1. McCord: I was fired
Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski on the sacking of Gary McCord…
“This is not how I would have preferred to see it end,” McCord said. “I’m going on 72. I’ve been doing this for 30-odd years. I knew I was coming to the end of the deal, but I was going to go out on my terms. That’s not happening now.:
- “Bottom line, they fired me.”
- “McCord, who began his CBS career at the 1986 Memorial Tournament, had an inkling what was coming after learning close friend and colleague Peter Kostis, who has been with CBS since 1992, was informed last Wednesday that his option was not being picked up, either. “I looked at my phone, and I had a message from a 212 area code Wednesday night and thought, Uh oh,” said McCord, who got the news from McManus on Thursday.”
- “He [McManus] tells me, and he told Peter the same thing, that ‘We think CBS golf is getting a little stale, and we need to go in another direction,’ ” McCord told Golf Digest by phone from his home in Scottsdale. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but one thing I’ve never been called is stale.”
Full piece.
Geoff Shackelford’s take is worth noting as well….”There was a great deal of sniping in recent years over McCord’s act having grown thin, but never felt that way. He was often the one person trying to inject some life into telecasts, but without his old foil David Feherty or many opportunities to exhibit his knowledge of the swing, McCord was often limited to the role of 16th hole traffic cop. Therefore the notion of “stale” strikes me as more a statement about the CBS production elements (Yanni?) or overall energy than the work of any one announcer.”
2. Typhoons, Joker, and shaking off the rust
Bob Harig takes a backward glance at Tiger Woods’ winning week, which included some interesting elements (in every sense of the word)…”A typhoon, of all things, interrupted Tiger Woods’ unlikely brush with history. As the rain hammered down Friday, postponing play at the Zozo Championship and causing considerable upheaval in the region, Woods and several others ventured to a Narita movie theater to catch “Joker.”
- “Woods called the film “dark,” and he knows all about that word: from the scandal of a decade ago to the numerous back surgeries and the pain medication issues and the struggles to even assemble a golf game again.”
- “I know what it’s like to have this game taken away from you,” Woods said in a telling moment on the 18th green Monday, where he soon would be taking part in an awards ceremony to celebrate his 82nd PGA Tour victory, some 8,000 miles from his home in Florida.
Full piece.
3. A Tiger in the Olympics?
Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”Woods’ record-tying 82nd career win also vaulted him back into the mix for the U.S. Olympic team, with only the top four American men qualifying for next year’s event in Tokyo. While countries are capped at two players per nation, there is a provision to allow up to four players from the same country to play if all are ranked inside the top 15 in the world.”
- “Woods’ victory moved him to No. 6 in the latest world rankings, and he’s currently the fourth-highest American behind Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas. But the Official World Golf Rankings utilize a two-year rolling points system that currently dates back to October 2017, while points for the official Olympic rankings only began accruing in July 2018.”
Full piece.
4. LPGA POY
Golf DIgest’s Ryan Herrington…”In contrast, who would pick up the LPGA player-of the-year award has been a foregone conclusion for a few months. Jin Young Ko’s stats speak for themselves: four victories, including two major titles (ANA Inspiration and the Evian Championship), three runner-ups, five additional top-10 finishes and no missed cuts in 20 starts.”
- “And with a T-9 finish on Sunday at the BMW Ladies Championship, the 24-year-old from South Korea officially ended the discussion. Despite three events remaining on the LPGA schedule, Ko’s edge in points over Jeongeun Lee6 (241 to 123) makes it mathematically impossible for anyone to catch Ko.”
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G
Oct 29, 2019 at 5:30 pm
CBS thought they were too stale? So their way of fixing that was to fire the least stale guy on their team? Huge miss, golf on TV got even worse with this change.
James
Oct 29, 2019 at 12:01 pm
Tiger is hardly a GOAT. He couldn’t even keep his harem of dogs in line.
A. Commoner
Oct 29, 2019 at 7:45 pm
Picking the greatest of all time in any sport or activity is beyond nonsensical. Such an exercise ignores innumerable variables as to make it farcical.
Ryan
Oct 29, 2019 at 11:14 am
McCord got on my nerves sometimes, he would talk over others, caddie conversations etc, but he knew his stuff and was a solid announcer. Kostis is in the same boat. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to the swing. They will both be missed. I don’t really know who they are going to pull in to replace them.