Norm Macdonald, a “Saturday Night Live” legend who also was a passionate fan of the game of golf, died on Tuesday, after a private battle with cancer, his manager Marc Gurvitz confirmed to USA TODAY. He was 61 years old.
Macdonald followed the sport with unmatched passion. He once had an idea for a TV show from Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, where he’d interview a fellow celebrity or athlete over 18 holes – an actual interview where he could really pick someone’s brain, get at something meaningful. Figure out what makes them tick.
“I’d always go to the cheapest network,” Macdonald told Golfweek in 2018. “I go for one where they asked who I’d be interviewing for 18 holes and I said Bob Uecker. Everybody was laughing. It was called the Nashville Network, and they all laughed. And one guy goes, ‘We were thinking about it last night and we’d have girls in bikinis at every hole. And the first guy you interview is (former pro wrestler) Bill Goldberg, and he body slams you.’ ”
While Macdonald never got the 18 holes thing to fly, he was a massive Tiger Woods fan and often went to watch at major championships, though never the FedEx Cup Playoffs because he said he didn’t believe in the concept.
“I love Tiger so much and predicted he’d come back. I never lost faith in Tiger,” Macdonald said. “I rank it as the best comeback in sports history. One reason is because he’s made like three comebacks, that’s why I had so much faith in him. I’ve seen him make comebacks before, I’ve seen him change his game. I didn’t think this is how he was going to do it.
Golf matters because it is Man vs, Nature, Man vs. Man, and Man vs. Man’s self. Comedy mostly is a byproduct of groupthink. The greatest creative acts you will ever witness are by Tiger Woods on a golf course. https://t.co/JE16Y9Z5Cv
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) March 16, 2018
“I was surprised he could hit it so long. I thought he was going to play like an old guy. On the par 5s, try to get on in three and close to the pin. That surprised me that he’s crushing the ball. That made me so happy.”
Lori Jo Hoekstra, Macdonald’s friend and producing partner, told Deadline she was with him at the time of his death and that the comedian had been fighting cancer for nine years, but did not wish to share his health struggles with the public.
“He was most proud of his comedy,” Hoekstra told Deadline. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”