R.I.P. Don Ohlmeyer

What a stellar remembrance from the New York Times' Richard Sandomir covering the life and times of longtime television producer and executive Don Ohlmeyer, who passed away Sunday at 72.

For the golf world, he'll always be remembered for his ambitious, slightly crazy idea to start the Skins Game.

As the executive producer of NBC Sports for five years, he elevated the quality of its broadcasts and gave it some of the swagger of ABC’s sports division. But he was disappointed when the opportunity to oversee NBC’s broadcasts of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow was scuttled when President Jimmy Carter refused to allow the United States to participate because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Two years later, he left NBC to create Ohlmeyer Communications, where he continued to produce sports programs like the Skins Game, a golf exhibition; television movies like the Emmy Award-winning “Special Bulletin,” a story about nuclear terrorism that was presented as if it were happening in real time; and musical events like “Season’s Greetings: An Evening With John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.”

John Strege at Golf World with more on Ohlmeyer's legacy in golf, which also includes sons Chris (producer) and Todd (college golf coach).