David Feherty is best known for being the wisecracking golf analyst on NBC’s broadcasts, but he recently showed a different side of himself as he talked to HBO’s Bryant Gumbel about the death of his son and his alcohol relapse that followed.
Feherty had been sober for more than 10 years until a moment shortly after his son Shey died of an overdose on his 29th birthday.
Feherty talked to Gumble during an interview that will air on the new episode of HBO’s Real Sports.
“I was at a friend’s ranch and I’d gone up there to be by myself. I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve been sober 10 years. I’m tired of it,” he said. “You know, I’m tired of being sober. I wanna feel better.’ And I convinced myself that it would make me feel better.
“So, there was a bottle of Irish whiskey there, which is, like, an angel cryin’ on my tongue. But oddly enough, it didn’t – tasted awful. But I made myself drink more. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve got this under control. I don’t have to drink that much.’ You know, the next day I did the same thing, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got it under control.’ Before I knew it, you know, it had me under control.”
Feherty, who is once again sober, he thinks about his son’s death every day.
“I apologize to him every day. I’m sorry, son. You know, I wasn’t there. I just … I mean I just wasn’t there. I was always gone. Times that I was drunk. The times that I was high. They could have been times I would have spent with him.”
