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Behind the scenes at Medinah
Published: 8/20/2006 10:19 AM
Last Modified: 8/20/2006 10:19 AM

Covering an important golf tournament is a unique experience in the sports writing business. There is some time on the golf course. Occasionally, you wander out on the course to watch some players tee off, play a couple of holes or watch them coming up on No. 18. While photographers might follow a player around the course, primarily Tiger Woods, most writers try to get a feel for as much of the tournament as possible. As a result, most golf writers spend much of their day in a huge tent. The media center at any major championship is a remarkable place. For starters, it is a very large building. At the PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club, it is the biggest tent I've ever seen. When the media shuttle bus from the hotel pulled up to it the first day I was here, I was amazed. It was the biggest tent I've ever seen. Imagine an arena that is a tent. That's the media center at Medinah. Inside the tent are work spaces for about 500 to 600 writers. Each spot has a television, electrical outlets and computer hookups. There are information screens everywhere that provide the media with every little possible fact – facts on players, facts on specific holes and stats of all sorts. It has an area for the host group – the PGA – where credentials and information are dispensed. There is an interview room with several hundred chairs and space for television cameras. All of the top players are brought in for interviews. There are broadcast booths for the radio media and even an area for massage. Yes, massage. You walk around a golf course all day and a quick $10 massage isn't that bad of an idea. In an adjoining tent there is a meal room. There are over 1,000 media members here and all of them have to eat somewhere. Plus, the dining tent is used for nightly parties. The Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and Southern Hills Country Club sponsored the Saturday night party, handing out information about next year's PGA and the city of Tulsa to media folks. Putting on an event like the PGA Championship is a huge undertaking. Just the work to do the media portion of the event is staggering. I can't imagine how big of a job it is to coordinate everything for media, fans, players, sponsors and officials. Yet, Tulsans have done it seven times (six men's majors at Southern Hills and the Women's U.S. Open at Cedar Ridge). That makes what happens next summer in our town even more amazing.


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Klein's Korner

Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

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