Fox Going With A Three-Man Booth: Azinger Joins Faxon On 18

The formula that proved successful for producer Mark Loomis at ABC will define year two of USGA golf on Fox. With the expected announced of Paul Azinger's hiring, Fox also mentioned in its press release that Brad Faxon has been promoted from 17th hole tower to the 18th hole broadcast booth, with Joe Buck playing traffic cop. The banter should be lively, funny and edgy between the three.

The full press release:

PAUL AZINGER NAMED FOX SPORTS’ LEAD GOLF ANALYST
 
Major Champion to Team with Seven-Time Emmy Winner Joe Buck in 18th Tower
New York – Paul Azinger, winner of the 1993 PGA Championship and veteran broadcaster, has joined FOX Sports as lead analyst for its golf coverage, beginning in 2016. Azinger joins seven-time Emmy Award-winning announcer Joe Buck and analyst Brad Faxon in the 18th Tower for FOX Sports’ USGA Championship telecasts. The announcement was made today by John Entz, President, Production & Executive Producer, FOX Sports and Mark Loomis, Coordinating Producer, USGA Studio & Event Production.
 
"Paul is a respected and trusted voice in the golf community, and he has the credibility of being a major champion with a strong track record of experience in the broadcast booth,” Entz said. “He has been one of golf's most candid and thoughtful analysts and we are excited to add him to our team.”
 
A 30-year PGA Tour veteran, Azinger was a 12-time winner on the tour, highlighted by his triumph at the 1993 PGA Championship at Inverness Club. Azinger joined the tour in 1981 and hit his prime later in the decade, earning PGA Tour Player of the Year honors in 1987 and spending nearly 300 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between 1988 and 1994. He also represented the United States on five Ryder Cup teams, participating four times as a player and serving as captain of the victorious 2008 squad.
 
"I am honored to partner with FOX Sports and the USGA to provide analysis for the compelling slate of USGA Championships,” Azinger said. “It will especially be an honor to call our nations national championship, the U.S. Open, beginning in June at storied Oakmont Country Club."
 
Azinger began his broadcasting career serving as an analyst for ABC’s PGA Tour golf coverage for 2005 and 2006, quickly becoming one of the most well-respected voices in the industry. He remained at ESPN through 2015 and has called early round coverage of the U.S. Open Championship, anchored coverage of the British Open Championship and contributed to early rounds of Masters Tournament coverage.
 
In his new role at FOX Sports, Azinger is scheduled to broadcast the 116th U.S. Open Championship at Oakmont Country Club, the U.S. Women’s Open at Cordevalle and the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club. He will also broadcast the 116th U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club and the 2017 Walker Cup Match at Los Angeles Country Club.

Pieters: PGA Tour Provides (Photoshop) Grooming Services

Jason Crook reports on Thomas Pieters going to Facebook to show how the PGA Tour altered his stock photo. Pieters, who finshed second to Rickie Fowler in last week's HSBC in Abu Dhabi, appears to have run into Commissioner Kiehl's and his army of Photoshopping barbers.

Look out Boo Weekley!

Update on 2016-01-27 16:40 by Geoff

**Alex Myers with an update and statement from the PGA Tour's Ty Votaw:

"In the standard process of prepping new headshots for broadcast TV, electronic scoreboards and other uses - which always requires a bit of retouching and color-correction - our vendor was a bit too heavy-handed in the editing of Thomas Pieters' photo. The image has been returned more closely to the original photo - although some editing is always required - and reissued to our database. We regret this sequence of events and meant no disrespect to Thomas. We think he has a great head of hair."

Thomas's hair has been restored to its original design!

Generation Z Video: PGA Demo Day Stars

Nice post by Stephen Hennessey to note these two stars from Tuesday's PGA Demo Day at Orange County National outside Orlando, including one-handed golfer Tommy Morrissey.

At the Golphin junior golf-club pavilion, sampling the company's new clubs for children. Look at the clubhead speed from these young 'ems:

Tweeted by Golfinforkids:

Fantastic day @PGAShow #demoday with @JackDirkinGolf @onearmgolfer watch these #kids hit out new #GFK clubs pic.twitter.com/yxiWkwKC7b

— Golphin (@golphinforkids) January 27, 2016

Paul Azinger Taking Over For Greg Norman At Fox Sports

This should sharpen the announcing focus and also de-burden the Fox crew of Greg Norman's presence, despite the views of one that moving on without Norman will be tough.

Jaime Diaz at Golf World with the report citing sources who say Azinger will work the big events for Fox (the U.S. Amateur was not mentioned).

When news of Norman's firing was first reported by Links, it was reported here that Azinger was the likely and inevitable choice given his excellent analysis for ABC and ESPN over the years.

Update on 2016-01-27 05:59 by Geoff

**A year removed from Fox's big USGA roll-out at the Waldorf Astoria, M. James Ward explains why Norman was such a letdown in light of what was said in New York City last February.

The Shark was touted as the new voice—the man best able to provide the overview during the telecast given his prominent standing in the game as a top tier player for many years. The sad reality is that Greg was ill-prepared for the role. During key moments of the ’15 U.S. Open he failed to add anything of depth or meaning, often with long periods of silence and when eventually speaking only doing so in reaction to what others were saying. In short, the man who was hailed initially as a new voice had developed self-inflicted bouts of stage fright and allowed key moment after key moment to simply go unnoticed. Often when Norman did speak his contributions were fairly pedestrian in scope and limited in his overall golf knowledge of the different players—save those from his native land of Australia.

Forward Press: LPGA Kick-Off, PGA Show Coverage

In this week's edition I speak to LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan about the refreshingly status quo state of the LPGA Tour after years of new events, new lineups and too much sponsor turnover.

Things are so improved for the tour that its number one star is not playing the opener and no one seems to mind because Whan has arranged plenty of playing opportunities.

Also covered: the PGA Show, Farmers Insurance Open and the mysterious Singapore Open where Jordan Spieth is turning up to cash a big check and build on the fatigue that threatens to mess up his year if he isn't careful (we discussed this surprising and not-surprising revelation on Morning Drive).

I'll be curious where PGA Show coverage goes this year after years of secrecy before finally joining the modern world the last few years. In 2015, Callaway was very active online and will be again. Sirius radio will have Matt Adams on hand (with Hank Haney also doing his show from the Show floor). What remains to be seen: how much show coverage is provided by Titleist, Taylor Made and PING. I'll add links if they appear.

The full column here.

Glenn Frey The Golfer

Tim Rosaforte reviews the life of Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, who passed away last week after a long bout with various cruel diseases.

Frey was very active in the west coast swing pro-ams and at several west coast clubs, including Bel-Air and The Madison Club.

Rosaforte writes:

Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade befriended Frey by playing in the singer’s pro-am in Aspen, Colo. As a return favor, Frey provided entertainment at their charity event every summer in Rhode Island. “Glenn would always say, ‘Ever see me at the piano, I’ve had too much to drink,’ ” Faxon said. “Inevitably he’d be at the piano singing with Joe Pesci.”

Above the desk in Faxon’s office is a photograph of Frey as his caddie in overalls at the Masters Par-3 Contest. Faxon remembers asking Frey why he didn’t start playing golf until the 1990s. “I had to wait,” Frey joked, “until the clothes got better.”

Rosaforte also reminds us that in 2002's Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Frey "made enough net birdies to win the inaugural Jack Lemmon Award, given to the amateur that helped his pro the most, aiding Stadler 31 shots over 72 holes."

On the charitable side, Dale Strode writes about Frey's fondness for Aspen Junior Golf and his willingness to call in a favor with Tiger Woods.

At the height of his golfing glory, Tiger Woods made a pair of visits to Aspen to fulfill a promise he had made to Glenn Frey.

“Tiger was in his prime then. That was a major coup,” Rohrbaugh said. “Everyone wanted a piece of him. But for us, it was huge.”

Woods’ presence alone raised $400,000 in two years for the charities as benefactors bid to play a round with Tiger Woods in Aspen.

Nantz on Fox-Shark Split: "I am curious."

SI's Richard Deitsch talked to Jim Nantz about many topics, but left out this bit on the Greg Norman-Fox Sports breakup. However, Deitsch posted it in a notes piece.

Nantz explains how good Norman was in the booth whenever he'd finish after a round, making the parting a surprise to him.

So we don’t know what happened there. I am curious. It takes time for people to be together in any sport on the air, to be able to establish continuity and chemistry. When I interview coaches and players, sometimes you can see who is really gifted at rolling out a sound bite and saying it in a way that has never been heard before—interesting ways in making you think. I worked a lot with Greg over the years and I don’t know why they parted ways. I always had a lot of respect for what he offered when he came to his tower.

“I wish Fox well,” Nantz continued. “Unlike the NFL where everyone is broadcasting at the same time during the regular season, the golf season you hand it off. Yes, we [at CBS] have it for the most weeks but we truly want everyone to do well because when it is your week, you are in charge of trying to make the game sound interesting and advance the sport and document it. It is not the competitive craziness that people want to talk about it. I watch other people call golf events and cheer them on and text them and congratulate them when they do good work, which is all the time. It is a different vibe than you might think.”

Video: Student Sinks Full Court Putt Worth...$500!?

Surely the good folks at Franklin Pierce University could find a way to pay student Brandon Knight more than the $500 he won for draining a full court, halftime putt?

Nice job by Connor Foley to capture this and Sportscenter to post it:

Brandon Knight, a student at Franklin Pierce University, drained this full-court putt to win $500! (via Connor Foley / YouTube) #SCtop10

A video posted by SportsCenter (@sportscenter) on Jan 25, 2016 at 5:31pm PST

Golfweek On The Growth Of Third Party Tee Time Providers

As the PGA Show gets ready to convene in Orlando and visitors intially regale themselves in discussing when they arrived and where they’re staying, the follow up chit-chat may end up discussing the growing prominence of third party tee time retailers. If they're lucky.

Adam Schupak of Golfweek looks at Golf Now, the Golf Channel-owned enterprise leading a segment of the industry with huge room for growth. The PGA Tour has joined the business and as with most things technological, golf’s consumer base is behind the rest of society. But the catching up is happening.

This was interesting:

Multiple industry observers with knowledge of Golf Channel operations say GolfNow has become the network’s profit center.

No one disputes that third party tee-time providers have created valuable tools, but the trend has become one of the most polarizing subjects in golf, a disruptive force blamed for negatively impacting the value proposition of a round of golf.

R&A: We'll Consider The Shorts Matter, If You Insist

Rex Hoggard got this priceless quote from the R&A on the possibility of shorts in The Open Championship.

Nice to see the folks in St. Andrews have a sense of humor mid-winter.

“While we already have our conditions of entry for the Open at Royal Troon, this is something the Championship Committee will consider in future. It would certainly be a pleasant dilemma to have if the weather here in mid-July is sufficiently warm for shorts to be desirable.”

Jim Nantz Eyes Retirement...At The 2036 Masters

This is assuming (presumptiously) that CBS/ABC/Viacom/ESPN/Google (CAVEG) will still hold the rights in 2036, having fought off a strong effort from NBC/Universal/Apple/GE (NUAG) after Chairman (Brian) Roberts decided it was no longer a conflict to have steered the rights to his former family company (until the Apple/GE takover).

Richard Deitsch talks to the CBS broadcaster as he prepares for another Super Bowl, followed by the NCAA Tournament and then his favorite gig, The Masters.

Oh, and 2036 because that's the 100th anniversary of the Masters...

“So Jack Whitaker if you will gave me a new goal, redefined what I want the back end of my career to look like,” Nantz said. “I know it sounds a little crazy. Here we are in 2016 talking like this. But there are great, iconic voices working in their 70s, churning out quality work. This is all subject to be reexamined but I really want to make it to 2036 health willing and CBS willing. I’d really like to do that for Jack Whitaker.

"I would be 76 years old, but there are broadcasters working at that age and even older. I love what I do. Every show is it’s own challenge and I love it. It will be a hard thing to let go of but that is one thing I would love to be able to achieve one day.”

USGA Pace Of Play Study Moving Slowly But Surely

My GolfDigest.com report from the USGA Pace of Play Symposium also appears in Golf World. The takeaway: the USGA hasn't dialed in its numbers and presented a definitive white paper in nearly two years. How dare they?

Nope, it's darned exciting, is what it is!

Instead of another golf organization trying to "grow" the game or help operators maximize profits, the effort to study pace of play is morphing into other sustainability efforts with the hopes of a stronger end effort. So while the focus isn't crystal clear yet, the initial data, research and input from some great minds could ultimately make these efforts the best thing the USGA has ever done. Throw in the joint effort with the University of Minnesota to create a golf course lab and we may actually see some progress in the war on short-sighted course management.

Anyway, my overview, with more to come on this year's testing of the flagstick measuring device unveiled last week.

Update on 2016-01-26 03:43 by Geoff

**My take on the symposium, discussed with Damon Hack on Morning Drive.