Sunday, July 6, 2008
Williams tame in role as an analyst
A perch adjacent to the tee at No. 11 at Congressional Country Club is not a bad place to watch the AT&T National.
Certainly, Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams isn't complaining.
Williams is part of Comcast SportsNet's coverage of the event for the second straight year, contributing to a nightly wrap-up show along with host Chick Hernandez.
"It's good experience," Williams said. "It's something different. This is a dead period in recruiting, so you don't miss much."
In other words, it's not like his day job.
On the sideline at Comcast Center, Williams is hunched on the balls of his feet, constantly studying the situation in front of him while displaying the volcanic temper he is well known for.
Such eruptions are virtually uncommon in the far more staid game of golf. Of course, the middle of a round is not a time for coaching, making the sport a decided diversion.
In a polo shirt on the set at Congressional, Williams seemed relaxed while moonlighting as a member of the media - or, at least as relaxed as he can be.
"You feel some pressure because we do the show live," Williams said. "But it's nothing compared to [coaching]. ... This isn't my profession. You hope you say good things. It's not scripted. You might know the questions, but your answer is whatever shows up in your head."
It helps that Williams has more than a passing familiarity with the game. He is a member at Congressional, among other clubs, and he said he plays the course once in a while.
He's also something of a celebrity to part of the field. Williams said he first got to know Fred Couples when he coached at Ohio State and mentioned that both Corey Pavin (UCLA) and Billy Andrade (Wake Forest) are among a group on tour that closely follow their alma mater's basketball programs.
The opportunity is there throughout January and February, when golfers can wrap up their rounds during the tour's West Coast swing and unwind afterward.
Williams, though, is known to others around the game as well.
"Say hi to Gary for me," Fluff Cowan, Jim Furyk's caddie and a member at Congressional, told Hernandez near the scoring tent Saturday.
That's happened quite a bit this week. Williams said some Terrapins fans will make it a point to greet him at the course, a place Williams said where he has become comfortable because - at least when he is not dabbling in TV work - it is a competitive outlet he has been able to maintain into his 60s.
For this week, though, it's a matter of learning a little bit more about how television works. Several people zip on and off the set in a 10-minute span, with Williams keeping an eye on it all from behind a desk.
"You appreciate there's a lot of work that goes into this," said Williams, who will begin his 20th season at Maryland in the fall. "There's a lot of a lot of people behind the scenes who do a lot of things to get ready for the show. It's pretty complicated."