NBC’s Roger Maltbie: Meet the Man in The Rough

Forget the Man in The Middle. Who Da Man. Iron Man and the rest of them. Roger Maltbie is better than all that. He’s The Man in the Rough. Last year, he was nearly swallowed up by the crowd following Tiger Woods on Sunday at the Tour Championship. It was a totally new experience for the veteran.

This week, Roger Maltbie took time to speak with members of the media before he starts marching down the fairways for NBC and Golf Channel for the telecast of the Tour Championship.

New to the tournament this year is the significant changes to the scoring. Everybody will be scored in relation to par, and that’s how the winner will be determined. No more confusing points.

"“I think it makes it simpler,” Maltbie said about the new staggered start. “There’s going to be one trophy, one winner, and there’s going to be a leaderboard that people can understand. Someone is going to have the lowest score.”"

Like many of the participants, Roger Maltbie doesn’t think the 10-shot difference from the leader to the last place golfers will keep someone other than the top five from winning.

"“If we played 18-hole tournaments, there would be all kinds of first-time winners,” he explained. “You play two rounds, there wouldn’t be as many. Three, not as many. Four, fewer yet.“The longer you play, the bigger the advantage to the better player. That’s all there is to it. Keep playing, the good guy’s going to win at the end. The best player’s going to win.”"

Roger Maltbie reflected on the excitement of last year’s victory by Tiger Woods because he was caught up in it, literally.

"“I’ve never seen anything else like it,” he reflected. “I assume there was a time when gallery ropes weren’t up, but as hard as that may be to believe, that was before my time.”"

He recalled the scene unfolding from his location, about halfway down the 18th hole.

"“I’m looking toward the green, looking at my yards book and looking toward the green and figuring out what’s going on up there,” he said."

About that time, Maltbie accidentally bumped into a police officer, part of the tournament security that usually goes with high profile players like Woods.

"“’Oh, no,’ he says, ’What are we going to do now?’”  Maltbie recalled the officer saying."

Maltbie turned around to see the growing throng of fans oozing onto the fairway. What came to mind, he recalled, was an old phrase the late Dave Marr who worked for ABC used to use which was: Once that dog gets out from under the porch, it’s really tough to get him back under there.

"“So, they storm the fairway, and now you’ve got the Tiger sandwich, right, as the thing marches closer,” he added. “I got the hell out of there and went around (the green).”"

Situations like that, Maltbie admitted, make him nervous. They would make anybody nervous.

While he doesn’t expect anything like that this year, he does expect EastLake to provide a lot of excitement. Maltbie has certain holes that he likes and others that he believes will challenge the best.

"“The 8th hole,” he said right away, gets his attention. “That’s a hell of a hole. That really is. Great hole with water all down the left.”"

Before the nines were switched, it was the 17th hole. In 2011, Bill Haas hit out of shallow water by the green in a playoff that he won to win the FedExCup and the tournament.

The 14th is another hole Maltbie enjoys, and you have to realize what a professional golfer enjoys in a hole might be different than what the rest of us like.

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"“Over the hill and just a long par 4. I don’t know that I’d call it exciting, just a terrific hole,” he added. “And the second shot. You’ve got to play golf.”"

He does like the change in the nines, finishing on the par-five 18th instead of finishing on the par 3, which is now played as No.9.

"“I think potentially it will be a more exciting finish,” he said. “The 3-par finish is always kind of awkward. It’s a fine golf course the other way too. I think it’s a little bit better this way. And then you have 15, the 3-par (over water), and then, given the right conditions, could be very exciting.”"

As far as the kind of golfer who will succeed this week, Roger Maltbie and every other player asked about the course agree that the winner will have to stay in the fairway.

"”You’ve got to get the ball on the fairway,” Maltbie insisted. “You cannot play this place from the rough.”"

Shots to the green, he added, will need to be hit high and soft, whether a fade or a draw. What to do, depends on pin position.

"“Once these greens get firm, as we’ve seen them in the past, you can’t play as much from the rough,” he concluded. “There’s nothing from the rough. You can’t spin it. You can’t control the ball. So that will be a huge determinant factor of this one.”"

Since 1991, Roger Maltbie, like other notables who walk the great courses of the world, he has been our eyes and ears on the course. Lurking under trees, stalking greens, peering into to bunkers, sidling up to water hazards, getting grass stains on his shoes, he tells he us the truth about the lie of the ball, the direction of the wind and whether there’s really a tree in the way. He sees all the need-to-know factors facing the stars of professional golf today.

And he’s no slouch at golf, either. Back when Maltbie was on the PGA Tour, he won a couple of prestigious tournaments, including inaugural Memorial Tournament – in a playoff with Hale Irwin – and the World Series of Golf, which became the WGC-Bridgestone.

In those days, winning the World Series of Golf gave players a 10-year exemption to the PGA Tour, just as winning the U.S. Open, the PGA and the Players did. He was set for his golf life. Much later, in 1991, he made a career change and took up the microphone for NBC.