As I write this, my last column before slipping into retirement after 40 years at The Desert Sun, two words keep coming to mind.
Thank you.
Now, after four decades at The Desert Sun – okay, 39 years, nine months in reality – there are plenty of thank yous to go around. Publishers, executive editors, sports editors, assistant editors, fellow reporters, photographers, graphic artists, everyone has done their share in keeping me going in what had to be one of the great jobs in journalism, golf writer in the Coachella Valley.
General managers, directors of golf, head professionals, teaching pros and golf course superintendents who trusted me to tell their stories all played a huge part in my career as well.
But there is one last thank you, the most important one of all. This one goes to you, the readers.
A month or two after starting at The Desert Sun in September of 1986, the executive editor, Jim Lycett, called me into his office. What do you think of our golf coverage, he asked. What golf coverage, I said. The sport’s presence was pretty thin in the afternoon paper I joined. Jim nodded and said, do you want to write a weekly golf column? I answered with a resounding yes.
The response from the readers was immediate. They wanted more golf coverage, as much as they could get. I was more than happy to do what I could to fill that need, moving from one column a week to two to three, along with event coverage and features.
Outside of golf there were nearly 600 high school football games, BNP Paribas tennis for 40 years, tons of high school events and pro sports coverage from the Class A Palm Springs Angels to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds along the way.
The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the Nabisco Dinah Shore, the Vintage Invitational and the Skins Game provided plenty of golf to write about, along with short-time events like the Diners Club Matches, the Lexus Challenge and the Galleri Classic. While a few readers questioned my age, my writing skills and my opinions, a vast majority of readers were happy and supportive of my efforts. I might have even won over a few of the doubters.
Wherever I went in the desert, there were the readers. They told me they loved my columns, loved my writing (which was just stunning), asked me about this or that in the desert golf scene. They said hello to me at tournaments, but also in grocery stores and restaurants to the point my friends started thinking they were having dinner with a celebrity. I talked them off that ledge for the most part.
Readers bought the two books on desert golf history I wrote, something I never dreamed I would do. They wrote with questions, thanked me when I answered, and loved the fact that I loved the game they loved.
Then came 2019. Diagnosed with prostate cancer, I was going to keep the cancer and my treatment quiet. But writers tend to write, and I trusted you to accept that I was going to be gone for a few weeks, hoping that maybe writing about the disease could help a few people out there.
The response floored me. Emails, text messages, cards, letters and phone calls flooded in. Hundreds of people, mostly people I had never met in person, sharing their experiences, how they had the disease treated, where I should get my treatment, what I should expect in recovery. And there were also just people wishing me good luck, sending me their prayers. All because they read my golf column and felt a connection to me.
I can never forget that. I won’t forget it. And there is no thank you big enough to tell you my appreciation. And I’m quite healthy now, I can report.
I have been talking about retirement for so many years, I feel like I became the boy who cried retirement. To this day, there are probably people at The Desert Sun who think I will show up on Monday and just go to work. That’s in part because I never retired in the past, and in part because they know I’ve loved the job.
As word of my retirement spread, there were naturally questions. Who is the best player I ever covered? Probably Annika Sorenstam. What was the best tournament I ever covered? Probably the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods’ 15-shot win. What was the best moment? Definitely David Duval’s final-round 59 in the 1999 Bob Hope Classic. Best interview? Toss-up between Amy Alcott and Phil Mickelson, both always accommodating to me. Strangest moment? When I realized Arnold Palmer actually knew who I was.
Getting to interview and know Palmer was a true highlight, but I’ve had the chance to interview so many of the great players on the PGA Tour, LPGA and PGA Tour Champions. I’ve interviewed so many celebrities, from Bob Hope and Dinah Shore to Alice Cooper, William Devane, Steve Garvey and so many more. Having President Gerald Ford tell me he read my stories every morning was surreal. So was interviewing President Bill Clinton each of the five years he was part of what is now The American Express.
It wasn’t all PGA Tour or LPGA golf, though. Names like Anthony Kim, Nicole Castrale and Jennifer Johnson came though local high schools, then went on to win on their respective pro tours. So many local high school golfers went on to college success and pro careers, and will continue to do so. Mini-tour events, SCGA and SCPGA tournaments filled the calendars. Plain old recreational golfers, the true lifeblood of the sport, made their mark on the game over 40 years as well.
I have to admit, because of everything you and the job have meant to me, I feel a little bit like I am betraying you by leaving. But there comes a time to step aside, to play golf rather than watch other people do it, to spend more time with family and friends, to travel, to work on my rudimentary watercolor efforts, to travel a bit and to sleep in a lot. And I’ll write from time to time because, again, writers tend to write.
As I leave, I have hopes for desert golf. I hope The American Express secures dates beyond 2027 in acknowledgement of its history and its status as one of the best events on the PGA Tour. I hope the tour and CEO Brian Rolapp realize how much the players love the desert event. I hope the LPGA finds its way back to the Coachella Valley, because this area deserves a women’s event after supporting that tour for five decades. I hope a few more golf courses get built. I hope green fees start to come down and that the game can be more affordable in an area where green fees in season are always so high.
Mostly, I hope that you, the readers, will continue to read and support the local journalism that is so important. There are plenty of great stories in the Coachella Valley, and plenty of great journalists at The Desert Sun to tell those stories. Many of those journalists are about the age I was when I started here.
So again, one last time, thank you for reading and supporting me for these 40 years. Trust me, friends, it has been a blast.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: As I step away after four decades all I can say is thanks for the memories
Reporting by Larry Bohannan, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
