By Michael Holder

He has a face that most everyone recognizes but few can place a name to the face. Lou Waters, one of CNN’s original anchors has co-anchored CNN’s EARLYPRIME since 1980.

His journalism career spans 32 years during which time he has received many awards. Three Houston International Film Festival Awards for his extensive political coverage in 1988 and a CableAce Award for INSIDE POLITICS ‘88 and a first place news award at the New York Film Festival. Waters also received three Golden Microphone Awards as news director and anchor at KSCT-TV in San Diego and his coverage of a 1979 plane crash brought him the prestigious Emmy for spot news reporting. Lou Waters was born in Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota School of Architectural Engineering.

Lou Waters began playing golf in his late teens with his father at Interlochen Country Club in Minneapolis. But he didn’t start playing seriously until five years ago and says, "That I feel peaceful after a round of golf - great after the high stress of anchoring."

He approaches golf with the same professional attitude as he does when anchoring. And when things don't go just right, he has been known to improvise a shot in the same manner he would ad-lib if the TelePrompTer went on the blink.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing golf with Lou for several years now and over that time I would say that there has been an obvious improvement in his overall game, particularly off the tee. But I am still not sure just how much he loves or hates the game. I’ve never seen him toss a club but I have witnessed in-depth verbal abuse of many different clubs (some purported to be his favorites) on many different occasions. But when you think about it...this makes Lou Waters just like every other golfer on the face of this planet.

This morning we were playing Doral’s Blue Course (Blue Monster), home of The Doral Ryder Open. It was a bright, sunny day with temperatures in the high 60’s. But due to a moderate wind we decided not to abuse ourselves and settled on the regular tees that played to 6,597 yards. We both started out with pretty good tee shots on the 493 yard, par 5 first hole and ended up with a pair of fives. Lou encountered a little trouble and had to scramble with a nice three wood out of the right rough for his second shot. Little did we know that this was just about the easiest time we would have of it the whole day.

For those of you who are familiar with The Monster, you are aware that it does have some water. Fourteen holes of it and it always seemed to be directly between us and the green. Had we not agreed to a mulligan on each of the nines and preferred lies, we might have fared worse...much worse.

Water wasn’t the only obstacle we encountered this day. Doral is an old course with a great reputation and it still is a great course. But the course was built prior to the opening of Miami International Airport and unfortunately, we had to endure constant interruptions from takeoffs and landings every few minutes. But the experience was still very much worth it.

If Lou was Lawrence of Arabia this day, then I was Captain Ahab. I spent a lot of time scrambling from or precariously near any water the course had to offer. Lou started out a bit shaky from the sand but by the end of the round, he had had so much experience he was routinely getting up and down in two from green-side traps.

Lou fared better when he remained within his limitations. Off the tee it was always a fierce scramble to get a bogey or on occasion, a double-bogey. But when he traded his driver for his 3-wood off the tee he usually kept the ball in the fairway and achieved 200+ yard drives. The difference was noticeable. A lot less scrambling and more routine bogeys and pars. Lou did manage one birdie on the 341-yard 16th hole, but the highlight actually came on 18 which is considered by many to be the one of the toughest finishing holes on the PGA Tour. Lou drove his tee shot down the right side of the fairway about 220 yards and followed that with a 3-iron to about 25 feet from the pin. His attempt at birdie was just a few inches to the right and a tad short of the hole. A par! Touring pros are delighted to walk away with a par on this hole.

In the end, we were dead even. Hadn’t lost a lot of balls, damaged any clubs or killed any wildlife. Our egos had been humbled a bit, but that can be expected on such a course as Doral.

Lou Waters Stats

Handicap: 18

Lowest Score: 80

Strength: Short game.

Weakness:  Erratic off the tee. Better results when he stays with the 3-wood.

Favorite Courses: Ventana Canyon, Tucson; Torrey Pines, San Diego and Mahogany Run in St. Thomas. Favorite local course is Great Waters at Reynold’s Plantation.

Best Experience: An 80 at Bobby Jones in Atlanta. A 90 something at Pebble Beach in California.

Worse Experience: Playing partner at Quail Creek wouldn’t keep his mouth shut. Constantly interrupted to tell me how to play each shot, how to stand, etc.

Biggest Disappointment: Pebble Beach, hoping to play better, but only shooting in the 90’s.

Unusual Golfing Phobia: Shooting in the low to middle 80’s and being afraid to go back out for fear that I wouldn’t do as well.

Favorite Professional: Greg Norman! Would love the opportunity to play with him.