DP Yes. When Tiger’s firing on all cylinders,
he sees shots that other players wouldn’t
even dream of looking for. It’s one of those
things where you just go, “Oh, my God.”
POST Speaking of NBC, what’s the best part of
working with Johnny Miller and the rest
of the guys on their golf broadcast team?
DP We’re a very dysfunctional family, and I
think everybody would tell you that. But for
the most part we actually like hanging out
together. It’s a bit of a sorority-fraternity
type thing with the philosophy of work
hard, play hard. And we have a really good
time with what we do.
POST Was it difficult getting accepted into the
sorority-fraternity as the the only woman
on that team?
DP I think if I had been high maintenance, it
might have been because everybody really
fends for themselves while looking out for
everybody else, too. They’ve been like a
band of big brothers, honestly. I never had
an older brother or a younger brother so
in many ways it has been a completion of
my family experience.
DP He makes you better because he will
acknowledge when you come up with
something that he didn’t think about or
you just got a factoid that he didn’t have
or hadn’t come up with yet. So if you can
say something that you know you’re correct on, he will acknowledge it. But he’s
the one that has the microphone open
throughout the entire show. His microphone is never shut down. So if you’re
gonna say it, you better be right because
he can always come back with the opposite. He does keep everybody on their toes.
POST If you were the boss of all things golf and
you could change one thing, what would it
be?
DP In light of what happened in the last year
with all of these rules things, I would mandate that my players go to rules schools
– especially in the years that the R&A and
USGA make changes with the rule book
– and they attend a one-day session and
maybe a television-driven rules seminar. It
would put a lot of the garbage to rest and I
think it would free up the players. I think it
would speed up pace of play because the
common-sense, everyday rulings wouldn’t
involve bringing a rules official in. And it
would make my players more self-reliant.
And I think one day would really help that. A
For all her Solheim Cup success, Pepper (second
from left) doubts she will ever be named a captain.
