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nancial Times. 'The Financial Times?' I slurred. 'Why would I write a column for the Financial Times? Isn't that a fnancial paper?" The reply seemed interesting, though none of the participants were capable of conversation interesting to anyone other than themselves. "I'm the advertising director for the Financial Times," Richard McClean answered. "I would venture that eighty percent of our readers play golf, and it seems that a golf column in the Financial Times is a natural. I think you should write it. I've enjoyed listening to you about your experiences." Wright told McClean that he was interested and that if McClean was serious, he should call him. The next day, McClean called. They few Wright to London, and the terms were agreed upon and thus a twenty-three-year relationship began. It was a relationship that sent Wright around the world. In 1976, he wore out his passport. "I made twenty-two round trips from London to the "I was bitter, but that's long gone now. A lot of people hurt me, and I found out who my friends are." Today,Wright enjoys life in his home of Flat Rock, North Carolina, and joins a golf talk radio show each Wednesday on Sirius XM PGA TOUR Radio called "Fairways of Life." 40 Tempus-Magazine.com . Summer 2013 U.S., four round trips to Australia, two to Indonesia," Wright says. "That was on top of the traveling I did on the European Tour. Burnout? No, I loved it all." A major contributor to Wright's itinerary was his joining the CBS golf crew. He was hired to work into the lineup replacing the legendary British announcer Henry Longhurst. Longhurst was Wright's mentor in Europe on the BBC and it was a relationship that would continue. "I remember my frst broadcast with CBS and I'd asked Henry if he'd critique my performance after the round," Wright says. Longhurst agreed if Wright would pick him up at his tower in his cart, take him to the bar, and buy the drinks. "We got back to the bar and I buy Henry a drink, then another, then another and another and another,"Wright says. "Finally, I asked Henry when he'd be ready. It was after his eighth that he looked at me and said, 'You were absolutely appalling. It was awful. You ran off at the mouth like a drip tank.' "Then he gave me the best advice I've ever had," Wright says. "He asked if I was nervous and I said of course— weren't you when you started? He agreed that he was, but when he's nervous he says less. He then said, 'We're nothing but caption writers in a picture business.' If you can't improve the quality of the picture, say nothing." Those words carried Wright through the next twenty-seven years with the most swashbuckling crew in TV, and no one could swash a buckle like Ben Wright. The boys loved to party and party and party. If pressed, Wright might admit to being a part of a plan to smuggle a horse into the CBS suite. It seems Wright and colleague Pat Summerall took a carriage back to their hotel one evening