Byrum makes transition from course to booth

Curt Byrum used to make his living chasing a golf ball. Now, the 51-year-old is making his living talking about the game he loves.

Byrum is in town this week as part of The Golf Channel's broadcast of the 11th annual Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. He's been in the tower all week above the 18th green.

Byrum, who has two Nationwide titles and a PGA Tour crown on his resume, is one of many golfers, who have transitioned to the broadcast booth, joining the likes of Nick Faldo, Johnny Miller, Roger Maltbie, Gary McCord, Frank Nobilo, Gary Koch, Curtis Strange and former Irish Ryder Cup player David Feherty to name a few.

Byrum said he was still active, though not playing well, when he was approached by Keith Hirshland.

"That was nine years ago," Byrum said. "He asked if I was interested and I decided to try it. I was getting beatup (on tour)."

"It was certainly trying," Byrum said in a phone interview earlier this week. "Obviously with TV you have to learn and start at the beginning. You learn to understand how things are working and who is doing what. Everybody struggles with the fact you have a guy talking in your ear (constantly).

"I might be talking about a guy on 14th, and the producer talking in my ear saying we're going to 16 next."

Byrum said once you get past the technical stuff, the job is pretty easy.

"It's not that hard, it's really just watching and talking about golf," Byrum said. "Beyond the technical stuff, it's just how you look at golf."

Byrum has worked PGA, Nationwide and Champion events. By the time the season ends, he will have worked nine PGA events, 10 Nationwide tournaments and seven Champion events.

He enjoys the variety of his assignments.

"On the Champions Tour, are a lot of guys I used to play with," Byrum said. "On the PGA Tour, there are still quite a few players that I know. It's fun to compare the players a little bit."

The only thing missing for Byrum is the opportunity to play on he Champions Tour. He played two weeks ago for just the third time this year.

"I'd love to play more," Byrum said. "Without exempt status, the Champions Tour is really tough. I'd never give up my job here to go do Monday qualifying. I'd love to play six to eight times a year. Without exempt status, it's too much of a crap shoot. It's too hard to work and be playing at the same time."

Byrum's brother, Tom, played this week at the LRTO, but missed the cut by one shot after finishing 36 holes 1-over-par. The cut number was even par.

The Byrums are only the second brother combination to each win on the PGA Tour, following in the footsteps of Dave and Mike Hill.

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Unfortunately the crowds haven't been great at the LRTO. One local golfer said it was because Montreux was such a hard course to walk. I chalked it up to Hot August Nights.

People, you don't have to walk much when you come to a pro golf tournament. Do what my folks used to do when they went to the AT&T at Pebble Beach every year, Pick a hole and camp out for the day. That way you get to see nearly everybody, and you can do it in comfort.

This is a top-notch tournament. No, Tiger Woods will probably never come here even if Montreux were to get its own PGA date, but there are some great players like Rocco Mediate out here. For the casual fan, golf is a name recognition sport. A lot of people probably don't recognize many of the names out here, so figure it's not worth coming.

Steve Elkington ($14 million in career earnings), John Rollins, ($10 million), Rod Pampling ($11 million) and Vaughn Taylor, who has won more than $7 million in his last five seasons, were just a sampling of the talented players in the 126-man field.

One thing people don't realize is how good some of these 'unknown' guys are. Golf is a humbling sport. You can go from the penthouse to the outhouse in a short span of time as evidenced by Chris DiMarco, who went from being on two President's Cup and two Ryder Cup teams to losing his card and being ranked 265th in the world.

This is a major league event, and deserves the support of the community.

• Darrell Moody can be reached at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.