At the British Open, a Scotsman named Ivor Robson became one of the most distinctive and respected voices in golf by saying little. Called the starter, he stood at a lectern near the first tee in each round of that major league, where his job was simple: introduce each player.
“On the tee, from the USA, Jack Nicklaus,” he said in his slightly tall, singing brogue.
Or, “On the tee, from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy.”
Once at his post around 6:30 a.m., he didn’t leave until every golfer had finished — a total of 156 in each of the first two rounds. He did not eat or drink anything before taking his seat or for the next nine or 10 hours.
Nor would he take a bathroom break, at a “comfort station,” even if he had time between intakes.
“No entry,” it said, “no exit.”
He explained his restraint to Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly in 1999: “I don’t want cups of water spilled. I don’t want food around. I don’t have time to justify myself. There is no time!”
When he finished the day and returned to his hotel, he called room service for the only meal of the day.
Mr Robson, who retired from the original job in 2015, died on October 15. The R&A, which organizes the British Open, announced the death but did not say the cause or where he died. He was 83 years old and lived in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
Mr Robson, who was born in England in 1940, was a golfer himself, having played on the Scottish professional tour in the 1960s and 1970s and worked as a club professional in Scotland.
He began his four-decade run in the Open Championship, as the tournament is officially known, in 1975 in Carnoustie, Scotland, at the invitation of the golf company that hired the tournament’s promoters. He went on to play the role at other links courses where the Open is played, such as St. Andrews, Turnberry, Royal Birkdale and Muirfield.
“No one told me how to do it,” he told golf website Bunkered this year. “I just had to make it myself when I started in 1975. ‘What am I doing here?’ Just keep it simple, where they’re from, the player’s name and let them go.”
Mr. Robson’s job was similar to that of public address announcers at baseball games. But they operate from protected press boxes. Mr Robson braved heat, cold and rain while always dressed formally in his blazer and tie. (A sought-after announcer for 41 years, he also headlined other golf events, including the DP World Tour in Europe.)
“That voice — that smile in his eyes and that sparkle in his voice — was unmistakable,” Mike Tirico, the NBC sports anchor who anchored ESPN and ABC’s British Open coverage, said in a telephone interview. interview. “If you mentioned his name to a player, he would mimic how he pronounced his names, with his inflections.”
Mr Robson often chatted with the players before they made their turns and saw them under pressure, especially when they started their final round on Sunday.
“You can see the tension,” he said in a video interview with Golfing World magazine in 2019. “They’re not listening to you. They’re talking to you, but you know they’re not really sure what to say. The club’s head shakes as they address the ball.”
His last British Open, in 2015 at St Andrews, was also the final for Tom Watson, who had won the tournament five times. “He gave me an 18th green flag, which had a message,” Mr. Robson told Today’s Golfer magazine in 2022. “We’ve come this long way together. All the best in your retirement. Tom Watson”.
After Mr. Robson’s death, Tiger Woods wrote to X, formerly known as Twitter, “Thank you Ivor for making every Open start to me so memorable.” Woods won three British Open titles.
Mr. Robson’s survivors include his wife, Lesley; His daughter, Julia. and his son Philip.
When R&D chose Mr Robson’s replacement, they chose two men: David Lancaster, to do most of the work, and a back-up, Matt Corker, to fill in when Mr Lancaster took a break or two .
“I think the vocal chords need to be calmed down by drinking water at some point,” Mr. Lancaster told The New York Times in 2016. “Thankfully, R&D understood.”
