The late Steve DiMeglio, left, with Rickie Fowler in 2016.
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Steve DiMeglio, the longtime golf author for USA As we speak and, later, Golfweek, was the one reporter who might come emerge from a press tent, grasp with Tiger Woods on a follow placing inexperienced, get stuff that he might use, and rather a lot he would by no means use, and dwell to do it once more every week later.
“DiMegs,” as Woods and lots of others known as him, was 63 when he died in his condominium in Ponte Vedra Seashore earlier this week following a combat with colon most cancers. He lived alone, by no means married, by no means had youngsters, his dad and mom predeceased him. The beat was his life. Gamers, caddies, officers and different writers have been like his household.
“Sadly the golf world misplaced a part of our household in the present day,” Woods stated in a message on X. Individuals in golf, particularly folks linked to the PGA Tour, abuse the phrase household. The PGA Tour shouldn’t be a household. However on this case, Woods used the right phrase. A handful of Tour media officers, who lived close to DiMeglio, would verify on him commonly via his 30-month well being ordeal. They grew nervous once they weren’t capable of attain him on New Yr’s Day.
DiMeglio was an 8-handicap golfer with a sporty sport and such deep connections within the sport he might play most any course he wished to play. His most well-liked mode of transportation on any course was a quick cart outfitted with a beer cooler. A golf course that didn’t allow smoking was a nightmare for him.
DiMeglio was loyal to Delta Airways, Marriott resorts, Bud Gentle, Marlboro Gold and the Mellow Mushroom pizzeria chain. He’d lease vehicles from anyone. He favored to journey together with his personal golf equipment, however he’d lease golf equipment as needed. He wore the logoed membership shirt of wherever he performed final. He labored carrying shorts and basketball footwear however cleaned up properly for the Golf Writers Affiliation of America dinner held yearly on the outskirts of Augusta. He served on the GWAA board of administrators for years.
When you have been taller than 5-foot-8, DiMeglio known as you Huge Man. He was about 5-foot-5 with a trim goatee and an distinctive head of hair that he combed straight again with out product. He was born and raised in Minnesota.
A part of DiMeglio’s distinct standing, as a popular and revered reporter on the golf beat, got here from the truth that he labored for a paper that the majority professionals learn the second they opened their hotel-room door or went all the way down to the foyer. Earlier than the rise of the web, USA As we speak was the bible of the PGA Tour, rather more so than the New York Occasions or Wall Road Journal or every other paper. Arnold Palmer learn USA As we speak. Tim Finchem learn it. Tiger Woods learn it.
DiMeglio introduced out the perfect in Woods. He seldom wrote about Woods’s struggles in his non-public life. He felt an athlete ought to be capable to lead a non-public life. However together with two shut buddies, Doug Ferguson of the AP and Bob Harig of Sports activities Illustrated, no person chronicled Woods’s surgical procedures with extra precision. These surgical procedures impacted Woods’ public life.
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DiMeglio wrote with unbelievable financial system, velocity and accuracy, but additionally with perception and a way of golf historical past. He might be hilariously and remarkably direct. He would typically ask folks, “What’s your vice?” He knew having a vice was an important a part of the human situation. The one time he actually judged folks was when reporters dropping in on the golf beat would ask boring, rally-killing, stem-winding questions at press conferences.
Earlier than the rise of Google, DiMeglio might identify all of the LPGA commissioners, together with Invoice Blue, who lasted solely two years. DiMeglio knew the ins and out the ladies’s tour almost in addition to he knew the boys’s. He counted Dottie Pepper, Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson as buddies and as sources. It may be difficult for reporters, to navigate these sorts of relationships. For DiMeglio, it was second nature.
He would converse with immense satisfaction about his late father, a college professor. He was a voracious reader of newspapers and magazines and appeared to retain all the pieces he learn, however he was completely unpretentious and considerate, in his personal manner. When he smoked in your presence, he cupped his hand across the cigarette and blew his smoke away from you.
DiMeglio got here to the golf beat after masking main league baseball for years and regardless of the place the dialog went he was all in: baseball, golf, nationwide politics, traditional rock music, administration efforts to bust unions at newspapers and Huge Three vehicle producers auto crops, then again to golf. On politics, he was an avowed liberal. He had a conservative stance about most modifications in golf. He was virtually comically dismissive of LIV Golf. Properly, he did dwell a pair miles from the PGA Tour workplaces. You virtually by no means noticed him speaking on TV. He believed writers needs to be learn and never seen.
When his editors gave him area, DiMeglio would write wealthy, detailed items, typically about sudden topics, like Jack Nicklaus’s sixth-place end on the 1998 Masters at age 58.
On the 2019 Masters, at Woods’s pre-tournament press convention, DiMeglio requested Woods what all people wished to know.
DiMeglio: “A pair fast ones. To start with, what’s the brand in your shirt?”
Woods: “Frank.”
DiMeglio: “What?”
Woods: “Frank, my head cowl.”
DiMeglio, shifting on: “Are you able to inform us, what you consider the modifications made on 5 and the way will you play that gap otherwise?”
Woods: “5, it’s simply lengthy. The bunkers, they’re nonetheless deep. I believe they’re unplayable, to get the ball to the inexperienced. You must be very fortunate and get a state of affairs that you simply may be capable to get to the entrance fringe of the inexperienced. You must keep out of these bunkers. Nevertheless it’s simply actually lengthy.
