How the Presidents Cup became the most star-studded event on golf TV

MONTREAL – It is said that every morning a hundred senators look in the mirror and see a president.

With the presidents cupSomething similar happens with leadership: a hundred Presidents Cup captains look in the mirror and see a TV star.

But in this case, they may be right. At the vice-captains’ press conference on Wednesday afternoon, it only took a few minutes to see talent in action on screen.

Seated on the podium, from left to right, were nearly half a dozen of golf television’s most recognizable voices: Ogilvy, Immelman, Leonard, Kisner. Typically, a combination of these four professional speakers is a common sight at a major event on Wednesday afternoon; We watch as they stream across the fairways with colorful lanyards inside the ropes and playfully chat with players, caddies and agents. But continue The On Wednesday, these faces and voices wore different hats, on site as Presidents Cup stand-ins, each in their respective roles as vice-captain.

As a cold, gray afternoon turned into a gusty Montreal evening, the four men talked, and soon it was hard to ignore the feeling that the TV voices were everywhere. Todd Lewis sat at the lectern and asked questions. And television screens broadcast the back-and-forth recorded a few thousand feet away at NBC’s massive broadcast facility. Soon the feeling turned into a suggestion: they are the stars of Golf TV everywhere at the Presidents Cup. Now only one question remained: Why is this week so important to you?

We start with Trevor Immelman, the distinguished voice of CBS Golf. When we last saw him with the INT shield, he was still weeks away from his current role as lead analyst. Immelman, a popular but not particularly prominent voice at the time, was captain of the international team in 1922. LIV had spent the previous summer decimating the international team, prompting Immelman to set a record eight Newbies in the squad. As both sides prepared for an expected bloodbath, Immelman had an opportunity to stand out. He gave seven days of impassioned press conferences, struck the right tone and managed a team that proved extremely troublesome. When it was over, Immelman was a golf supernova, riding the wave of goodwill straight into the well-watched inaugural season on CBS.

Geoff Ogilvy is not that kind of TV star – at least not still – but he has been the eye candy of the industry for the last 18 months. It’s easy to forget that Ogilvy was the first prominent name linked to the search for the (still vacant) senior analyst position at NBC. The former US Open champion has long been considered one of golf’s most incisive speakers and would be a welcome addition almost anywhere should he decide to work a busy schedule.

The problem, however, is that Ogilvy seems perfectly content to stay away from television, competing in the ESPN Masters tournament and appearing as a guest on various other podcasts, shows and stories.

“NBC has been scratching around, but it doesn’t feel right right now,” he said Golf week in April. “I’m not ready to commit to 20 weeks.”

Not working full-time in television gave him the freedom to serve as vice-captain at events such as this without hesitation (leaving the runway clear for the Australian to take a leadership role when the Cup moved to his hometown of Kingston Heath in 1928). ). ). The downside to the work-life balance is that at events like this, Ogilvy shows off the oratorical skills that would fit the booth so well.

“We don’t do that hate the other team,” he said on Wednesday in a bone-dry tone. “It…is fun to win this tournament.”

On the other side of the podium, the two remaining members of our television crew – Justin Leonard and Kevin Kisner – laughed. These two won’t be interviewing for TV jobs this weekend; As it stands now, their place in the TV landscape is clear. Leonard “retired from NBC in early 2023 to pursue a full-time schedule with the PGA Tour Champions and has not been back often, while NBC has openly courted Kisner to step away from his full-time PGA Tour duties as they take on the lead analyst job , but Kisner turned them down.

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Still, their place in the vice-captaincy — a literal inner circle of men’s pro golfers — highlighted a truth shared by all four men and each of the 24 players in the field this week: The world is looking a little closer this week. And when the world takes a closer look, so do the television cameras.

Perhaps it goes without saying that part of being a golf TV star is being part of your inner circle, and perhaps this week reveals the stars more than creates them. But one member of this week’s Presidents Cup who is actually here for TV duties – Bones Mackay – sees things differently. The golf world is littered with stories of people whose careers have reached new heights through team golf achievements, including two members of this week’s field (Max Homa and Tom Kim).

“There is nothing like these weeks,” Mackay said on Wednesday. “The intensity increases, it becomes a little restless. It’s great.”

Mackay, whose tenure overlapped that of two of golf’s greatest match play showmen (Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas), has seen firsthand how these weeks can change lives and careers. You contributed to the change be – which indirectly led to his current gig as an on-course reporter on the NBC team.

I asked Mackay why he thought there were so many TV stars involved this week, and he talked about Leonard, suggesting that these events are often a symbiotic relationship: bring good in, get good out. Then he paused.

“From a television perspective, these are some of the best weeks of the year.”

Maybe in more ways than one.

James Colgan

Golf.com Publisher

James Colgan is GOLF’s news and features editor and writes stories for the website and magazine. He leads Hot Mic, GOLF’s media arm, leveraging his on-camera experience across all of the brand’s platforms. Before joining GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University. During this time he was a caddy scholarship player (and sharp looper) on Long Island, where he is from. He can be reached at [email protected].