Paul Azinger will be expanding his role in TV golf coverage in a major way in 2019, with his NBC/Golf Channel megadeal joining – not replacing – his position with Fox Sports for the U.S. Open. Now he’ll bring his unique insight from a lifetime of golf to a wider audience than he ever could have planned.
In what became the worst kept secret in golf, Paul Azinger has been announced as the replacement to Johnny Miller on NBC’s golf coverage. But wait, there’s more.
He will also appear with Mike Tirico on Golf Channel’s Live from The Masters programs, will announce for the BBC at the Masters and will continue his position at Fox Sports for the U.S. Open and Women’s Open. Additionally, he will work on special projects for Golf Channel. He’s gone from part time to overtime.
“I’m still kind of overwhelmed by it,” Azinger said in a phone press conference. “I called golf for 11 years, and when I stepped in at ABC, it was a pretty solid broadcast team that was already in place.”
He credited his success to date to the people in front of and behind the cameras at ESPN, ABC and Fox.
“I was free to share my opinion. I was encouraged to, and you know, exactly how I felt about whatever it was, and that’s been my style,” he added.
Tommy Roy, lead producer for NBC Sports, said the multi-platform and multi-network situation was not unusual in the industry.
“When I was executive producer of NBC Sports, we had the French (Open). John McEnroe worked for us, but he also worked on the US Open coverage for CBS. There really was never any sort of conflict,” Roy explained.
Molly Solomon, executive VP of content for Golf Channel, added, “Nick Faldo works for CBS and Golf Channel, so there’s a lot of cross-pollination going on.”
In other words, while it’s a little unusual to work for more than one network, it’s not totally uncommon to do it.
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What was unusual was the clandestine method Roy and Azinger used to discuss whether a deal was possible. They chose to meet at a Ruby Tuesday’s in Ocala.
“I wanted to meet at a place where there was a pretty good chance we wouldn’t be recognized from people in the world of golf,” Roy explained.
Roy lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and Azinger lives in Bradenton, Florida. Ocala was about half way for both of them.
“Whenever we have big-time deals at NBC, we operate in total secrecy,” Roy added. “So, from that time forward, when we had any internal texts or communications on this, we always referred to Paul as Ruby Tuesday.”
Unfortunately for NBC, between agents and various television entities, word got out a little earlier than the network wanted it to. However, it calms speculation.
Azinger said the best advice he ever got regarding being on TV was from Bob Halloran, formerly with CBS and actual creator of The Skins Game, who told him to “let the picture be descriptive. You be informative.’”
With this new career move, Azinger will sit in the chair of a legend, Johnny Miller, and that could lead to some comparisons.
“We’re different, Johnny and I. We have a lot of similarities. We both love golf. We’re students of the game, and I guess we both love to fish. I mean, we just have a lot in common, but I am not Johnny,” he insisted.
Azinger believes he knows what’s going on inside the head of today’s players, no matter what their age.
“What a player thinks all belongs to him, but how these guys all think when they play the PGA Tour is fairly similar, and there is almost a formula to it,” he explained. “It might be the intangible that allows a guy to stay on Tour just on his physical ability. I’m proud to be able to articulate that. I’m overwhelmed by it honestly.”
When asked if he would use the choke word as often as Miller did, Azinger defended Miller by saying that he didn’t call a player a choker. According to Azinger what Miller often said was the player was facing a situation or a shot where it would be easy to choke.
“I’m not afraid to say to say choke. I’ve always said players choke for two things: They choke for cash and they choke for prestige. The most prestigious events will cause you to choke the most, and if you can’t win it, you’re choking for the cash, and really, that’s about it,” he offered. “I just don’t see any value in labeling somebody a choke.”
He said he’d rather help a player build his brand than belittle him. That’s not to say that Azinger won’t call out a situation he doesn’t like. In fact, on the conference call, he said he had some issues with the shot tracking features in television.
“I don’t trust shot tracer for one minute. When it takes off, I’m not always sure it’s going the direction the ball is going,” he said. “Every once in a while, you see the ball go off to the side, and it’s a good shot, and you will see the ball look like a good shot, and it will squirrel off to the side. It’s not a distrust, necessarily, but I’m not going to call a shot off what I see off of tracer.”
Now, in addition to being an experienced television talent, Azinger has excellent playing credentials, having won the 1993 PGA Championship, where he outdueled Greg Norman in a playoff. Unfortunately for Norman, it was the same course where Bob Tway holed out from a bunker to defeat him in the 1986 PGA Championship.
While on the PGA Tour, Azinger won 12 PGA Tour events and two European tournaments. He won on both coasts of the US, as well as in the north and the south, on a variety of different putting surfaces.
Azinger played Ryder Cup in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 2000 and was a victorious Ryder Cup captain in 2008 at Vahalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
Two of Azinger’s strengths as a player were his short game and his putting. Three months before winning the PGA, he had a memorable hole out from a bunker on the 18th hole at The Memorial to beat his good friend, the late Payne Stewart.
While he had great victories, there were also near misses in Azinger’s career. In 1987, at the British Open, he was leading with two holes to play, but Nick Faldo prevailed thanks in part to Azinger’s bogeys at the 17th and 18th. In 1988, he was second to Jeff Sluman at the PGA. In all, he had nine top tens in majors.
What many people may not remember or know is that Azinger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his right shoulder just four months after his PGA Championship victory. He had six months of chemotherapy followed by radiation. It took seven seasons before he climbed the victory mountain again at the Sony Open in 2000. To say it was an emotional victory is an understatement.
Now, he opens another chapter in what has already been an extraordinary career. Azinger isn’t Johnny Miller, but he brings his own brand of honesty. So buckle up, golf fans. The motorcycle-riding, former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger takes the mic starting with the Sentry Tournament of Champions.