Peter Kostis – Syndication Server

Gary McCord talks PGA Tour vs. LIV, Ryder Cup road woes for the U.S. and good buddy Peter Kostis in this Golfweek Q&A

Golfweek caught up with the opinionated funnyman to discuss the state of pro golf.

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — Gary McCord has opinions. Not breaking any news here, but the long-time golf commentator is one of those guys that if you can get a microphone in front of, chances are you’re going to get a few gems.

The recent Arizona Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the Class of 2023 at Paradise Valley Country Club was a chance for many decision-makers, influencers, players past and present and more to mingle, and McCord was among the attendees.

Wearing a slick, patterned white sport coat and his signature mustache, McCord, 75, was first asked the obvious question: Why are you here?

“Peter,” he said. “Kostis. We’re buddies. We were at CBS for 30 something years. I brought him here to Arizona.”

Kostis was one of four inductees in the Class of ’23, including former PGA Tour player Howard Twitty as well as Judy McDermott and Wade Dunagan, two stakeholders who were influential in the grass roots of the game in southern Arizona.

McCord seemingly knows everyone, but it was Kostis that McCord spoke the most about. Does he remember the first time they met?

“Yea. We were doing the Ryder Cup in 1989. Can’t remember where it was,” he admitted. “It was a road game. We had a team over there for USA Network and he was on the team and so we started hanging.”

Did the two of you two hit it off right away?

“Yea. I knew him from the Tour and him teaching a lot of the guys,” McCord said. “He got tired of Florida so I called him and I said ‘You wanna come down [to Arizona]? I got a new place called Grayhawk. I’m going to start a golf school there, and I have no idea what to do.

“He said ‘Let me think about it’, and then he said ‘Yea, I’ll do it’ and he moved out here.”

McCord and Kostis both left CBS after the end of 2019 after their contracts were not renewed. These days, the duo has a YouTube channel called “Kostis and McCord: Off their rockers.”

Here’s the rest of Golfweek‘s chat with Gary McCord.

Peter Kostis on PGA Tour’s TV product, LIV Golf’s impact and three of the best shots he ever saw

Kostis goes 1-on-1 in this Q&A with Golfweek.

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — Before he was a golf analyst, Peter Kostis was a golf teacher.

He made the slow-mo swing analysis on CBS – officially the Konika-Minolta Biz Hub Swing Vision camera – a staple of the TV coverage but he was only able to let that shine because of his background as a golf instructor. Years of working with a variety of tour pros sharpened his eye and that proved invaluable on the air when you needed to make quick decisions.

“What he did was, when you’re teaching live, you gotta pick something out that that guy just did in a nanosecond,” said longtime CBS colleague and friend Gary McCord. “Then they throw it right back to you and you’re communicating now with the guys in truck and it’s like ‘Watch this, this is what he’s doing, this is why he’s hanging it to the right’, and you gotta do it (snaps fingers) that fast. You gotta do it succinctly. Your picture’s gotta be painted in two seconds and he was brilliant at that, brilliant at reading a guy’s golf swing and finding out why he’s going good or why he’s going bad.”

The duo were both let go by CBS near the end of 2019, their contracts not renewed by the network. They have since started their own YouTube channel called Kostis and McCord: Off their rockers.

Kostis, 76, was one of four people inducted into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2023 earlier this week at Paradise Valley Country Club.

Prior to the shindig, he chatted with Golfweek. Here’s the Q&A.

Forward Press podcast: Peter Kostis on Bryson’s game, the 2020 Masters

Former golf analyst Peter Kostis talks Bryson DeChambeau’s game and the 2020 Masters Tournament at Augusta National this November.

Welcome to episode 65 of Forward Press, a weekly podcast from your friends at Golfweek.

In this edition of Forward Press, Golfweek’s David Dusek chats with former golf analyst, Peter Kostis, about how much Bryson DeChambeau’s game will influence other pros and amateur golfers and the 2020 Masters.

You can download the podcast and listen on all of your favorite platforms, including: iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Castbox and Radio Public.

Like what you heard? You can catch up on previous episodes of the Forward Press podcast here.

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Peter Kostis speaks candidly about break with CBS, future of golf on TV

Former CBS analyst Peter Kostis touched on several topics this week when he appeared on a No Laying Up podcast.

Peter Kostis was an institution in televised golf – at least until CBS chose not to renew his contract for 2020. Perhaps no one is in a better position than Kostis, a CBS analyst since 1992, to analyze the future of golf broadcasts and the challenges networks face.

Kostis touched on several of those topics this week when he spoke on a No Laying Up podcast. He also spoke candidly to host Chris Solomon about his break with CBS and how much influence he believes the PGA Tour has in the network’s coverage.

Kostis, 73, touched on the way CBS delivered the news that his contract wouldn’t be renewed, and why he believed that decision was made. He said he believes that the Tour told CBS its broadcast team needed to get younger and that it served as an initial catalyst for change. He also believes the Tour took issue with him not being a “cheerleader” in his analysis and coverage.

News broke in October that neither Kostis nor Gary McCord would be returning to the network in 2020.

Asked by Solomon if he was aware of any documented performance issues that would have led CBS not to renew, Kostis had this to say:

“I asked (CBS Sports chairman) Sean McManus why he was doing it. Was it something I did or didn’t do, whatever? He said, ‘No, we just feel like things have gotten a bit stale and we want to go in a different direction.’ That was the exact quote. He denies it now but that was the exact quote and that’s what he told Gary as well, in a separate call.”

CBS declined to comment when reached by Golfweek.

On the No Laying Up podcast, Kostis also said he declined an on-air send-off that CBS had offered during the San Diego or Phoenix Tour stops. After some thought about the offer, he called back with his answer: “I’m not retiring. I’m not going to have a retirement party. You’re not renewing my contract so I’m not going to acquiesce to that.”

Kostis repeatedly referred to the Tour’s involvement in TV coverage and what he believes is a desire for both promotion of the product and control over it.

As an example, he referenced a post-round interview with a winner (whose name he did not give) who also happened to be a PGA Tour rookie. Kostis began with a question about the two-year Tour exemption and upcoming Masters start the player had just earned. He said he later received criticism from CBS – which had come from the Tour – for failing to preface the interview with a comment about the number of FedEx Cup points the player had won.

Kostis said he ignored the feedback and then pointed out that by the end of the season, he was no longer doing the post-round winner interview, even if he had been out walking with that player.

“I’m not going to be disingenuous and just pump up FedEx and be a spokesman for the Tour, I don’t work for the Tour,” he said.

He named cost as a major hurdle in the quality of Tour coverage going forward – particularly as rights fees soar – and explained that it affects everything from analysts (like himself and McCord) to experienced cameramen to number of cameras available.

The full No Laying Up podcast is available here.

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Peter Kostis opens up on seeing Patrick Reed improve his lie repeatedly

According to Peter Kostis, Patrick Reed has bent the rules before on multiple occasions.

Patrick Reed, who was already one of the most polarizing players in the world, faces a long year of heckling on the PGA Tour after he was caught improving his lie in a bunker during the Hero World Challenge earlier this year. Reed earned a two-stroke penalty for the gaffe, but denied that he cheated, claiming the violation was an accident.

According to longtime CBS broadcaster Peter Kostis, however, the incident in the Bahamas was not the first, second, or third time that Reed used his club to improve his lie.

Kostis, who was dropped by CBS along with Gary McCord for 2020, revealed during an appearance on the No Laying Up podcast that while he wasn’t in a position to out Reed for cheating on air per his guidelines as a broadcaster, he witnessed Reed take action to improve his lie on four separate occasions.

“This is kind of the unwritten rule, that we are there to report the story, not to be part of the story…. We could never call a penalty on a player, but we could comment if a penalty was called on a player. That’s the difference between reporting on a story and being a part of a story, right?

I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie up close and personal four times now. But putting…. You can go on YouTube. It’s the only time I’ve ever shut McCord up, he didn’t know what to say when I said ‘the lie that I saw originally wouldn’t have allowed for this shot.’ Because [Reed] put four, five clubs behind the ball, kind of faking whether he’s going to hit this shot or hit that shot – and by the time he was done, he hit a freaking 3 wood out of there. Which, when I saw it, it was a sand wedge layup originally, right?

I saw him, I was in the tower at 16 at San Diego on the par-3 during a golf channel telecast and he hit it over the green, and he did the same thing. Put three or four clubs behind…. and it was really a treacherous shot, nobody had gotten it close all day long from over there. And by the time he was done, I could read ‘Callaway’ on the golf ball from the tower.”

Kostis said that he isn’t sure if Reed was placing his club behind the ball to intentionally gain an advantage, but that he did not see other players use the same sort of tactics.

“But I can’t say anything. I can’t be the story, right? Now I’m done, I don’t really care. There was another incident at Hartford and another incident at San Diego. I was there and I saw them all…. I’m not even sure he knows that he’s doing it, sometimes. Maybe he does, I don’t know. I’m not going to assign intent.”

During a recent appearance on SiriusXM Radio, Brooks Koepka said he believed Reed was cheating and compared the situation to the Astros scandal.

“I think, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don’t know what he was doing, building sandcastles in the sand, but you know where your club is.”

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