TED SOBEL SPORTS AUDIO VAULT: Your Inside Access to TOUCHING GREATNESS

It’s not only opening day in Major League Baseball (and at Dodger Stadium for me) but 83 years ago today, Gordon Howe was born and he grew up to be “Mr. Hockey”. I hope to get the opportunity to chat with Gordie soon and if and when that happens, you will get it all right here! And for you many Gordie Howe fans please listen to my interview with his son Mark from an earlier post here as he shares some great stories that you won’t get anywhere else. Happy birthday Gordie! And speaking of hockey, the Ducks won again on Wednesday night and we are closing in on a new ‘Miracle on Ice’…the Kings and Ducks actually making the playoffs in the same season-for the first time! I must be dreaming???

It’s the 40th anniversary of what used to be called the Dinah Shore, now of course it’s the Kraft Nabisco Championship and golf’s first major of the year has it’s annual week before ‘The Masters’ opening round tee times on Thursday morning. World #1 Yani Tseng is the defending champ and please search down to last week’s post for my pre-KNC interview with her along with several other top LPGA players like Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie, Suzanne Pettersen, Christie Kerr and others.

24 hours before the first round, I had breakfast with the lovely, personable, and talented tour player Louise Friberg of Sweden who is also hungry to be in contention this week. I then quickly met up with (as you can see below) reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champ Danielle Kang along with her (and my) pro Brady Riggs on the driving range before hustling to make my 10:05 Pro-am tee time.

And it was a fun day playing with 8 time tour winner Mi Hyun Kim, who’s played sparingly since 2007 after knee surgery, a marriage and her first baby boy.

‘Kimmy’ played with her measly $40,000 set of solid gold irons and showed off her million dollar swing which has been forgotten so much by oddsmakers that they have her as only part of ‘the field’ at 5-1 to win this week.
And I’ve never before seen such expensive clubs so it was worth the price of admission just to touch them…if only Kim would’ve let me take a few home, I could buy a new car in exchange! 🙂 Enjoy the KNC folks…as it’s majors time again in golf-FINALLY!
And it’s also time that I head back for my 2 hour drive to L.A. immediately for my Thursday/Friday day shifts (10a-2p) on KFWB Newstalk 980 and also in time for the Dodgers’ home opener against the hated World Series champion Giants (which is still hard to believe or say???). Look for opening day coverage here later on and if that game ends quickly, possibly something from the Lakers-Dallas biggie at Staples…but don’t hold your breath on that! 🙂 And then I’ll be right back here in Rancho Mirage as your 18th green announcer on Saturday and Sunday (along with my usual reporting for KFWB/KNX Radio in L.A.) so hope to see you here, there, and everywhere!

Reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Danielle Kang is getting ready to tee off in her first Kraft Nabisco Championship tomorrow afternoon at 1:58 and I caught up with the Pride of Pepperdine University and Oak Park, CA on the driving range alongside her Class A PGA Professional Brady Riggs (who regularly rules the range at Woodley Lakes golf course in Van Nuys). Brady is a top 100 golf pro who would never be in the top 1,000 if the voters of that list knew that he’d ever worked with my swing…but we keep that a secret from them! Danielle is not only a nice local So-Cal story but she can really play with the best of them and can change her life forever if she finds a way to earn jumping into Poppy’s Pond on the Dinah Shore course on Sunday.

Danielle Kang with Ted Sobel:

And Danielle is off to a great start having aced the 14th hole with her trusty 8 iron in yesterday’s practice round…good luck this week!

Tuesday was Pro-am day #1 getting to play with a fun 5-some that included LPGA player Shanshan (aka Jenny) Feng who’s one of the best from China (and she speaks better english than me) and lead guitarist for KISS Tommy Thayer who’s swing was coming around nicely the last several holes. And Feng had one of the best swings of any tour player I’ve ever been grouped with in my several Pro-ams and she showed it off perfectly with a hole in one (her 3rd) on #17. I’m wondering if my father had used up the family’s luck when making a hole in one in his first ever round of golf (and he only played a couple of times in his entire life!). Forget nailing my first ace, I’m just trying to hit the fairway occassionally off the tee. 🙂

At 21, ‘Jenny’ has a bright future and I told her that I hope to be her good luck charm this week while maybe earning her first pro win? (and a major at that!)

The afterparty not only had great food and music (with a good Beatles tribute band) but also my sit-down chat with baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. The greatest catcher I ever saw was also my unofficial personal caddy and ball retriever in last year’s KNC Pro-am (he lives at the course) soon after recent double hip replacment surgery, so it was fun to catch up with him again to talk about golf and the start of the new baseball season…

Johnny Bench with Ted Sobel at Kraft Nabisco:

Pro-am #2 is Wednesday when I’m in a group that includes 8-time PGA tour winner My Hyun Kim. And just before taking the Palmer course, I expect to sit down with last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur champ Danielle Kang (the pride of Pepperdine and Westlake Village) and talk about her game and mindset before taking on the pros here on Thursday.

As I get ready to head to Rancho Mirage for next weekend’s gig as your 18th green announcer at the LPGA’s first major of the year-the Kraft Nabisco Championship. I expected to hear from 2 of the all-time great women’s golfers Amy Alcott and Betsy King and they both called in right on time to give me their thoughts on next Saturday’s inaugural Fresh&Easy Dinah Shore charity pro-am event on the Palmer course at Mission Hills Country Club.

It was the brainchild of 3-time KNC champ Ms. Alcott, who’s our special local(Santa Monica) treasure that I always have fun chatting with…

Amy Alcott:

And another Hall of Famer in Amy’s great field is Betsy King, who spoke with me for the first time about an unusual career that ended in her becoming a legend…

Betsy King:

In 8 days…the legends of women’s golf hit the course at Rancho Mirage and hope to see you out there!

The NCAA West regionals couldn’t have picked a better doubleheader for us So-Cal folk on Thursday with San Diego St. basically playing a home game against U-Conn followed by favored Duke vs. Pac 10 champs Arizona. The Huskies ruined Aztec coach Steve Fisher’s birthday with a 7 point win in a difficult way to end just a 3 loss season…

San Diego St. Coach Steve Fisher:

As for U-Conn, Kemba Walker was as promised and more scoring 36 with ease before I got in a few questions for him and his prideful coach Jim Calhoun who previewed Saturday’s matchup for me even though he didn’t know it yet…

U-Conn’s Kemba Walker and coach Jim Calhoun:

And the team the Huskies get on Saturday is Arizona who earned every ounce of praise they’ll get for hammering Duke by 14 and outscoring them by 22 in the 2nd half. After the game, I got to ask Wildcats head coach Sean Miller a few questions at the podium and when we were finally allowed in the Cats’ locker room, senior starting forward Jamelle Horne gave me all smiles knowing that his college career was still alive-and last but not least, I also got that special moment response from starting guard Kyle Fogg…

Arizona coach Sean Miller, Jamelle Horne, and Kyle Fogg:

And finally it was a tough way to get ousted from the tournament for legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, but he was still much more gracious and open with his time for me than many others may’ve been right after that stunning blowout (and even joked while dealing with some mic problems)…

Duke Coach K:

And Zona’s All-American standout Derrick Williams has become my choice for the John R. Wooden award which I must get my vote in by next week.

Now hopefully there’s an NBA season after this one (with a looming almost certain lockout) or else he may want to think about staying in school! If only coach Miller can get that in writing NOW! 🙂