Chris Madsen: Celebrating 30 years in Broadcasting!
Shot a pilot at the Bob Hope Classic yesterday chronicling 2/15/1995…the day three Presidents–Bill Clinton, George H. Bush and Gerald Ford–tee’d it up for the first time ever at a PGA event. Reflecting on the day, was fellow Chicagoan Tom Dreesen, had the whole crew in stitches, while actor William Devane shared with me that he realized was in for a serious day of golf when he could see snipers positioned in the mountains while he was teeing off! Making his first appearance at the BHC in ’95 was Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra…and what a privilege it was to spend some time with one of the all-time greats…
…after an 8-minute interview on camera, #8 put his arm around me and we talked about one of my favorite topics–Baseball–for 15 minutes! Yogi told me how he developed his passion for golf by playing alongside his baseball friends Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial. Then he said, “stay here with me. I want to introduce you to a friend of mine.” So while we waited, our producer snapped this…
…then Mr. Berra and I picked up our conversation right where we left off. He told me how he was introduced to Arnold Palmer at a ball game and Arnie invited Yogi and Joe DiMaggio down to Florida for a weekend of golf. Yogi marveled, “can you imagine me–a ball player–getting tips from the greatest golfer on the planet? And he played with us everyday for three days!”
And that’s when Mr. Palmer’s cart pulled up. You heard me right…ARNOLD PALMER! Arnold asked Yogi if it was OK if he did an interview with us, and Yogi nudged him towards me an said, “Absolutely. You’ll love talking to Chris. He’s a good guy and he makes it a lot of fun!”
