Trevor Immelman and Kevin Kisner are two of golf TV’s largest stars on the Presidents Cup — and neither is on the decision this week.
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MONTREAL — It has been stated {that a} hundred senators look within the mirror each morning and see a president.
On the Presidents Cup, there’s one thing comparable happening with management: 100 Presidents Cup captains look within the mirror and see a TV star.
However on this case they might have some extent. One wanted just a few minutes at Wednesday afternoon’s Vice Captains’ press convention to see on-screen expertise in motion.
On the dais, from left to proper, sat near a half-dozen of golf tv’s most notable voices: Ogilvy, Immelman, Leonard, Kisner. Usually, some mixture of these 4 professional talkers is a typical sight for Wednesday afternoon at a big-time occasion; we watch as they spill via the fairways with bright-colored inside-the-ropes lanyards and stick with it playful chitchat with gamers, caddies and brokers. However on this Wednesday, these faces and voices had been sporting totally different hats, on-site as momentary workers of the Presidents Cup, every of their respective roles as vice-captain.
As a chilly, grey afternoon bled right into a gusty night in Montreal, the 4 males spoke, and earlier than lengthy it was onerous to disregard the sensation that the tv voices had been in all places. There was Todd Lewis on the lectern, asking questions. And TV screens blasted the back-and-forth being recorded a number of thousand ft away in NBC’s hulking broadcast facility. Quickly the sensation had turn into a suggestion: Golf TV’s stars are in all places on the Presidents Cup. Now just one query remained: Why is that this week so essential to them?
We’ll begin with Trevor Immelman, the genteel voice of CBS Golf. Final time we noticed him sporting the INT protect, he was weeks away from beginning in his present position as lead analyst. Immelman, a popular however, on the time, not significantly distinguished voice, was the captain of the Worldwide aspect again in ’22. LIV had spent the prior summer season decimating the Worldwide aspect, main Immelman to pick a document eight rookies to the roster. As the 2 sides ready for what was anticipated to be a massacre, Immelman confronted a chance to face out. He delivered seven days of impassioned press conferences, struck each proper notice, and captained a group that proved endearingly pesky. When it was over, Immelman was a golf supernova, and he rode the wave of goodwill straight right into a well-regarded opening season on CBS.
Geoff Ogilvy is not any such TV star — at the least not but — however he has been the attention sweet of the trade over these final 18 months. It’s straightforward to overlook that Ogilvy was the primary distinguished title tied to the seek for NBC’s (still-vacant) lead analyst place. The previous U.S. Open champ has lengthy been thought to be certainly one of golf’s most incisive audio system, and can be a welcome addition nearly anyplace, ought to he determine he’d wish to work a full schedule.
The issue, although, is that Ogilvy appears completely content material retaining TV at an arm’s size, pitching in for ESPN’s Masters obligation and as a visitor on numerous different podcasts, reveals and tales.
“NBC was scratching round however that doesn’t really feel proper in the meanwhile,” he advised Golfweek in April. “I’m not able to commit to twenty weeks.”
Not working TV full-time offers him the liberty to work with out hesitation as a vice-captain at occasions like this one (with the runway clear for the Australian to step right into a management position when the Cup shifts to his native Kingston Heath in ’28). The flip aspect of work-life stability is that, at occasions like this one, Ogilvy showcases the oratory presents that will be so effectively suited within the sales space.
“We don’t hate the opposite group,” he stated Wednesday, his tone bone-dry. “It … appears to be like enjoyable to win this match.”
From the opposite aspect of the dais, the remaining two members of our TV crew — Justin Leonard and Kevin Kisner — laughed. These two received’t be interviewing for any TV jobs this weekend; because it stands now their place within the TV panorama is evident. Leonard “stepped away” from NBC to start with of 2023 to pursue a full-time taking part in schedule on the PGA Tour Champions and hasn’t been again a lot, whereas NBC has overtly courted Kisner to step away from full-time PGA Tour duties to take the lead analyst job, however Kisner has rebuffed them.
Nonetheless, their place within the vice-captaincy — a literal inside circle of males’s professional golf — spoke to a reality shared by all 4 males, and by every of the 24 gamers within the area this week: the world is watching just a little bit nearer this week. And when the world is watching nearer, effectively, so are the TV cameras.
Perhaps it goes with out saying that a part of being a golf TV star is being within the inside circle, and perhaps this week reveals the celebs greater than it creates them. However one member of this week’s Presidents Cup really right here for tv duties — Bones Mackay — sees it in another way. The golf world is plagued by tales of these whose careers reached a distinct stratosphere through group golf efficiency, together with two members of this week’s area (Max Homa and Tom Kim).
“There’s nothing like these weeks,” Mackay stated Wednesday. “The depth is ratcheted up, it’s getting just a little chippy. It’s nice.”
Mackay, whose tenure on the bag overlapped with two of the golf world’s nice match play showmen (Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas), has witnessed firsthand how these weeks can change lives and careers. They’ve helped to vary his — main in some oblique technique to his present gig as an on-course reporter with NBC’s group.
I requested Mackay why he thought so many TV stars had been within the combine this week, and he spoke about Leonard, suggesting these occasions are sometimes a symbiotic relationship: put good in, get good out. Then he paused.
“From a TV perspective, they’re a number of the finest weeks of the yr.”
Perhaps in additional methods than one.
