The 1998 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in Australia has the distinction of being the only Cup won by the International team in the biennial event’s 30-year history — and it was quite a shellacking, with the International team winning by a solid margin, 20.5-11.5.
What was going on with Team USA? Longtime broadcasters Peter Kostis and Gary McCord may have some clues. On the latest episode of “Kostis & McCord: Off Their Rockers,” a GOLF production, the duo revisited their memories from Down Under.
According to Kostis, the U.S. team’s proximity to a casino that week didn’t do them any favors.
“[Captain Jack Nicklaus] kinda suspended a few players from the Friday morning matches because he found them in the casino at our hotel rather late into the night,” Kostis said. “And so I’m walking down the fairway — I think it was the 10th fairway, somewhere around there. And I’m following Mickelson’s group. And Phil walks up, he goes, he yells at me, ‘Peter!’, and he flips me a chip, and I look down and it’s a $25,000 chip from the casino. So I said thanks and I put it in my pocket and started walking.”
Kostis said Mickelson ran after him to reclaim the chip, but the story jogged McCord’s memory for another wild anecdote from that Presidents Cup. McCord and Kostis recalled the weather taking a wild swing, with temperatures soaring into the hundreds one day and dropping down into the 60s the next.
“There were flies, and somebody from the gallery gave me this hat with wine corks hanging from it to walk down the fairways,” Kostis said. “They said they would keep the flies away.”
“I remember the first day when it was 100 and whatever,” McCord said. “We had to do the booth and ESPN was our partner there, and I had an ESPN announcer up there. You know how hot it was. We had to wear a coat and tie. So I remember, commercial break after about the first half hour, I went, the hell with this.
“I got up, I took my pants, everything off except my underwear, and I had my coat and my tie on, and he looked at me. He goes, what are you doing? I said, it’s hot. I’m not going anywhere. I’m sitting right here and I’m gonna cool off. And those flies attacked me with vengeance.
“And all I could do is, I was sitting there trying to hold on, and I’m goin’ like this and they’re goin’ up my underwear, and it was quite comical. Thank God we didn’t show us up there doing it.”
“TMI!” Kostis said with a smile.
As if that story weren’t exciting enough, McCord had one more gambling story to share.
“You and me, leaving the hotel. We didn’t gamble or something like that, and we put down all the money we had left, and we won!” McCord said. “We won and went out to the car to go to the airport, to go back to the States. That’s all I remember about that place.”
