No Phil, No Tiger, No Love: Big Names Won't Find Second Careers in TV Booths

Golf's money grab is too great to need a second career in TV, John Hawkins writes, so networks are leaning on younger personalities with lesser pedigrees.

Anyone who knew Davis Love III well as a player couldn’t have been surprised when he walked away from a broadcasting job with CBS in July 2020—barely six months after he’d started it. A man with diverse interests outside the game and a thriving course-design business within it, Love was by no means ill-suited for TV. He was simply unprepared for the grind.

The time commitment that comes with covering the PGA Tour for a major network is substantial, especially at CBS, which carries a majority of the West Coast swing, then every tournament but two (U.S. Open and British Open) from the Masters to the end of the regular season. Add the FedEx Cup playoffs, which CBS now televises as a bundle in an every-other-year arrangement with NBC—that’s 20 to 23 events over a seven-month stretch.

Love wasn’t ready for that type of workload. Having made just under $45 million in his 35 years as a tour pro, he probably didn’t need the money. “Go back to the four West Coast events,” he would say upon his departure. “I got off to a rough start and it just wasn’t working for me.” In acknowledging the mistake he’d made by joining CBS, then getting out before he got in too deep, Love exited the business with the class and dignity we’ve come to expect from him, but he also gave up television because he could.

Given the massive prize money awarded to top-tier tour pros nowadays, why would any current star even contemplate a TV career once their competitive days are over? Such wealth will only make the process of luring quality talent to the 18th tower costlier and more difficult; a Tiger Woods-infused senior circuit wouldn’t make matters easier.

Never mind asking any interested candidates to accept a lesser role in the telecast, as was requested of Love. It’s hard to imagine anyone with a handful of Tour victories and $60 million in the bank wanting to spend their weekends on the road, putting in four or five hours of prep work for every hour behind a microphone. Yes, it beats working, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to picking up $132,825 for a T15 against a weak field in Mexico.

Perhaps this helps explain the increased usage of on-ground reporters by both of the Tour’s primary carriers, a role that made Peter Kostis such an invaluable commodity during his 28 years at CBS. Two of the more recent network hires—Smylie Kaufman at NBC, Colt Knost at CBS—have quickly demonstrated a knack for providing viewers with information nobody in a booth can access.

Club selection, wind direction, strategical nuances ... everything sounds a bit more credible when it comes from someone who has followed the group all afternoon. Kaufman and Knost were floundering tour pros who gave up the ultimate quest to dispense insight on players who used to beat them on a regular basis. Both turned to TV at a relatively young age, and thus, probably cost their employers significantly less money than would the services of a more successful ex-player.

Both have proven to be worth every dollar they make. Of the six ground reporters currently working for CBS and NBC, only Dottie Pepper would earn classification as an elite player. The best announcer of the six, John Wood, was a Tour caddie for 24 years before NBC producer Tommy Roy invited him and longtime Phil Mickelson looper Jim Mackay to cover a 2015 fall series event in Georgia.

As a group, those foot soldiers have imparted a highly positive impact on golf telecasts in general—they all have something to say despite getting very little time to say it. It’s enough to leave us wondering if the game’s best golfers are essential to enhancing the quality of the overall product. Johnny Miller and Lee Trevino were two clear exceptions, perhaps because neither even reached $4 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour. In fact, the Merry Mex ranks 379th among the all-time money leaders—one spot behind Smiley himself. Greg Norman was a fabulous player but a bust in the booth. Sir Nick Faldo was a six-time major champion, if not the second coming of Henry Longhurst.

Ben Crenshaw struggled in his two seasons as CBS’s lead analyst (1996-97) and was replaced by Ken Venturi, another renowned player who often stumbled over his thoughts. He was succeeded by World Golf Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins, who somehow landed on the wrong side of his bosses for telling the truth. Lanny lasted five seasons before Faldo took the chair next to Jim Nantz, leaving the network without a strong lead voice to accompany its superb visual presentation.

So go figure. The vastly improved Trevor Immelman has quickly filled the pothole left by Sir Nick, which is to say the least-decorated golfer of the bunch has the potential to become a better announcer than any of his predecessors. If Love had hung on at CBS, there’s a pretty good chance he would have gotten the lead job over Immelman, regardless of how much he progressed. The same job that forged an overt link between Phil Mickelson and the Tiffany Network in the summer of 2020, when Lefty joined Nantz and Faldo in the booth at the PGA Championship.

That’s right. The week after Love submitted his resignation, Mickelson climbed the steps behind the 18th green at Harding Park for what many perceived as an impromptu audition. Never had a spur of the moment looked so planned, but all’s well that ends well, even if it takes three left turns to get there.

Immelman landed the most challenging job in golf and has proven himself eminently capable of handling it.

Mickelson sold his popularity for a Saudi fortune, but only after claiming his sixth major title at the 2021 PGA.

DL3? He definitely went fishing. Not once did he lament the big one that got away.