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Michelle Wie, Trevor Immelman joining CBS Sports as network continues golf overhaul

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 18:42:52 +0000

Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

By Joel Beall
Michelle Wie and Trevor Immelman are joining CBS Sports, as the network continues to retool its coverage for 2020.

CBS announced a flurry of moves on Tuesday morning, weeks after parting ways with mainstays Peter Kostis and Gary McCord, and adding Davis Love III, with Wie the biggest name in the announcement. Though her role is vague—a statement said Wie “will contribute to CBS Sports’ multimedia golf coverage this season, including the Masters”—Wie’s transition to media has been expected, as mounting injuries have sidelined her playing career. During the Solheim Cup in September, Wie appeared on Golf Channel as a guest analyst in the network’s Orlando studio.

Immelman, the 2008 Masters champ, is considered a rising star in the broadcasting ranks, excelling in his limited appearances in the booth. Immelman, 39, will be contributing as an analyst during PGA Tour, Masters and PGA Championship presentations.

Other notable moves in the CBS announcement include:

• Frank Nobilio, who has been with CBS for five seasons, has been promoted to a full-time role.

• Dottier Pepper was promoted to lead on-course reporter.

• Andrew Catalon will see an increase in responsibilities, including hosting duties at select events.

• Coach Mark Immelman will have an expanded role during the PGA Tour season, while also contributing to CBS multimedia coverage of the Masters and PGA Championship.

Jim Nantz, Nick Faldo, Ian Baker-Finch and Amanda Balionis are returning in their respective roles for 2020.

CBS Sports’ next broadcast is the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in late January. The network’s contract with the PGA Tour ends in 2021, although CBS is one of multiple entities bidding for future media rights.

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Players Championship 2019: Brandel Chamblee explains the tournament-saving drop Tiger Woods could have taken

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 06:04:18 +0000

By Alex Myers
In a recent Golf Digest story, PGA Tour pros and caddies gave their thoughts on re-teeing or playing from the drop area after finding the water on TPC Sawgrass’ 17th hole. Neither is a fun option, particularly for a player having to gather himself after taking a penalty that will undoubtedly be, um, splashed across NBC/Golf Channel’s coverage. But what if we told you there’s a little-known third option? And it’s one that could have potentially saved Tiger Woods’ tournament chances on Friday.

Long after Woods carded a second-round 71 that included a disastrous quadruple bogey on the infamous par 3, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, David Duval, and Frank Nobilo broke down a different drop Tiger could have taken. Since his ball landed on the green and rolled through an area marked with a yellow penalty area line before trickling into the pond, Woods could have played his third shot from the walkway that leads to the island green. And he could have walked away making a much, much better score than 7.

Although usually, this option would make for a similarly tricky shot as the 80-yard pitch Woods opted for, with a back-centre pin, Chamblee explains that Woods could have wound up with about a 30-foot par putt through the fringe. Instead, he one-hopped his shot from the drop area into the pond as well, and until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, his two Bridgestones were the only golf balls that got wet on a day when the hole played easy to a 2.92 stroke average. Anyway, here’s the late Friday segment from Golf Channel’s Live From:

https://twitter.com/mollysolomon_gc/status/1106742255895932929

And here’s a photo Chamblee posted of the potential par putt Woods could have had:

Preparing for our segment last night, I sent this pic to the rules official to make sure we had it right. Tiger could have had a 30 foot putt for par through the fringe on 17 yesterday. The most dangerous hole in golf addles the brains of all us sooner or later. pic.twitter.com/0UKOGWNN60

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) March 16, 2019

In the clip, Duval says he reached out to Tiger and that he told him he wasn’t aware of that option. Ouch. Within two shots of the lead at the time, Tiger tumbled off the leader board and will enter the weekend nine shots behind leaders Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.

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Who will replace NBC’s Johnny Miller when he retires?

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 06:23:53 +0000

We offer up a few candidates including one notable flyer (Phil Mickelson, anyone?)

By John Strege
Johnny Miller’s currency as NBC’s golf analyst for nearly 30 years is that he is largely unfiltered, that whatever he is thinking he is saying, and it was evident from the outset. It began with the thought heard ‘round the golf world.

“This is absolutely the easiest shot to choke I’ve ever seen in my life,” Miller said as Peter Jacobsen faced a challenging second shot to the 18th green on the 72nd hole of the 1990 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, with the tournament on the line.

The Dreaded “C” Word, he called it in his memoir, “I Call the Shots.” From the backlash (“You’d think I’d exposed warts on Miss America,” he wrote), one might have surmised he was in violation of the FCC’s Obscenity, Decency and Profanity clause.

Love him or hate him, Miller, 71, set a high and entertaining bar, and should he decide to retire after the Ryder Cup, as he has hinted he might do, his will be a tough act to follow.

The question then becomes, by whom will he be followed? Let the speculation begin.

Several names immediately come to mind and are familiar to golf viewers, and in no particular order include David Feherty, Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo, David Duval, Geoff Ogilvy, Justin Leonard, Colin Montgomerie and even Paul Azinger, currently with Fox Sports.

Arguments could be made either for or against each of them, depending on who is doing the arguing, but this much seems certain: There is no obvious choice.

So we turned to an authority on televising golf, Terry Jastrow, who emphatically insists there is an obvious choice.

“The preemptive No. 1 answer to it, which is the home run, I’d launch an all-out assault on Phil Mickelson,” Terry Jastrow said.

We did not see that coming.

A protege of sports and news television legend Roone Arledge, Jastrow is a winner of seven Emmys and produced or directed more than 60 major championships for ABC Sports, including the 1990 U.S. Amateur that Mickelson won.

Jastrow disclosed that he has a friendship with Mickelson and his wife Amy (he produced and directed an instructional video for Mickelson, as he has done for other notables), but that does not disqualify him from making an interesting case.

“I learned so much about television sports from the altar of Roone Arledge,” Jastrow said. “He was a big advocate of the personality of the announcer. It wasn’t just the context with regard to their expertise of the event, but how fun he was. He hired Dave Marr, who was at Winged Foot where Roone played. Marr was a good friend of Frank Gifford’s.”

Gifford was among Arledge’s closest friends, and Marr often joined them for dinners at Jimmy Weston’s or Toots Shor’s in New York City. “And he found out what a great personality [Marr] was. For different reasons, the same with Bob Rosburg. He was a ball.

“We used to bring Phil to the booth with Jack Whitaker and Dave Marr. You know he’s hugely intelligent, very articulate. Been there, done that. But nobody is more fun to have a four-hour dinner with, a four-hour dinner and two bottles of wine with, than Phil.”

Gregory Shamus
Mickelson would be a long-term play who would ease his way into the booth.

Mickelson, however, remains competitive, even at 47—he won the WGC-Mexico Championship earlier this year and made the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He is determined to continue competing, largely in pursuit of the elusive U.S. Open victory.

“I’d go to Steve Loy [Mickelson’s agent] and make a preemptive bid for Phil,” Jastrow said. “He’s likely to be less available just now, but more available over time. I don’t know how interested he’s going to be in the PGA Tour Champions. But I would go to Steve Loy and say, ‘We want to be Phil’s television home for the rest of his life in golf.’ I’d give him as much work as I could now and over time he’d be playing less and you’d be getting more.

“You’ve got to get out ahead of it. Otherwise you’ve got to line up with six other guys [trying to hire him]. Phil’s trying to win the next U.S. Open, but you’ve got to go in and get him for the future. When we hired Nicklaus, we did it on this basis. Look, play all you want, but when you’re done come be with us.”

Nicklaus worked U.S. Open telecasts from 1986 through 1994 and PGA Championships from 1986 through 1990 for Jastrow and ABC.

Another point working in Mickelson’s favor: He’s a major champion. It is not necessarily a requirement, Jastrow said, “but it’s a de facto responsibility that you have major championship winners talking about major championships. You’re not going to have a .120 hitter on talking about how the greatest hitters hit.”

Historically major champions have gotten the 18th hole analyst’s chair, whatever the network. CBS, for instance, has gone from Ken Venturi to Lanny Wadkins to Nick Faldo, while NBC had Lee Trevino before Miller took over. Paul Azinger was the lead analyst with ABC and ESPN, before moving over to Fox to replace Greg Norman.

For those keeping score, that’s eight claret Jugs, four U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships and three green jackets among them.

Dom Furore
Azinger is with Fox, but given he only works a handful of events, perhaps he could be lured away.

It is unknown what the hierarchy at NBC/Golf Channel is thinking, should Miller retire. Understandably, executives there won’t comment. And it’s possible Miller could be persuaded to come back for another year, maybe with a reduced schedule.

But if he isn’t …

Some consider Azinger the best tournament analyst working today. Yet he works only a handful of USGA events for Fox and might welcome the broader audience he once had at ABC. One unknown and a potential obstacle is whether his contract is an exclusive with Fox. Then again, contracts can be bought out.

Chamblee, meanwhile, does not have a major championship, but he has become the preeminent studio analyst for Golf Channel. Studious and opinionated, he, like Miller, is wholly unafraid of the backlash for offering unpopular opinions. In this business, a thick skin helps.

There’s no major on Nobilo’s resume, either, and he also works tournaments for CBS, but he is an astute analyst for Golf Channel and an occasional sparring partner for Chamblee, entertainingly so.

Feherty has only a major sense of humor, but he is smart and witty and likely would flourish on a larger stage. Montgomerie is a World Golf Hall of Famer, though without a major, and, as one player noted, can be just as unwittingly polarizing as Miller has been. Kudos to him for that.

Duval, a British Open winner and once ranked No. 1 in the world, has the playing chops and has joined Golf Channel’s first team of studio analysts. Leonard, too, has a claret jug and a stellar playing record and has shown a knack for working tournament broadcasts. Ogilvy is as perceptive and thoughtful as anyone in golf, but he is only 41, presumably still interested in playing, and is moving his family to Australia.

It is all speculative, of course, but if you’re going to speculate, go big. And no one in this conversation is bigger than Phil Mickelson.

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Golf Channel trio takes USGA to task for U.S. Open course setup: ‘Sadly, we took a step back’

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:54:07 +0000

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

ByJohn Strege
When you’re looking for unfettered analysis of a controversy, in this case the setup of Shinnecock Hills for the third round of the U.S. Open on Saturday, best to look elsewhere than the rights holder, Fox Sports, and its long-term contract to air USGA events.

Not that Fox did not cover its bases on reporting the controversies, but unfettered should send you to Golf Channel’s “Live From the U.S. Open.” Its formidable trio of Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo and David Duval did not disappoint, by declining, predictably, to temper their opinions. Where to even start?

We’ll start with Nobilo’s summation: “I know a razor edge is a very, very fine line. We’ve got to broaden that line. It’s not like what happened back in 2004 [the last Open held at Shinnecock], but it’s eerily close. This week we took a step forward coming back to Shinnecock, but today, sadly, we took a step back.”

Chamblee, true to form, began with statistics, noting that the first five groups’ average score was 73.2 and the last five was 76.7. He acknowledged the added pressure of those in contention, but countered with the fact that their form had been substantially superior over the first 36 holes.

So, stand back. Here he goes:

“We should not be talking about the condition of the golf course, the setup of the golf course,” he said. “What we should be talking about is who played the best today, why they played the best, and not because their tee time gave them some significant advantage over people playing late.

“If indeed they got the first round right given the harsh conditions and indeed the second round was without controversy, the USGA is now one for three. That may get you in the Hall of Fame in baseball, but it is far below of what is acceptable when you’re setting up a golf course.

“Look at the controversy at Chambers Bay [U.S. Open site in 2015] and again here. That’s two out of the last three U.S. Open that have called into question their integrity. It doesn’t happen at any other major championship. But it consistently happens here. Why? Because the agronomy today, the success that they’ve had is inconsistent with the architecture of the past. They can simply get greens too fast for the way they were designed.

“I was at a course superintendent meeting about four, five six years ago, and they were talking about how bad the Stimpmeter has been for the game of golf. Almost universally the course superintendents agreed. They thought there was far too much pressure to keep the greens at a level that was inconsistent with the great designs that were a hundred-some odd years ago. What happened? Two-thousand-four, 14 years ago, they promised us it wouldn’t have happened again. Well, it happened again. Promises, they didn’t hold water.”

Duval’s point was that USGA officials were comfortable with how the course was set up for the morning groups. “But you know it’s going to change, you know it’s going to speed up,” he said. “So if you like it then, doesn’t that mean you’re probably not going to like it in the afternoon if it’s set the way you want it at nine or 10 in the morning? That’s a question I have a little bit of a problem with.

“I believe that you’ve got to have a little bit of leeway, a little bit of cushion, in how you set them up in case things like this happen today.”

Nobilo had the last word. “Just to put a bow on it,” he said, “the world number one, Dustin Johnson, come off an unbelievable run of form lately, he was honest to a fault. He said, ‘I played pretty good.’ Best player in the world. Didn’t blow that out. He shot 77. Is that how we want golf?”

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Golf Channel analysts agree that Rory McIlroy, with Grand Slam within reach, not ‘immune from pressure’

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 05:45:30 +0000

Rory McIlroy sizes up his second shot from the pine straw well right of the first fairway in the final round of the Masters. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

By John Strege
Honesty is the currency of sports analysts, who forfeit credibility when they pull their punches. Johnny Miller has had a long and successful second career as an analyst for NBC for throwing verbal haymakers that often included his use of the otherwise forbidden word, choke.

The C-word, as its euphemistically called by others, was not used by the Golf Channel crew in its assessment of Rory McIlroy’s final-round 74 in the Masters on Sunday, depriving him again of completing the career Grand Slam. His was the only over-par score shot by those who finished in the top 16.

But the Golf Channel analysts — Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo and David Duval — candidly noted that McIlroy did not handle the pressure well.

“I was surprised,” Duval said. “I expected a lot more from Rory today. Goes to show that nobody’s exempt from the pressures and the crunch of trying to win major championships, let alone complete the career Grand Slam. You could definitely see there was a bit of some hold-on in his golf swing, some hold-on in his putting stroke, the free-flowingness that he had at Bay Hill and through the first three days here. It was a little tighter and you expect it to be a little tighter. But I expected a lot more today than he showed us.”

And it began with his opening tee shot that was so far right it flirted with out of bounds.

“That was probably the worst tee shot in the final round of a major, in the final group of a major, that I’ve ever seen or probably ever will see,” Chamblee said.

“Every athlete is looking for that perfect balance between caring and not caring. Sometimes you get there by accident, sometimes you get there through effort, but it’s always ephemeral. It’s like you get invited into heaven, but there’s a bouncer there and he’s going to kick you out.

“And I listened to him [Saturday] night and it was obvious to me that he was really trying hard to defer the pressure. I thought it said volumes about the pressure he was feeling. And it was evident from the very first swing he made today.

“You do not forget that tee shot off one. You don’t. There’s a crucial role for amnesia…you really need to be able to forget those things. But that’s a really hard shot to forget.”

Nobilo called it “the worst swing I’ve seen him make all week. And he was lucky it didn’t go out of bounds. If it had gone out of bounds that might have been better, to be honest. And re-tee and say, ‘where did this come from?’

“The occasion was probably far bigger than what even we realize taking everything else into consideration. If you go through his whole round I don’t think you find three good swings in a row.

“He’s a great player. He shoots 68 and we’re talking about — you said [only] 12 men have walked on the moon — it would have been just the sixth [grand slam] in the hundred-plus years that we’ve had golf at this level. It’s rarefied air so I guess he’s very human and he showed that today.”

McIlroy, who trailed winner Patrick Reed by only one shot through two holes on Sunday, ended up six shots back. He hit only eight of 14 fairways and eight greens in regulation.

“There’s no way around it,” Duval said. “Hitting eight greens in the final round will never get it done. This is going to be a tough one. It’s going to keep stacking on as the years go by as he doesn’t win this one. And there’s no one to say that he will for sure. We all believe he will. We all believe he can play this golf course and we all believe he will probably win it, but it doesn’t mean he will.”

“Nobody’s immune from pressure,” Chamblee said finally. “Ben Hogan had a three-shot lead here in 1954, shot 75. In ’52 he was tied for the lead and shot 79. There was no Golf Channel back then to sit around and dissect, ‘is Ben Hogan losing his mind or his golf swing? Is he ever going to win again?’ Unfortunately now with all the money they make comes the scrutiny.”

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