AMERICAN CENTURY CELEBRITY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2003

Rush Limbaugh

Q. How did your game go today?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, this is the third day I've played this week, and it was -- this is nothing to write home about. Last four holes, maybe, I played like I'm capable of. But I was doing things today that I haven't done in two years, topping drives and a number of other things.

But it's good to get a round like this out of the system when it doesn't count. Makes the amateur partners feel really good. So it all turned out for the best.

I mean, my attitude is, I'm just grateful to be here. I'm not a golfer. Thank God I don't make my living at it, and I feel very lucky, very privileged just to be able to participate in something like this.

Q. What was the big bother, was it the number of people watching you?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: You know, I've played the Bob Hope three times and the AT&T twice. It wasn't bad. It's just the game is mental. Once you've mastered the physical aspect, not mastered, but 90 percent of the game, all of the other things being equal is mental, and for some reason, I just was not able to execute my swing today.

And I think it had nothing to do with physical characteristics. There's nothing wrong with me. I think it's just for whatever reason, maybe I was tired, I have no idea what it was. And that's the thing that frustrates me about the game, I'll go play well two rounds, come out and do today and not really know why I did poorly. But that's what makes me an amateur.

Q. You've been invited here in previous years. Why did you take it up this year? I know you've been invited in years past.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, I think -- I didn't know. I have not been invited before that I knew of. This is the first year.

In fact, I tell you, I've watched this tournament. There's two reasons why I like this tournament: One, the field. It's a great bunch of people. And watching this thing on television is something that you want to be part of, no matter whether you have a chance to be a part of it or not. I thought maybe some day I would.

But the other thing about it is this tournament signals the beginning of football season. One, two weeks after this tournament, training camp starts. And I'm a big football fan, so this tournament has always had a couple meanings to be here.

But to be here among the people that are playing in this, as I say, I don't want to overdo it, but it's a treat.

I think, I could be wrong, but this is the first I'm I've been invited, because I would have said yes if I knew.

Q. Could you talk about your new job on ESPN with Sunday NFL Countdown, what's your role on the show going to be?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, there's a defined role, but I think like everything else it's going to evolve as the season unfolds.

The plan now is for me to within the first half hour or 15 minutes of the program open with a 90-second to two-minute essay that hopefully will be produced; have a lot of video and audio elements to it. And then during the course of the show they are going to be -- this is the way ESPN is thinking about it. There will be three or four times where the group onset -- it will be in Bristol. I will be on-set in the same studio, just a different room. And if there's something going on I want to get in on, I'll do the equivalent of a coach, throwing a flag wanting to review a play. I'll say, hey, wait a minute, something was said here that's not right and want to get in on it. That's what I'm going to do.

I think as this evolves, it will be probably more than three times, could be three or four, but it's going to be a chance just for me to talk football, which I also love. The way I've been talking about it is, you sit around, you watch football all day on the couch or you watch these pregame shows and you listen to the stuff being talked about. You say to yourself, "I can do that." So now I've got a chance to do it.

This is just pure fun for me. This is just the pure pursuit of something that I really love, almost as a hobby, and to get a chance to do it is something I'm looking forward to.

Q. Have you talked to Dennis Miller at all about his experience?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: No. In fact, I met Dennis for the first time last night at the Rules Meeting where we were told what-for about everything, what not to say on the golf course, how to dress and this sort of thing.

Kevin Sorbo saw me walk in and his eyes got real big and, "oh," and he turned this way and said, "Dennis." And Dennis came out and we shook hands for about two or three minutes, talked golf, but nothing else.

Q. Do you look at this as an opportunity to disconnect from world events a little bit? Are you on a little bit of a vacation or are you going to try keep up with what's going on?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: My computer is back where I'm staying and when I go back home I'll fire it up. I'm continuing to stay informed while I'm gone because I'll get back an the air on Monday do the program. I don't take a break from that, but the break is not having to come up or not having to be on in a performance sense in that basis.

But this is, I got an e-mail note the other day from somebody who was chiding me for goofing off, and this is not goofing off. There are a lot of people with a lot of expectations. These amateurs you're playing with today, they have a lot of expectations of the person they have drawn. The other people here have expectations. I have expectations of doing well.

So, there's a different kind of pressure that I've put on myself, maybe I'd play better if I just looked at this as sort of care free and happy-go-lucky. But to me this is almost an extension of work in the sense of the opportunity that's presented here.

I mean, all of these people out here that I must have signed, if one, 50 autographs between every hole. Some of the fairways, I'm signing as I walk. Now those people all have expectations, too. I don't say no to one of them or if they want to pose for pictures. It's a chance to cement the relationship with the audience. So I actually look at it as an extension of work.

But I love what I do, so it really isn't work.

Q. Why do you think that talk radio has become such a hot vehicle for conservative politics?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: You mean as opposed to another point of view, or why is just talk radio as a format succeeding?

Q. Format, yes.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: As a format succeeding. Well, I really, it's hard for me. I don't listen to other people who do it, so it's hard for me to speak about them.

When people ask me this, you know, why is talk radio doing so well. I say, well, people want to listen to it and for whatever reason they consider it, a good show. I think there are many elements to my program and talk radio. Radio is a very intimate medium. Television, it is what it is, but people watch television, kind of zombie-like. Television provides you the pictures. All you've got to is sit there and watch and use no imagination whatsoever because that's provided for you.

Radio, a good host has to paint the pictures. A good host has to be compelling. A good host has to glue to you to the radio. I think if that happens, then you've got a very active relationship between the listener and the host.

Walking around with these people, these people are quoting things to me I said three years ago or five years ago. Some guy asked me to do something I did ten years ago as a "best-of" thing.

Television people walking around out here, you will hear, "boy, I love that tie you wore the other day" or your "makeup looks good" or whatever. But radio, they hear what you say. It's a very substantive medium because that's all there are is words, that's nothing else. Much the mainstream press sort of puts talk radio down and looks at it as a stepchild, but the people that listen to it, listen to it actively. They listen to it for a long time. They derive either information or pleasure or information or a combination of all three, and that's what makes the bond of loyalty between host and audiences so deep, it really does.

Q. What did you think about when you heard, it was reported in a new book about golfing and presidents that Bill Clinton would take up to 16 mulligans - ?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Now, is anybody surprised at that? That Bill Clinton would take 16 shots and record a 5, is that what it was? Now that shouldn't surprise -- the thing about golf and I know this is a cliche, and I've only been playing it, what, six years. I started in 1997. The thing about golf, really, is you'll find out, at least I have, what people are all about and made of. You find out whether they quit. You'll find out whether they fudge or cheat. Any number of characteristics that people possess in their personalities will come out usually in 18 holes of golf, whether they have a temper, whether they have a controlled anger or whatever it is about them, you'll learn it.

And so to hear that Clinton -- I mean, when I play, we don't even call them mulligans; we call them Clintons.

Q. What's your shortcoming? Do you have a temper?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, playing. But then after that is aim. Hitting it where I've aimed. It doesn't go there.

Q. Do your shots hook to the right?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: No, no. I draw the ball. My natural ball flight is a draw, but when it goes right, I hear about it. People think I've never heard a joke about my golf going this way, or "television" right. (Indicating left).

I spray it. That's one of the frustrating things. I would trade 20 yards of distance -- how many times have you heard this -- distance, just to hit it straight.

Q. Did you ever want to be an athlete?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Oh, who doesn't? I played little league basketball. You know, on Tuesday afternoon, I played with Mark McGwire. Yesterday I played with Pierre LaRouche, Mario Lemieux and Mark Rypien. I felt like an absolute dork. These guys are hitting the ball 330 yards up here in this air. I'm lucky to hit it 240 and they are kind of snickering behind their backs, while to my face, "Thatta boy, Rush, you can do it."

There are many different levels of this game, and when you play with people who are up here, you realize where you are. And that's why you can't take it too seriously and just realize it's beautiful where you go to play, it's an opportunity to meet new people. In a situation like this, the vistas that you have here, as I say, everybody has to be somewhere, and there's no better place than right here to be this weekend.

Q. Were there any surprises when you came up here for the first time, like certain players or entertainers might expect you to be a certain way, maybe hassle you, but ended up being nice and congenial?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: If I understood the question, I never run into anybody hassling me. Nobody ever gives me -- the last time it happened was the AT&T in January. It was one time out of the four days and I didn't even know it. It was on the 17th hole and I teed off and some guy tried to shout and time it right when I swung. I heard a noise but it wasn't loud enough to distract me and somebody told me later that somebody had shouted something at me.

But I don't -- the people who -- the very few, the very few number of people who have problems with me never show up at these things. There's just nothing but sheer love out there. Total love.

Q. When did you come to the realization that you were going to be a talk show host and not a professional athlete?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, I knew I wasn't going to be a professional athlete when I got cut from the high school baseball team during tryouts.

You see, that's the thing about sports, and this is another thing about golf, too. I made the cut with Tom Pernice at the AT&T this year and played on Sunday. It's the only sport that you can play with the pros on their money day, and I was , get this, I was 1-under grows after six holes. Then I started to think about what I was doing and lost it.

But you can't play middle linebacker on Sunday with an NFL team. You can't play Major League Baseball. You come out here and play with the pros, and you might even hit a shot or two they would take. It's a big thrill. You don't have to be as good as they are to play with them on their field.

And by the way, I haven't met one of those people, the pros are all nice people, and I never met one of them that was a double-digit handicap in their life. I think they are born with certain skills.

No, I knew I wanted to be in radio when I was 12, when I would get ready -- I hated school, got up and the guy on the radio sounded like he was having a lot of fun, and I looked at my day as going to prison; so I wanted to do what he was doing. That's where it started.

Q. Speaking of your background in Kansas City, what do you think of the Royals this year?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Amazed. Aren't the people in Kansas City amazed? They came out of nowhere.

I was with the Royals from 1979 to 1983 and they were expected to win those years, and they did. It was a great team. I was in the marketing department then, and you realize in a market the size of Kansas City just how much the community self-esteem is derived from the play of the Royals and how well they were doing. It was just amazing. Cosell would come in for a Monday night playoff game with the Yankees and start talking about the cattle he could see beyond centerfield. The town would go berserk, letters to the editor, Howard Cosell insulting them as a cow town.

Kansas City is probably feeling pretty good now because they are leading their division. I'm sure it was a surprise, considering their payroll and everything else. So I'm happy for them.

Q. Have you had a chance to take in any of the sites at the lake up here and will you be coming back again?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Oh, yeah. I came up here a lot when I lived in Sacramento. I just never played golf. I'm familiar with the area. It's just -- I think all of California, most of it, some of the most beautiful places on the planet.

And I loved living here when I did. Coming up here was a treat. The great thing about Sacramento was you're two hours from Napa, two from San Francisco, five hours from Yosemite; so you got to see a lot of things. It's a pleasure. Half these people drove up from Sacramento or Stockton, these people following me around the gallery. They had been listening to me since I started in Sacramento in '84. It's always like old home week when I come out here.

Q. Why was Sacramento such a launchpad for your radio career?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, the business reason is it's the first time that I worked in a radio station where they were not afraid of what I was saying and actually encouraged it. They said, "We are here to get into controversy. That's what we want." They said, "We will not back you up if you just say things you don't believe. If you're going to say outrageous things just to make people mad that's not we want. If you can back up what you believe, if you've got reasons for it, then we'll back you to the hilt." And they did.

About a month after I was hired, I got a new morning team. A heard a couple guys from the station across town and totally forgot about me and just allowed me to do the things on radio I had always wanted to do, that the program directors had never allowed me to do because they didn't think it would work or that I was too flamboyant, controversial or whatever.

The thing about any performance media is once you get ratings, then you own them. That's what they wanted in the first place and it's very rare to be left alone and not have all of these PD coaching sessions, but that was the difference. As a result of that, I had the success there that I had never had, and that developed almost a community bond in Sacramento. A vagabond, marching in a country, lived in Kansas City for ten years, but never met the friends or had the sense of community I had in just under four years in Sacramento. Nothing against Kansas City by the way, great town.

Sacramento was where it all came together, and that's another reason I'll have a soft sort for them.

Q. Did the Dave Smith Band help you in Sacramento?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: I wouldn't be where I am without the Dave Smith Band, "Undercover of Darkness," never even met the Dave Smith Band, until now. They were all over the place.

I could reminisce about Sacramento for as many years as I've been gone.

Q. With all of the animosity and controversies surrounding liberals, what do you see at the future of American politics?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Actually, I think liberalism has been on a decline for a long time and it's going to continue. It's evidenced in one way by the fact that most liberals won't even use the word to identify themselves. Most of them try to -- "oh, no, I'm progressive"; "I'm a moderate" -- or I'm something or other.

I think the country is far more conservative. People don't vote their way, who live their lives that way who raise their kids that way. I'm optimistic on the country. There are better days ahead. I think every day is a better day than the day before. There's always going to be this argument, liberal versus conservative. The argument is never going to end.

The argument is we all have wants and needs and how do we best provide them: Individuals working hard seeking their own ambition, utilizing their ambition, seeking their own heights? Or do we say: No, most people are not going to be able to be what they want to be, so instead of some making it and others not others, let's have the government make everybody equally miserable. That's the argument.

I don't want any part of anyone else being responsible for my wants and needs. I want to be totally responsible for both. The day I end up or anybody ends up depending on somebody else for what they need especially is not good for them or the country at large, and that's basically what liberalism promises, and that's why I think it's on it's way out.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts....