Ogilvy, who has started a golf course architecture firm, won the 2006 U.S. Open.
Paul McGinley had a trial run on NBC during the Hero World Challenge, the Tiger Woods-run event in Bahamas.
Coincidentally, just as Tiger prepares to tee it up again at this week’s PNC Championship, there’s more news regarding the vacant analyst role on the network’s golf coverage.
NBC Sports is eyeing Geoff Ogilvy to replace Paul Azinger with an announcement coming within the next week, according to a Sports Business Journal report.
Ogilvy turned pro in 1998 and went on to win eight PGA Tour events plus four on the now-DP World Tour. His high-water mark was claiming the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. A three-time member of the International Team in the Presidents Cup, he has also been a vice captain during the last three biennial competitions against the U.S. There’s still talk he’ll one day captain the Internationals.
Ogilvy is also busy with his budding golf course architecture firm, OCM, which is tasked with getting Medinah ready for the 2026 Presidents Cup outside of Chicago.
His answer: “I don’t really want to. Would you like to talk to Brandel?,” he quipped. “I like Brandel off camera. He came on our podcast (Fire Pit Collective) and he was great. He sounded like a human. He tries too hard to sound smart. His stats and research is over the top. You can’t tell him anything. But I guess that’s what is required from the analyst on a show like that. So, in that case, he probably does a good job. It’s just not really my speed.
When asked a follow-up about perhaps getting involved in a Manning-cast style golf show, Ogilvy said: “That would be fun. I’d do that during the majors. To me, I think that’s the future for golf on TV. Golf needs to do more of that.”
McGinley, 56, won four times on the DP World Tour and served as winning Ryder Cup captain for Europe in 2014.
NBC Sports is replacing one Paul with another in the booth – at least for one week.
Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley will be in the chair formerly occupied by Paul Azinger as the lead analyst for NBC during the Hero World Challenge, which begins on Thursday in Nassau, Bahamas. A spokesperson for the network confirmed the news to Golfweek after the Irish Independent was first to report.
Azinger had one event remaining on his contract that was up at the end of the year, but negotiations to renew stalled when Azinger countered and NBC reportedly pulled its offer and parted ways with the 12-time PGA Tour winner.
McGinley, a 56-year-old Irishman who won four times on the DP World Tour and served as winning Ryder Cup captain for Europe in 2014, is no stranger to American golf fans and to the Golf Channel/NBC team. He’s a longtime TV commentator for Sky Sports in Europe and has contributed to Golf Channel’s “Live From” show from the majors for the past two years.
McGinley will work in the booth with NBC lead anchor Dan Hicks and also team with analyst Curt Byrum in a three-man booth in what has the feel of a tryout.
The Independent noted, “McGinley’s [TV] future will likely depend on how he does in the Bahamas and future events over the next few months.”
“They obviously need a fill-in this week and as I’ve done some work with them this year and am part of the Comcast Group I’m filling in,” McGinley told Golf Digest. “That’s all. No more than that.”
Azinger had been NBC Sports’ lead analyst since 2019 following the retirement of Johnny Miller.
“We’re playing for record prize funds this year, we played for record prize funds last year.”
At the BMW International in early July 2022, Sergio Garcia reportedly went on an epic locker-room rant where he said, among other things, that the DP World Tour was in a world of hurt – only he used some more choice four-letter words – and that his fellow competitors should have taken the money from LIV Golf when they had a chance.
More than a year later, the DP World Tour is wrapping up a season in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in which it played for record purses and strengthened its strategic alliance with the PGA Tour and in June agreed to a framework agreement with the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Much remains to see how things will play out but longtime DP World Tour player, board member, 2014 European Ryder Cup captain and Golf Channel/Sky TV commentator is tired of hearing critics trash the deal.
“When you’re the little guy against an absolute giant that the PGA Tour is the odds are stacked against you,” McGinley said. “When a new titan comes on the pitch in terms of money like the Saudis and you’ve got one on each side and you’re the little guy in the middle you’re in a very precarious position.”
Europe players lift their captain Paul McGinley as he holds the trophy after winning the 2014 Ryder Cup.
The first decision the DP Tour faced goes back to the days of the PGL and the original alliance between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, which was announced nearly two years ago on Nov. 27, 2021, and for intents and purposes thwarted Andy Gardiner and his brainchild of the upstart PGL.
“Jay came in heavy,” McGinley told author Alan Shipnuck in his new book Liv and Let Die. “He showed us the color of his eyes.”
An unnamed PGA investor declared: “Monahan basically threatened to take all of their sponsors and said he would pump money into the purses of Tour events played opposite the Euro Tour’s flagship events so all the top Europeans stayed in the States. He might as well have parked tanks outside of Keithy Pelley’s office.”
According to Shipnuck, the European Tour had two top executives make their cases for the better deal, with Guy Kinnings advocating for the alliance with the PGA Tour and Rufus Hack pushing for the PGL merger. Shipnuck writes: “Monahan’s offer would give the European Tour a needed cash infusion without it having to sell its soul, while allowing the PGA Tour to thwart a formidable competitor for a reasonable price, part of the deal was that the European Tour would be barred from partnering with or supporting any other tour.”
The DP World Tour and PGA Tour extending its relationship, especially in terms of international events, was a critical decision in reshaping the trajectory of the tour.
“We had a big question to make: if we do nothing we’re going to slowly die, or we align ourselves with one of the titans,” McGinley mused. “Any venture capitalist will tell you it’s not just about money, particularly when you’re managing a members’ organization like we are. We had to balance up not only the financials but also the security and future of the European Tour. The Saudis were new on the pitch and it was difficult to assess how committed they were going to be long term and could they just disappear as quickly as they arrived on the scene. The chances of that were realistically strong.
“The idea of us aligning with the Saudis would’ve been a massive risk to our members because A, we would’ve pissed off the PGA Tour massively. They would’ve never done any business with us again; in fact, they would’ve gone out of their way to bury us. And B, if after a couple of years, the Saudis decided we’re losing money on golf, we’re out, we would’ve been at the mercy of those people and we would’ve been in a vulnerable position. I think we made a savvy decision and the path of least resistance and least risk to align with the PGA Tour. That was a very strong deal for us.
“The odds were heavily in our favor and we hitched our wagon and we did so knowing that the days of us going toe to toe with the PGA Tour are gone.”
To hear McGinley tell it, the PGA Tour’s business model has accelerated in the last five years, particularly because of TV rights. As a result, he’s convinced the European circuit never would compete with the PGA Tour again as it once did in its heyday.
Paul McGinley guides Europe to a Ryder Cup victory in 2014.
“These misty-eyed people who think, oh, the days of Seve and Langer, that’s bullshit, because the commercial model has exploded in the U.S., and hasn’t and it won’t in Europe,” McGinley said. “We had to deal with the dynamics that were in play and we’re at mercy of people being critical of it but they’re not being critical based on reality.”
Most of the critics ignore the fact that the board of the European Tour is incredibly strong.
Martin Gilbert, founder of Aberdeen Asset Management, one of the biggest funds in the world, is on the policy board and his world is assessing risk.
“Do you think when it came down to the nitty gritty that David Howell, Thomas Bjorn and myself were front and center in all of this? Absolutely not. We had experts in there on the board doing the deal,” he said. “We were well advised from the business point of view. It was a well-considered and thought-through deal that we did with the PGA Tour.”
McGinley is convinced the DP World Tour is in a stronger position and while the circuit’s fortunes still may be evolving, he argues that the European Tour weighed its options and found the safety of the PGA Tour to be a winning combination.
“The good news is by aligning with America we did a good financial deal and all our players committed to playing four events outside of the majors and the world events and continue to come back and play European Tour events,” McGinley said. “We’re playing for record prize funds this year, we played for record prize funds last year, and that’s guaranteed for the next 13 years. Tell me how that’s a bad deal for the European Tour. And we’ve minimized our risk. The PGA Tour isn’t going away in the next three years but potentially the Saudis could. We couldn’t take that risk. That would not have been proper due diligence for us as a members’ organization that represents 500 people.”
“If LIV plucks a bunch of guys off of the Tour as is rumored, why would I even watch the Ryder Cup?”
Rory McIlroy put it best during Team Europe’s Ryder Cup winner’s press conference: Winning a Ryder Cup on the road may be the hardest thing to do in sports.
Considering that the U.S. side hasn’t won on European soil since 1993 and the Euros needed the Miracle at Medinah to rally from a 10-6 deficit to do so in 2012, McIlroy has a good argument. The home team has held serve ever since but more troubling is the fact that you have to go back to the 2012 edition of the biennial competition for the last time we didn’t have a blowout. Sundays have largely been a foregone conclusion as to which side is going to win.
Want to make the Ryder Cup great again? How about giving arguably the two best captains of the modern era another shot behind the wheel to see if either of them can win on the road. In other words, Paul McGinley, who guided the Euros to a beatdown of the Americans in Scotland in 2014, as Europe’s captain in 2025 at Bethpage, and Paul Azinger, who was brilliant at the helm in 2008 in Louisville, in 2027 in Ireland.
When I proposed this scenario to Azinger, he chuckled and said, “That would be awesome.”
“McGinley was a brilliant captain, he really was,” Azinger said. “There’s only so much a captain can do but he has a huge responsibility to create an environment, to create a message and get his players to out-prepare the other team. I might have said to this U.S. Ryder Cup team that if you were in the top six (an automatic qualifier to the team) do whatever you want, you made it, but the next six, you have to play the week before or two weeks before or I’m not going to pick you. That’s the way it is, sorry. You have to promise me you’re going to play. Everyone knew they didn’t play enough going in. That to me was the biggest way they out-prepared us.”
Europe players lift their captain Paul McGinley as he holds the trophy after winning the 2014 Ryder Cup.
Azinger laughed when I said let either Tiger Woods if he wants the job at Bethpage or Stewart Cink or even Fred Couples take a turn in 2025 but let’s get going on 2027 to end this seemingly endless losing streak on the road. The idea of taking another bite at the captaincy? He says that ship has passed.
“I lobbied in 2010 to carry the flag and win the cup on the road. The PGA of America told me, ‘There’s more captains than there are Ryder Cups.’ I said, ‘OK, that’s fine.’ They chose Corey Pavin. Then they get (Tom) Watson and (Davis) Love again. I wanted that challenge but it was 17 years earlier. I think I’m passed due. I’ll be 67. It’s not fair to a guy like Stewart Cink. I think he’ll be an awesome captain. I’d roll in as an assistant captain. They’ve got a clique going now. It’s the result of the Task Force. Sometimes cliques are incredible. Let’s not forget they won the last Cup by 10 points but I think it’s time to break the clique up…I worry that Tiger is going to want Freddie and Davis and Strick again. I would like to see a different group be in there as assistants that can be future captains.”
McGinley echoed a similar sentiment that his window for a return engagement as captain has closed.
“I think we’ve certainly nailed the home template but we haven’t written the template for away from home. I like the way you’re thinking but I think my ship has sailed in that regard. I’m 10 years aways from being a captain, I’m 56 years old, there’s a certain disconnection with the current crop of players,” he argued.
But McGinley, too, recognized that winning on the road has become the white whale for Ryder Cup captains and it was something he once desired.
“I think it so much more difficult away and I’d have loved to have written the away template but I thought it was greedy to go again,” he said. “I knew there were a lot of guys waiting patiently behind me and I thought it would be unfair to go again.”
But what once was a backlog of potential captains has become a shortage due to LIV, which wiped out Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell and Paul Casey for Team Europe and Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and (eventually) Dustin Johnson from consideration. Let’s take this unique moment in time to determine once and for all which of these brilliant leaders of men can steer his team to victory away from home.
Azinger and McGinley both lived and breathed the job for two years and understood team dynamics better than anyone before or after in the captaincy role. Both are still active in their role as TV commentators and have a handle on the pulse of the game.
“I think I’d rather broadcast it, thank you, though,” Azinger said. “I think it’s really important at this point to have someone of their era who really knows the players.”
Who does he think should lead Europe into the hostile environment that will be Bethpage Black in 2025?
“It’s going to be contentious. Luke Donald is the perfect personality type. Otherwise, I would love to see Sergio (Garcia) but it will never happen. If I’m them, I’m bringing the most polished professional I can bring. If you can find anyone more polished and buttoned up than Luke, let me know,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be a big surprise if Luke was to go again,” McGinley added. “In an ideal world, you should do two captaincies – one home and one away. That would be a real test of the captain, wouldn’t it?”
Azinger expressed one concern for the Ryder Cup going forward: Will the U.S. be able to field its best team?
“I really fear for the next Ryder Cup,” he said. “If LIV plucks a bunch of guys off of the Tour as is rumored, why would I even watch the Ryder Cup? That’s the way I’m feeling about it. It’s just not America vs Europe anymore. I mean, it is, but it wouldn’t be our best players. I fear for the Ryder Cup because of LIV.”
You heard it here first: McGinley in ’25, Azinger in ’27. Let’s settle who is the best captain once and for all.
“I thought that was the perfect response,” said Will Zalatoris.
When the PGA Tour sent an email to its membership late Tuesday informing players that it had denied requests for a conflicting-event release to play in the LIV Golf Invitational Series inaugural event in London the same week as the Tour’s RBC Canadian Open, it was bound to become a topic of conversation at this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
“As a membership organization, we believe this decision is in the best interest of the PGA Tour and its players,” wrote Tyler Dennis, the Tour’s senior vice president and chief of operation.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said he had a busy night at home, woke up early and played his pro am and hadn’t had much time to process the Tour’s decision, but at first glance supported the move.
“I kind of figured that was something that would happen,” he said in his pre-tournament news conference ahead of the AT&T Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas. “If you’re playing here on the PGA Tour, playing in something that could be a rival series to the PGA Tour, being a member of our Tour, it’s definitely not something where we want our membership to do because it’s going to harm the tournament that we have opposite that and that’s, I’m sure that’s why they were, why they did not release the players. Because if we have 15 guys go over there and play that hurts the RBC and the Canadian Open.”
Will Zalatoris reacts after making a putt on the ninth green during the final round of the 2022 Zurich Classic of New Orleans in Avondale, Louisiana. (Photo: Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports)
Will Zalatoris, last year’s Rookie of the Year and a member of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council, has been involved in talks behind closed doors and fully backed the decision made by Commissioner Jay Monahan.
“I thought that was the perfect response,” Zalatoris said. “Because we’re in a great place, the Tour’s in the best spot it’s ever been, it’s only going to get better and why would we want to, why would we encourage our players to get releases for those events when essentially we have all these sponsors that are involved with the Tour and are only making it better and better. We’re trying to promote our best product possible and if you want to be a part of this where it’s only getting better and better, then you shouldn’t have it both ways. You have a choice, I mean, you really do. You can go if you’d like, but, you know, it is what it is.”
Justin Thomas has made it clear repeatedly that he’s interested in winning tournaments and creating a legacy in the game more than simply lining his bank account with more lucre.
“I would hope it would deter them from going over there,” he said. “I think Jay’s made it very clear from the start of what would happen or, you know, I think a lot of people are probably like, “I can’t believe you did this’ or, ‘Wow, you went through with it.’ But I mean this is what he said was going to happen all along. And, yeah, it’s one of those things to where he just doesn’t want the competing tour, the back and forth. You know, it’s like, Look, if you want to go, go. I mean there’s been plenty of guys that have been advocates of it and have just talked it up all the time and they have been guys behind the scenes that are saying, ‘I’m going, I’m doing this.’ And like my whole thing is, like just go then. Like stop going back and forth or like you say you’re going to do this, it’s like you can do — everybody’s entitled to do what they want, you know what I mean?
“Like if I wanted to go play that tour I could go play that tour. But I’m loyal to the PGA Tour and I’ve said that and I think there’s a lot of opportunity for me to, I mean, break records, make history, do a lot of things on the PGA Tour I want to do. And there could be people that want to make that change and it’s like you’re allowed to have that decision, you’re a human being and that’s just a part of it.”
Former European Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, who played most of his career on the DP World Tour, served as both a captain, Ryder Cup teammate and fellow competitor with many of the European players linked with joining the LIV series (including Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia among others) brings a Euro-centric perspective. He expressed his opinion in an interview Wednesday with SiriusXM and joined Scheffler, Thomas and Zalatoris in supporting the established tours, which announced a strategic alliance in 2020 and have been rumored to be discussing a closer relationship to fend off the Saudi threat.
“I’m not gonna make this personal, they’re all friends of mine,” McGinley said. “But I’m very much a traditionalist, I’m very much aligned with the PGA, DP World Tour and the major championships indeed in terms of retaining and improving the status quo that we have at the moment, which is, you know, every week that we have both European and PGA Tours. So I want to enhance that. I think we have commonalities between the two tours trying to enhance that, uh, get somewhat of a world schedule going together. I know there’s some talks gone on behind the scenes in that regard of those two major tours coming together and working more collaboratively going forward.”
LIV Golf, which Tuesday announced a $2 billion infusion to support its launch, has been touting exorbitant purses and guaranteed money to lure players to enter its events.
“I can somewhat understand and see where the guys are coming from. I mean, the amount of money that’s been put on the table is an incredible amount of, huge amount of money. And so late in their careers an opportunity to make so much money,” McGinley said. “In a lot of ways I can understand the enticement that they’ve been offered and why they would be interested in it. But it’s not certainly, personally from my point of view, the side of the fence that I’m on.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one pro who splits time on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour told our Eamon Lynch the following: “I’m for sure weighing up the pros and cons of making a jump like this. What Jay [Monahan] decides is a hugely important part of that. Asking permission to play an international ‘tour’ event is something I’ve done with the PGA Tour since I first took my card many years ago. I understand the initial construct of this LIV tour was destructive in nature if the PGA Tour didn’t want part of it. Here in the short term, the events are being scheduled to be as non-conflicting as possible which is difficult to do. As a player who plays multiple tours, conflicting events is something we always deal with and I don’t see how the LIV tour is any different until it’s 48 guys locked in for 14 events a season.”
