By Dave Shedloski
His broadcasting career with CBS Sports having come to an end last year, Peter Kostis is absent from Augusta National Golf Club for the first time since 1990. Funny that he received a decent share of airtime during coverage of Thursday’s opening round of the 84th Masters.

The longtime swing instructor watched with great satisfaction from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., as his top pupil, Paul Casey, carved up the rain-softened course with a bogey-free seven-under-par 65. Though Casey had struggled in recent weeks, Kostis expected him to raise his game for his 14th Masters appearance, especially considering his history at Augusta that includes five top 10s and eight top-25 finishes.

But even he was a bit surprised by the quick start.

“I knew he had gotten a lot better and that we had gotten him on the right track, but I didn’t expect this level of performance this quickly because it takes time for things to set in,” Kostis said by phone. “I thought he’d play well, but sort of work his way into the tournament. But this shows you how motivated he is and how well he has prepared.”

The motivation factor cannot be discounted. Since golf’s restart following a three-month pause for the coronavirus pandemic, Casey has posted just one top-10 finish, that coming at the PGA Championship at Harding Park, where he tied for second behind Collin Morikawa. One of his other two top 20s came at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he finished T-17.

After watching Casey finish T-35 at the Zozo Championship last month at Sherwood Country Club in California, Kostis figured Casey would take a break.

“I thought he was a little burned out, so after Sherwood I told him to take a couple of days off and let me know when he wanted to get ready for Augusta,” Kostis said. “He texted me right back, which he seldom does, and he said ‘Forget that. I want to get to work right away. I’m pissed.’ So we got right to it because he wanted to be ready, and then he said he was taking the rest of the year off. He’s putting a lot into this week.

Andrew Redington
Peter Kostis, shown working with Paul Casey at the Open Championship, said his pupil hasn’t enjoyed playing during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Look, if you asked him, he’d tell you he hasn’t enjoyed golf as much since the restart,” Kostis continued. “He can’t be with his family, he can’t go out to dinner with other players, he’s just going back to his hotel room. That’s just not his makeup. He hasn’t been playing with as much energy.”

The adjustments Casey has made aren’t technical, Kostis said. He improved his posture and his turn and increased the tempo in his backswing to create more clubhead speed. Kostis said Casey went from averaging 117 mph on his swing speed to upwards of 125.

“His posture was slumping because of low energy, so that made a huge difference. Then we got his tempo up and he saw immediate improvement,” Kostis said. “That kind of got him going. He got re-energized.”

Increasing Casey’s tempo in his putting stroke to match it up with his swing was one additional tweak. His backswing was too long and slow. “That’s still in the works, and it’s tough to take a putting change to a place like Augusta, but he’s very good and just going out and trying to play comfortably and not worrying about the technical stuff,” Kostis said.

Kostis, 73, began broadcasting at the Masters in 1990 with USA Network but saw his streak come to an end when CBS did not renew his contract (nor that of fellow veteran Gary McCord) at the end of last year. He said it felt “weird” not being at Augusta National, yet, still hearing his name mentioned by former colleagues on Thursday as Casey seized the lead.

“During the shutdown period for the PGA Tour, CBS aired broadcasts from previous years, so I was actually on the air quite a bit there for a while,” he quipped. “That was kind of funny, too. No matter how you look at it, it’s just been weird.”

More from the 2020 Masters
• Why Tiger is in great position to win a sixth green jacket
• Tiger Woods was feeling it Thursday and you didn’t even need to see his score to know
• Jon Rahm says he experienced a couple ‘reality checks’ playing with Bryson DeChambeau
• The Bryson Reckoning did not come to Augusta National. Or did it?
• The six most intriguing stats from Thursday at Augusta National
• Here’s how the tournament can get back on schedule for an on-time Sunday finish
• Xander Schauffele on Augusta’s easy conditions: ‘A lot of it felt wrong’
• How a 62-year-old former champion became the biggest surprise on Thursday at Augusta
• You won’t believe how bad Kevin Na putted on Thursday
• The Masters opening tee shot ceremony, even without patrons, still had all the feels

The post Paul Casey’s opening 65 gives Peter Kostis something to cheer from afar appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Patrick Reed’s rules infraction at the Hero World Challenge in December continues to resonate as the calendar turns to March, a controversy flamed by fiery remarks from four-time major winner Brooks Koepka and former CBS Sports analyst Peter Kostis as well as Reed’s high-profile performance at the WGC-Mexico Championship. But if Reed believed his win at Chapultepec would quiet the noise about his character, David Feherty’s comments to Sports Illustrated only turned up the volume.

Making the media rounds to promote his eponymous TV show on the Golf Channel, SI did a roll call of names on Tour, asking Feherty to give his thoughts on each subject. When the discussion rolled to Reed, Feherty didn’t mince words.

“Jesus. You can put that in there actually. Just Jesus,” Feherty said on Reed. “I mean, I don’t even know what to say. It’s just, it’s going to follow him for the rest of his life.”

“I’m not even sure that he’s polarising,” Feherty continued. “I’m not sure there’s too many people on the other side, you know what I mean? I mean, ‘there is no God’ was the first thing I said after he’d won last week. There is no God, you know, that’s proof of it right there. Amazing. I mean, he is amazing. He’s Captain Oblivious, just can let everything run off his back. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Mentioned above, Koepka—along with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Marc Leishman, and Cam Smith—have already made similar comments on Reed, while Kostis claimed he had seen Reed improve his lie multiple times on the No Laying Up podcast. However, unlike Kostis, Feherty is still working; in fact, he was on the NBC telecast during Reed’s win. Feherty is also unquestionably the most popular on-air personality in the sport, and though he has a history of colourful commentary, he’s rarely been one to aim vitriol or acidic statements toward players.

Feherty finished by saying if he did see a player cheat, he would say something, albeit not on TV. “You point that out to your producer for sure,” Feherty said. “Tell them that you saw something happen and then, it’s kind of the producer’s decision.”

Feherty is working NBC’s broadcast of the Honda Classic this weekend. Reed is not in the field.

The post David Feherty says the fact Patrick Reed won is proof that ‘There is no god’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Reed responded how he always does, by going out and playing good golf. He opened with rounds of 69 and 63 at the WGC-Mexico, then remained in contention with a Saturday 67. On Sunday, with just four holes remaining, he trailed by a few shots and proceeded to make three straight birdies to reach 19 under. That gave him with a two-shot lead on the final hole, and he was able to bogey his way to a one-shot win over Bryson DeChambeau.

“It’s very rewarding,” said Reed, whose only other WGC win came in this event in 2014, when the tournament was played at Doral. “My team and I have worked so hard through the end of last year and also the beginning of this year. We kept on feeling like we were playing some good golf, just weren’t quite able to get over that hump.

A final-round 67 gives @PReedGolf a 1-shot victory at @WGCMexico. ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/wG0YWHtFEM

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 24, 2020

“To come back and win my second World Golf Championship—especially with how I had to finish on basically 15 onwards … the last hole was ugly, but it was what I needed to get the job done.”

Reed often gets the job done in similar situations, having now won by one stroke in seven of his eight PGA Tour wins. The only triumph that didn’t come by one stroke was a two-shot win over Ryan Palmer at the 2014 Humana Challenge.

“Just putting yourself in these positions on Sunday is just unbelievable. It’s a great feeling, and I can’t wait to go home and celebrate it with the little ones and my wife and bring home a trophy.”

DeChambeau looked like he’d run away with the tournament when he reached 18 under at the par-4 14th, but a three-putt bogey at the par-3 17th wound up being the difference. Justin Thomas, who lead by himself after 54 holes, shot a two-over 73 to tie for sixth.

The post Patrick Reed makes late charge, claims second career WGC in Mexico appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Former CBS Golf analyst Peter Kostis took aim at his old employer, the PGA Tour and Patrick Reed in a provocative interview on this week’s No Laying Up Podcast.

Kostis was critical of how CBS dropped him at the end of 2019 from its golf coverage after three decades, but also of the PGA Tour’s increasing control over tournament broadcasts. While Kostis naturally has an ax to grind with his ex-employer, his comments were particularly pointed. We encourage you to listen to his entire talk with No Laying Up’s Chris Solomon, but here are some highlights:

On CBS going in a new direction:
Kostis describes being informed by CBS that his contract would not be renewed.

“I don’t think there was a plan in place,” Kostis said. “I honestly think, and this is my opinion and it’s been corroborated by anonymous inside sources that media likes to use these days, that it was the tour that told CBS to get younger. I think the tour had an issue with me not being a cheerleader.”

On being pressured into promoting PGA Tour initiatives:
Kostis described the PGA Tour voicing its displeasure with Kostis asking a first-time tour winner how it felt to earn an invite to the Masters.

“That was roughly my question. And then, I got a phone call the next day from New York. They had gotten a call from the commissioner, and the commissioner was upset I didn’t say, first off, that he had won 500 FedEx Cup points. And he didn’t want me talking about majors.”

Kostis says he didn’t listen to the directive, and he was eventually replaced as the person interviewing the winner on Sundays.

On the PGA Tour dictating TV coverage:
Kostis suggested his blunt style clashed with the tour’s emphasis on promotion, saying the tour wants more “cheerleaders” than analysts.

“From the bottom of my heart I believe this, that no one in management of a network or at the leadership of the PGA Tour gives a rat’s ass about the quality of the telecast. They don’t care about the quality of the viewer experience. They don’t care about anything other than promotion. They’re interested in the marketing of the product.”

When reached by Golf Digest, officials with CBS and the PGA Tour declined to comment about the Kostis’ interview.

Three days after CBS announced it was not renewing the contracts of Kostis or Gary McCord, the network announced it had hired Davis Love III as a new announcer, timing that would suggest there was a strategy being followed. A source familiar with the relationship between the Tour and its broadcast partners disputed that the Tour requested any of the changes to the CBS broadcast lineup.

CBS is reportedly close to signing a nine-year extension of its broadcast contract with the tour of the current contract that ends in 2020.

Later in the interview, Kostis was asked about Reed and whether the incident that took place with him at the Hero World Challenge surprised the former announcer.

“I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now,” Kostis said. “It’s the only time I ever shut [Gary] McCord up. He didn’t know what to say when I said, ‘Well, the lie I saw originally wouldn’t have allowed for this shot.’ Because he put four or five clubs behind the ball, you know, kind of faking whether he was 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 was a sand wedge layup originally.”

Kostis gives other examples regarding Reed, but again, you should listen to the entire interview. As Kostis notes, he may not work for CBS anymore, but whether it’s through his Twitter feed or interviews like this, he’s certainly not retired from being one of the game’s loudest voices.

It’s finally happened.

Peter Kostis is here to discuss his departure from CBS, golf on TV, what needs to change, other Patrick Reed incidents he’s seen (!), and so much more.

He does not hold back. Go now.

Apple: https://t.co/q9YDSK4PsO
Spotify: https://t.co/sICOmq7eel pic.twitter.com/OJLOCjbsjG

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) February 19, 2020

The post Peter Kostis offers fiery critiques of CBS, PGA Tour and Patrick Reed in podcast interview appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

WE’RE BUYING

Tiger Woods: Remember when people were writing Tiger’s career obituary after that ugly first round at the Open in July? Even though he had won THE MASTERS just three months before? Whoops. Don’t underestimate this guy. Ever.

Ben Jared

Even after bogeying his first three holes on Thursday, he shot 64. Even after eating and getting stranded at a Domino’s on Friday, he shot 64 on Saturday. And even having to play 29 holes on Sunday, he maintained his lead and closed the deal on Monday for his 82nd career PGA Tour title, tying the great man he met when he was just a young Tiger cub drinking soda and already wearing red:

Aww, that’s adorable. But Tiger is now undefeated in official PGA Tour events since another special encounter:

Just saying …

Tiger Woods with a 54-hole lead: Viewers were more saturated with these stats than Narashino Golf Course after six inches of rain, but they can’t be pointed out enough. Woods is now 46 of 48 when it comes to closing out tournaments in which he holds at least a share of the 54-hole lead. That’s 96 per cent. And his conversion rate is a perfect 25 of 25 when entering the final round at least three shots in the lead. Amazing.

Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images

There are so many staggering stats surrounding Woods’ 82 wins (Here, I made you a handy guide), but his ability to hold a lead might be the most remarkable. Speaking of stats, Woods’ career winning percentage is an absurd 22.8. With three wins in his past 14 starts, though, his winning percentage during that span is 21.4. In other words, he’s still winning at a ridiculous rate, so be careful when writing him off next time.

Narashino Country Club’s drainage system: This was the golf course on Friday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4CVArrBhWs/?utm_source=ig_embed

And they played the next day! Sure, the par-4 10th was shortened to a par-3 distance, but even Augusta National and its fancy subair system had to be impressed. Like all winners, Woods thanked the grounds crew during the trophy ceremony, but this time, he really meant it. Those guys were miracle workers.

WE’RE SELLING

McCord and Kostis: In a surprising shakeup, CBS didn’t renew the contracts of either Gary McCord and Peter Kostis, letting two longtime broadcasters go (McCord had worked with the network since 1986, Kostis since 1992) rather unceremoniously. “Bottom line, they fired me,” McCord told Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski. I’m sad to see them go, especially in this manner. Gary once signed a golf ball for me in a parking lot when I was in high school. And Peter, well, just look at him lugging all that equipment around!

He might be the hardest-working man in the golf biz(hub). But seriously, they will be missed.

Trying this Bubba Watson tee shot: To be clear, I’m fine with Bubba going for this. In fact, it’s one of the most creative and impressive shots of the PGA Tour season. Seriously, I can’t stop watching:

This is the CRAZIEST golf shot I have ever seen in my life!! Wait till the end!!!! @bubbawatson giving a new meaning to cutting the corner on the par 5 @zozochamp ? ? pic.twitter.com/UTHf0nfGl6

— Seb Carmichael-Brown (@sebcbrown4) October 27, 2019

But think of the copycats out there doing this at their own munis? Golf courses all over the world should probably think about adding internal out-of-bounds signs to prevent injuries.

Tiger’s win total: As cool as it was to watch Woods tie this longstanding record, in reality, he passed it long ago. As I’ve pointed out before, using the same criteria for Snead’s total (including team wins!), Tiger should now have 96 wins—meaning golf fans should be charged up about him CHASING 100 (sounds cooler, right?) than 82.

Toshifumi Kitamura

Hopefully, someday, a panel of golf historians will gather to comb through Woods’ record and make this adjustment like those assembled in the late 1980s to officially establish Snead’s mark. And if/when they do, I’ll be happy to help.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to Shanghai for the WGC-HSBC Champions, AKA that tournament with a lot of letters in the title. Those not fortunate enough to qualify for the event will be playing in the inaugural Bermuda Championship (or taking the week off altogether like Tiger).

Random tournament fact: Carlos Franco, Joey Sindelar and Paul Stankowski are among those in the Bermuda Championship field. Yes, it’s still 2019.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Bubba would try something like that at Augusta National (Maybe on No. 18?): 1 MILLION-to-1 odds

—Tiger Woods is picking himself for the Presidents Cup team: LOCK

—No one in Shanghai or Bermuda will ever threaten Tiger’s 82 wins: Also a LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

The bizarre scene caused by no spectators allowed on the grounds for Round 2 Saturday in Japan was a no-brainer:

Tiger on the 1st tee with no fans in the grandstands is not something you see often… pic.twitter.com/tufJnEopTB

— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) October 26, 2019

Although, this spectator shot is pretty good too …

Interesting gallery East Lake. pic.twitter.com/4cS9ic82xE

— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) October 28, 2019

Go Deacs!

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

We’ve seen plenty of Tiger golf clinic videos before, but probably never quite the reactions he drew from these Japanese fans:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4C_WV-lqhZ/?utm_source=ig_embed

And how about this video of Tiger nearly being taken out by a microphone?!

Mic check. Testing 1, 2. pic.twitter.com/cm4UHN5xHS

— Skratch (@Skratch) October 24, 2019

To think, he might still be “Chasing 82” if that had hit him a bit harder. Scary stuff. Let’s all promise to handle this guy with a little more care, OK?

QUOTE(S) OF THE WEEK

“I think the player definitely got the captain’s attention.” —Tiger Woods on the prospects of making himself a playing captain. Good answer, but Gary Woodland might have topped it when asked if Tiger should pick himself for Team USA. “If he doesn’t, that’s … dumb.” Good call, Gary.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

https://twitter.com/golf_strange/status/1188906036238999553

A classy, sharp, and self-deprecating tweet from the guy who has been ridiculed through the years for saying “You’ll learn” to a young Tiger Woods during an infamous interview. Well played, Curtis. Of course, I’d expect nothing less from a fellow Wake Forest alum.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Golden Tate showed his love of Golf—and Golf Digest!—on his cleats:

Bringing my love for golf to the football field! ? made by: @MACHE275 #gamedaycleats #cleatheat #custom pic.twitter.com/VwIlhnHZDk

— Golden Tate (@ShowtimeTate) October 27, 2019

As if I needed another reason to like this New York Giants wide receiver.

THIS WEEK IN PGA TOUR-WAG PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (AND HALLOWEEN SPIRIT)

While Woods was winning in Japan, golf’s injured superstars were hanging out at quite the Halloween bash in Jupiter, Fla. Here’s Brooks Koepka invoking a classic Justin Timberlake “SNL” sketch and Jena Sims going with the classic “devil” look (What percentage of women dress as devils or cats? 80? 90? Tiger with a 54-hole lead?):

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Gvu8BBO3T/?utm_source=ig_embed

And how about Dustin Johnson and Paulina Gretzky with a nod to “Semi-Pro”?

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Ky6D9nf_w/?utm_source=ig_embed

Austin Johnson and Sam Maddox went as cops:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4LBIrCptyO/?utm_source=ig_embed

And not to be outdone, Tori Slater, went as Julia Roberts from “Pretty Woman” while boyfriend Daniel Berger played in Japan:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4K_UJrg700/?utm_source=ig_embed

Too bad, because Daniel could have pulled off a good Richard Gere:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOnglU7jCZK/?utm_source=ig_embed

I hope that didn’t cost the couple the party’s best costume prize! Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’m not wearing a Halloween costume for about the 20th consecutive year, but my 19-month-old daughter is dressing up as a dog because she’s obsessed with dogs. So check back next week for photos.

THIS WEEK IN PHIL BEING PHIL

Wait … this can’t be right … Phil hasn’t posted anything on social media in more than a week? Has anyone checked on him lately?

THIS WEEK IN EDDIE BEING EDDIE

Eddie Pepperell is doing everything he can to find Martin Kaymer a girlfriend, including signing him up to appear on a British reality TV show called “First Dates.”

It’s now my life goal to find our Dear Martin the love of his life ? https://t.co/FhdCkgxrjw

— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) October 25, 2019

What a great friend.

THIS AND THAT

The United States Postal Service will honour Arnold Palmer with a commemorative stamp in 2020. Considering how much money on postage he is said to have spent responding to fans, no one has ever been more deserving of such an honour. … Congrats to Ha Na Jang, who made a rare LPGA cameo in her home country and won the BMW Ladies Championship. She’s still got it after leaving the LPGA Tour two years ago. Then again, she’s only 27 so her still having “it” isn’t too surprising. … Congrats to Steven Brown, who was on his way to Q School for the seventh time in eight years before stunning the field at the Portugal Masters for his first career European Tour title. But has he done anything to help Martin Kaymer’s love life? … And a special congrats to the 30 PGA Tour pros who made Golf Digest’s latest Nice Guys list. With a top three of Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland, and Jordan Spieth, who says nice guys finish last?

Stan Badz

Well, Spieth finished pretty far down the board in Japan, but you get the point. …

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Will I ever wear a Halloween costume again?

Who will inherit the Konica Minolta Bizhub Swing Vision Camera?

Seriously, is Phil Mickelson OK?

The post Tiger Woods’ record-tying win, Brooks Koepka’s bold Halloween costume, and the craziest tee shot in PGA Tour history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
On Tuesday, CBS Sports announced that it has hired Davis Love III as one of its golf analysts, beginning in 2020, with Love’s debut coming at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January. He’ll also work the Masters, the PGA Championship and a number of other PGA Tour events. The news comes after the network parted ways with analysts Peter Kostis and Gary McCord.

That Love was hired is hardly a surprise, given his close friendship with CBS golf producer Lance Barrow, whom he has known for decades. But what will Love’s role at the network look like? Will he be in the booth, or on the course? Will he continue to play? What kind of analyst will he be?

Love, 55, said that his playing days aren’t over yet—the 21-time tour winner and 1997 PGA Championship winner is teeing it up at this week’s inaugural Bermuda Championship on the PGA Tour and is expected to play in other events as the schedule allows—but noted that his focus has “fully shifted” to doing television.

“I don’t know what my role is going to be yet; we’re going to figure it out,” Love told Golf Digest. “I thought at first that sitting in the tower would be easier, but maybe it’s walking. I won’t know until we practice.”

Which is exactly what Love and CBS will do over the next couple of months before his debut. Much like it did with Tony Romo for its football telecasts, the network will put Love through a boot camp of sorts, Love says, between now and the end of the year, with he and other members of the broadcast team watching tape, practicing and familiarizing themselves with working together and the mechanics of calling golf on television.

“I’m excited about that,” Love said. “They’re not just going to throw me to the wolves.”

As quickly as the news was announced that Love would be joining CBS after the contracts of Kostis and McCord weren’t renewed over the weekend, getting the Hall of Famer and two-time Ryder Cup captain on the team was something that had been in the works for years.

An admitted “TV geek,” Love has long been someone who has enjoyed hanging out at the production truck whenever he could during his years on tour. He’s also had what he figures are “hundreds” of dinners with Barrow. The two are so close that one person from another network said they weren’t even going to bother approaching Love about doing TV because it was assumed he was going to work with Barrow if and when the time came.

They were right.

When Love needed season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip in 2016, he started talking more seriously with Barrow about doing television. Then came a hip-replacement surgery in 2017. Love had also done work for CBS’ digital property at the Masters in recent years when he wasn’t playing in the tournament, and in the last few years, he said he has been watching the on-course television reporters and what they were doing, looking at how they positioned themselves while he was playing in tournaments.

“I knew that eventually I wanted to do it,” Love said. “I just didn’t know when. We’d been in talks for the last three years. It was just a matter of if I was ready to slow down [playing] and were they ready to make changes.”

During that time, Love began watching golf differently, too, analyzing what announcers and analysts were—and sometimes weren’t—saying, and when. He did the same with other sports, particularly football and baseball, taking mental notes on how Romo transitioned from the field to the booth alongside his now soon-to-be partner Jim Nantz, and how former pitcher John Smoltz, another friend who went from playing games to analyzing them, applied his knowledge of baseball and its players to the telecast.

So what kind of analyst will Love be?

“That’s one of the first questions that came up,” he said. “I have opinions. I just have to learn when to say things. [Retired NBC analyst] Johnny [Miller] was really good at [what to say and when to say it]. I learned a lot by watching him. My only problem is that I have to get my thoughts more concise.”

Don’t expect Love to be another Miller, though. Johnny was one of a kind.

That doesn’t mean Love won’t be critical when a moment warrants it, though.

“Even watching Tiger this past weekend [at the Zozo Championship], I was wondering why someone maybe didn’t say certain things,” he said. “And there have been times when I’ve called the truck when they missed something.”

It should help, too, that Love has relationships with many of today’s young players, through his two stints as Ryder Cup captain, the tour’s RSM Classic, which he is host of at Sea Island Golf Club, and through his 25-year-old son, Dru.

“I know the courses and the players, and there might be a situation when I might have played with a guy the week before and saw he was struggling with his chips, so I’ll be able to convey that,” Love said. “I’ll know what’s going on. That’s why Romo is so good. He went right from playing to the booth, and I’m going to talk to him about how I transfer that knowledge to the fans. He’s one of the best at it.”

To CBS, so is Love.

“Davis is one of the most accomplished and respected players in the game of golf,” Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, said in a statement. “With his playing experience, reputation and relationships across the golf community, he brings a unique perspective and insight that will enhance our broadcasts. Davis is the perfect fit for CBS, and we look forward to him making the best broadcast team in golf even better.”

The post TV boot camp awaits Davis Love III as he explains why he decided to join CBS and get into broadcasting appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
CBS Sports is seeking to shake up its golf presentation. Days after news broke that it was not renewing the contracts of analysts Peter Kostis and Gary McCord, the network has added a new voice to its lineup.

On Tuesday, CBS announced that Davis Love III is joining as a full-time analyst for the Masters, PGA Championship and PGA Tour coverage. Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski broke the news on Monday that Love, who is close friends with CBS golf producer Lance Barrow, was in the mix for a position.

“I have long considered CBS Sports the gold standard in golf coverage,” Love said in a statement. “Whether playing or coaching, I have always loved the team aspect of golf, and I am thrilled to now be a member of the best team in television.”

Love is one of the more respected personalities in the sport. A 21-time tour winner and 1997 PGA champ, Love has served as captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team twice and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.

Love said his playing days are not necessarily over—he’s in the field at this week’s alternate-event Bermuda Championship—but while he will play selective tournaments, his focus is “fully shifted” to broadcasting. Love, 55, will make his CBS debut at the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open in January.

“Davis is one of the most accomplished and respected players in the game of golf,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, in a statement. “With his playing experience, reputation and relationships across the golf community, he brings a unique perspective and insight that will enhance our broadcasts. Davis is the perfect fit for CBS, and we look forward to him making the best broadcast team in golf even better.”

The post Davis Love III to join CBS Sports golf team in wake of Peter Kostis, Gary McCord departures appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

How about giving Happy Gilmore’s swing the Peter Kostis treatment? The hockey-player-turned-golfer swing has been replicated by so many golfers around the world since the Adam Sandler movie was released in 1996. So much has already been done with Happy Gilmore’s swing, with actual Sports Science videos devoted to the character’s swing, and even tour pros trying to replicate the swing (shoutout, John Peterson, for doing it in competition).

But someone had the hilarious idea to dub Kostis’ analysis of another tour pro, including with lines for angles and swing planes, and added it over Gilmore’s swing. The result had us cracking up, and we’re pretty sure any fan of Happy Gilmore will agree with us.

https://www.facebook.com/usagapparel/videos/1950834884940493/

The best part about this video was how well synced the swing video was to Kostis’ analysis. It definitely sounded like it could’ve applied to Happy Gilmore’s swing, and the yellow lines are drawn pretty perfectly on the video.

We’re pretty sure this was footage of Kostis’ analysis of Bubba Watson’s swing from a previous telecast. Regardless, a well-done job by all. And we bet Kostis would get a kick out of this if he saw it.

Note to CBS producers: It’d be hilarious to have Kostis do an actual swing analysis of Happy Gilmore some time in the future. Maybe for the 25th anniversary of Happy Gilmore? Eh? We’ll take our royalty check in the mail when they execute this fantastic idea.

The post Peter Kostis breaking down Happy Gilmore’s swing in slow motion using the Konica Minolta camera is the next-level analysis we need appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.