They shared the same powerful forearms, the wide smile and their unabashed passion for golf.
One of them played the sport at the highest level, the other covered it in the same stratosphere.
In many ways, Tim Rosaforte was the Arnold Palmer of golf writers. Popular. Trusted. And a true friend.
Arnie would give a fellow player a tip – and then a kick in the butt for not shaving before a round or for wearing a wrinkled shirt.
Rosie, as everyone called Rosaforte, was the same way. He somehow knew everybody’s name in the media room and always had complimentary things to say to them.
If you knew Tim for a minute, you felt like you knew him forever. Like Arnold, he didn't shy away from a stranger.
But if you showed up in the media center looking like you had just played a pickup basketball game, Rosie would let you know. That’s how much Rosaforte felt about the sport.
Since his death Tuesday after a 2½-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease at the too-young age of 66, we have seen an outpouring of emotion for Rosaforte that to me comes close to resembling what happened when the King died in 2016 at age 87.
People who had never met Rosaforte were shedding tears over his passing. That’s because everyone felt like they knew Rosaforte through his work on Golf Channel as the game’s first true insider. The longtime resident of Jupiter, Florida, was almost as famous as some of the players he talked about.
People who had never met Rosaforte were shedding tears over his passing. That’s because everyone felt like they knew Rosaforte ...
For those of us fortunate enough to know Rosaforte, his passing has been a tremendous loss that will take months to shake.
Just like Arnie was a pro’s pro, Rosie was a journalist’s journalist.
“I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about Tim Rosaforte,” said Golf Channel announcer Rich Lerner, who worked alongside Rosaforte for 20 years. “He was always there to encourage you, to help you and to congratulate you when you did a good job. And even though he had been doing his thing for a long time, he approached every day as if he was a young guy just starting out in the business.”
Rosaforte broke stories, but he never broke his word. One of the reasons he became so good at what he did was he had the ear and trust of the golfers he covered, from the major champions to the guys fighting to keep their cards.
“Tim was one journalist I enjoyed sitting down with because you knew he would always treat you fairly,” said 2011 British Open champion Darren Clarke. “He would always get the story right.”
It’s ironic that Tim Rosaforte made a name for himself, because that’s not his name. His birth certificate reads: “James Rosaforte III.” His mother, Shirley, started calling him Tim at an early age, and it stuck.
Rosaforte was just the second person in his family to go to college. He was strong mentally and physically – playing football in high school and at the University of Bridgeport before spending his final two years at the University of Rhode Island.
He knew he wanted his career to be in sports, so he got a degree in journalism in 1977 and started working for newspapers in Florida. By the early 1980s, Rosaforte started covering golf and never stopped.
The sport was better off for it.
He crossed over into TV in the 1990s (while still writing for Sports Illustrated and Golf World/Golf Digest), working alongside Jay Randolph on the old Sunshine Network. Rosaforte appeared on PGA Tour Sunday on USA Network starting in 2003 before he moved to Golf Channel in 2007 when his career took off.
Rosaforte first crossed paths with Jack Nicklaus at the 1980 PGA Championship and he built a strong relationship with the Golden Bear that continued for more than 40 years. They lived less than 10 miles apart for the past 20 years.
“Our paths continued to intersect, no matter where Tim’s career went,” Nicklaus said. “Tim had such a wonderful ability to develop relationships and trust from so many, and because of that – plus his work ethic – if there was an important story to be told in golf, Tim was usually the first one to report it.
“He was a true journalist who was never afraid to ask the tough questions. The only thing that ever deterred Tim and his passion was the hideous disease of Alzheimer’s, and it eventually took him way too soon.”
Because of the disease, Rosaforte retired at the end of 2019. While the last 2½ years were painful, it allowed sport’s leaders to show their appreciation for his hard work.
The PGA of America made him just its 12th honorary member – and the first journalist. Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament gave Rosie its Golf Journalism Award last year. His hometown Honda Classic named its media room after him and created the Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Writers’ Award (he was the inaugural winner). And the University of Rhode Island endowed a scholarship in his name.
“I’m used to talking to people to let them know they have won awards,” Rosaforte said. “This was different. This was humbling.”
“Tim had such a wonderful ability to develop relationships and trust from so many, and because of that – plus his work ethic – if there was an important story to be told in golf, Tim was usually the first one to report it. "
Jack Nicklaus
My friendship with Rosaforte goes back 40 years. I was moving into an apartment in Tampa, Florida, in early 1981 and Tim was the one who was moving out, headed to Fort Lauderdale to work for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. In late 1982, I moved to West Palm Beach to cover golf for The Evening Times and soon ran into Rosaforte at a Senior PGA Championship at PGA National.
We became close friends. I had no idea how lucky I was.
The best example of Tim’s friendship: When my son, Eric, almost died from encephalitis in 2005, Tim organized a fundraiser for our family at Raymond Floyd’s Old Palm Golf Club during the week of the 2006 Honda Classic.
All I had to do was show up. Rosie did the rest, lining up guests that included Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, Raymond and Maria Floyd, Nick Price, Jesper Parnevik, Don Shula, Olin Browne, Bob Toski, Tom Fazio, JoAnne Carner, Dottie Pepper, Jimmy Roberts and many others.
The night raised more than $100,000 for our family, enabling us to buy a wheelchair-accessible van and make the necessary modifications to our home. And we used the evening to launch the Eric Dolch Children’s Encephalitis Foundation.
That was Tim. Always there to help you, even when you didn’t ask.
Just like Arnold.
Top: Tim Rosaforte waits to start the show during the live broadcast of the 2016 Dell Match Play Bracket Special.
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