It’s always a thrill to have a story in Golf World. Great editors and writers. I only hope I was able to live up to their high standards.
During the spring, I spent two days at the Golf Channel in Orlando, visiting and observing their analysts, many of whom have become bigger stars on TV than from their playing days on the golf course. Here is a link to the piece that appears in this week’s issue.
From the story:
For the most part, these golf analyst jobs are being filled by former players such as Isenhour and others who don’t have the cachet of having Hall of Fame résumés as players. They are, for lack of a better phrase, journeymen pros, who now are viewed as experts when it comes to dissecting the work of Tiger, Phil and Rory.
Besides (Tripp) Isenhour, who never won on the PGA Tour, Golf Channel’s roster of studio analysts includes Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo, Charlie Rymer, Steve Flesch and Notah Begay. John Maginnes has emerged as a major presence for PGA Tour Radio. Combined number of major-championships victories: zero.
Compare that to the group of studio analysts for the NFL Network: Hall of Famers Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp (who will inducted this year), and a likely for future enshrinee, Kurt Warner. Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson do high-profile studio work in basketball; Terry Bradshaw, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, became an even bigger star during his years on Fox NFL Sunday.
The difference, of course, is that professional golf is the only sport in which the top stars seem to play forever. While a football player’s career is done by his early-to mid-30s if he is lucky to last that long, elite golfers play well into their 40s on the PGA Tour and then make a seamless transition to the Champions Tour in their 50s.
As a result, the roster of available big-name talent for TV is much slimmer, if non-existent for Molly Solomon, Golf Channel’s executive producer. “It’s difficult because golfers never want to quit,” Solomon says. “Once they get to 50, another door opens for them. It’s hard to get them to commit to TV. Why would you want to work for a living?”
******
And there’s this from Rymer:
“I’m not going to make statements I’m not qualified tomake,” he says. “I’m not going to try to get inside a major champion’s head. I will talk about how I would feel if I was in that situation. I try to be really honest about that. I understand my place in the game. I don’t want to walk in a locker room and have Tiger Woods say, ‘Why did you talk about that. You never did that.’ ”
******
And there’s plenty more. Please check it out.