese correspondent with a couple other guys who go regularly. It just hasn't fit in my schedule. I did do the Johnnie Walker Classic in Beijing, which was probably the coldest Pro‑Am day in my life. And I remember‑‑ you remember the famous starter, the Rolex starter, Ivor Robson, who insists on just wearing a shirt and a jacket, and I was in five layers and freezing and he was start standing there. It was so bad that K.J. Choi got to the first tee and I think he was drawn with the mayor of Beijing. They literally hit their first tee shots and turned around and said to each other, "Brrr." That was it for Johnnie Walker. They headed straight back to the clubhouse. That shows you how cold it was. JULIUS MASON: But when it's not cold, he really does like Beijing, China. DAVID CANNON: We had a good time. It was fun. I'd love to go again. Maybe HSBC this year, you never know. Q. Bill, your transition from a photographer to a writer, what was your biggest obstacle? BILL FIELDS: Well, I had sort of done both all along. I got in photography after I was a reporter, so I learned that, learned on the job, which was really unusual and lucky. You know, it's like Dave said, pictures do one thing and words do another. They can communicate in similar ways, but they're different. On Sunday night at a major, it used to be great to have a couple of beers and you were done. If you are writing for a weekly magazine or even a daily something, it's a different thing. But of course that's changed too with the technology and having to file digitally and not just dropping the film off at a lab. DAVID CANNON: I remember early majors, it would be shoot 10 rolls of film in a day, put them in a bag at the locker. At the end of the week, you would fly home to London with 60 rolls of film and process on a Tuesday morning. Now, if the pictures aren't out within five minutes of something happening, people are asking questions. It's a very different world. BILL FIELDS: We all have had our travel woes trying to get film back and stuff, for sure. So that's a completely different world now. DAVID CANNON: It's just the Internet now. That's all that matters. Q. For David, I consider myself an artist. It was a hard change from film to digital for you. I really consider you a Michaelangelo of photography. How hard was it for you to change and the obstacles that you faced in that change? DAVID CANNON: I was a bit slow to change because obviously I was born and bred on high quality, color film. Really it happened a couple of reasons, one that Canon came out with a really, really good digital camera in 2002. The whole company changed to digital at that point as well. So it was a kind of I had to change. Honestly, I can say now that the camera is now beyond‑‑ I can't describe how incredible they are. The quality is just off the planet. Up until five years ago, I would shoot panoramic course scenic shots on film, 617, but that was the last time I used film. I think just to give you a little insight into how the business changed, the Getty Images film bill in 2001 was $7 million. That was film processing for the whole company. In 2002, it was just over $200,000. So that was the significant change. I think the business is equally as exciting, but more exciting a way because it's so instant now. Q. One moment in time, your favorite memory that you captured in a major? DAVID CANNON: I'm very biased. I've got two and they are both involve the same person who is sadly not with us now, and that's Seve Ballesteros. Every time I talk about it, I dissolve, basically, because he was to me my unbelievable subject. Holing the final putt at St. Andrews in '84, and then I got a really nice shot of him in full swing in the '88 Open Championship at Lytham. Those two, that's my best memories. BILL FIELDS: Photographically, I got a nice sequence of Larry Mize when he won. Others did as well, but that turned out well. That was fun. Like Dave said, the film days, I remember going back to the lab in New York on a Monday evening and waiting for the film to get developed to see and make sure that I got that. And that anticipation, it just‑‑ it was much different from what happens now. But it was cool. DAVID CANNON: That Seve Ballesteros sequence, I was so excited by it. But it happened at 7 o'clock in the evening, and then we had to drive home. I actually drove overnight because I was so excited to London, which is seven hours or whatever. I was outside or office for the lab at 8 o'clock on a Monday morning, and I couldn't put the whole roll of film in. I had to clip test the first few frames to check that I had got the exposure right. I was so concerned. I had got it right, but it was just like one of those moments. Now you can look at it two seconds after you have taken a picture, you can see whether you've got it. It is so different. Q. In the spirit of the late Fast Eddy, Bill, if I may, a two‑part question. Can you reminisce about your memorable interview with former Senior PGA Champion Kohki Idoki and how putting that game story together that day worked out for you? BILL FIELDS: Julius, he got the interpreter there. That was a great day for Mr. Idoki, but (laughter). He seemed like a very nice man, but it was tough to tell his backstory because my Japanese is worse than his English. That was a good one, Dan. Q. Both of you gentleman, for David, your most unforgettable photographic moment and for Bill, your most unforgettable subject interview? DAVID CANNON: That Rory moment was pretty bad; I've got to say. For actually missing a picture, I suppose Paul McGinley in the Ryder Cup, when he holed that final putt. I had too long a lens on. He jumped almost completely out of the frame, so that was a bad one. Trust me, I will shoot loose now on the final putt on a Ryder Cup. Those would be the two cringe moments. BILL FIELDS: Photographically, just by luck, when T.C. Chen did the double hit at Oakland Hills in '85, my sequence included a shot of the ball actually on the club face. So it was luck, but it was good luck to have. Writing, you know, it's hard to say. Just from not at the majors, but a guy who won the majors way back, to get to sit down with Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead, when they were in their later years, to hear them recall what it had been like, those are special moments. And I think Michael Bamburger was saying to me last here when Ken Venturi died, at least our generation, those of us in our 50s or so now, we got a chance to meet those gentleman and talk to them. Sadly, that's what people who are coming on now aren't going to get to do. Our reporting lives were better for getting to do that. Q. The double bogey on 6, I was wondering if you couldtake us through ‑‑ (laughter) your favorite story from a major that you wrote, if you had to‑‑ BILL FIELDS: Wow, they do sort of run together, as you know. I was proud of those longish stories I did five or six years ago from a couple of the majors. I remember I followed Ernie every shot at Carnoustie the year Harrington won and kind of wrote about his week. It was kind of an old school thing, but that was really fun to do. That one stands out a little bit. Ernie came up to me at the Presidents Cup a couple of months later and he said, "Wow, that was pretty cool." So it was nice of him to acknowledge walking all the way with him and chronicling that. Q. Thank you for so much wonderful documentation over the years with the pictures, the written words. It's helped my enjoyment of the game for all the years you've been covering it. David, you said something about this being the friendly major. Can you elaborate a bit? DAVID CANNON: There is the reason, basically. Una, Julius, it all comes from them. They have always involved us in planning for the Ryder Cup, instigating the walk around. You are welcome all the time, and it makes such a difference. JULIUS MASON: It's comments like that which lead us to this next particular part of the program, the gifting. So we are going to make sure you walk away with logo‑ed items from this particular Championship, including a lithograph signed by the artist of the official poster of the Championship, signed to both of you. I believe for your celebratory evening tonight, we're always making sure you're going to walk away with a big bottle of Belvedere vodka. I think we're all going to get ready to enjoy celebratory cake down in the front row that Una Jones is going to cut for everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to come up now with your Sharpies and get autographs from these two gentleman, we can do it now. (Applause.) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|