Golf Q&A: Media Newsman Guy Gordon
A golf conversation filled with laughs
Guy Gordon gave his all to reporting news in metro Detroit for more than four decades, reporting and anchoring the newsdesk at WXYZ Chan. 7, then WDIV Chan. 4, then extending his Emmy Award-winning career at WJR 760-AM Radio.
Gordon has utilized his love for golf to head up charitable efforts in raising money through golf outings for Oakland Family Services, and in more recent years (since 2019) as honorary chair of the March of Dimes golf classic – this year to be played on June 29 at Indianwood in Lake Orion.
His favorite golf memories are playing the game with his father, who played golf into his 90s. Gordon said his grandfather was a two-time semi-finalist for the Wisconsin Amateur in the 1916-19 time frame – but that level of talent managed to skip generations.
Question: Do you recall when and how you fell in love with the game of golf?
Answer: “I fell in love with golf because I loved my dad and it was a way to spend time with him. But the game didn’t like me. I was a tennis player but continued in golf to have time with my dad, who had such a bottomless belief in my golf ability.
“I can’t say that I can’t play with dad anymore (he died in 2021 at age 96), because I swear he’s walking with me when I play. I feel close to him when I’m golfing. We played in probably 35 tournaments together (at his club, Egypt Valley in Grand Rapids) … we sure had a lot of fun.
“My dad was the type that on the eve of every tournament, he’d tell me I’ve got a brand-new swing. He’d take me in the backyard and illustrate it for me. He was a pathological tinkerer. I’d keep telling him he was the best 60-something golfer I knew. I would call my mom ahead of the tournament and ask her to take all of dad’s golf magazines that came in the mail away from him for the next 30 days. He doesn’t need any more ideas in his head,” said with a chuckle.
“I took him to Scotland in the mid-1990s, and to the Monterey Peninsula. We played some the nicest courses in the world together and had some incredible experiences.”
Q: Do you see similarities or lessons to be learned between golf and your work in the media?
A: Absolutely, and they’re both on the honor system, aren’t they? It’s all about fairness, fair play, honesty in the moment, I think are the foundations of the game, and the foundation of good journalism.
“I also learned some of my best foundational knowledge about the law, about banking, about the economy and certainly about the automotive industry, from just talking with the people I played with, playing golf. I became a better reporter just by shutting up and listening. It built some great relationships along the way, and they benefited me because they were based on trust and that’s still the currency of the game.”
Q: You stepped in to take over the March of Dimes golf outing (at Indianwood, June 29) that Frank Beckmann ran for so many years… what spurred that decision?
A: “Well, Frank Beckmann is a very persuasive man. What a terrible loss for us (Frank passed away in 2022 after 48 years at WJR). I played in it as a local celebrity when he still ran it, but he came to me because he thought it should be taken over with a line of succession. He caught me right after the birth of my first grandchild… I was so thankful that that little guy was born healthy, and six more grandkids since then – and it was a way to pay it forward. Frank had done such a good job as honorary chair for at least 36-37 years, and he brought so much energy to it.”
Q: Do you have any golf pet peeves?
A: “Oh yes, slow play. Things like guys that don’t line up their putt while other players are putting. It’s pretty basic. I’m embarrassed to say I totally lost it about two years ago. I started for the first time in my life with two birdies and I was just in the zone. Then we hit a wall of guys playing out of three carts in their foursome. And they were excessively slow, around the greens especially. It totally screwed me up. I couldn’t get my head out of my own way as we waited on every shot.
“And maybe I’ve pissed people off because, I will take a suitable angle that as long as I think your shank isn’t going to kill me, I start walking to my ball to get ready to hit my ball. The guys (I play with) know that.
“I like walking, and I play better walking because I stay loose… and you never know who (caddie) is going to be on your bag, or who they’ll grow up to be. When meeting my daughter’s boyfriend, who she ended up marrying, he told me he caddie for me at Bloomfield. I said I hope you didn’t learn any colorful words.”
Q: Did you work in golf?
A: “My first job when I was 14 was at the 9-hole course, the Highlands, in Canadian Lakes (near Big Rapids). I’d get up in the morning and row my boat across the lake, then take a short walk to the pro shop. I might have made $2 per hour. Lots of times I could play a quick 9 at night, and that was like heaven.
“The only better time was when I was 18, I would open the course in the morning, and in the evening, I’d go do the 6-hour night shift (as an on-call sub) at the FM station in Big Rapids as a disc jockey. That was maybe my best summer ever. I played a lot of golf and had my first gig in radio.”
Q: What’s the best tip you received for playing golf, or maybe one you realized on your own?
A: “I over analyze and I over think, and I think in our (media) business, you get obsessed with data and information. So, I try, once I get out there, just trust your swing, and swing. I also found that I always thought I was a pretty happy golfer. I enjoy golf so much more now that I’m retired, because (before) I never truly turned off one hemisphere of my brain when I was in the business. I still was thinking about the next show or the next topic or who you’re going to interview. But I play with so much more joy now, by turning off my brain.”
