There are two sides to every story. 

And amid his spat with Padraig Harrington, NBC’s on-course reporter Roger Maltbie has given his. 

The two had a heated exchange after Round 2 of the U.S. Senior Open, with Harrington lambasting Maltbie for not helping search for a lost ball. Maltbie, though, believed that wasn’t a responsibility of his because he wasn’t playing. 

A day later, Maltbie, a five-time PGA Tour winner who began broadcasting in 1991, explained his stance to Golf.com, saying he couldn’t be part of the search team because he needed to report what was happening. 

“I can’t do it from inside the thick of the trees,” Maltbie said. “So I stayed outside, and then [Harrington] walked near me and he said, ‘You could help search for the ball,’ and I just didn’t respond.” 

Maltbie added that “the odds of finding it were slim.” 

With the rules only allowing three minutes for a search, the official began to count down from 10 seconds. 

Harrington, a three-time major champion, ultimately hit a second tee shot and made bogey. 

On the next hole, the par-3 16th, Maltbie’s spotter went to see what club Harrington was using, but his caddie reportedly told the spotter to “piss off.”

After the round, Maltbie went to clear the air with Harrington, but the Irishman did not waver in his belief, which led to the viral exchange caught on video by a local reporter. 

“Every time I tried to explain to him [my position], he said, ‘It’s poor etiquette. It’s golf etiquette to help somebody in search for a ball, and that I should know better after the years of playing,” Maltbie said. 

“I tried to say, ‘Listen, I have a boss. I’m not a player,’ and if I were a spectator or certainly playing with him, I would have helped him search for his ball. But I was under instructions. It just wouldn’t work. But he wanted no part of it.

“I was very close to saying, ‘All these years, all these checks I’ve gotten from NBC, your name isn’t on any of them. I mean, his caddie works for him, so I’m sure his caddie does what Padraig tells him to do. Well, I have an employer, and if they tell me basically what I’m going to do or what they want from me, I have to honor that. But he just doesn’t see it that way.”

Harrington holds the championship’s 54-hole lead. And in the final round, Maltbie will be following the leaders with NBC. 

Maybe the two reach a detente afterward, especially if Harrington claims the victory.

More on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBC's Roger Maltbie Explains His Stance in Feud With Padraig Harrington .

Test hyperlink for boilerplate