Jim Nantz-twenty Years Later, Remembering Payne

AS A BROADCASTER, you’re sometimes asked to report on friends, colleagues or people you’re close to and present the story with a distant air.

That’s a requisite of the job—be objective, always, regardless of the subject matter. I’m not going to lie, it’s not always easy. I struggle to hide my feelings. That was never more the case than a day that is 20 years gone but indelible in my memory.

On Oct. 25, 1999, I was in a restaurant in Westport, Conn., having lunch when a waiter pointed to the TV above the bar. “What a terrible tragedy this is. That plane is going to crash with a famous pro golfer on board.” We immediately riveted our eyes to the ongoing coverage of a small jet that was flying off course, with the news anchor speculating that all onboard were unconscious.

Seconds later, I received a call from a producer friend of mine at CBS News. My contact had a mole inside the ABC newsroom who told him that one of the plane’s occupants was possibly Tiger Woods. They just needed to get it confirmed. CBS didn’t want to get beat on the story, so I reached out to a friend of mine at IMG, which represented Tiger at the time. He assured me that Tiger was not on the plane.