DAVID FEHERTY, the most popular as well as the best commentator in America, is also the luckiest to be alive. Four weeks ago the Irishman was less than a mile from the end of his regular morning cycle ride near his home in Texas when he was knocked from his bike by a truck.

"The guy tried to overtake me when there was no room to overtake and his trailer caught me pretty hard," he recalled yesterday. "I could easily have been killed. If had landed six inches left of where I landed, I would have been a goner, crushed like an egg. Good night.

"Luckily there was a lady who saw me on the road and pulled me away. I could feel myself slipping away, but she kept me conscious, for which I am truly grateful - as you can imagine."

As it was, the 49-year-old former Ryder Cup player was badly injured, suffering a punctured lung, three broken ribs and a badly damaged elbow. He spent a week in hospital, which was less time than his doctors insisted but more than long enough for him to appreciate his place in the sporting life of his adopted country.

"Jack Nicklaus phoned, although Monty didn't. But that doesn't mean he doesn't care," he jokes in reference to a long-standing enmity - now over - which started when Feherty described the Scotsman as looking like a "warthog licking piss off a nettle" as well as landing him with the nickname Mrs Doubtfire. "But, seriously, I have written more thank-you notes in the last week than I have in the last 30 years. It has been genuinely touching to discover how many people care."

Feherty abandoned his career as a professional on the European tour for life as what Americans call a "colour commentator" on CBS. In a world populated mostly by bland, middle-aged men he is a star, largely because he says what is on his mind and expresses his thoughts with wit and style. Such talent has made him a wealthy man, with the networks vying to pay millions of dollars a year for his services.

"I have a foreign accent and there is this mistaken belief in America that if you have a foreign accent you must know what you are talking about when it comes to golf, especially if you're from Ireland or Scotland," he says.

Working for CBS, however, allows him to make the pilgrimage to Augusta and this will be his first tournament since the accident.

"I don't know if I'll be able to fit into my seat because I've gotten so big," he says, pointing out that last year he cycled 8,000 miles. "I'm an addict and my drug these days is cycling. I can't get enough of it and can't wait to get back on the bike."

In the meantime he will have to settle for a spot in the gantry on Augusta's back nine rather than his usual role out on the course. This hardly ranks as a punishment, although with the Masters come limitations for those who broadcast the event. A few years ago his colleague Gary McCord was dropped from the CBS commentary team after suggesting the club committee had put bikini wax on the greens to make them faster.

Feherty freely admits he curtails his natural instincts to be irreverent. "I behave differently at the Masters because it is such a great American institution, with its own particular traditions," he says. "The good thing is you don't have to worry so much about saying anything at all because the pictures are so good they pretty much tell the story for you.

"Augusta is such a special place and I can't wait to get back there."

Guardian Service