By Alex Myers
The European Tour announced on Thursday that fans will be able to see live golf again when play resumes July 22. Turns out, fans will be able to hear a lot more of the action then as well.

BBC Sport reported European Tour players will be encouraged to wear microphones for tournament rounds during the six-event U.K. Swing that begins with the British Masters. What was seen as a nice twist to golf coverage for Sunday’s The Match, will become “the way of life” for future events, according to the tour’s chief executive, Keith Pelley.

RELATED: European Tour announces six-event U.K. Swing

“Covid-19 allows you permission to try things a little bit differently,” Pelley told BBC Sport. “I think you have to be as creative as you possibly can when you are playing behind closed doors.

“It really comes down to how open you are, how creative you are and how your players want to embrace change. This is the time for us to do some things completely differently.”

The European Tour certainly hasn’t been afraid to do things differently in recent years, including the implementation of mid-round TV interviews. But now Pelley hopes fans can get a better viewing experience than ever by listening in on players’ conversations between themselves and caddies.

Of course, players in featured TV groups have to agree to wear microphones, but Pelley doesn’t think that will be a problem.

“Once you’ve actually had a wireless mic on in competition and it hasn’t affected you in any such way—technology has come so far that it is really, really small and won’t disturb your swing—then it just becomes commonplace,” Pelley told BBC Sport. “And a way of life.”

On Wednesday, Phil Mickelson, who wore a microphone for The Match: Champions for Charity, told the Dan Patrick Show he would be open to wearing one for regular PGA Tour events.

“It won’t be the same,” Mickelson said. “But I think it would still add something and I would consider it.”

It will be a much easier sell to those watching from home.

RELATED: 5 innovations to improve golf on TV

The post Why you’re going to hear a lot more from European Tour pros once play resumes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
Holly Sonders has signed a contract extension with Fox Sports, but will not be part of the network’s golf coverage in 2019, Sonders confirmed to Golf Digest on Wednesday.

Golfweek first reported the news.

“I’m proud to have been part of Fox Sports’ golf coverage,” Sonders told Golf Digest. “The entire team there has been like a family. I look forward to continuing my relationship with Fox Sports and transitioning to a studio role and am incredibly excited about what’s ahead.”

The departure from the network’s golf coverage ends a four-year run for Sonders, who was in contract negotiations with Golf Channel in 2014 when Fox offered her a deal after having acquired the rights to the U.S. Open and other USGA championships. Sonders, 31, had become a popular broadcaster on Golf Channel first in her role as a reporter on “Morning Drive” starting in 2011 and then on “School of Golf” and “Playing Lesson with the Pros.”

Sonders was initially hired as a studio host and to work as a sideline reporter as part of Fox’s NFL coverage. Her first tournament with the network was the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, where she also handled live interviews before being transitioned back to a studio role.

Though Sonders will no longer serve as part of Fox Sports’ golf coverage, her role as a studio host for other events as well as a sideline reporter for its college football coverage will continue. Her current contract was due to expire at the end of the year and was extended with a new multi-year deal, the terms of which were not disclosed. Fox Sports’ USGA contract expires after the 2026 championship season.

“Holly is a valued member of the Fox Sports family and we’re thrilled to continue working with her,” the network said in a statement.

Sonders, a native of Ohio who was an accomplished junior player and was a member of the Michigan State women’s golf team that won the Big Ten title in 2007 before graduating with a degree in journalism in 2009. She began her television career at WBNS-10 in Columbus before stints at KATV in Little Rock, Ark., as well as the Big Ten Network.

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The post What’s going on with Holly Sonders at Fox Sports? Golf fans are not going to like it appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The word “choke” itself, as a description for the act of failing to perform under pressure, is nearly perfect. As far as I can tell from cursory research, it’s an American invention that came to prominence in the post-war period in baseball, and seems to derive more or less directly from the common, gasping-for-air definition. It’s an incredibly personal term—while a “clutch” performance conveys abstract concepts like triumph and glory, “choke” returns the focus to the gagging individual. And the more personal the sport, the more intense the insult. For example: When you think of the Houston Oilers choking against the Buffalo Bills in the 1993 playoffs, who do you think about? For me, the answer is Frank Reich. He was on the winning side, which proves that when a team chokes, there is at least some protection in the collective—you can hide behind your teammates. But when you think about Greg Norman choking at the Masters, who do you think about? The answer, of course, is Greg Norman.

It makes sense, then, that professional golfers tend to be a little sensitive about the word. Along with the natural entitlement native to the sport, and the unique belief in certain quarters that the media and fans exist to burnish the players’ images, there’s a legitimate complaint. To call someone a choker in golf is to heap scorn on a human who can’t hide, and who is already suffering from an overload of pressure in a game that’s particularly vulnerable to minor tensions—a game where the slightest mechanical deviation can result in an errant shot, and where that errant shot can be ruinous even in an otherwise perfect round. Where perfection is required, and where it is unbelievably hard to achieve, the word “choker” feels a little cruel.

RELATED: In Paul Azinger, NBC gets Johnny Miller’s candor, but delivered in his own way

But it’s also honest, and it’s also necessary. Johnny Miller would occasionally use the word “choke” as the lead analyst on NBC Sports, and as Alex Myers wrote in 2014, he knew from experience exactly what that meant. Paul Azinger, who will soon step into the retiring Miller’s role and has his own history of success and failure under pressure, has said he won’t use the word. Here was his explanation during a conference call to announce his hiring at NBC:

“I’m not afraid to use that word, but I’m not going to stick it on somebody because I don’t think that’s fair. It’s irresponsible as a broadcaster to do that. I want to help build their brand, not tear them down, and I want to do it in the way that I do it.”

This brings up a few thoughts.

1. Saying you’re “not afraid to use that word” but that you’re “not going to stick it on somebody” is a little contradictory. It’s like the student who says, “I could get good grades, but I just don’t feel like trying.” Hearing it, you can’t help think, well, maybe that’s true, but we can’t quite prove it.

2. Anyone who follows televised golf knows that the players are a little coddled by announcers not named Johnny Miller—especially in comparison to other sports—and the fact that NBC Sports is a “partner” with the PGA Tour is an economic reality. Still, it’s a little strange to hear a media member, especially a kinda-sorta-journalist, say of the players that he wants to help “build their brand.” In golf’s realpolitik, it’s no conflict of interest at all, but it does feel like Azinger is grinding the last flickering embers of perceived media independence into ashes under his heel. It certainly makes him sound more like an aspiring Nantz than an aspiring Miller.

Azinger has never shied from being candid with his opinions. Here’s hoping that doesn’t change at NBC.

All of which brings us to the concept of “fair.” Azinger says “I don’t think that’s fair” when referring to the word choke as a descriptor, but he certainly can’t mean that’s it not true. Everyone who has ever played or watched a professional sport knows that choking is real, it happens all the time, and it’s usually pretty obvious. I’ve choked, and you probably have too. And if you accept that choking is sometimes true, and that’s it an important part of a tournament narrative—again, if it’s honest and necessary—what Azinger is really saying is that telling the truth isn’t fair.

You might agree with him. Sometimes telling the truth is mean, and if we lived a life without the convenience of timely white lies, our interpersonal relationships would get ugly fast.

RELATED: There was no choke in Johnny Miller as a broadcaster

Yet we’re not talking about your aunt’s boring vacation photos. We’re talking about professional golfers who make lots of money and accept a life as a public figure as part of the bargain. Competition is the essence of what they do, and a large part of their income derives from the fact that a chunk of the American public finds that competition compelling enough to watch. One price of being a public figure and reaping those benefits is that you subject yourself to the drama as it’s presented on television. To expect that the men and women translating this drama for the public won’t honestly convey the bad with the good is unreasonable, and it’s odd to hear Azinger essentially cut off a whole avenue of commentary before he even begins.

Let’s be fair—maybe he simply means that he’ll find synonyms for the word “choke” because of the heavy connotation. But there was no evidence for that reading from his conference call. In fact, when you consider his concern for building the players’ brand, it certainly seems like he’ll shy away from negative commentary as a rule.

I like Paul Azinger. He’s a smart man, he was a great Ryder Cup captain, and he has the chance to be really good at his job. Which is why I hope he reconsiders this stance. There are a few good ways for a player to build his brand, and they include an aggressive agent, smart sponsors and, above all, success on the course. The list should not include the passive assistance of a neutered media. That’s a lesson Johnny Miller carried with him for an entire career, and it’s one Azinger would do well to heed. Free the choke.

The post Paul Azinger must free the choke appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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.

The post Who will replace NBC’s Johnny Miller when he retires? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.