The livestream will be from 6-9 p.m. Arizona time (9 p.m. to midnight ET) on the Bleacher Report YouTube channel.
Grass Clippings Rolling Hills has had a smashing debut as the go-to destination for night golf in Arizona.
This week, the golf course debuted the Grass Clippings Open, a two-day, high-stakes par 3 tournament that concludes under the lights Saturday night with a live stream on Youtube and a $1 million prize for a hole-in-one on the 18th hole.
There are 75 two-person teams competing for a $100,000 purse in a no-stroke, scramble, low-gross format at the City of Tempe golf course, Arizona’s first fully lit 18-hole golf course, which officially debuted night golf on Dec. 1, 2023.
The festivities also feature concerts, with Easton Corbin headlining the Friday show and LANCO headlining Saturday night.
The teams competing consist of 20 “franchise” teams, 18 teams who had to first survive qualifying and 13 sponsor exemptions. Future events will have spots reserved for past champions.
The live stream can also be found on the Bleacher Report website and app.
In addition to the “Big Break,” Sparks hosted the “Golf with Style” series on Golf Channel.
Longtime Golf Channel “Big Break” host Stephanie Sparks died on April 13 at the age of 50. Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, to Robert and Janie Sparks, Mary Stephanie Sparks was an All-American collegiate golfer at Duke.
She won the 1992 North and South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst and in the summer of 1993, rattled off victories at the Women’s Western Amateur, Women’s Eastern Amateur and the West Virginia State Amateur.
Sparks represented the U.S. on the 1994 Curtis Cup team and had a brief professional career that was plagued by injuries. She began her pro career on what’s now the Epson Tour and played only one season on the LPGA in 2000 before chronic back pain ultimately ended her career.
Sparks played the role of three-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Alexa Stirling in the 2004 movie “Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius” opposite Jim Caviezel.
In addition to the “Big Break” reality series, Sparks hosted the “Golf with Style” series on Golf Channel as well as “Playing Lessons with the Pros.” She also did some on-camera reporting at tournaments.
During her competitive days, Sparks wrote player diaries for Golfweek, offering an inside look into tour life.
Golf Channel’s Tom Abbott worked seven seasons with Sparks as a co-host on the popular “Big Break” series. Abbott, who is on the broadcast team this week at the Chevron Championship, lauded Sparks’ work ethic.
I’ll forever be grateful for the friendships I made in junior golf.
Last week, we lost one of our best @AJGAGolf mates.
“She had been a professional golfer herself,” he said, “so she knew what it was like for the contestants, and she wanted them to succeed. She kind of rode their emotions in a way when we were doing the show.
“She knew how tough it was.”
Sparks’ Kepner Funeral Homes obituary page notes that she was an advocate for hospice care for the last several years of her life and supported Libby’s Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation and the Barber Fund in Orlando.
A private family service will be held in Elm Grove, West Virginia, at Kepner Funeral Home.
Lundquist will call his 40th and final Masters this year for CBS.
Verne Lundquist has a plan next Tuesday night to hang around Augusta National Golf Club to say a proper goodbye to both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the longtime CBS announcer prepares to call his final Masters in 2024.
“Those two guys have had a terrific impact on my professional career,” Lundquist said on a call with the media ahead of the first men’s major championship of the year. “And I’m in deep gratitude to them both.”
Uncle Verne has been a signature voice at the Masters and will make his 40th and final trip down Magnolia Lane next week. The Masters is an event steeped in history, and Lundquist has covered nearly half of the tournaments. For a man who has seen so much action and drama among the Georgia pines, two of his calls come to mind as his favorites, and they’re Nos. 1a and 1b on his all-time list: Nicklaus’ putt in 1986 and Woods’ chip in 2005.
“I lean towards ’86, probably more so because of the fact that Jack is six months older than me, and I tend to remind him every chance I get,” he said with his signature laugh. “Jack hadn’t won in two years at that time and there are many stories about his championship run on Sunday.”
“(Jim Nantz) had a great call. First Augusta, 1986, he was working at 16 and I think the story is, when Jack hit his tee shot at 16, (his son and caddie) said, ‘Be good’ and Jack without looking up said, ‘It is,’ and the ball almost went in the hole. Jim said, ‘The bear has come out of hibernation.’”
Nicklaus was tied for the lead on the 17th tee after Seve Ballesteros found the water on No. 15. His drive went near the green on No. 7 and he then hit a pitching wedge about 12 feet above the hole. Enter Lundquist.
“I can remember thinking to myself as he walked up, ‘Keep it simple and get your butt out of the way.’ And I managed to do that,” Lundquist remembered of the famous putt. “I boldly predicted ‘Maybe’ when it was not that far from the hole, and then I reacted with what I said, ‘Yes sir!’ with slightly more emphasis than that. I think because I know Jack so much better than I know Tiger, I lean toward the Jack call.”
It will be an emotional week for the entire CBS crew as both Lundquist and CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus will be working their final Masters.
“He’s just the voice,” Nantz said of his good friend and colleague. “His calls are truly legendary. … Augusta’s a place that I feel like kind of comes to life every April. It’s not just because it’s a gathering of the greatest players in the world and there’s a golf competition, but it’s a week where history, where voices, they come back. We hear them again. We still kind of feel and have front of mind the legends of yesteryear. The Gene Sarazens, they make an earthly visit every year in April. Byron (Nelson), Ben (Hogan), Sam (Snead), of course Arnold (Palmer), there’s one week a year where they come back in our lives, back on our planet.
“What I’m saying here is Verne’s always going to always have a home in Augusta. He’s going to be a part of Augusta forever. Those calls that he’s made, they’re going to be played back 50, 100, 200 years from now,” Nantz continued. “He’s gonna have a home there, a permanent residence. I’m just really appreciative. I don’t know quite exactly how I’m going to say my goodbyes, but I’ll figure it out.”
When Lundquist and McManus discussed “the proper time to exit stage left,” the pair agreed that 40 Masters had a nice sound to it. He knows the emotions will hit when he arrives on site the Sunday before tournament week, but he’s going to relish every moment of every day at the course.
“I’ll be emotional and there’s a spot on my left thigh that I’ll be pinching to make sure I don’t shed a tear on the air, but it’s been a great run,” Lundquist said of his time calling the Masters. “Hey, I’m 83 years old and I’ve been blessed to have a sensational professional life and a wonderful personal life. I wasn’t the first to say this, but thanks for the memories.”
The anchor mentioned potentially returning to any of the places he lived prior to his ESPN stint, including Phoenix.
One of SportsCenter’s longest-tenured anchors will be departing the show and ESPN in the coming months.
John Anderson, who sits behind the desk for the 11 p.m. ET show typically and has been with the network since 1999, announced that he will be leaving the company at the end of June when his contract expires.
“That will be the end. I’m going to leave the company. I am gonna sort of retire from ‘SportsCenter,’” Anderson said in a clip posted by the “The Inside Wisconsin” show on social media Wednesday.
Anderson joined ESPN 25 years ago as an anchor on ESPNews. Anderson added that he will still be part of ESPN’s track and field coverage, which includes the New York City and Boston marathons on top of NCAA meets, “which I love.” He called track and field for Olympic Broadcasting Services during the Tokyo Games.
He also has an affinity for golf. He co-wrote a book with legendary golfer Chi Chi Rodriquez that was released in 2003. “Chi Chi’s Golf Games You Gotta Play” teaches players how to play better golf and have fun while playing.
The best SportsCenter writer in the history of the show. John’s quick wit and delivery always made you better when you worked w him. And the inside jokes…. We anchored a Super Bowl night where I missed the opening two shot and he talked me off the ledge w laughter. Gonna miss JA https://t.co/i9i0UGaQjX
Anderson completed the New York Marathon in 2010. He also hosted the reality television show “Wipeout” for a time.
“I am incredibly excited about that. It’s been a good run.”
The “operation has changed,” Anderson said, of doing the nightly show.
“I don’t know that it’s passed me by,” Anderson said. “But it’s taken its toll and I still want to be able to do the best shows I can and I don’t know that in years 26 or 27 that I have the stamina to go through it again. So I’m done.”
With a storied career in and around the sport spanning more than 40 years, he has plenty of stories to tell.
There are few people around professional golf who have seen more (and said more) over the years than David Feherty.
With a storied – and sometimes controversial – career in and around the sport spanning more than 40 years, he has plenty of stories to tell.
The longtime player and analyst is bringing his live show, “Off Tour,” to Augusta’s Imperial Theatre in April, this time with a dash of pimento cheese and egg salad.
The show’s origin story began at a corporate outing in London, Ontario, more than a decade ago. Brad Jones, owner of Jones Entertainment Group, attended Feherty’s talk there.
“He approached me afterwards and asked me if I had ever thought about doing it on stage. I said to him, ‘I thought I just did,’” Feherty said. “He said, ‘No, no, for paying guests.’ I thought he’d lost his mind, but he’s Canadian. He booked me a couple of gigs, one in Edmonton and one in Calgary. You know, 1,400 people showed up in Calgary and 1,600 in Edmonton. We took it from there down to the states.”
Yes, “Off Tour” has plenty of entertainment value. At the end of the day, tickets must be sold. For Feherty, however, it’s also another way to keep the greats of the game alive through oral history.
“It’s really me telling other peoples’ stories and stories about other people,” he said. “Guys like (Lee) Trevino, (Arnold) Palmer, (Jack) Nicklaus and Ben Hogan, these are stories that’ll disappear into the ether if I don’t tell them, and stories of my own life, along with them. People loved it. I can’t explain it.”
The Augusta show is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased on the “Off Tour” site or the “Order Tickets” tab of the Imperial Theatre’s site.
David Feherty at Universal’s Sound Stage 20 running through a dress rehearsal.
David Feherty on return to Augusta, Masters experiences
Feherty is no stranger to Augusta. He made his lone start at the Masters in 1992, tying for 52nd. He’s known more for his 19 tournaments as a broadcaster until leaving CBS in 2015. His first as a broadcaster was perhaps the most famous Masters for this generation, as the world watched a 21-year-old Tiger Woods dominate the field on the way to his first green jacket.
“It was like watching a creature from a different planet,” he said.
He also recognized Woods’ continued effect on the tournament, regardless of his standing on the leaderboard –something patrons and media alike got a glimpse of in 2023.
“He changes everything just with his presence,” Feherty said. “There’s an aura about him around that place, the same that was around Jack and Arnold.”
And rest assured, Feherty will have some Masters-related stories on hand Wednesday evening.
“I’ve wanted to do it for a long time and to be able to come back to Augusta, I love the tournament and the people. Hopefully, we’ll attract a few of those,” he said. “I’ve got a few stories about the tournament, as well, that I haven’t told because I worked there. Now I don’t work there, so I’m kind of freed up to let a few of those go.”
Augusta’s impact on the landscape of professional golf
Feherty is currently an analyst for LIV Golf, which dominated much of the pre-tournament discourse a year ago. That chatter intensified when Phil Mickelson vaulted up the leaderboard Sunday during the final round after not playing in the 2022 tournament.
Fast-forward a year, and the top three finishers from 2023 are now all with LIV after reigning champion Jon Rahm signed with the league in December. Feherty hopes the Masters can provide a blueprint for the future of professional golf, which currently exists in a fractured state.
“One thing they have a great deal of at Augusta National is common sense. If you want the best players in the world, you should invite the best players in the world,” he said. “It sounds a little simplistic, but that’s the way it is. I hope the other majors follow suit, because it’s a shame to see these events without the top players. You want your four majors to have the best players in the world and I think Augusta is leading the way.”
After Augusta, Feherty’s next “Off Tour” stop is in Louisville, Kentucky, in May.
Kaufman confirmed Tuesday on “Live from The Players” on Golf Channel that he and Kisner would again comment on golf shots live from the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass during the 2024 Players Championship. The duo will team up for Kaufman’s “Happy Hour” for an hour during Friday’s coverage.
Fans have long clamored for golf broadcasts to change and be better for viewers. Kaufman and NBC Sports have taken big steps this year by trying something new and unorthodox, but it’s working.
“Delight in the wildlife. That’s my idea of heaven.”
Tony Johnstone waited 20 years to get his first photograph of a gorgeous bushshrike, a bird that is easily heard, but it takes something of a miracle to be seen.
Johnstone’s favorite bird is the lilac-breasted roller, which is unofficially considered the national bird of Kenya.
“It’s the most stunning bird you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Johnstone, who hails from Zimbabwe but now lives in Sunningdale, England. “I can’t drive past one without stopping to take it.”
When the DP World Tour heads to South Africa this week for the Jonsson Workwear Open, Johnstone will be there, colorfully calling the action at Glendower Golf Club from the booth.
Lilac-breasted roller (Tony Johnstone photo)
A six-time winner on the DP World Tour, the 67-year-old Johnstone is one of golf’s great characters. Combine his passion for the game with his passion for the wildlife in Kruger National and the result is a television series called “Bush Hacking,” where Johnstone offers insight on birds and animals as he plays a round of golf through the African bush. The series lasted three seasons, and snippets are still shown when the tour plays events in the area.
Johnstone describes himself as fanatical about his photography, and he loves to share his discoveries on social media. His fascination with birds began about 25 years ago and now extends to creatures of all sizes. He’s fond of going out in Kruger National Park around 4:30 a.m. with his wife and staying out until 6 p.m.
“We just drive the whole day, and just delight in the wildlife,” he said. “That’s my idea of heaven.”
The talented Johnstone shared a number of his favorite wildlife photographs from over the years with Golfweek. Scroll on to get lost in another world.
The former Duke player is now busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
Alison Whitaker was having lunch on her birthday in China at a Ladies European Tour event when someone from the television crew asked if she’d be interested in filling in during the coverage later that day.
The affable Aussie said sure, she’d love to. The crew member went on to explain that ideally, they’d like to have a European voice. Whitaker said no worries, she’d be around for another 40 minutes in player dining if they couldn’t find a better option. Either way, no hard feelings.
“Lucky for me, they didn’t find anyone,” Whitaker said with a laugh. By the end of the day, she’d been offered a contract for the following season.
That was a decade ago, and now Whitaker, the former Duke player with the razor-sharp mind and infectious personality, is busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
LPGA Hall of Fame player and television trailblazer Judy Rankin calls Whitaker the most versatile person in broadcasting. She can walk the fairways as an on-course reporter and serve as both an analyst and lead host – sometimes in the same week.
Whitaker, 38, will be in the booth at this week’s Blue Bay LPGA event in China but does most of her work in the men’s game on the DP World Tour and is mostly off-camera, making her a sneaky low-profile TV personality.
“She’s tremendous,” said Rankin, adding that “here, she’s definitely under the radar except for the true golf junkies who watch a lot of the European Tour and so on.”
Whitaker made it to Durham, North Carolina, via a 2005 American summer tour that culminated in a semifinal appearance at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, where she beat future LPGA players Ryann O’Toole, Maria Uribe and Amanda Blumenherst before falling to finalist Maru Martinez.
Alison Whitaker played for Duke from 2006 to 2010. (courtesy Duke athletics)
When Whitaker arrived at Duke, the mood of the team lightened, recalled Blumenherst. She’d be the one printing out the lyrics to the “Little Mermaid” to bring in the team van. When Blumenherst played her last competitive round at the Evian Championship 11 years ago, Whitaker was there on the last hole to give her a hug.
Blumenherst was actually working for the Golf Channel on set when she first heard Whitaker’s voice on a broadcast. She watched as someone hit a thin shot out of a bunker that caught the top edge, prompting Whitaker to say, “Oh, those lips don’t lie.”
Right from the start, Blumenherst said, it seemed Whitaker belonged on television.
At one point this season, it looked like Whitaker might be on the road working events for 17 straight weeks. She deleted a few in the middle so she’d remember where to put the coffee mugs at her home in Melbourne. She’ll typically work five to seven weeks in a row and then have a couple off.
Saying yes to television was made rather easy given that she’d been battling glandular fever and vertigo as a touring pro. Plus, she absolutely loved it, noting that her work ethic exploded.
For many former players in the commentary world, television feels like the next stage. But for Whitaker, professional golf felt more like the lead-up to what she was meant to be doing.
When Whitaker first got recruited to work on the LET, she was in her late 20s, which was young for the time. After working the LPGA’s Asian swing and some of the men’s and women’s events in Australia, Whitaker started covering the DP World Tour for European Tour Productions, which provides the world feed for Golf Channel and Sky Sports, among others.
“She’s the most conscientious, diligent person I’ve ever come across,” said booth mate Tony Johnstone. “I think she’s surrounded by more laptops than when they put Apollo on the moon.”
Covering the men’s game meant that Whitaker had a lot to learn in a short amount of time, given that playing professional golf on a women’s tour leaves little time to watch the men.
Sitting next to men in the commentary box who had witnessed something firsthand that Whitaker had only read about drove her to work the range and talk to as many people as possible.
Even so, it was deeply intimidating.
“You kind of just have to make sure you fill your shoes with a little bit of self-belief,” said Whitaker, “which is so much harder than people would think when you’re sitting down the row from Nick Faldo and Trevor Immelmann, and I’m just trying to convince myself to talk.”
That’s where Whitaker’s strong sense of humor comes into play. She has learned to laugh about mistakes and give herself a bit of grace. When it comes to the naysayers online, her family provides some levity, particularly when bad grammar and typos are involved.
“Like many women in men’s realms, especially in sport, I’ve got a healthy dose of imposter syndrome,” said Whitaker, “which I’m trying to get in check, but at the same time it fuels me.”
Alison Whitaker and Iona Stephen pose for a picture at the TV compound. (courtesy photo)
Iona Stephen’s first memory of meeting Whitaker was at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship while working for Golfing World. Whitaker warmly introduced herself, and they sat down for a drink. Right from the start, Stephen felt this was a woman she could trust.
Fast forward to the global pandemic, when Stephen was early into her work as an on-course reporter covering the DP World Tour and tasked with interviewing some of the biggest names in golf – live. It was a tough time learning a new business during the isolated era of Covid, but as luck would have it, Stephen was in a shared accommodation space with Whitaker that week. Stephen grabbed a decorative shell and used it as a pretend microphone as she conducted mock interviews with Whitaker until midnight.
“I’ll never forget that,” said a grateful Stephen.
Whitaker started working the lead of men’s broadcasts toward the end of 2020. With little advice to go on, she dove in, unaware of all the ways she’d soon be making history.
In addition to working as the lead host covering on the DP World Tour on a consistent basis, Whitaker became the first female lead at the Open Championship three years ago at Royal St. George’s for the world feed, as well as at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Last year, she was the first female lead on a men’s major for Sky Sports at the PGA Championship.
David Mould, director of live television at the European Tour Group, said Whitaker is also the first person on the world feed to work as both a lead host and analyst, which she does for the DP World Tour’s high-profile Rolex Series events.
“I don’t think Alison realizes how good she is,” said Mould, “and maybe that’s a good thing because it drives her forward to try and be better.”
Whitaker is humble about the history and mostly wants to help other women join her on course and in the booth. She’s open to sharing all of her tricks and tips. And when the pressure gets to be too much, as it invariably does in a profession in which mistakes are amplified, she’s the first to offer those in her small girl gang a hug.
“The environment when I got into it was very competitive because there wasn’t enough room for more women,” said Whitaker. “It felt like there was one woman on each crew and everyone was quite defensive of their patch.”
She describes Thomas Bjorn as her security bear. He’s quick to make sure everyone is taken care of, she said, and will march into any room to make things happen. He’s even fought a few battles for Whitaker, just so she doesn’t have to.
“When you hang out with him, you can see why so many guys respect him and look to him as a leader,” she said. “I got to know that more after his Ryder Cup captaincy when I started to work with him more. He just gets things so right, and he takes care of you.”
Whitaker often works broadcasts without ever being seen on camera. (courtesy photo)
The team environment means much to Whitaker, a noted foodie and wine expert who can direct pals to brilliant food haunts around the world.
Whitaker notes that Scotland’s Ken Brown has a contagious laugh that can heard buildings over. He presented her a watercolor for Christmas – someone pulling a sleigh down a snowy street – and it became an instant treasure.
Richard Kaufman and Kate Burton were early mentors as she started covering the LET. Her goal every day was to find something that Kaufman didn’t know.
At the 2015 Solheim Cup, Whitaker sat in a box with Burton, who was working lead for the first time. At the end of the first day, Burton asked Whitaker to give her one thing she liked, and one thing she could work on for the next day. Learning how to take feedback is very hard to do, Burton explained, but it’s the only way to get better.
“What a massive lesson to learn,” said Whitaker. “Between the two of them, I got work ethic, and the secrets on how to try and improve.”
Of course, Whitaker’s favorite stories to tell are the ones when things didn’t go as planned. Like the time the air-conditioner died during the Joburg Open in South Africa and they had to put their phones in the fridge before finishing up a Sky Sports interview. Not to mention the black mamba curled up under the portable toilet.
“I hope to have a career of that,” said Whitaker. “I don’t want it to be too polished.”
Season 2 had some great moments, but producers lost the plot early on and dropped the ball at the Ryder Cup.
Zach Johnson’s Ryder Cup phone call to break the news to Keegan Bradley that he didn’t make Team USA is everything I hoped it would be and then some. You’ll have to wade through the first six episodes of Season 2 of “Full Swing,” but the wait is worth it.
The call is incredibly awkward, filled with nerves on both ends, Johnson telling Bradley “he’s amazing” as he goes full tilt into it’s not you, it’s me mode. It’s both heart-breaking and riveting TV to watch and the topper is Bradley’s classy response as he takes the news like a man. Bravo to “Full Swing” for giving the viewer this fly-on-the-wall, never-before-seen treat and the payoff is to see both Johnson and Bradley consoled in different ways by their spouses.
Earlier in Episode 6, after Bradley has won the Travelers Championship in June, the closest thing he has to a hometown event, the cameras capture Bradley, running on the highest of highs, whispering something into his wife’s ear. Wife Jillian fills us in that he said, “Do you want to go to Rome?” At that point it seemed very doable that Bradley will make the team but now in the finality that he’ll have to wait two more years and may never get a better chance to play in a Ryder Cup again, she tells their son, “Give your dad a squeeze.”
“Why?” he asks. “Because he needs it,” Jillian says.
It is raw and real and in the moment and if you’re a halfway decent human being you’ll start rooting for Bradley to make the next U.S. team. It is moments like this that make Season 2 better than Season 1. But then when the storyline turns to European captain Luke Donald’s picks we see him make the congratulatory calls to among others Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and to Justin Rose, who waits patiently kicking a soccer ball in his backyard with his son. After Donald hangs up, he says, “What a day!” That is it. No mention of who he overlooked. To not have Donald’s call to break the news to Adrian Meronk that he’s not going to Rome either was a major whiff, and it looks even worse when Meronk has gone on to admit that being passed over for the Ryder Cup is a main reason he jumped to LIV. I tabbed Season 1 as “good not great,” and Season 2 is better than good but still fell short of what it could be.
Season 2 follows a very similar story arc. The first season begins with the famous video of young Rory chipping balls into the washing machine and despite a turbulent year where he becomes the unofficial spokesman for the PGA Tour, it ends with him cast as this conquering hero who has endured all these arrows but still is triumphant at the Tour Championship and winner of the FedEx Cup. It makes for a nice, tidy ending except the golden trophy for the FedEx Cup isn’t the chalice he desires. He shed real tears on his wife’s shoulders after the putts failed to go down at the 150th British Open at St. Andrews.
Season 2 picks up early in 2023 in Phoenix with McIlroy as world No. 1. He’s full of confidence in his presser but one episode later, after missing the cut at the Masters and falling short at the PGA Championship in May, Rory is ready to go back to square one. The locker room scene justifies whatever they spent in production costs because it depicts Rory at his most vulnerable. It’s the equivalent of seeing Brooks Koepka’s insecurities in season 1 and the juxtaposition of the Rory we see at the start of the season and feeling lost in the locker room is powerful. Incredible get by “Full Swing” as I don’t think Rory would have spoken so openly around a scrum of journalists but he had to know millions of people were going to see him melting down in front of his manager and caddie with the cameras hovering nearby and rolling. Yet he doesn’t hold back.
Of course, the season will end in Episode 8 with McIlroy seemingly triumphant again as Europe wins the Ryder Cup. In between, the look into the highs and lows of his life – including feeling betrayed by Jay Monahan with the PIF agreement on June 6 and going after innocent bystander Jim “Bones” Mackay in the parking lot after Joe LaCava’s hat-waving celebration on 18 on Saturday of the Ryder Cup – is compelling to watch and richer thanks to the access he gives.
Episodes 3-5 are a mixed bag as we get to know Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim and the brothers Fitzpatrick – Matt and Alex – as well as catch up with the breakout start of Season 1, Joel Dahmen. If not for a few F-bombs and the like, you’d think you were watching “Inside the PGA Tour,” the house organ. It’s all too-packaged and a bit rah-rah for my taste other than Dahmen’s struggles with work-life balance as a new dad. I didn’t think it was possible but the player-caddie relationship of Dahmen and Geno Bonnalie is even more heartwarming. Their heart-to-heart near the end of Episode 3 personifies that line from “Golf in the Kingdom — “Men lovin’ men, that’s what golf is.” Find someone who loves you the way Geno loves Joel. (Geno’s wife also has a scene-stealer and may have missed her calling as a psychiatrist.)
The Ryder Cup episodes (6-8) are entertaining but instead of walk and talks with journalist Dan Rapaport and scene setters that add little and feel repetitive, how about showing Scottie Scheffler crying on his wife’s shoulders after getting waxed with Brooks Koepka Saturday morning, or explain the sickness that hit Team USA and Fowler sitting all day Saturday, or allow Donald to explain some of the strategic moves that led to Europe’s victory. There’s no insight provided. But we do hear Johnson say things like “there’s going to be a winner and a loser.” You don’t say? The staged interviews as a whole are weak; the best material is when the “Full Swing” cameras just happen to be hovering around as they were to hear Shane Lowry say, “We can slag the Americans, right?” and Fowler to lean in and say to Wyndham Clark on the 18th green after he just won the U.S. Open, “Your mom would be proud,” or another great fly-on-the-wall moment at the PGA Championship champions’ dinner when Thomas, the defending champ, raises a glass to Mito Pereira, “because this would not happen without him.” That’s the good stuff.
But in the next breath, I’m totally baffled by the bizarre decision to virtually abandon the PGA Tour-LIV storyline after the second episode. It’s only one of the biggest stories in all of sports and instead we’re spending the better part of an episode on how Alex Fitzpatrick has grown up in the shadow of his older brother. Somehow they lost the plot. In Season 3, that can’t happen. Dustin Johnson as the sole representative of LIV was a bad call, too. It was a real shame that Koepka declined to participate this time around and we only hear from his wife, Jenna. We need Phil Mickelson, we need Tiger Woods, we need Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan and after taking the money, Rahm would be incredibly compelling to get a window into his new life. Make it happen, Netflix.
The good news is the cameras are already rolling for Season 3.
Was it still too soon for Azinger to talk on this topic? It was not.
Paul Azinger is driving to Gator Creek Golf Club in Sarasota, Florida. He brought the fish for a fish fry and then he’s planning to peg it with his son-in-law and a couple of friends.
His mind is miles away from the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, what should’ve been the start of four straight weeks in his home state calling out whoever might be choking his guts out on the PGA Tour for NBC. But in November, the network elected not to renew his contract, ending his four-year stint as its lead golf analyst. (NBC Sports declined to comment for this story.)
Instead, Azinger has been hanging on his boat, fishing frequently, and getting ready to get “his elbows dirty” partnering with Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design to build the new riverside Miakka Golf Club in Myakka City, Florida.
“There’s always something to do, wash the wheels of your car,” he says during a phone conversation on Sunday. “It’s not too bad, and I’m not looking for a job either. I’ve had two full careers. I played the Tour for 30 years, I broadcast for about 18 years. I’m enjoying my life right now. I didn’t know I could enjoy it this much. I’m serious, I wake up with no schedule. It’s weird and it’s nice.”
And before he can be asked the obvious follow-up question, he adds, “I’m not missing golf in any capacity at all as a broadcaster. It’s hard work to be an analyst. It’s always stress and pressure. So I don’t really miss it that much. I just don’t like the way it ended.”
Before calling Azinger, one of my favorite people to talk about the game with, I wondered if it still might be too soon for him to talk on this topic.
