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LIBERTY MUTUAL LEGENDS OF GOLFApril 25, 2009Gary KochRoger MaltbieSAVANNAH, GEORGIA PHIL STAMBAUGH: Gary and Roger, congratulations. This is your third title in this Raphael division, and defend your title by two. Maybe, Gary, if you can get us started and we'll ask each of you to share your thoughts on winning again with a couple back-to-back 64s. GARY KOCH: Well, Roger and I were just talking that we have a lot of fun with what we do with our day jobs at NBC. If you're fans of the game and the people, we have a great opportunity at a number of times during the year to be in some pretty fantastic places. Players Championship coming up here in a couple of weeks, U. S. Open, that kind of thing. But as competitors, there's nothing quite like the feeling of getting in the heat of it and enjoying the competition, and obviously coming out on top is a very, very special thing. We don't have that many opportunities when you get to the age that we are. But I can't think of anybody I'd rather share that feeling with than this guy right here. ROGER MALTBIE: Thanks, pal. Yeah. I would echo a lot of that. As Gary said earlier when we were outside, he says all the years we've worked together I don't think we've ever had a cross word between us. We're as different as night and day, but we get along terrifically well, and I enjoy his company, and I think he enjoys mine, and there's just something about -- the two of us are just different enough that I think we help each other. It's kind of strange. It really is. It's the Felix and Oscar thing, but somehow something good comes out of it. So it's terrific to play with him, and it's terrific of Liberty Mutual to sponsor this event. It's a great opportunity to see players of old that we shared a lot of war stories with and had a lot of fun with, and it was great playing with Lee and Mike today and battling it out with them, and couldn't be any happier. Q. What are some of your differences? ROGER MALTBIE: Oh, gosh. I mean this guy is meticulous. GARY KOCH: Well, let's start with the weight is the obvious stuff. I mean he eats to live and I live to eat. He thinks a refreshing beverage is water. I think it's vodka. So we're different in those regards. I tend to be a little on the organized side, probably a little too organized at times, and I would not say that's one of your strengths. ROGER MALTBIE: Not one of my -- it depends on how you look at it. It's also not one of my weaknesses. GARY KOCH: Well, that's true, too. ROGER MALTBIE: We just seem to -- as Rog said -- don't put them back here. Bring them right up here. We just tend to kind of complement one another quite well. Q. Trevino and Mike Hill are not going to be playing in the Raphael division next year only because they're playing in the Demaret division. Is that kind of hard for you guys to comprehend to be this competitive at this age? ROGER MALTBIE: In some ways. They sure don't play like 70-year-old men. I'll tell you that right now. Mike Hill played great today, especially on the Back 9 when they needed to make some birdies. He hit some great iron shots, made some great putts, and still he gets the ball out there. GARY KOCH: Yeah. ROGER MALTBIE: They're very remarkable. I would say if you need to place a wager on next year's division, I'd put it on them. GARY KOCH: The teams they're going to play, I might stack it all up on them. Q. Even with Gary Player? ROGER MALTBIE: Even with Gary Player. GARY KOCH: Gary Player and Bob Charles. Yeah. Q. You've won two years as a row. You're competitive every single year. What is it about this course that makes your game come out? GARY KOCH: You know, I just enjoy the golf course. I mean I think the golf course is such it's always in great condition, for one thing. It's not the hardest golf course in the world, which to me is a perfect scenario for this format. It allows you to be aggressive. It allows you to try to make a bunch of birdies. And you know, it's fun. I mean everything about this event is fun. It really is. I mean from the hotel, staying in the Westin is great. Right here, restaurant, the parties. The whole thing. I mean everything about it is just a very, very enjoyable week. And I think that carries over. I think that carries over to our attitude how we approach this thing, and we just go out with the idea we're going to have some fun, and seems to work out. Q. How long have you two worked together at NBC? GARY KOCH: I started full time at NBC in 1997. ROGER MALTBIE: My first year was '92, so I'm in my 18th year. Q. Obviously you have something in your contract, I guess, that makes you -- GARY KOCH: He's looking for any little bonus he might be able to get. ROGER MALTBIE: I've got him under a personal services contract (laughs). Q. How familiar with the area were you guys before you started coming to this event? I assume you had played at Harbour Town at one point or another, but to make it down to Savannah. GARY KOCH: Sure. Really, to be honest with you, probably not very. We both played at Harbour Town, obviously enjoyed it a lot, the people, the food, the cuisine. I'm a big fan of both. Have heard a lot about Savannah, a lot of positive things about Savannah, about the city, and the great restaurants. And you know, I think just from the very first year we got a chance to play, we've just thoroughly enjoyed our time here. ROGER MALTBIE: Just haven't had a bad experience. And Hilton Head, I was saying last week as we were doing the broadcast of the Outback Steakhouse event in Tampa that probably the event I miss most on the Tour is Hilton Head, Harbour Town. I loved the golf course. I love the area. I love the ambiance of the area. It was just always a great, great week for me. And I think a lot of that same feeling is here, in the Low Country. Q. Do you miss it enough to go to that other network? GARY KOCH: No. (Laughs). No. Q. Kind of off topic, but while I've got you I want to look ahead a little bit. Players is coming up. What do you think of -- and I'm sure this has been out there a hundred times -- of the Players being a fifth major? For or against or is it something totally different? ROGER MALTBIE: I believe it's something totally different. I think the tradition has been established that there are four majors. I don't think we will see a time when there is a fifth major. With that said, it's probably the single-most significant golf tournament in the world, or championship in the world outside the four majors. It has a great field. The golf course has been changed over the years and altered and softened a little bit. I wasn't always a huge fan of it. But to be honest with you now, anybody that complains is just a complainer. It's a magnificent golf course. It's a great championship test. Now we play a little later in the year, play on the Bermuda surface, firmer, faster. As it should play, and too, many times it wasn't seen that way because of its date and the condition the players would see. It's a wonderful event. GARY KOCH: I would agree totally. I don't think you can just arbitrarily create a fifth major. The tradition there, as Rog says, with the four that we have, but I would echo his sentiments as well. To me it's one of the great championships in golf. I mean when you look at the list of players who will tee off in that event, arguably you could say it is the strongest field of any golf tournament during the whole year. ROGER MALTBIE: Absolutely. GARY KOCH: From top to bottom. So that pretty much sums it up in my mind. Q. Would you place it above some of the current majors as far as, you know, importance or if you had an opportunity to say, go broadcast four events, would it be one of the four you would want to do? ROGER MALTBIE: I don't know that I necessarily follow the line of your questioning, because there are four major championships, and I think as a player, certainly those four take precedent over anything and their value to have won them takes precedent over everything. With that said, the next most significant golf championship for professional golfers, I would think, in the world has gotta be the Players, and to win on that course and against that field would probably give any player as much satisfaction as any event you could possibly play in. But you can't put it ahead of the four majors, no. Q. Gary, would you agree with that? GARY KOCH: Yes. I would agree with that totally. I can't imagine as a player that you'd say you want to win the Players before you would want to win one of the other four majors. Q. You guys have sat here before. Loren Roberts moved on. Do you miss him? GARY KOCH: Coincidence? Do we miss him? Are you kidding? (Laughs). We enjoy seeing him this week. I mean we keep patting him on the back, tell them best of luck. Can't wait to see how they do in that other division. ROGER MALTBIE: They blew us out of the water one year. That one year they got us good. GARY KOCH: They're good. They're a good team. ROGER MALTBIE: Yeah, they are. Q. Obviously the Legends division is for people of status. Would you guys ever want to play in that upper division? ROGER MALTBIE: No. GARY KOCH: That's an extra day and longer tees. There's a great story about that. Last year I had a chance to win at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open at Endicott mid summer, and ended up second. Romero beat me by a shot, and we were doing a telecast the next week or two weeks later, and of course, when I got there all my colleagues at NBC, oh, great going. We were pulling for you. We were hoping you were going to win. And I see Rog, and Rog says, I wasn't pulling for you. I looked at him, I says, what are you out of your -- I thought you were my pal. He goes, man, you'd have won that thing, you'd have been exempt. You'd have gotten in the Legends division. They'd have gotten an exemption for me. We'd have had to play three days from the back tees. He goes, there's no way I was pulling for you. So that sums it up pretty well. We'll stay right where we are. ROGER MALTBIE: And that's my story and I'm sticking with it. End of FastScripts |
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