The late Steve DiMeglio, left, with Rickie Fowler in 2016.
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Steve DiMeglio, the longtime golf author for USA Right now and, later, Golfweek, was the one reporter who may come emerge from a press tent, dangle with Tiger Woods on a apply placing inexperienced, get stuff that he may use, and so much he would by no means use, and reside to do it once more per week later.
“DiMegs,” as Woods and plenty of others referred to as him, was 63 when he died in his residence 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 mother and father predeceased him. The beat was his life. Gamers, caddies, officers and different writers had been like his household.
“Sadly the golf world misplaced a part of our household right this moment,” Woods stated in a message on X. Individuals in golf, particularly folks related to the PGA Tour, abuse the phrase household. The PGA Tour is just not a household. However on this case, Woods used the right phrase. A handful of Tour media officers, who lived close to DiMeglio, would examine on him usually by way of his 30-month well being ordeal. They grew fearful once they weren’t in a position to attain him on New 12 months’s Day.
DiMeglio was an 8-handicap golfer with a sporty recreation and such deep connections within the recreation he may 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 Mild, Marlboro Gold and the Mellow Mushroom pizzeria chain. He’d hire automobiles from anyone. He appreciated to journey together with his personal golf equipment, however he’d hire golf equipment as mandatory. He wore the logoed membership shirt of wherever he performed final. He labored sporting shorts and basketball sneakers 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.
In case you had been taller than 5-foot-8, DiMeglio referred to as you Large 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 almost all 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 Right now was the bible of the PGA Tour, far more so than the New York Occasions or Wall Road Journal or some other paper. Arnold Palmer learn USA Right now. 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 associates, 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 unimaginable financial system, pace 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 a necessary 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 may 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 lads’s. He counted Dottie Pepper, Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson as associates and as sources. It may be tough for reporters, to navigate these sorts of relationships. For DiMeglio, it was second nature.
He would communicate with immense delight about his late father, a college professor. He was a voracious reader of newspapers and magazines and appeared to retain all the things he learn, however he was completely unpretentious and considerate, in his personal method. 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, basic rock music, administration efforts to bust unions at newspapers and Large 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 nearly comically dismissive of LIV Golf. Nicely, he did reside a pair miles from the PGA Tour workplaces. You nearly by no means noticed him speaking on TV. He believed writers needs to be learn and never seen.
When his editors gave him house, DiMeglio would write wealthy, detailed items, typically about surprising 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 everyone needed to know.
DiMeglio: “A pair fast ones. To begin with, what’s the brand in your shirt?”
Woods: “Frank.”
DiMeglio: “What?”
Woods: “Frank, my head cowl.”
DiMeglio, transferring on: “Are you able to inform us, what you consider the modifications made on 5 and the way will you play that gap in another way?”
Woods: “5, it’s simply lengthy. The bunkers, they’re nonetheless deep. I feel they’re unplayable, to get the ball to the inexperienced. You need to be very fortunate and get a scenario that you simply may be capable to get to the entrance fringe of the inexperienced. It is advisable keep out of these bunkers. But it surely’s simply actually lengthy.
