If Faldo and Tilghman were feeling the pressure up in the broadcast tower, it was hard to tell. The interior of the tower was a rich green, and it was as intimate as the backseat of a VW bug. Faldo chugged Red Bull at every opportunity, and his dapper on-camera look was compromised somewhat by the dusty tennis shoes and sockless ankles that could be spied under his desk, invisible to viewers at home.
In 2006 Faldo became a star at ABC with his irreverent humor, and he spent most commercial breaks teasing Tilghman like an older brother, which she is used to, having grown up as the only girl in a family of five kids.
To foster their chemistry, they had spent the previous months hanging out around Orlando, sitting courtside at a Magic game and having cookouts at Faldo's home with other Golf Channel staffers.
In Hawaii, Kelly and Nick went hiking together, and she tried to teach him to surf. ("A 6'3" Englishman on a surfboard is not a pretty sight," she reports.)
An enthusiastic triathlete, Tilghman had recently introduced Faldo to a new exercise to tone his abs, and this came up during one of the Mercedes's commercial breaks.
"Can you last 15 minutes?" she asked him.
"That's not a proper thing to say to a fellow," Faldo replied, smirking.
Tilghman didn't get his drift. "That's the first one that's gone over her head," Faldo said to no one in particular.
Perking up, Tilghman said, "Is this our first gender issue?"
He whispered in her ear what he was talking about.
Tilghman flushed a bit and said, "Oh, jeez."
Faldo loosed a wicked cackle, and then they were back on the air. Shortly after the telecast ended, the same employees crammed into the same grungy trailer in which they had gathered 10 hours earlier. It was supposed to be a postmortem on the telecast, but it felt more like a party, with the mood bordering on giddiness. (A freelancer with many years in the business would later say, "I have never seen a bunch of TV people so elated in my life.")
Manougian commanded the floor.
"I want all of you to know how proud I am of you," said the CEO, his voice filled with emotion. "A lot of people have been doubting Golf Channel, but I always believed in my heart we could pull this off."
He shared the news that Finchem had called mid-telecast to rave about the coverage.
The party continued down the hill at the Ritz-Carlton, where the talent and the top execs gathered, and four bottles of bubbly were popped. After a series of saccharine toasts, the lounge cleared out in a matter of minutes.
"There's no time to party," said Manougian. "We have another show to do tomorrow."
){kind=link}