Venturi: Portrait of a Golf Commentator

Ken Venturi was, understandably, a little nervous the first time he worked a golf tournament for CBS, the 1968 Buick Open at Flint, Mich.

“What should I say?” Venturi asked CBS’ legendary golf producer, Frank Chirkinian, who has been at the network since 1950 and is still going strong at 68.

Chirkinian told Venturi: “If I have to tell you what to say, you’re getting into the wrong business. Just say whatever comes to mind.”

Said Venturi the other day: “That may have been the best advice anyone ever gave me.”

Ever since, Venturi, 63, has been saying whatever comes to mind. He’s in his 28th year with CBS and recently signed a new contract that will take him through 1997.

He plans to cut back on his announcing in 1996 and ’97 to devote more time to his golf schools and Ken Venturi Enterprises, and says he may give up broadcasting after that.

“I can tell you one thing for sure,” he said. “I’ll never work for another network. My loyalty is with CBS and Frank Chirkinian.”

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Venturi is working the Nissan L.A. Open alongside Jim Nantz in the tower on the 18th hole. He’s also this year’s designated L.A. Open honoree, having won the tournament in 1959.

On Saturday at 11 a.m., he will be honored during a special ceremony at Riviera.

Among other winners who have been singled out in recent years are Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Tommy Bolt. Last year, the honoree was Harold (Jug) McSpaden, the L.A. Open winner in 1944.

Said Venturi, who has seen the portrait that artist M.J. Dean did of him: “I’m the type of person who is never pleased with pictures of myself, but in this case I’m just in awe of the job the man did. It’s perfect. The best part is how he captured my eyes.”

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Venturi says Chirkinian didn’t know him well when he hired Venturi.

“He probably felt sorry for me and wanted to help me out,” Venturi said. “I was down on my luck, my hands were going (because of circulatory problems) and I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

Venturi, who turned pro in 1957, went into a two-year slump after having been in a car accident in Cleveland in 1961.

He came back in 1964 for the biggest victory of his career--the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in suburban Washington.

They played 36 holes and finished on Saturdays in those days, and Venturi recalls he was suffering from heat prostration so badly that a doctor told him, after he had bogeyed 17 and 18, that if he went back out on the course he might die.

The doctor says Venturi told him, “The way I’ve been playing lately, that would be a hell of a lot better than continuing to live.”

Said Venturi: “You know, I was so out of it, I don’t remember saying that. But the doctor insists that I did.”

Venturi went back out and shot a 70 over the final 18 holes for what was, under the circumstances, one of the greatest rounds of golf ever played.

He won by four strokes.

He’ll be back at Congressional in 1997, when the Open will again be played there. He recently was asked to serve as co-chairman.

TV-Radio Notes

Before CBS takes over this weekend, today’s second round of the L.A. Open will be carried by the USA network, as was Thursday’s first round. Bill Macatee and Peter Kostis work the 18th tower for USA. . . . An interview NBC’s Mary Ann Grabavoy did with William Gates, one of the two central figures in the acclaimed documentary “Hoop Dreams,” will be shown during halftime of the Marquette-Notre Dame game Saturday. Gates is a senior at Marquette. . . . On a Sports Illustrated segment on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday, SI staffer and former Times reporter Richard Hoffer examines the colorful life of umpire Ron Luciano, who recently committed suicide. . . . Globe-trotting Showtime televises the Nigel Benn-Gerald McClellan super-middleweight title fight from London on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Showtime’s last fight, on Dec. 17, was from Quito, Ecuador.

Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian make their debut on KMAX (107.1) Monday at 2 p.m. Channel 9’s Tom Murray will do a daily taped segment from 6-6:30 p.m. Tony Albano will produce the “McDonnell Douglas Show,” Jeff Biggs will do sports updates, and Cheryl Miller may become a regular contributor. Nanci Donnellon, ESPN radio’s “Sports Babe,” will be on from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. . . . Sports columnists Mike Downey of The Times, Ron Rapoport of the Los Angeles Daily News and Steve Bisheff of the Orange County Register will be guests on Irv Kaze’s KIEV show tonight. The show begins at 6 p.m., 15 minutes earlier than normal, because of UCLA-Stanford baseball at 7. This is the first of five UCLA baseball games to be carried by KIEV this season.

Chris Marlowe, who worked last Sunday’s UCLA-Arizona telecast on ABC with former UCLA coach Larry Farmer, is best known for his work on volleyball but has become an outstanding, all-around play-by-play announcer. . . . Bill Walton, who worked Tuesday night’s Prime Sports telecast of UCLA’s game at Stanford, sure seems to have changed his tune from a year ago when he was one of Coach Jim Harrick’s severest critics. . . . A Prime Sports commentator who has done a fine job this season is Jerry Tarkanian on USC basketball. . . . Prime Sports’ new logo, signifying its name change from Prime Ticket, is scheduled to make its debut next Wednesday, two months after the name change. . . . Channel 7 interrupted the second half of Sunday’s UCLA-Arizona game to report a temblor that did no damage. The question is: Why bother?