Brandel Chamblee Revists Historic U.S. Open Past | GOLF Originals Ep. 4

Brandel Chamblee, NBC Sports’ lead analyst at the 2024 U.S. Open, is a golf original, and a GOLF Original, the fourth in our monthly lineup that, to date, has brought you David Feherty in March, Tom Doak in April, Mike Whan in May and now Chamblee. Nobody has ever combined an encyclopedic knowledge of golf history with an ability to analyze swings and data as Chamblee does. If you want to know more about modern golf and how it is played, you really should read Brandel, listen to Brandel and watch Brandel.

“Golf gets in your blood,” he says in this 25-minute GOLF Originals mini-doc video that shows sides of Brandel Chamblee you don’t get to see in his regular Golf Channel appearances. “You can’t get away from it,” Chamblee says here of the game. You can’t get away from it, and Chamblee doesn’t want to, anyhow. Everything he shares in this video — in which he hops from four-time U.S. Open champion Willie Anderson’s gravesite to Merion’s 13th tee to the fairway at the Philadelphia Country Club where Byron Nelson holed a 1-iron on his way to winning the 1939 U.S. Open — will tell you that.

Chamblee has strong and informed opinions about LIV Golf, the proposed golf-ball rollback, the sanctity of golf’s rulebook, and we, as ordinary golf-on-TV viewers, are lucky to have them. But what we see here is the roots of it all, his deep, great immersion in this game.

“Every day to wake up, and have some purpose, that keeps you going?” Chamblee says. “It’s a gift.”

Chamblee has said a million of words over various broadcasts over the past 20 or more years. He might say a million more. Those two sentences, shared with us on a fairway at the Philadelphia Country Club, deserve to live forever.
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JC Sneed nephew of Sam had a cult following on the tour uh my rookie year 1988 if you went to the range in the afternoon and S and JC was in the in the field he likely had a handful of tour players behind him watching him and oooing and on at every shot he hit and Mark Brooks my roommate in college and I are down at the far end so we’re were down there hitting balls and we have to walk back past this cvy of players watching JC and JC is is challenging everybody in the in the crowd to give him a shot you know what do you want to see you know to sluman or Billy andreid or Davis Love or Brad Faxon or Willie Wood whoever was there you know I want to see a a low punch cut that takes off at that telephone pole off in the distance and cuts to this one I want to see a high draw I want to see you try to hit that pole down there you know one after another everybody is just stupified at how good he’s hitting shots so Mark and I fall in in the back and Mark smoking a cigarette at the time we’re sitting there watching and everybody’s got a shot calling a shot finally he’s gone through everybody and he points to Brooks and uh he says what do you want to see Mark and uh Mark takes a long drag of his cigarette I want to see you make a five-footer [Laughter] [Music] brand shamb B has made it where he’s made it in part because of his golf talent but really because he has thought about the swing and what it takes to be successful in the game in a totally original way this Us open at Pinehurst is going to be especially exciting because we’re going to see brandle in another capacity which is not just analyzing swings not just analyzing statistics but analyzing the character of the person what it takes to win a US Open so we’re thrilled to have him on the show we got lucky with Brandon shamble because he was coming to Philadelphia and there’s a lot of Us open history in Greater Philadelphia so we had the idea that we’ll show him around there’s a cemetery about 2 miles from my house called Ivy Hill Cemetery and buried there is uh the great boxer Jo Frasier the Great player Bill Tien and the great golfer probably the most obscure of the three names I’m about to mention Willie Anderson that’s pretty cool look at [Music] that 1910 look at that if you talk to the ordinary golfer about Willie Anderson it’s a head scratcher they never heard of the guy it’s understandable he he was at the prime of this game in 1910 but to brandle shamble this guy is alive he won four us opens he was uh born in North Barrack Scotland like a lot of the great golfers of that arir he was part of that first wave of Scots that came to the United States and they literally brought golf with them to the United States 31 years 4 days open National Champion 1 03 0405 you know he obviously he didn’t go back to the open he never played the open right never played the Open Championship no he didn’t never played it never played the PGA no he definitely didn’t play the Masters PGA didn’t start till 1916 so he died six years before that definitely didn’t play the Masters right there was only one major for him to play in yeah well he would say two well the Western yeah which he won what four times right yes yeah four times so he gets no credit for this nor does Walter Hagen he really won eight Majors he won eight maj and Walter Hagen really won 15 yeah yeah he gives no credit for it they took him away yeah but what would be your definition of the major a chance to grab a little piece of immortality that’ll do it week in and week out guys play for money but Majors they play for immortality you know to be remembered a 100 years from now we’re sitting here talking about Willie Henderson because he won the US Open if he had won the you know Saratoga open uh three years in a row we wouldn’t be standing here you know the game means so much to you and here we are standing nobody knows this name Willie Anderson anymore but we do you do and we’re looking at North barck like North Barrack man that’s Golf and this guy he’s got the for right here in his Tombstone he’s got four opens listed in ‘ 09 Anderson took a job as the head pro of the Philadelphia Cricket Club and the reason he wanted to do was because he wanted to get to know the golf course better the St Martin’s course that we talked about earlier what do you think it says about him that he wanted to come back and play that 10 open it’s a testament I think to just uh how golf gets in your blood and you’re you just you can’t get away from it you know the thrill of competition it never dies in you his drive to compete in 1910 at 31 years of age it’s it’s it’s cool but it’s nothing new I mean everybody that plays this game at a high level thinks that they’ve got one more good week in them you know one more one more win uh you know it ALS says a lot about what the US Open meant you know I mean again back then that’s that’s before the PGA that’s before the Masters uh obviously it’s not easy to go over and play in the Open Championship then so that was it it was his it meant everything and he was you know by all accounts the best player in the world you know the first thing that comes to mind is I wonder what he swung like what did it look like you know we’ve got good records of Harry vardan swing people tell you what he swung like people even tell you what Bernard Darwin swung like uhhuh but for a guy who won four us opens there’s not that much written about [Music] him I think the reason golf traditionalists love the US Open is because it’s loaded with emotion under the surface but above the surface that we can see you’ve got to lock down that emotion here are the three that absolutely come to mind Jack Nicholas Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan have been so successful in US opens and other great Mega talents like zie bio steros and Phil Mickelson have not when I qualified for the US Open I think I qualified for a half dozen of them I always had two thoughts pun qualifying you know I was like you know really cool I’d get back to the room you know and I’d think tremendous sense of accomplishment but immediately I I would also have a tremendous sense of of uh trepidation you know it’s like you know you go there and you’re a little off your game and you can look like a complete utter fool in 1986 brandle was just really starting this tour career and Raymond Floyd was a magnificently large figure in the game because he was tough because he was in your face he wasn’t scared of Nicholas or trino or anybody else but he hadn’t won the one that meant the most of the US Open and in ‘ 86 he did win the US Open and and he cried he didn’t cry like a baby but he cried and it was like wow I didn’t know he had that in him and you could just see how much the event meant to him what does that mean to you the fact that Raymond cried at shinik Hills it was a lifelong pursuit of his you know that was that was his 22nd US Open if I remember correctly and uh he had played with Venturi in 64 so he had seen you know um what it meant to Kin Venturi how Ken wasn’t going to stop even though he was been told you know to stop playing he was risking his life to be out there playing and he saw you know how much it meant to him and then he had this LoveHate relationship Raymond did with the US Open as most people do you know you get there and it’s it’s unlike any other setup you know the PGA Tour they run tournaments week in and week out they set it up to get players around uh and the USGA is like no no they’re not setting it up to get players around they’re setting it up to give players most thorough test so players just hated the setups as Raymond did but I think there’s a a reverence uh a respect for US Open Champions uh that is I think you know consistent with the difficulty of those golf courses you know I mean that the harder they are it’s like you’ve gone through the gauntlet and you’re the one that didn’t blink um but that’s a great story you know a tournament that can make uh Gods cry yeah you know yeah and tough Gods I mean tough the toughest FL Curtis won two straight won 88 right at the Country Club and then he won 89 at Rochester right and then he played well at M for about 60 holes or maybe more than that yeah and then he didn’t win of course H won in a playoff over McDonald but then have you heard this part driving back to Herz by the way just as a starting point driving back to Herz in other words no courtesy cars just driving back to hers he felt everything washing out of him like all that pressure you win three four five % of the time you’re in the Hall of Fame so you know Curtis would have spent so much energy prepping for that every every US Open but in particular the third one with a chance to tie Willie Anderson he would have given it everything he had he probably I bet you from the time he won his second one until the time he finished playing in the in at Madina there probably wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think about the possibility of winning three in a row impossible yeah I mean I bet didn’t and all of his energy everything went into it I mean it just went in a major again it gives you a permanence in the game forever a piece of immortality but two in a row put him in a you know a very very small Club three in a world would have put you in the club of only one other player so it was neat to have brandall talk about Willie Anderson almost like the guy you know just died a couple years ago that’s how real Willie Anderson was to brandle and then from the grapeyard we went to Marian golf club which is one of the most historic courses not just in Philadelphia anywhere in in the world who did you say Kobe Bryant went to high school right here Kobe Bryant went to high school right there yeah he went right here and as a matter of fact one of my first assignments for sports illuster was caring Kobe when high school kid you had to cover him when he was high school I covered him I went to the gymnasium where he said I’m taking my talents in the NBA this is should be called us Phil’s nem we’re going to go right there uh brandle as a broadcaster and as a person is a pathological truth teller in 2013 Phil Mickelson already had five runnerup finishes in US opens and standing on 13 this tiny little 110 yard par three all he’s got to do is hit something on the green and either make or not make the putt if he makes the two great he’s right there with Justin Rose and everybody else who’s in the mix you know with that being flighted down I think that’s that’s how it’s going to play and Phil being Phil he overthought it yes he does long as he doesn’t override it so he’s going to hood the wedge and smoke it and it just took off he hooded the slightly lofter more lofted wedge the more lofted wedge he hooded it for whatever reason the pin was much further right than that uh if I’m not mistaken what what is that moment of Phil fussing with all all those different wedges what does it say to you about Phil oh you know I think it goes to what we’re talking about earlier about Willie Anderson when you was you were asking me the question about why he would devote so much time and energy and to trying to win the 1910 US Open it’s like the things that make you great you just you can’t turn those off and with Phil for all the criticism he gets about flushing that wedge over the back of this green I mean he won 45 times in six major championships so to what credit do you give his curiosity and the incessant nature to know everything that you need to know about this game is given to those 45 wins in six major Champion so if he loses one along the way you know I would say it’s a net huge positive um you know the same thing you could say about Arnold blowing a seven shot lead in the 66 US Open you could say gave birth to the 60 US Open Victory where he came charging from behind you know what what would you rather have you know um the the wonderful history of the the charging Victory and The Colossal defeat I mean those are That’s What sport’s all about you know giving it your all and uh data be damned you know this era no question of better athletes no question better golf but is it more exciting golf because you know everybody has access to to the same information the same uh dispersion rates you know everybody’s a card counter now they they they know where they should hit it less chances taken less risk taken uh it’s less about winning because world ranking points have currency and open doors FedEx Cup points have currency and open doors it used to just be victories had currency and open doors but that’s not the case anymore so finishing second still opens doors more than it used to because you get world ranking points and FedEx cut points um so there’s less sense of bravado in the game you know uh and and you know everybody’s more or less being coached to the middle I’m not criticizing it I understand it but I think people pay to see stop what they’re doing to watch people who dare to be different and uh that’s what Phil was um you know look I have my criticisms of Phil but I’ll I’ll never criticize his golf or him taking risks or him trying to outsmart the game as much as people want to criticize him for thinking he knows it all I I always found him to be very fascinating taking a driver out of play you know famously Ben Hogan took an eight iron out of place somewhere because there were no eight iron shots on a golf course now tell me something more arrogant than that that you think there are no eight iron shots on a golf course that you’re going to hit it in the same spot every day that that some wind you hadn’t thought of is going to blow in your face and you’re going to have an Adar I mean what is more arrogant than that right uh but as it relates to Ben people lot it and as it relates to Michelson they they criticize it like no you know I I I I love that side of feel that Curiosity uh how about that moment brandle when fuss with Mike Davis when he was walking off the par 3 to what what did you think at the time golfers professional golfers uh fussing with the USGA Executives is nothing new and not original to fill they’ve all had a go at them uh you know and the better you are the more vocal you are the more opinionated you are the more weight you carry and you can you imagine being in charge of uh Wingfoot in 1974 which led to I think Sandy Tatum’s best ever line was we’re not trying to embarrass the best players in the world we’re simply trying to identify them I mean to me that’s what the USGA is renowned for and and and I would say should be applauded for the ultimate thinkt um a cauldron of anxieties that’s what the US Open in my book is and and should always be uh because the other the other Majors all have their own philosophy and so Phil fussing with it again I mean you can roll your eyes at Phil doing that but that’s not unique to Phil uh every single professional golfer maybe with the exception of Nicholas who didn’t find fault with the US opens would have probably had a go at a there’s always this antagonistic relationship between the USGA Executives and PGA Tour players because it’s like well who are you guys to tell us one week of the year how fast to play and have a golf course that’s set up to expose our weaknesses is we’re all heroes and it’s like no not really let’s see who amongst you can handle the most intimidation and have the most control over your golf shots that’s what I loved about the USGA and I loved about the US Open and then our third uh US Open tour stop was Philadelphia Country Club which people wouldn’t necessarily associate with the US Open I think it’s only held one US Open that was in 1939 when uh Byron Nelson fell a Texans to brandle uh won his loan US Open we were lucky to have a great host there a gentleman named care and he knew all the shots that Byron Nelson hit down the stretch including uh a one AR he hold in the playoff for a two oh look I’m not alone yeah and taking a picture or wanting to hit a shot this is it look at that hold of one iron leading to his US Open Victory 1939 beautiful piece spectacular look at this elevation change you know what it looks like almost looks like the country club when you stand right here it does kind of does it isn’t it odd though I mean when you look at the how this is tied to the demise of Sam’s isn’t it funny how Sam and Phil both had huge debacles on the 18th hole to keep them from rning US Open I mean Phil at Wingfoot and Sam here brandle talks about sne swing all the time it was Perfection it was a little different it was a little shut a little closed in in The Stance but for rhythm and for strength and repeatability it was Perfection so just the idea that Sneed had this one opportunity as a young man to win a US Open and couldn’t get it done uh made a triple bogey on an easy par five you don’t know then that it’s going to haunt him for the rest of his life cuz you think you have all these other chances but he didn’t and so all these years later looking back at it it’s almost heartbreaking and it’s almost beautiful at the same time I looked it up the other day if you gave Sam’s which is a huge concession but if he gave Sam a 69 in the final round of every US Open he played how many do you think he would have won four three five and and he would have tied into three others so he had three in playoffs he’ been in a playoff in three and he would won five right out right so he’s shot a lot of 73s 74s 81 once they were not his Forte I Arnold would be about the same what is it what is it about about this game that we’re here where sne didn’t win best chance to win he was open made an eight didn’t win it we’re still on the same golf course you knew Sneed you spend time with Sneed what is how how many magical properties could one game have that would let all this sort of be in the mix at the same time oh I think that’s where golf is blessed though um because people know the game so well you know unlike other sports you you watch them to be entertained you don’t watch them because you’re trying to get better yourself nobody’s going to go out and try to throw the football like Tom Brady you know or or swing a bat like Mike Trout but you watch golf and you think I wonder if that’ll work on I wonder if I can do that you know so we we watch it not just to be entertained we watch it to get better and then along the way you fall in love with the lore and the history of golf courses and architecture and then you travel and you meet friends and the whole thing is just like this Rich tapestry that I think is you know the greatest game ever uh so we all know the stories of old Tom and Allan Robertson getting in a fight we know the story of uh Bobby Jones discovering his putting stroke in the locker room but uh austa Country Club you know we just those are part of the you know you got to have something to talk about when you’re in the the the sitting on the 19th hole and uh if you don’t know it somebody else does and he doesn’t know it somebody else does does and right we all pass these stories on it’s like just part of the charm of the game isn’t it but the be here is pretty pretty cool you know it’s a rich part of the history of the game right here you know if not for you know if they had a scoreboard imagine if they had a scorpion right Sam right entirely different you know they had a big board right there it’s like all you have to do is par this part five you know the greatest player ever maybe he’s in the he’s in the conversation uh all you got to do is power power five how much how much simpler does it get than that sleep he could do he makes triple bogey doesn’t even doesn’t even make the playoff it’s pretty cool you know we we we celebrate the the heroics but we also we also talk about do we we don’t stop talking about Arnold Palmer losing a seven shot lead with nine holes to go do we we don’t stop talking about TC Chin’s double chip in the US Open was 1985 you don’t stop talking about those things uh it’s a big part of the game what’s this little US Open warm up in like for you you know Willie Anderson Maran now here I’m lucky I I get up every single morning I’m just um I’m as excited to to dig in and and do the work that I do as I was to hit golf balls so when I get to do things like this it’s again this is the type of stuff where you’re just like I got to be this is you know I got to be so lucky you know that I’ve that I’ve found a game that I love and found a way to make a living at it long long after I could play it at at any high level so it’s a treat it’s a joy it’s a gift you know every day to get up and have some purpose that keeps you going all day it’s a gift you know