What Have We Done?

It was a cultural phenomenon that launched the careers of professionals like Tony Finau, Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, Blair O’Neal, Matt Every and Ryann O’Toole. At the time, it was the most successful show in Golf Channel history that wasn’t a live tournament. It was the type of personality-driven drama that defined the height of reality television, uniquely built around both serious and silly golf competitions. It made everyone watching want to see if they could hit a stinger 4-iron through a pane of glass.

A decade after Big Break aired its 23rd and final season, in 2015, the show remains wedged into the firmament of golf nostalgia. Former President Barack Obama once called it his “guilty pleasure,” and we get it. So let’s take a trip down memory lane, allowing some of the principals who were there to tell the story of the greatest “golf” show ever.

Editor’s note: Conversations have been lightly edited for clarity. All photos courtesy of Golf Channel.

Jay Kossoff (executive producer for all 23 seasons): It was 2002, and the reality craze was just in full tilt. Survivor had launched a couple years before, Amazing Race a year or so after that. Reality competitions were hot. 

So we went to Amelia Island—which ended up hosting a Big Break [season] well after that—with a big group from Golf Channel, and it was a whole company off-site, with salespeople and production people and creatives and marketing and everybody. We were there for two or three days, and one of the initiatives in the breakout sessions was, “What could we do for golf that follows along with this reality competition craze?” There are probably five or six of us in this group. And one of the producers had this idea for an instructional show that would be reality based, with top-name instructors coaching players, and they stayed in if they got better and got eliminated if they didn’t. We noodled over that and it became clear pretty quickly that instruction was probably not the way to go. We really wanted good golfers—players who had ability and, for whatever reason, just hadn’t had a real opportunity to make it on Tour. There are some damn good golfers out there who just really need a chance. 

At this point, I was the vice president of original productions for Golf Channel, and I brought in my producing partner, Paul Schlegel—he and I are the only two people who were involved in all 23 seasons—and we started brainstorming. We developed this challenge-based concept, built to peel out the best golfer in the group. Our only baseline was that no matter what challenge we created, it had to have some relevance to an actual golf shot. So if it’s breaking glass, that’s the knockdown shot. If it’s hitting something over a wall, that’s a flop shot. With that, we wanted people who could hit them, because the worst thing would be to create all these challenges and then the golfers can’t actually do them, right? 

That was how the show was born. I brought the idea to the execs, and they bit. They said, “Let’s do it. Let’s try it.” And we just started rolling from there.

The original title was Sudden Death, which I still love. It made a lot of sense because this was all about elimination. Everything came down to a shot, from the first challenge to the last, and at any time, you could be eliminated. But Season 1 launched in October 2003, and with everything happening [with the war] in Iraq, it became clear that the title couldn’t work. It ended up being just a bunch of people sitting around the table throwing out golf words, and the word “break” was thrown on the table, and “big break” was said somewhere by someone, and it stuck.

Kip Henley (pro golfer from Tennessee, winner of Big Break II, current professional caddie): Big Break [Season 1] came on, and I didn’t pay any attention to that. But, about halfway through it, someone said, “Hey, Kip, you need to watch this.” I turned it on and just, like, the whole country that was involved with it just went crazy. It was incredible. I thought, “Oh, wow, this is a neat show.” I couldn’t wait to turn it on each week. 

Dan Higgins (head of Golf Channel public relations for Seasons 1–6): I was trying to spread the word about the series and get some attention in the media world. So I actually took several contestants [from Season 1] to Fox Sports in Los Angeles for a guest appearance on The Best Damn Sports Show Period, with [the actor] Tom Arnold. We were driving down Santa Monica Boulevard, and one of the contestants shouts, “Hey, there’s Freddie Couples!” Sure enough, Couples was putting shopping bags and crap into the trunk of his car parked on the side of the road. They yelled out the window, “Hey, Freddie!” And he looked around, and he went, “Oh, the Big Break guys!” They just went berserk. I was driving the car, did a U-turn, came around, parked, and then they got to spend some time with [Couples]. So that was a big highlight for them, and it was pretty cool for me, too.

Justin Peters was one of the contestants with us. [Peters would later win the first season. —Ed.] I told the guys to bring a club, and he brought his driver. These guys are struggling, right? They’re playing on mini-tours, whatever, trying to make it happen. So they had something for the guys to hit into on the set. And Tom Arnold is just a rambunctious, big personality, and [he said], “Let me try that!” So he grabbed Justin’s driver and hit the ball, and the head flew off his driver. You could see Justin just turn ghostly white. This was his livelihood crashing down, because he probably didn’t have money to go replace it or get it fixed. It was this big, hairy deal. We can look back at it now and laugh, but then it was a hugely traumatic experience for him. We ended up having to go back to the producers and go, “Listen, this guy can’t afford to replace his driver.” Fortunately, they replaced it for him, so he was all good.

Eugene Smith (contestant on Season 11, current caddie at Seminole and National Golf Links of America): The first [season’s] winner got an exemption into a Canadian Tour event, and I played in some of those events that Justin Peters played in. He’s a good dude, good player. I think he’s still chasing it. He’s been playing for a long time. It goes to show how tough it is. 

Henley: Big Break was such an explosion [in popularity] that the Season 2 winner got four starts on the Nationwide Tour [now the Korn Ferry Tour]. I wanted to be on the show, but I thought they’d never choose me because I had already played in 20 Nationwide events over the years. The day before the deadline, my wife came to me and said, “I want you to audition.” I kidded, “I want you to leave me alone, so if you shut up, I’ll do it.” 

During the [first questionnaire of the audition process], some funny stuff spilled out. I remember one question was, “What is a perfect day?” I remember putting on there, “Wake up, do it, play 18 holes, do it, play 18 more holes, do it, then go to sleep.” That was my answer to that question. I can’t remember much else about it. But it wasn’t long after that when I got a message: “Hey, we want you to try out for the show.”

By this time, I was back teaching, making pennies. They told me to be in Myrtle Beach on this day, and we’re going to do an interview. So I packed my girls up in my van, and we headed out. I remember that day driving up, getting out of the van and looking at that range, and there’s 200 of the most good-looking golf swings—beautiful, handsome fellas, 20 to 25 years old, and just knocking balls out there. And I thought, “Good Lord, was this a waste of time.”

I was 44, so I was the old, overweight club pro. But I had bleached-out blond hair at the time, and I had a beautiful wife and two kids beside me. No one else had that. So I hit 10 shots in front of a couple of people, then went over and did an interview that lasted three minutes on camera. Then we got in the van and we drove to our hotel. There was no way they were picking me. Then, about a month later, I got a call, and somebody said, “Hey, Kip, you’ve been chosen as one of the finalists for Big Break II.” They said they were going to send a film crew to Crossville, Tennessee, to interview me. I thought that was a good sign [because] you can’t get to Crossville from anywhere. Then I got a phone call, with a film crew there and everything, that I had been chosen as a contestant. It was really an amazing, special day. We were so pumped up and excited.

Higgins: Kip was hilarious. He always used to call me “Dan, Dan, the Pencil Man,” because I was always keeping notes in my little reporter’s notebook. He was a funny dude. And it was fun to see those guys kind of go out and Kip trying to get under [fellow Season 2 contestant] Don [Donatello’s] skin. 

Henley: Donatello is one of my dear friends in life and will always be. But he was the “Mouth From the South.” He clearly made our season. He was the reason our show was immensely popular, because people hated him so bad. He thought everybody loved him, but he was the villain. He was such a jerk that he made me look like a great guy. That’s how big of a jerk he was. It was great to have him on the show.

Kossoff: Don was our first real character in Big Break. He was just so emotional, and it meant so much to him. He’d be shaking before he hit shots, because he was just so, so intense—with everything. 

Henley: It got down to me and Donatello for the last show. And I knew it was going to be all crazy because of him running them jaws at me. It was 18-hole match play, and I can remember the greens being slow and shitty and me putting like crap. I can remember the last hole, dead even, and I hit it out of a bunker, had about an 8-footer, and Donatello had, like, a 3-footer, maybe a 4-footer, but a real butt-squeezer. That was one of the few putts I made that day. I buried that one. And I remember standing there watching him line this thing up, and something came over me to say, “Pick it up.” I don’t know why I did it, because there was a hell of a chance he was going to gank that. But I gave him that putt, and that went over great for the show, and it made me look like a decent guy. And I don’t know why I did it. It was probably a dumb move.

Then we’re going to a sudden victory. And the first hole, I leave it hanging on the lip from, like, 15 or 20 feet. I mean, if a butterfly lands on it, it goes in. So we go to the next hole—it’s a par 5, and I bombed it, 100 yards past Donatello. Pin is back right, he knocks it on the front of the green with a wood, and I hit a 5-iron, one of the most beautiful shots I hit in my life, right back there next to the hole. I had about a 15-footer for eagle. He’s got an almost impossible putt over the slope. He putts it up there and didn’t even get it inside of mine. He putted for birdie before I even putted, and he missed it. I dragged it down there 6 inches or whatever and beat him. 

And here’s one of the funny things that I still tell people: We’re exhausted. I love Donatello. After 10 days of knocking heads with him, I’ve won the thing, and he is just heartbroken. But it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to my golf life. I go to embrace him and hug him, and he whispers in my ear, “This. Ruins. My. Life.” So much for me running around the green like Hale Irwin, high-fiving myself and jumping up for joy. I felt like dog shit. I said, “Dang, bud, it’s just a golf tournament.” But I had won four starts on the Nationwide [Tour], $10,000, a brand-new car—and he got a bozo wave and sent home. He got nothing. So it was devastating to Don Donatello. And it would have been devastating to me if I’d gone that far and got zero.

Kossoff: In all 23 seasons, I never heard an account of [the name of the winner] getting out early. Yes, there was this big NDA. Like any legal NDA, it said something like, “We’ll take all your money, we’ll take your firstborn, we’ll take everything that you have.” But I framed it to the players that they would have more fun if they didn’t tell anyone. That proved really true, and I think it struck a chord. They had watch parties with their friends and families. A lot of them were out on mini-tours, so they’d huddle in hotel rooms and watch that night’s episode. They were on board with people not knowing. It was more fun.

Blair O’Neal (runner-up in Season 11, winner of Season 14, current Golf Channel TV personality): You got the email with the contract you have to sign. And it was crazy—I’m signing this contract that [says that] if we tell anyone, or if it gets out, then they can sue you for a million dollars. That’s wild at that point. You can’t even fathom that. But friends and family, we had viewing parties for every single show. The first season that I was on, I knew that I wasn’t the winner at the end, but it was looking like I was going to win it. I did not tell a soul. I didn’t tell my family, I didn’t tell my boyfriend, I didn’t tell anyone. We were all gathered around the TV, watching it, and it hit me hard, having to feel the emotions of not winning for a second time. It was almost worse because [now] everyone [else] knew about it too. But then I just had to get off the sad train, let go of those feelings and move on with my life, because I felt like I had done a very good job and it just didn’t work out for me. And at that point, I was still creating a name for myself, and people knew me from the show, and I was getting more opportunities, getting exemptions to some tournaments. Things were already on the up-and-up. 

But the second time around, the same thing: I did not tell anybody. We watched the show, and it was so good to not tell anybody. For me, finally, [on] the last show, I won, and all my friends and family are there too. And I [said], “This one was so much better!”

Higgins: [O’Neal’s story] is why reality TV is so popular and people keep doing it and doing it.

O’Neal: There were maybe some players who liked each other and had little relationships here and there, behind the scenes. You’re living together, and you’re together all the time, and none of the drama you see on the show is made up. When you put people together for that long and in that intense of a situation, drama just ensues on its own. You don’t have to fake it. Because people still ask me, “Is everything real that happened?” Yes, everything was real. The producers don’t have to make anything up. They’re given stories on a silver platter.

Smith: When you got done [each day], there was a common room where there was a cooler full of beers and whatever you want. So I think they wanted people to drink a little bit so they would loosen their inhibitions or whatever. And then you get on camera to recap the day, and they would ask about what happened. And certain people, if they overindulged a little bit, would run their mouths. But, for the most part, I think everybody on the show I was on got along pretty well.

Kossoff: I’ve got a couple stories that aren’t necessarily people stories. Fourth season, we played at Carnoustie to do USA versus Europe. One of the challenges was a target on the 18th hole. For challenges like this, we were always drawing lines, and typically we’d use chalk. Our props guy, who was a bit of a genius, developed different weights of this chalk because wind could blow it or a ball hits it and it splashes. However, in Carnoustie, because it was so wet and windy, we couldn’t use the chalk. So we were going to use this paint substance. He also had another substance to take it off, which he would spray on the circle, and then, over a minute or two, the paint would just dissolve. He tested it over and over again. So we’ve drawn this circle around the 18th hole of legendary Carnoustie, and we finished the challenge, and he’s got his spray bottle of the stuff to make it dissolve. It’s not dissolving quite as quickly as he wants, so he sprays a little more. Now a few of us are standing around. And the paint started going away, but so did the grass. It literally burnt a circle on the 18th green of Carnoustie. We were very stressed. We brought the greenskeeper out, and, to his credit, this great Scottish greenskeeper looks at it and says, “No worries, boys. The grass will grow.” It was a big relief, but that was one of those moments where it was like, “Oh, man, what have we done?”

Higgins: Big Break V [which aired in 2006] was “ladies only” and shot in Hawaii. And I don’t think we could do this now, but I had the idea of doing a calendar. So we did a separate shoot and released a calendar during the PGA Show [industry convention] in January. We had some of the ladies come to the show and do autograph signings with the calendar. I thought, “Well, let’s see what happens.” And the line was across the damn show floor—like, a mile long. It was crazy. 

Henley: Because they came to our homes, they showed what we did in our regular life, what the contestants were all about. That was a big reason the show was so popular. And they got away from that. They started inviting celebrities and things like that. And I guess everything runs its course. 

Kossoff: [Ending the show in 2015] was a network-direction decision, where the network had made this move to focus on live events and instruction. And with that, the original productions department was eliminated.

And with that went Big Break and the handful of other shows that were in development, and a couple that had actually launched—one called Altered Course [about speed golf] that we had just shot and had one season in 2015. It was very Big Break-esque. But all those shows went away with the department.

Henley: I begged the Golf Channel for years, and I still do, [that] they should do a Tour caddie Big Break today. I could help them pick 10 of the most incredible players [with] attitude—cocky, humble, great, sneaky players. And, I mean, they could do the greatest Big Break of all time. I don’t know why they’ve never done it. 

But Big Break was the greatest thing that ever happened in my golf life. I won a couple state opens and some big events in my career in Tennessee golf, and had a great, lengthy career. But that’s still the pinnacle of my golf career. I loved it.

O’Neal: I kind of feel like I’m the poster child for what Big Break is meant to do, because I had a lot of talent and a lot of drive, but I didn’t have all the resources. I didn’t come from money, and that’s what held me back a little bit from opportunities. And once I keyed in on Big Break, it was everything. 

Kossoff: I think it is part of the golf culture now. It’s very rare that I speak to somebody who was either a Golf Channel watcher or just loved the game during that period who doesn’t know Big Break. People have credited it for bringing in a younger audience to the game and for making it a little more entertaining. I do think it has a place in the televised history of the game. There had never been anything like it in golf before it, and we haven’t seen anything like it since.