Q&A: ‘It’s perfect’ says Mike Tirico of U.S. Senior Women’s Open venue

For more than 25 years, Mike Tirico and his family have called Ann Arbor, Michigan, home. Here at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, the brilliant and ubiquitous broadcaster has a different title: Honorary Chair.

On Tuesday night, Tirico, 59, will deliver opening remarks at the Big House, the famed University of Michigan stadium that sits 4 miles from Barton Hills Country Club, a Donald Ross design and Tirico’s home club for more than two decades.

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Golfweek caught up with NBC’s Tirico – who couldn’t go near the clubhouse area without getting stopped – to chat about the upcoming event, which features 120 players, including LPGA legends Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Hollis Stacy. Suzy Green-Roebuck, a former LPGA player and member of Barton Hills, will hit the first tee shot.

What follows are excerpts from the conversation: 

I think the hole I enjoy the most is the 15th. Because the back nine is the hills of Barton Hills, I like to say, and the 15th is a really good hole with a relatively comfortable tee shot, but you need a good placement, and the second shot is over a little bit of a dip, and you have a false front to the green. Can’t be long, can’t be right, can’t be left, and one of the trickier greens to putt. It’s just a really pretty hole, too. Challenging and pretty. 

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As with many Ross courses, the closer you get to the hole, the tougher it might get, if you’re in the wrong spot, especially. It’s really one of those courses you can play every day and not get sick of it. Not a ton of hazards sitting out there, so you’re not gonna put up a stupid high number because you’re hitting it left and right. But you’ll look and go, ‘Wow, this is a little bit tougher than I thought it should be.’ It’s perfect for this event, because everything’s in front of you. It’s not tricked up. The greens get fast and the scores get high, when they do. I think it just fits this type of event from the size of it, and where these players are at this point in their careers. 

I think, when you walk in the front, and you see the USGA posters from the earlier events – Grace Park, won the Women’s Am in ’98 and the Mid-Am, a decade later – it’s just nice to be a course of our size, and to host three different USGA events. It’s just really neat, and I think the return to being able to do that has been exciting. And also, because Suzy Green-Roebuck is such a prominent member, her and her husband, Mike, and their family. Everybody knows the Roebies, as we call them. And just to know Suzy has played in this event, really, since its inception, for the most part, and had this event on our radar. I don’t think, without Suzy’s playing in the event, it would have been something that the club would have been behind having this event here. So I think there’s a little excitement about that as well. And then, when you see the Hall of Famers who were in the field, you know, the past champions, you see these boards, you see the red, white, blue, USGA flags. You can’t help but be proud that your course is hosting a national championship.

My wife grew up and her family still lives about 45 minutes from here. So for me, priority one is to find someplace I can travel from with work, and the Detroit airport is only 35 minutes from here and you can get everywhere from there.

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So, family, satisfied the work issue, and we have loved living here. I grew up in the Northeast, grew up a New Yorker, and I consider myself a Midwesterner now. I absolutely am full-in Michiganian, Michigander, take your pick.

I was just in New York visiting family, my family last week, and I still have that gear where you cut me off in the car, and I’m ready to dodge, and battle New York City traffic. So I still have that in me. But I do like this pace of life. This pace of life is much more sustainable.

We’re two weeks away from the NFL season opener, and then it’s 20 straight weeks of Sunday Night Football. And then on top of that, you mix in the NBA starts in October. Our busy season gets rolling really right about now. So this is my last week of summer, if you will, before diving headlong into all the football and basketball all the way through til May, really, til after the Kentucky Derby, to Memorial Day.

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I still try to walk and carry the bag anytime we get to play, whether it’s up in Northern Michigan or here. It’s just such a fun game to share with family. Our daughter played high school golf a few miles from here. She made the state tournament her senior year. It’s the most nervous I’ve been. People say, ‘Hey, you’re calling the Super Bowl, you’re nervous.’ That wasn’t nerve-wracking to me. Nerve-wracking was walking with my daughter as she was playing in the state tournament. 

We are in a good Donald Ross belt of golf courses here. Franklin Hills, Oakland Hills, Barton Hills. There’s a theme. You know, the University of Michigan Course is an Alister MacKenzie. It is right across from the Big House. It always bothered me when I first moved here that they parked cars for football games on this Alistair Mackenzie Golf Course. They’ve treated that really well over the last several years, and that course is still in great shape. … From the golf course, you can see the big scoreboard from the stadium.

The last women’s golf event [I worked], other than the Augusta National Women’s Amateur that I do every year, was the ANA Inspiration when [Lexi] got the four-stroke penalty. That still was one of the worst days ever for me. I was so beside myself. 

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I saw Juli here, and it was like a reunion with Juli. I’ve certainly done events Annika has won. We didn’t do the event where she shot 59 in Phoenix, but the next week was Dinah, still, at that point. I remember sitting down interviewing her, and I still have the scorecard. You know, the beautiful calligraphy that was used for scores, the handwriting on the board, we had that same person do another one so we could use it as the background for the interview. I had Annika sign it, and I have it in my memorabilia in my office. 

Beth Ann Nichols is a Golfweek senior writer who covers the LPGA and women’s golf.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Q&A: ‘It’s perfect’ says Mike Tirico of U.S. Senior Women’s Open venue