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.
The network’s featured broadcasts will be the 2024 NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa.
NBC Sports announced its college golf schedule for spring 2024, featuring nearly 150 hours of broadcasting on Golf Channel and Peacock.
The network’s featured broadcasts will be the 2024 NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California, though multiple regular-season events leading up to the postseason will also be shown live.
Starting next week, the Darius Rucker Invitational, one of the top women’s tournaments of the season at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, kicks off coverage with live coverage from 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. ET Monday to Wednesday.
Then, the Western Intercollegiate takes place in April at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California. It will be live April 15-17 from 7-10 p.m. ET.
For the second year, the PGA Works Collegiate Championship will be shown on Golf Channel, taking place at TPC Sawgrass in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida. It will be on May 6-8 from 3-6 p.m. ET.
Then it’s time for the NCAA Championships. The women will be broadcast from 6-10 p.m. ET May 20-22 with the men going at the same time from May 27-29.
The Florida men and Wake Forest women will defend their titles at Omni La Costa, which begins its first year of a three-year contract to host the NCAA Championships.
The European Ryder Cup captain will get plenty of air time.
In its continued search for a replacement in the broadcast booth, NBC has tabbed Luke Donald for the role of lead analyst for the next two PGA Tour events, the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The official announcement came as expected on Sunday.
Donald, the victorious 2023 European Ryder Cup captain who again will lead the team in 2025 at Bethpage Black, is the latest in a line of current golfers or commentators to serve as lead analyst on NBC’s coverage of the PGA Tour, as the network continues to look for a full-time replacement for Paul Azinger.
Announcers openly booing players? Acceptable at the WM Phoenix Open.
And there were no shortage of boos Saturday afternoon and evening at TPC Scottsdale, especially on the 16th tee box. The rowdiest hole in golf is known for good shots being praised and bad ones being ridiculed.
But the announcers getting in on the fanfare? That’s what Smylie Kaufman and Kevin Kisner did on Saturday’s broadcast. NBC Sports set the duo up a few yards from the 16th tee box, and from the first tee shot, they provided a different type of commentary than we’ve seen from an NBC broadcast in some time.
Sure, Colt Knost and Amanda Renner have set up shop on this hole in previous years and done a stellar job, but with the CBS crew having the week off thanks to the Super Bowl, it was NBC’s time to showcase something new.
They may have struck gold.
Fans chimed in on social media in support of the duo and their non-stop debauchery from the 16th tee. Kisner even had a football he would pass to players for them to toss into the crowd, but the duo didn’t hold back commentating on the golf.
They praised good shots and boo’ed bad ones. They were clearly having fun, and the excitement of the 16th hole truly came through on the broadcast.
Kevin Kisner and Smylie Kaufman on the 16th tee box. (Photo: NBC Sports)
Here’s some of the best reactions to the duo making their debut from the tee box.
“Saudi Arabia is involved with almost everything in the world. That whole argument is kaput in my opinion.”
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Kisner always has talked a good game.
After being widely praised for his TV commentating debut for NBC/Golf Channel at The Sentry in Hawaii, Kisner is back behind a mic this week at the WM Phoenix Open. He’ll take part in a four-man booth paired with host Dan Hicks and alongside Steve Sands and Brad Faxon, flipping odd and even holes. On the weekend, he’ll be stationed at TPC Scottsdale’s iconic par-3 16th alongside Smylie Kaufman and 20,000 rowdy fans and said he just hopes he can hear himself. If ever there was a week that Kisner could openly roast players as only he can do, this is the week.
“That’s what I’m definitely doing,” he said in a phone interview on Thursday.
Kisner wishes Boo Weekely could get a turn in the booth — wouldn’t that be something! — riffs on the PGA Tour’s new business moves and how everyone thinks they’re part of the media these days. That and more from Kis in a rollicking Q&A that ain’t no hobby.
“It was awesome because the ball comes to him in the middle of them talking, he kind of fumbles it, ends up getting the guy out at first and says, you know, ‘Hey, I’ve been lazy lately, I didn’t get my knee down or whatever,’” Homa said. “I was like, man, I just learned a lot in 15 seconds.”
The pitch was simple: let’s bring that same idea to golf. Homa realized he and his fellow players weren’t just athletes but also entertainers, so he took the bait and played the role of guinea pig during the third round of last year’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on the par-5 13th hole.
One of the most outgoing players on Tour, Homa – who was in fourth place at the time at 7 under – spoke with CBS analysts Trevor Immelman, Ian Baker-Finch and Frank Nobilo about the hole and how he planned to attack it. With an iPhone and an AirPod, Homa helped usher in one of the best golf broadcast innovations since shot tracer.
“I thought it was good to have insight on the golf course,” Homa said after his round in 2023. “Obviously it’s going to take us as players being a lot more flexible, but this is an entertainment product and that means we should entertain.”
“If it makes you super uncomfortable, that’s all good, but it wasn’t so bad, that was the first rendition,” he continued. “Hopefully, like I said, people at home appreciated it and enjoyed it because I just think it’s a little different than an interview. You’re learning about a hole, about not just the player but about the tournament and the golf course and what it takes to be playing, you know, high-level competitive golf.”
Sellers Shy, the lead golf producer for CBS Sports, said last year the walk-and-talk is now “a box we have to check every week,” but players like Xander Schauffele were hesitant to partake at first as many thought it would negatively impact their round and take their focus off the task at hand. Homa was quick to throw water on that fire as he went on to win the tournament the next day.
“I think that the walk-and-talk at least was kind of something risky and different, but I think it turned out quite good,” Homa said earlier this week ahead of his title defense. “I’m sure there’s other variations that we could do, but just in general I think that’s kind of the direction at least, I’ll just speak for myself, I’d like to see golf go do. It’s not too crazy, it’s not too unbelievable to have people do something like that. I thought that it was nice. I mean, it’s nice to do it and then win and then look at people who said it might be distracting and then at least have that to say.”
Homa has some ideas for what the next entertainment innovations could be but didn’t share specifics. He did, however, praise MLB for its new pitch clock and the NBA for the in-season tournament.
“They seemed really extreme,” Homa said at first. “Yeah, it was a jump and it was a stretch, but it worked … so as crazy as those things sounded, I – as a fan of those sports – was like really pleased with what I saw.
“I just think trying stuff to entertain is really what the point of this all is,” he added, “just kind of evolving and being creative and things of that nature.”
Which begs the question, what comes next?
The NFL will have players wear a mic for an entire game, and then producers pick out the highlights to air during downtimes on the broadcast or as bumpers before and after commercials. Despite Homa’s success at the Farmers and Nick Taylor’s triumph at the RBC Canadian Open after doing a final round walk-and-talk, many players still don’t feel comfortable wearing a mic for one hole, let alone an entire round.
“We imagine that every single word we’re saying is being broadcast and it’s just not very comfortable,” said Homa, who also pleaded for his fellow players to get out of their comfort zones to give back to the viewership so that it gives them not just a reason to watch, but a reason to keep watching.
We’ve heard Homa, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Min Woo Lee and more on the mic, but it truly doesn’t matter who’s participating. Almost any player or caddie, no matter how outgoing they may or may not be, can provide the viewer with a level of expertise they simply don’t possess. The more who get involved, the better off the broadcast will be.
Outside the ropes and up in the tower, NBC has yet to replace Paul Azinger with a full-time color analyst. Instead, the network has opted to use a rotating cast of voices including Kevin Kisner, Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley. The fresh voices have each brought something new to the broadcast and have kept the early-season events from going stale. Whether they meant to or not, avoiding a rushed hire has been an added benefit to the broadcast.
Maybe caddies will wear a mic next to help call the action. An on-the-range segment where players discuss what they’re working on would be interesting. What about an alternative show, similar to Monday Night Football’s ManningCast, for some of the marquee events?
There’s no shortage of ways for the game to modernize and entice its growing fan base. Like Homa said, the players and executives calling the shots just need to get out of their comfort zones.
O’Neal played on the then-fledgling Symetra Tour, then joined TV’s “School of Golf” show in 2015.
Blair O’Neal had a successful youth golf career that included highlights such as winning the 1997 Arizona Junior Golf Association Ping Phoenix Junior Championship, being a member of the 1997 U.S Junior Ryder Cup Matches and the AJGA West Canon Cup Team, and playing for the Arizona State golf team. Twice she was NCAA long-drive champion.
What helped O’Neal get back into golf was a chance to appear twice on the Golf Channel’s Big Break. She finished second at Prince Edward Island despite having only a month to prepare. She won in the Dominican Republic. She played on the then-fledgling Symetra Tour, which began in 2004, then joined the network’s “School of Golf” show in 2015.
A participant in the 2024 Tournament of Champions, O’Neal made headlines in the 2020 edition of the event when she played while six months pregnant. She finished sixth, playing from the same set of tees as the men.
“I figured it would be a really cool experience to be able to look back on and say that I did it with my little baby,” she said with a smile that lit up the Four Seasons Orlando.
Her first son, Chrome, was born later in 2020 and she had a second son, Canon, in 2022.
Aside from making regular appearances on Golf Channel, O’Neal has played in numerous celebrity golf tournaments and has been a popular influencer with more than a half-million Instagram followers.
As NBC Sports continues its search for a full-time analyst to work alongside Dan Hicks in the booth for its coverage of the PGA Tour, a familiar name will be in the seat at this week’s American Express in La Quinta, California.
Brandel Chamblee will assume the role of lead analyst for this week’s coverage. Terry Gannon will have play-by-play duties, as the duo will lead the coverage on Golf Channel and Peacock.
Four-time PGA Tour winner Kevin Kisner was in the booth at The Sentry, and longtime analyst Curt Byrum took over last week at the Sony Open in Hawaii as NBC Sports looks to fill the role formerly occupied by Paul Azinger.
Paul McGinley called the action at the Hero World Challenge in early December. Chamblee is the latest in what appears to be a rotating cast of characters, but he has appeared plenty before for NBC Sports, including at the Open Championship.
Seven years ago, Smylie Kaufman and Jordan Spieth had a rough time on a kayak in the Pacific Ocean.
Following their first round of play in the 2017 Sony Open in Hawaii, the duo took a kayak out on the water near Waialae Country Club in Honolulu to do some fishing. However, the waves had a different idea.
There’s some epic video of the two being tossed around, losing a lot of the gear and personal items they had on the kayak. Nevertheless, they were laughing the whole time and it made for incredible footage.
On Friday during the second round of the 2024 Sony Open in Hawaii, Kaufman had his chance at redemption. He got back into a kayak, with a microphone in hand on the Golf Channel during live coverage, and called golf shots on the par-3 17th, which runs next to the ocean.
Kisner joined Smylie Kaufman’s podcast to detail his first broadcast appearance and had some great stories to tell.
NBC’s lead golf producer Tommy Roy has been interested in Kevin Kisner as a broadcaster for some time and told him the opportunity was available whenever the fan-favorite was ready to quit playing.
After a quiet fall, Roy approached Kisner at Sea Island in Georgia and called him a week later to get his schedule so they could find a time for Kisner to try out on the mic.
“I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to Honolulu to play so I can do Maui,’” said Kisner. “(Roy’s) like, ‘Alright, perfect. I’ll see you there.’ I was like, what? Next day I know I’m talking to a guy about a contract.”
The four-time PGA Tour winner made his first of two appearances for NBC and Golf Channel at last week’s PGA Tour opener, The Sentry, and received rave reviews from media and fans. Kisner, 39, will also be on the call for the WM Phoenix Open later this year. Before making his first start of the new Tour season at the Sony Open in Hawaii this week, Kisner joined fellow player-turned-commentator Smylie Kaufman on his podcast to talk about his broadcast debut.
Kisner said he called his wife because he didn’t think he could do the job after watching what happened behind the scenes for an hour during Thursday’s first round but stuck it out and joined the broadcast on Friday. He was funny, told great stories about the players and brought a new element to a broadcast that has grown stale over the last few years.
“From what I heard, having a guy that’s been in there close with the guys recently, it helped. I’ve got stories on all of them because I’ve been around, now some of these young guys I don’t have any stories on,” Kisner said. “If (Akshay Bhatia) went and got hot (Sunday), I’d have probably just sat there twiddling my thumbs the whole day. I don’t have any dirt on him yet. But it was nice to have some of the guys I know well rolling and that I could pull from my old memory bank.”
