Bob Rosburg R.I.P. -----> What Major Sporting Event Would I Most Like to Attend?

Long-time PGA golf professional, former PGA champion, and familiar ABC golf commentator and reporter, Bob Rosburg died today at the age of 82. He'd been ill with cancer, but a family friend claims Rosburg's cause of death was a fall from which he suffered a head injury.

When we could, back when we were in our twenties, I used to get together with Roger Pearson to watch the U.S. Open on ABC television. Those broadcasts featured Bob Rosburg walking the course. He was the first television golf reporter to do this and his up close observations of how the ball lay in the fairway or what kind of trouble a player's wayward shot might be in enlivened ABC's broadcasts and established a trend in golf reporting that we take for granted today.

Roger and I loved Rosburg's pessimism. It seemed like every time a player hit the ball in the trees or in the rough, Jim McKay would ask Rosburg, "How's it look Rossy?" Invaribly, Rosburg's response was, "Jim, he's in jail" or his famous, "He's got no chance". Then Nicklaus or Watson or Trevino or Andy Bean or Jerry Pate would stand behind the ball, assess his shot, address the ball, and rifle it out of the jail Rossy said he had no chance to get out of.

Roger and I laughed and laughed. We'd imitate Rossy. We'd say, "Jim, he's in jail. He's got no chance" before Rossy himself would and nothing was more thrilling than when the player hit the right shot.

Having listened to Bob Rosburg help bring so many great golf tournaments to life, I got to thinking about what major sporting event I would attend if I could choose from the following:

1. Super Bowl
2. World Series
3. NCCA Men's Basketball Final Four
4. NBA Championship Series
5. BCS College Football Championship
6. Stanley Cup Finals
7. Wimbleton Championships at the All England Tennis Club

Maybe your choice is listed here, but mine isn't.

I would attend any one of these men's golf tournaments.

My first choice is the Masters.

My second choice: the British Open, which is officially called The Open Championship.

My third: the Ryder Cup.

My fourth: the U.S. Open.

That's right. If given the chance, I would rather be at a golf championship in person than any other spectator sport.

I spent four of the most exciting and entertaining days of my life at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course as a gallery member of the 1997 Women's U.S. Open golf championship.

If I could attend the Masters, I would try to do some of the things I did during those four days. For starters, I would try to go out early with an obscure pairing of golfers who attract few spectators and walk with them as a way of getting familiar with the golf course.

My guess is that many who attend golf tournaments are star struck and want to see the most famous players in action.

If I were at Augusta National, I would never regard the players as the stars. At Augusta, the golf course is what prevails and I'd love to walk this gorgeous layout early in the morning, watching golfers no one cares about, and taking in the pine trees, azaleas, dogwood, magnificent water, and the undulating challenges of Augusta's fairways and greens.

On another day, I would decide on a hole to camp out at and get there as early as possible. If it were a par 4 or par 5, I'd find a place to stand close to the landing areas of tee shots, and if a par 3, I'd camp out where I could, either at the green or the tee.

I did this at Pumpkin Ridge on the fourth day of the Women's U. S. Open. I camped out near the landing area on hole 14, a long par 4, with the look of a boomerang, bending from right to left. The green is fronted by a pond, but only half the green. For the first three days of the tournament, the pin wasn't placed behind the pond. On the fourth day it was.

Coming to the course on Sunday morning, I predicted to myself that with 14 playing as a par 4, measuring about 470 yards, and with the pin place behind the water, there might be some great drama. Some players could safely play the right side of the green and not deal with the water and others would have to go for the pin and come in over the water.

Indeed, there was drama. As the final twosome of Alison Nicholas and Nancy Lopez approached the 14th tee, Nicholas held a three stroke lead. Lopez drove in the fairway and then Nicholas blasted the longest drive I saw all day on the hole, leaving her a sand wedge to the pin.

Lopez safely put her second shot on the green and then Nicholas, adrenaline pumping, flew the green with her short iron into the wetlands behind the green.

I immediately thought of Rossy. "She's in jail." "She's got no chance."

She was in jail. She was out of bounds. She double bogeyed. Lopez parred. If Lopez could exploit this two shot swing, she could have won her first US Open. But, Nicholas held on and won the tournament.

I got sucked into the mobs of fans that tried to watch the final four holes.

I never will, but I'd love to have a similar experience at the Masters, with the added emotional impact of being on the most revered golf course in the USA.

I was sad to hear about Rossy's passing. But his name and picture made me think how much I love being a spectator of golf and how I would rather take in the beauty and pressure of a major golf tournament than be a spectator to any other sport or any other event.