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A couple years back I was working as a grounds crew member for the Akron Aeros (AA team for the Cleveland Indians) and the NEC Invitational was in town. This was when Phil Mickelson was going around taking batting practice with a few minor league teams for some reason if you remember hearing about it. Anyways, Phil, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Justin Leonard, and Paul Azinger showed up. I'll tell you why I listed Paul last in a moment. This is a pretty relaxed atmosphere. No big crowds, just the ball team and maybe 20 team personnel. Phil is throwing batting practice (by the way, bet 500 bucks if anybody on the team could take him yard. Nobody did.) Davis and Justin are shagging balls in the outfield, and Paul is talking to Amy Mickelson the whole time. Yeah, he brought Amy. . Eventually I got Justins and Davis' autograph, Phil couldn't sign a golf ball because of contract reasons I'm sure(no big deal) got it on a baseball anyway. Talked to Freddy for a bit about classic Ford Mustangs, he likes them and I own one. Eventually I go over to Paul while he is talking to Amy and politely ask him Mr. Azinger, could I please get your autograph? I got it, but remember there is no one around us, just me, Paul, and Amy. He gave me the most ****** look like how dare you talk to ME. I'm Paul Azinger. He signed the baseball, gave it back to me without even looking at me and kept on talking to Amy. I said thank you and walked away. Overall a great and lucky experience, but Paul sure had something up his rearend that day. I hope it was just that day and he's not like that all the time. I forgot to mention, when I did approach him and Amy talking I said sorry to interrupt you, but could you please sign....

I don't know if I would use the word "met" them, but have been in contact with some and up close with others.

The Good:
John Daly- Met him at Outback Steakhouse back in '96. Had a beer with him at the bar. Awesome guy
Retief Goosen- He may be shy and quiet, but he's one of the nicest golfers I met. Met him at the Chrysler, and he's very classy and stuck around and talked to the fans. I talked to him a little bit about him getting struck by lightning. It was a good convo. Very nice guy, albeit shy.
Chris Riley- Saw my Gators shirt on in the crowd, and gave me a thumbs up. Later on, came up to me and gave me a ball and told me how he loved my shirt.
Tiger Woods-Didn't actually meet him, but he was at that same Outback Daly was. This was before he won the '97 Masters, so he was in public. Looked like he had a little thing going on with Kelli Kuehne. But signed autographs, seemed very nice.

The Bad:
Billy Mayfair- Absolute jerk. Marshall made a small mistake, and he made it a point to scream at her and embarrass in front of everyone.
Nick Price- Very arrogant. Nicely asked him for an autograph back in '95 after a round (I was 15 at the time) and very rudely said "I'm too busy".

Hmmm....I can think of a few instances where I have observed golfers who were abrupt whilst walking in between holes or trying to get to the scorer's tent. Folks who have a rep as being easy going and super nice, but I just happened to be watching them at a tense moment. Not sure I'd want to pass judgment on someone I had such limited exposure to, and definitely wouldn't classify that as "I met so-and-so".



I didn't enjoy "meeting" Freddie Couples at Sawgrass, but it might be more correct to say I didn't appreciate Jim Nantz running over my foot with a golf cart.



It was a huge thrill two days later when he came up to me at a party, remembered who I was, apologized again, chatted with me about back problems, and deftly ducked out of the conversation only after introducing me to Kim Alexis. Greatest ten minutes of my life. I'll root for him like there's no tomorrow every time he tees it up.



When I was a younger man I worked as tax preparer for a Big 8 accounting firm. We had a large athlete/celebrity practice, and I got to meet several touring pros. I'd say on the whole - and especially compared with other sports stars - the guys who make up the PGA Tour are a very gracious bunch. I cannot imagine living in a fishbowl where people were going to give me a thumbs up or down based on watching me for 10 seconds.

One last anecdote: when I was in junior high, my brother attended a 2 week school at the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy back when it was located in Stratton Mountain, Vermont. He won the tournament they concluded school with, and after graduation, he got to play 9 holes with Arnie. Afterwards Mr. Palmer hung out in the grillroom with my family. This was around 1973 - the man was second only to Ali in larger than life status - but he was the nicest, most down to earth celeb I have ever encountered. He still sets the standard for how all these pampered babes should behave.

I've met Darren Clarke, John Daly, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington, Davis Love III, and Kenny Perry. All of them seemed extremely nice and were very personable. I spent a few minutes talking to Tiger about hitting a specific shot and how to do it. I spent several minutes talking to Phil about the San Diego Chargers...and a few minutes with Daly and Clarke talking about playing in Pro-Ams. Oh and I met Stewart Cink...he is a class act...very nice guy.

In all my experiences with the players at the Target World Challenge the only two that came off extremely rude were...K.J. Choi and Robert Allenby. It might have had something to do with the fact that they were playing extremely poorly.

My dry cleaner played with K.J. Choi at the Hartford pro am a few years ago and said he was a prince of a guy.

I have not "met" all of these people but have autographs and golf balls and event books.

We used to go to the Kroger Senior Classic in Cincinnati all the time, and I have Lee Treveno, Chi Chi, Jim Dent, Sam Snead, and a lot of older golfers that I can't even remember. There was a cercumstance where Jack Nichlaus was there for practice/pro am or something, but couldn't play the Pretty nice keep sake.tournament, and I ended up with one of his practice round balls from one of the marshalls (or so the marshall told me anyway).

I knew Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench would be there playing, so I brought a baseball my father caught at a Reds game and got Joe Morgan on one side and Johnny Bench's autograph on the other. Although Johnny Bench was a jerk...I ended up getting it. lol

why the **** would you want Paul Azingers autograph
I could understand Phil or Freddie , but Azinger ... I wouldnt even want to shake his hand

I'll be showing my age, but.....

Years ago Peter Oosterhuis (spelling) was the head/teaching pro at Forsgate CC in Central NJ. A consultant I dealt with was getting a 9-hole playing lesson from Peter, and invited me and another guy to join the foursome.

Although Peter spent 99% of the time with the consultant, he was very cordial to all of us, offered a few "tips" in general, and was a class act all the way.

He also shot the dullest 33 (-3) I have ever witnessed.

but, they were Nationwide guys then
David Berganio is one **** of a nice guy
Deane Pappas is as cool as they come
DiMarco is a guy you would just like to smack

I got to meet and play and caddy with a few players.

The most fun was playing about 25 holes with Mike Hulbert. Around 1988,89 or 90. He had come to play the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey (I live in the Glen Abbey Development and had a resident membership). I was chopping away on the range and one of the pros asked if I could play with him. I said sure and we had a really nice afternoon. The course was sort of busy so we just sort of skipped from one open hole to another and played 2 or 3 balls each. This was just a really nice guy period.

Now I'll go way back and did the same thing with a guy named Forrest Fezzler.

I also got to caddy for Ben Crenshaw, Calvin Peete and Greg Norman. This was all during a period when a caddy basically just carried the bag and gave yardages. A lot of the caddies would only show up on the Thurs. so the players would need a caddie on Mon Tues and Wed.

The Shark was just great!!!!

I got to play a fair bit with a former US Amateur Champ by the name of Chris Patton. I met him at Muirfield Village. Glen Abbey and Muirfield Village had reciprical Privilages and we would go down a couple of times a year to play. While we were there one time one of Muirfields pros called me aside and said Chris would be playing the canadian open and did I know a local caddie. I said I'd do it so they found Chris we hit it off right away and I let him stay with my wife and I while he played the tourn. had a blast cading too. We also took him to some local clubs to play as well. He also came up the following summer for the Canadian CPGA and I caddied for him then too.

I'll probably remember some other things too and will post but nothing else comes to mind now.

brianf

The late George Archer was an avid fisherman. I first met him when he went fishing in Baja with a group I was affiliated with. During the course of the 10 day trip he almost put me in the poor house playing Gin Rummy. It seems that Gin was a favorite pastime of many of the pro's in the locker room. During the trip he and I became friends, I was a non-golfer, and he got me started. (To this day I find the putting lessons he gave me invaluable.) He also talked me into marshaling at the AT&T.
I met many of the tour players while marshalling. Some of the nicest and most considerate were Fred Couples, Fuzzy Zoeller, and the late Payne Stewart. I met very few that were not friendly and cordial but, there were some spoiled brats on the tour. The one that stands out most in my mind was Paul Azinger, a real crybaby.

I met Tiger 3 months before he turned pro. Tiger was nice but quite. I’ve also talked to his Dad. Kind of a Jerk!

I volunteer at the Target World Challenge and even before when the Shark Shootout was at Sherwood. I've talked to a lot of the guys over the years. The only one I didn't care for because of the way he straight armed a small kid asking for an autograph during the pro-am was Tom Kite.

I met Sam Snead in a line getting coffee,after I got my coffee and turned around and saw him(COULDNT BELIEVE IT WAS HIM) but I had to ask this man had anyone ever told him he looked like Sam Snead;and he said in that old Virginia drawl "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Tiger Woods" Well I dont realy other than I'm black and slim.I said "You are Sam" I had finally seen the face up close and recognized the voice.I shook his hand and invited him to the golf shop I was managing,but one of his agents said he had a busy schedule and couldnt make it.He was a class act.Met Calvin Peete in 1982 at a celebrity outing when I was young ,he encouraged me to stay in the game and talked to me about tour life,he took so much time with me that they delayed his tee time.....Calvin is on my screen saver right now.

In a kemper open a few years back i met Justin Leonard at the bathrooms, Stuart Appleby after he holed a eagle on a par 4 and he gave me his ball, and I got jeff gove's signature and he printed it for me too cuz i couldnt read it.