Tag: John Smoltz

Annika Sorenstam, John Smoltz and others dish on the time they did (or didn’t) drill a fan in a golf tournament

Even the best players in the world are prone to an errant shot every once in awhile.

Last month at the Valspar Championship, rookie Chandler Phillips was in contention to win his first PGA Tour event when his 4-iron at the par-3 seventh hole during the final round headed well right of the green and into a gathering of spectators.

A husband and wife were sitting next to each other and the ball beaned the wife, bouncing off her head and then smashing into the noggin of her husband, a rare two-for-one special.

When Phillips arrived on the scene he noticed he’d gotten an incredible break, his ball kicking out of trouble from a likely bogey to an easy up-and-down for par. That’s when he first saw the ice pack being applied to the husband’s head. A few yards away to the right, Phillips’s caddie, Braden Smith, spied the injured fan’s wife spread out on the ground on her back with a towel drenched in blood compressed to her head.

“Oh, my gosh, that’s not good,” he recalled thinking, and began digging into the bag to get a golf glove for his boss to sign, the go-to way for a player to say, “I’m sorry I hit you.” (Phil Mickelson was known to sign $100 bills.) “I didn’t know what else to do,” Smith said.

Phillips took the bloody scene to heart.

“After that, I wasn’t right,” he said.

Following the round, where he finished a career-best third at a Tour event, he said to the woman who suffered the direct hit, “If she’s seeing this, I’m truly sorry. Obviously I’m not meaning to do that.”

But it happens all the time at professional events. These players are good but they also aren’t immune to the stray shot. At the 2010 Memorial, Tiger Woods hit three spectators in a single day. Just this week at the RBC Heritage, Sepp Straka bloodied a spectator on the first hole at Harbour Town Golf Links and struggled to put it out of mind even if it was out sight.

“That was tough,” he said after his round. “Hopefully I’ll be able to reach out to him this afternoon and see how he’s doing.”

Smoltz: Just a bit outside

John Smoltz could throw a baseball with pinpoint precision from 60 feet, 6 inches. On the few occasions that he hit a batter, he admitted it usually wasn’t by accident.

“I’ve been given instructions to do that,” Smoltz said.

But with a golf ball, it’s a different story.

“I feel terrible if that happens,” he said ahead of playing last week’s Invited Celebrity Classic in Dallas on the PGA Tour Champions. “Luckily, I think it’s only happened one time in my life. And it happened in my very first kind of celebrity golf with Ken Green, Mark Calcavecchia and Lee Trevino. I was actually having the round of my life and I hit somebody who was walking towards the green. I was trying to reach a par five and two, and it hit him and the ball didn’t go on the green so I was a little disappointed about that. But then I saw that it hit somebody and he was laying on the ground and he ended up being OK, but yeah, that’s not a feeling I would even want to have happen.”

Andrade and a cast

Billy Andrade, a competitor in the pro portion of the Invited Celebrity Classic, has struck a couple of fans during his more than three-decade career, including a young girl in the arm at a tournament in Washington D.C.

“She came back the next day with a cast on it and asked me to sign it,” Andrade recalled. “So, of course I signed it, and I gave her like everything I had in my bag. And yeah, it happens and when it does it never feels good.”

Annika and her assistant take one for the team

World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam is considered one of, if not the, best ball strikers of all time. But you’d guess she would have a foul ball or two that’s pelted a fan at some point along the way, right? But Sorenstam claims that she’s never drilled a spectator in all these years.

“Knock on wood, I hope it stays that way,” said Sorenstam, who played in the celebrity division of the Invited Celebrity Classic, too. “But I’ve played in events where somebody has, and it’s not a fun thing. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

In fact, Sorenstam was playing in the LPGA’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions event when there was a backup on the par-5 15th hole. “I really didn’t know what was happening and then somebody said that somebody got hit around the green area. And I’m like, ‘Oh, bummer.  I hope they’re OK.’”

After they teed off, Sorenstam found out who got hit: her assistant, Crystal Davis, of all people was the victim. She was out watching her boss with Sorenstam’s daughter, Ava, and she was hit in the leg by a celebrity golfer trying to protect Ava. She succeeded in part of her objective but when her leg swelled quickly, Davis fainted.

“The ball was coming her way, so she jumped in front of (Ava), which is, you know, a case for a raise,” Sorenstam said.

Or at least worthy of an autographed $100 bill.

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Panthers great Greg Olsen nominated for another Sports Emmy

Greg Olsen is up for another Sports Emmy.

Greg Olsen is continuing his broadcasting excellence.

As announced on Tuesday afternoon, the Carolina Panthers great has been nominated for another Sports Emmy. This time, he’s up as an Outstanding Personality in the Event Analyst category.

The highly-acclaimed and well-received FOX color commentator has some strong competition for the honors. Joining the former tight end as his fellow nominees are ESPN’s Troy Aikman, NBC’s Cris Collinsworth, CBS’ Bill Raftery, FOX’s John Smoltz and FOX’s Tom Verducci.

If Olsen captures the gold here, it wouldn’t be his first victory on this stage. He won last year’s award for Outstanding Personality as an Emerging On-Air Talent—beating out the likes of Andraya Carter, Robert Griffin III, Eli Manning and JJ Redick.

But despite the recognition, Olsen is likely to take a backseat to Tom Brady—who is slated to join the NFL on FOX team as their lead color guy in 2024. Knowing that change is coming, the seven-time Super Bowl champion and three-time Most Valuable Player praised Olsen for his work back in January.

“I think Greg’s done an incredible job,” he said on The Pat McAfee Show. “I have so much respect for him, how he approaches his job. He’s super-prepared in what he does. I think he does an incredible job every time he’s on. I love listening to him.”

We do too, Tom. We do too.

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These five golfers – four of them Aussies – earned 2024 PGA Tour Champions tour cards at Q school at TPC Scottsdale

TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course was host for the 72-hole qualifying tournament.

The PGA Tour Champions had five tour cards for 2024 up for grabs at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course this week.

The final stage of Q School for the senior circuit provided 78 golfers 72 holes to snag status for next season.

By Friday, 73 of those golfers came up short, including Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz (dead last by eight shots at 22 over), 72-year-old Dick Mast (who shot or beat his age two times this week), Notah Begay, Shaun Micheel, Ted Purdy, Carlos Franco and Bryan Hoops, the lone amateur in the field who missed out on a playoff by a stroke.

All is not lost for those who finished sixth through 30th, as they will be eligible to apply for PGA Tour Champions Associate Membership for 2024, which would then get them into qualifiers.

But for those lucky top five, they are now fully exempt into all open, full-field events for the 2024 season on the PGA Tour Champions.

Here’s a closer look at what turned out to be an Aussie takeover, with Australian golfers earning four of the five cards.

PGA Tour Champions Q school final features a former major winner, a former Major Leaguer, a Golf Channel analyst and a 72-year-old

Smoltz will be vying for one of five cards that will be handed out at TPC Scottsdale.

Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz is among the 78 golfers who earned a spot in the final stage of qualifying for the PGA Tour Champions.

Smoltz, 55, will be vying for one of five cards that will be handed out at the end of the week at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course.

Smoltz won 213 games over a 21-year career as a pitcher. In three previous attempts at Q school, he hasn’t finished better than tied for 54th in the first stage.

Smoltz won a World Series with the Atlanta Braves in 1995. He won the National League Cy Young award in 1996. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.

He hasn’t competed on PGA Tour Champions since 2021, but he has played in nine events overall, including the 2018 U.S. Senior Open.

Other notables/hopefuls at TPC Scottsdale this week include:

  • NBC/Golf Channel reporter Notah Begay III, back at qualifying for a second year in a row
  • Former Arizona State golfer Todd Demsey, who likes to use persimmon clubs
  • Shaun Micheel, whose lone PGA Tour win was the 2003 PGA Championship
  • Ted Purdy, who grew up down the I-10 in Tucson and went to the University of Arizona
  • 54-year-old amateur Bryan Hoops of Scottsdale, who claims 19 holes-in-one, with 15 of them coming in tournaments
  • Jonathan Kaye, who won two PGA Tour events, including the 2004 FBR Open (now the WM Phoenix Open) at the TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course
  • 72-year-old Dick Mast, who’s played in 360 PGA Tour events and another 191 Champions events without a win. He does have four victories on the Korn Ferry Tour, the most recent in 1999. He got in the field at the last minute after Andrew Marshall withdrew

The first tee times are Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. local (10:30 a.m. ET). Smoltz is playing alongside Daniel Chopra and Jason Bohn at 8:52 a.m. local time off the first tee. The event concludes on Friday. Admission is free for anyone interested in attending.

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MLB Hall of Famer John Smoltz earns spot in Final Stage of PGA Tour Champions Q-School

Smoltz hadn’t finished better than T-54 in three prior appearances at the first stage of PGA Tour Champions Q-School.

From the mound to the golf course, John Smoltz is proving to be a heckuva athlete.

The Major League Baseball Hall of Famer earned a spot into final stage qualifying through PGA Tour Champions Q-School after finishing T-14 at this week’s first stage at Buckhorn Springs in Valrico, Florida. Smoltz posted scores of 71-73-74-71, finishing at 1-over 289 for the week, to earn one of 18 spots into final stage qualifying.

Smoltz hadn’t finished better than T-54 in three prior appearances at the first stage of PGA Tour Champions Q-School.

Smoltz, 55, will be in the field of 80 next month at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course, where final stage will be contested Dec. 5-8. Only five cards are up for grabs.

Slowly, Smoltz has been making a name for himself on the golf course after his illustrious baseball career. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, won a Cy Young Award and earned eight National League All-Star team selections.

Smoltz hasn’t competed on PGA Tour Champions since 2021, but he has competed in nine events overall. He also competed in the 2018 U.S. Senior Open.

Chipper Jones hilariously roasted John Smoltz’s agonizing reaction to getting hit by a pitch in 1996

Can’t stop laughing.

The Atlanta Braves typically have a television broadcast booth of Brandon Gaudin and Jeff Francoeur. But for Wednesday’s series finale against the New York Mets, they brought back the unconventional players only booth, and it didn’t disappoint.

They even had John Smoltz showing some personally.

The booth included former Braves Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, Tom Glavine, Smoltz and Francoeur. And at one point during the game, the broadcast brought up a clip of Smoltz getting hit by a pitch from Mark Thompson in a 1996 game against the Rockies. Now, no matter the era, it’s never fun to get hit by a big-league pitch. But Smoltz didn’t exactly show off a high pain tolerance there.

As Smoltz tried to argue that the took the pitch to the kidney, Jones just went ahead and roasted his former teammate. “Does the tuna! So, this is what the tuna looks like,” Jones said as the rest of the booth laughed along.

And in case you were wondering, Smoltz was totally fine after that hit by pitch. He struck out 10 in 8.1 innings, and the Braves won that game, 8-3.

Fans loved everything about that clip.

Fans ripped John Smoltz’s ‘grandstanding’ remark about Randy Arozarena’s HR-robbing celebration

Why does he hate baseball?

One of the great aspects of the World Baseball Classic has been the opportunity to watch just how much these games mean to the players. Every moment seems extra important, and that pride brings out a personality you just don’t see in many MLB games.

That’s what makes it awfully disappointing that the U.S. audience is stuck with John Smoltz as the Fox color commentator. Smoltz is notoriously old school and often sounds like he’s in physical pain whenever a player dares to flip his bat or show emotion.

That kind of attitude was on display during Monday’s World Baseball Classic semifinal between Japan and Mexico. When Randy Arozarena robbed Kazuma Okamoto of a home run in the fifth inning, Smoltz seemed more annoyed with Arozarena’s fake-out celebration than he was impressed with the actual catch.

Smoltz said that Arozarena was grandstanding — a negative way of describing what had occurred.

In the full exchange, play-by-play announcer Joe Davis asked, “How much fun is Randy Arozarena to watch?” Smoltz was silent before quipping, “Not good for a play-by-play announcer, though.” However, Davis was all over the call as the catch happened live.

It was fine for a play-by-play announcer and actually a great call from Davis.

Smoltz seemingly couldn’t just enjoy a sensational catch and fun moment from one of the WBC’s most entertaining players.

Baseball fans also didn’t appreciate the “grandstanding” remark from Smoltz.

MLB Hall of Famer John Smoltz dishes on playing Augusta with Tiger Woods, how impressive his latest comeback has been and more

“It was one of the coolest experiences to see a man tear up (Augusta National), literally, like it was his backyard.”

Augusta National. On a Sunday. Less than a month before the Masters.

Or, as John Smoltz recounts, just another round with his good buddy Tiger Woods.

“He said, ‘I’ll fly you down, we’ll play Augusta, I’ll have you back by 3 o’clock. Can you do it?’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to ask my manager,’ and luckily I have a light day,” said Smoltz, who pitched 22 seasons and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, with a smile on his face. “Long story short, my manager lets me do it, nobody finds out. Wheels up, we go play Augusta, on Sunday with every pin as the Sunday pin.”

“I was late to the plane so it caused us not to hit practice balls. I was so excited to get out there. We go to the first tee, I pipe it down the middle and he hit it in the bunker.

“I said, ‘This might be my day, Tiger.’ And he goes ‘Yeah, this could be your day.’ I double-bogeyed from the middle of the fairway and he parred. He shot 66, I shot 76. It was one of the coolest experiences to see a man tear up a golf course, literally, like it was his backyard.

“He carved it up.”

Smoltz, who’s spent countless hours with Tiger on the golf course, hasn’t played with the 15-time major champion since his February 2021 car crash that several injured his lower body, especially his right leg.

Woods, against all odds, battled back. His first event was the PNC Championship that same year. He’d go on to play in three of four majors in 2022 and again at the PNC last week.

Although it’s tough to comprehend how difficult the journey must have been, Smoltz isn’t necessarily surprised Woods was able to pull it off.

“His motor is unlike any other motor. I mean, it’s right in there with Michael Jordan. From a competitive drive to the ability to overcome and achieve, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Smoltz said. “He’s done it all and he wants it all and I think his body pays some of that price for how insane he works out, and insane some of the things that he used to do. Having said that, coming back and reinventing himself, it’s not easy. I don’t even know a fair comparison.

“It’d be like if Michael Jordan couldn’t jump anymore but was still playing basketball.

“That’s what Tiger is doing today in the world of golf. That fall from where he was to where he was trying to get to again was so big that I don’t think many people gave him a chance to even ever compete again.

“I never doubted Tiger, but I’m amazed at what he’s been able to do.”

Since his retirement from Major League Baseball, Smoltz has thrown his hat in the ring at several big-time events, none larger than the 2018 Senior PGA Championship.

At the LPGA’s inaugural Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in 2019, Smoltz took home the amateur title.

Then he did it again 12 months later.

He’ll be in the field next month when the best players in the world descend on Lake Nona in Orlando for the 2023 edition.

Some of the celebrities Smoltz will be pitted against include fellow retired MLB-ers Derek Lowe (2022 TOC winner), Tim Wakefield, Jon Lester and Kevin Millar.

Entering the week in ’19, Smoltz believed there was a chance he could keep up with the ladies.

He was wrong.

“I thought that I could compete, score-wise, and boy did I get humiliated. Quick. It’s been fun to watch these professionals do their thing,” Smoltz said.

“I shouldn’t be, but I get amazed every time how much control they have with their game. No matter what the wind’s doing, no matter what the conditions are, they’re in so much control of their game that when you add up everything nothing will blow you away and all of a sudden they’re 6 under.”

He spent part of last year’s event with Jessica Korda and Annika Sorenstam, adding to the laundry list of stars Smoltz has been able to play with over the years.

But the relationship he has with the best player to ever put a tee in the ground is a special one.

At last week’s PNC, Tiger once again played alongside his son, Charlie.

Smoltz knows how much that meant to him.

“With all that’s gone on, the confusion of certain things that are going on in golf right now, this brings it back to what is special about this game,” he said. “You can play it for a long time, but if you can play it with your children that is pretty cool.”

For the full interview, listen below or subscribe to the Twilight 9 podcast (for free) here.

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John Smoltz pulled a Tony Romo on Bryce Harper’s electrifying Game 3 HR and MLB fans were in awe

He nailed it.

Bryce Harper’s first-inning home run in Game 3 of the World Series was electrifying in so many ways, as the Philadelphia Phillies slugger took the first pitch he saw from Lance McCullers Jr. and sent it flying.

We’re here to talk about what happened BEFORE that dinger (and no, it’s not about McCullers maybe tipping his pitches, although that might have helped?).

John Smoltz, who was on the mic a FOX analyst, noted that he wouldn’t be shocked if Harper would be sitting on a breaking ball early in the at-bat and would swing hard. And if Harper saw one down the middle? Look out.

That’s exactly what happened. TONY ROMO-ESQUE!

Check it out:

Golf fanatic John Smoltz shares that he lost his father just hours before Field of Dreams Game broadcast

John Smoltz has a number of passions — golf, for one, which he got serious about when he was 21.

John Smoltz has a number of passions — golf, for one, which he got serious about when he was 21 with Atlanta Braves teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine as a way to spend time on their days off between starts — but his work ethic comes from his father.

The Hall of Fame pitcher and former National League Cy Young Award winner hasn’t rested on his laurels since retiring from Major League Baseball, digging hard into the celebrity golf circuit, playing in multiple PGA Tour Champions events and working as the lead MLB analyst for Fox Sports.

During Thursday’s Field of Dreams Game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs, Smoltz revealed on air that he lost his father earlier in the day, yet remained in Iowa to carry through with the national broadcast.

“It’s been an emotional day,” Smoltz said of losing his father, who was 79. “He lived by his faith, he loved family and he would be so mad if I didn’t do this game. I can’t think of another day to honor him, when you think about this park, this movie and how he loved every one of us and anyone he came in contact with. I’m the man I am because of him.”

Aside from his incredible baseball career, Smoltz has made a name for himself on the golf circuit, playing eight PGA Tour-sanctioned events, all on the Champions Tour. His best finish was a T-53 at the Cologuard Classic in 2019. He played in the U.S. Senior Open in 2018.

Smoltz has said that his most memorable round was with Annika Sorenstam, Tiger Woods and his Atlanta Braves teammate Chipper Jones.

He added Thursday that his family received tremendous support after losing John Adam Smoltz.

“I can’t explain the peace I have,” Smoltz said. “That comes from God and the way he lived. I call it the 4 L’s. He lived. He laughed. He learned. He listened. He gave us everything that we needed to fulfill and show up to work.

“And I feel like I’m showing up to work and what a better way for my Mom, my brother and my sister, and the support we’ve gotten today,” Smoltz added. “It’s started this early this morning. I’m sure it will hit me when I get home. But this is the perfect day for him if he was going to leave.

“He was so proud. When I was in high school, he made my first baseball card. And everywhere he went, he just handed them out to people. I didn’t get it then. I was actually begging him to stop doing that. I get it now, because I’ve run into so many people who met my dad and they say, ‘I met your dad.’ And I say, ‘Stop. Did he give you a card?’

“We’ll miss him. I’m going to live every day for him.”

Interestingly enough, Smoltz’s last major golf duel involved a similar scenario. Smoltz lost in a playoff at the 2021 American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe to Vinny Del Negro, who then revealed after the victory that his father, Vincent, had passed just before the tournament began,

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