You know, at 91, I’ve had more time than most to sit back and think about this game. Not just the tournaments, not just the trophies, but the men who shaped what golf became. People have asked me that question for decades now. Who was the greatest? Who was the best I ever saw?…
October 1962. Two reporters, two cities, same question. A reporter in New York sat down with Mickey Mantle and asked him, “Who is the best player in baseball?” That same week, a reporter in San Francisco sat down with Willie Mays and asked him the exact same question. Mickey and Willie were about to…
The bus had stopped. The driver killed the engine outside St. Louis in the summer of 1955. Hot, humid, the kind of night that sits on your chest and doesn’t move. Inside the bus, 25 men waited. Nobody spoke. Nobody looked at each other because the traveling secretary had just walked down the aisle,…
Michael Jackson was being escorted through a private terminal when the sound of an argument near the security checkpoint made him stop. His assistant said they were going to miss their window. Michael said four words and kept walking toward the argument, not away from it. It was April of 1997 and Michael Jackson…
The fire started just after noon on a Thursday in May. Within hours, 166 years of history had turned to ash. Not Plantation, the largest Antabella mansion in the American South, was gone. 53,000 square ft, 64 rooms, a white ballroom where seven daughters once danced. All of it reduced to rubble on May…
Falcon Lair, Rudolph Valentino. High above Benedict Canyon, on a winding road veiled by Cyprus and mist stood a mansion built for a man the world called the great lover. Falcon Lair was not just a home. It was a monument to the mystery of Rudolph Valentino, Hollywood’s first true romantic idol. But the…
6 weeks after Princess Diana’s death, Queen Elizabeth sat in the royal box at Wembley Arena, frozen by grief she couldn’t show. Then, Prince saw something in her eyes. He stopped his concert, changed the set list, and sang a song that made a nation weep. October 1,997, [Music] first public appearance since Diana’s…
The jeweler looked at the small man in purple and said, “Sir, this piece is $400,000. Perhaps I can show you something more within your budget.” Prince didn’t argue. He didn’t pull out his wallet. He did something else. Something the jeweler is still trying to understand. Cartier Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive. Saturday afternoon,…
The words were barely audible. Sammy Davis Jr. leaned into the microphone, his voice destroyed by throat cancer, and whispered something to Johnny Carson. Johnny stopped the show, pulled Sammy close, and started crying. What Sammy said in those final words would be played at his funeral 8 weeks later. It was March 13th,…
Johnny Carson was in the middle of introducing the next guest when his producer walked onto the set and handed him a note. Carson read it. He set it on the desk. He looked at the audience for 6 seconds without saying anything. Then, he stood up and walked off the stage without a…
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