Andy Roddick requested a last-minute change to our Zoom meeting. He needed to get on his iPad, he said. “That’s where my Sweetens background is.”
Passion takes certain new forms these days. When tennis’ former world No. 1 popped up on my screen, sure enough, there was Sweetens Cove behind him, new pavilion and all. Roddick straightened his lid — a black “Sweetens Cove” rope hat — and flashed that characteristic smile.
“You guys must be hurting for content, if you’re having me on,” he cracked.
My story ideas and his aw-shucks-iness aside, Andy Roddick is a big deal for the golf world. It’s a big deal that this generation’s top American tennis star joined forces with one of its top quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, to buy in on a nine-hole public golf course built for nothing on a Tennessee flood plain. It’s wild to think that two of the most iconic sports stars of the 2000s hop on work calls to talk about new tee boxes at Sweetens Cove.