Koch and Maltbie meet the press, and more
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Gary Koch and Roger Maltbie spend most of their time as commentators on televised golf broadcasts. Forgive them if they were a little rusty when it came to a gig on the other side of the microphone.
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"Is this the ceremony in the Westin cabin?" Maltbie quipped after the pair won the Raphael Division of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf & Spa on Saturday.
"We aren't used to a spot behind a table talking to reporters. Usually we hold the microphones out to players. 'Tiger, your thoughts?'" he added.
This time they were the Tigers, making a massive 12-under-par charge up the leaderboard to edge the Bob Charles/Stewart Ginn team by a stroke.
Firing rounds of 68 and 60 (a record low), Maltbie and Koch won the Raphael Division. The 36-hole better-ball competition hosted players ages 50-69 competing for unofficial money.
The two get paid to talk on a weekly basis, so naturally they chatted on the course. For instance, Koch gave his partner a pep talk before putting a 6-footer on the 14th hole.
"Believe me, my golf game is nowhere near ready to play in competition," Maltbie said, admitting he has played just twice in nine weeks. "But when you have some buffer, some partner, that makes it considerably easier and I had a left-to-right -- it was a hard little putt at No. 14 for birdie.
"And before I hit it, [Gary] says, 'I've seen you make a million of these.' I don't know if I've made a million, but somehow that made it easier."
He knocked it in. On the next hole, Maltbie stood over a nearly identical putt.
"How many of these have I made?" Maltbie asked.
"A million and one," Koch, not missing a beat, replied.
Maltbie made that one, too, and the team climbed closer to Charles and Ginn. Koch sank a 30-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole to essentially clinch the title.
Koch, a six-time PGA TOUR winner, has fared well on the Champions Tour in 2008. He tied for 12th at last week's Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am and tied for eighth at the ACE Group Classic in early February. Koch even held the lead in the latter on Sunday afternoon.
After that impressive showing at the ACE Group Classic, Koch traveled to Tucson, Ariz., to cover the World Golf Championships -- Accenture Match Play Championship on the PGA TOUR. The TV crew gave him thumbs ups and "way to go, we were pulling for you buddys". Everyone but Maltbie, that is.
"I see Rog and the first thing he says to me is: 'I know everybody is pulling for you but I wasn't. I said, 'What the heck are you talking about? I thought we were buddies,'" Koch said. "[Roger] said, 'Man, you would have won that thing, you'd have gotten me an exemption and we'd have had to play for three days [in the official-money Legends Divisiion of the Legends of Golf] and play from the back tees. Are you kidding me? That's not going to work'."
Obviously, the pair is happy with their unofficial title and glad to only hit the links for two days of golf. Perhaps Maltbie, a five-time PGA TOUR winner, put the reasoning behind limiting it to only two rounds best.
"I was trying to practice last week and then my back got tight. I can barely do anything from lack of use and from being way fatter than I should be," he said with a laugh.
Jokes aside, both enjoyed their win and the opportunity to see former TOUR colleagues they hadn't run into lately.
"It's great fun for us to come and see a lot of guys we don't see or only see once a year," Koch said. "...[And], as little golf as we play now, two days from the forward tees is about right."
THE ODD COUPLE: Even Jim Thorpe admits they are an odd couple.
"Larry and I, I guess people would think we are quite different. Mind-mannered Larry Nelson and old bull crap-talking Thorpie," the talkative golfer said. "But, you know what, on the golf course Larry and I are very competitive."
Nelson, a World Golf Hall of Fame member, approached Thorpe to be partners for the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. As Thorpe recalls, whenever the two were paired in the same group in individual tournaments, they tended to feed off of each other and play extremely well.
"I remember he beat me in a tournament in Grand Rapids, Mich., where we must have made 19 birdies and an eagle on Sunday. That's a lot of birdies for two guys to make. Every time we play together, one of us is fired up."
In the second round on Saturday, both were fired up and firing at the pins. They shot an 8-under 64 to put them in a tie for fifth heading into Sunday. Round 2 included an eagle by Thorpe, a 13-time Champions Tour winner, on the first hole and a number of birdies from Nelson.
"I holed a 35-yard pitch shot (for eagle) but my partner had it about three or four feet so I had the green light there. I think that's what it is all about. To me, the key to winning championships like this is to keep both balls in play at all times.
"...Larry is a 19-time winner on the Champions Tour and won 10 times on the PGA TOUR, including three majors," Thorpe added. "So I feel like I've got birdies for a partner anyways. I can go out there and let the good times roll. If I can just keep it in the fairway, then I can play pretty aggressive because I know he's going to be there."
SCORCHING START: Bernhard Langer and David Edwards began their round better than they could have dreamed. At one point they were 7 under par in just six holes. On their first nine holes, they marked a 1 and several 2s, 3s and 4s on the scorecard but no 5s.
"We had a great day, especially the front nine -- which is the back nine -- then we started along on the front and finished at 11 under," Langer said. "Hopefully we can continue on a similar note tomorrow."
Langer had an eagle on No. 11 following the pair's birdie on the first hole of the day. On No. 15, Edwards flew a 6-iron 157 yards and straight in for the sixth hole-in-one of his career. They are in fourth place prior to the final round and need to make up five strokes on leaders Tom Watson and Andy North.
Edwards asked Langer, a World Golf Hall of Fame member and two-time Masters Champion, to be his partner in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. They aren't close friends but have an undeniable chemistry on the links.
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