David Feherty played his fair share of solid golf at the highest levels, but arguably his biggest contributions to the game came in his post-playing career. Since his retirement from competitive play in the late 90s, Feherty has become one of the most beloved characters in golf media.
The 66-year-old is best known for his on-course reporting for CBS, NBC and now LIV Golf, but he’s also had success as a scribe, contributing to GOLF Magazine periodically and writing several best-selling books.
Feherty has a rare gift in his ability to tell stories in a way that no one else can. But even when Feherty is a character in the story rather than the narrator, there’s also sure to be some intrigue.
“Feherty stories are always the best,” Feherty’s longtime friend and co-worker Ian Baker-Finch said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar.
Baker-Finch recalled one particular instance when Feherty was driving through the seaside hills on his way to Pebble Beach when he hit a deer with his car. In an act of humanity, Feherty put the deer out of its misery with a gun he kept inside his car, Baker-Finch said. But when he went to move the carcass off the road, some of the deer’s bodily fluids spilled onto his clothes.
“When he arrived at the restaurant, one of the guys said, ‘Wow, David, you smell like deer piss,'” Baker-Finch said. “[Feherty said], ‘Mhmm, it’s a long story.'”
On another occasion, Feherty was on the ground at the PGA Championship when the production truck experienced technical difficulties and lost power momentarily. Without the main commentators available for that period, Peter Kostis and Feherty were tasked with leading the broadcast.
“Kostis picks it up and he says, ‘Here were are at the 13th with Shigeki Maruyama,'” Baker-Finch said. “‘David, what’s he got down there?’
“David said, ‘It’s a long way to go. I’m not sure whether he’s gonna make it.’
“We hear this whoosh and he hits it, and Peter says, ‘Well, how was it?’
“He said, ‘Man, he really smoked that one.’
“So he had in his mind the marijuana [which Maruyama sounds like]. It was a moment where David always had the quickest, funniest, wittiest thing to say.”
For more stories from Baker-Finch, check out the full episode below.
