Trevor Immelman and Kevin Kisner are two of golf’s biggest TV stars at the Presidents Cup — and neither is in attendance this week.
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MONTREAL – It has been said that a hundred senators look in the mirror every morning and see a president.
To the presidents CUPsomething similar is happening with leadership: One hundred Presidents Cup captains look in the mirror and see a TV star.
But in this case they may have a point. One only needed a few minutes at Wednesday afternoon’s Vice Captains press conference to see the on-screen talent in action.
On the square, from left to right, sat about a dozen of golf television’s most prominent voices: Ogilvy, Immelman, Leonard, Kisner. Normally, a combination of these four professional speakers is a common sight for a Wednesday afternoon at a major event; we watch as they spill through the streets with brightly colored ropes inside the rope and carry on playful conversations with players, corpses and agents. But in THIS On Wednesday, those faces and voices wore different hats, on site as interim Presidents Cup staff, each in their respective roles as vice-captains.
As a cold, gray afternoon bled into a wild Montreal evening, the four men spoke, and soon it was hard to ignore the sense that television voices were everywhere. There was Todd Lewis at the podium, asking questions. And television screens blasted back and forth being recorded several thousand feet away in NBC’s huge broadcast facility. Soon the feeling had become a suggestion: the stars of Golf TV are EVERYWHERE in the Presidents Cup. Now only one question remained: Why is this week so important to them?
We will start with Trevor Immelmanthe gentle voice of CBS Golf. The last time we saw him wearing the INT shield, he was weeks away from starting his current role as lead analyst. Immelman, a well-liked but at the time not particularly distinguished voice, captained the international team in ’22. LIV had spent the previous summer destroying the international team, prompting Immelman to pick a record eight starters on the list. As both sides prepared for what was expected to be a bloodbath, Immelman faced an opportunity to stand out. He held seven days of impassioned press conferences, hit every right note, and led a team that proved extremely pesky. When it was over, Immelman was a golfing supernova, and he rode the wave of goodwill right into a well-rated opening season on CBS.
Geoff Ogilvy is not that kind of TV star – at least not STILL — but he has been the eye of the industry for the past 18 months. It’s easy to forget that Ogilvy was the first prominent name linked to the search for NBC’s chief analyst position (still vacant). The former US Open champion has long been regarded as one of golf’s sharpest talkers and would be a welcome addition almost anywhere if he decides he wants to work full time.
The problem, however, is that Ogilvy seems perfectly content keeping the TV at bay, popping in on ESPN’s Masters stint and guesting on various podcasts, shows and other stories.
“NBC was scraping by, but that doesn’t feel good right now.” he said Golf week in April. “I’m not ready to commit for 20 weeks.”
The lack of full-time TV work gives him the freedom to work unhesitatingly as vice-captain at events such as this (with the runway clear for the Australian to take a leading role when the Cup moves to Kingston Heath in ’28). . The flip side of work-life balance is that, at events like this, Ogilvy displays gifts of oratory that would be so appropriate in the booth.
“We don’t resentment the other team,” he said Wednesday, his tone dry. “It looks fun to win this tournament.”
On the other side of the dais, the two remaining members of our television crew—Justin Leonard and Kevin Kisner—laughed. They both won’t be interviewing for any TV jobs this weekend; as it is now, their place in the television landscape is clear. Leonard “left” NBC in early 2023 to pursue a full-time playing schedule on the PGA Champions Tour and hasn’t been back much, while NBC has openly directed Kisner to leave from full-time PGA Tour duties to take the lead analyst position, but Kisner has turned them down.
Still, their place in the vice-captaincy — a veritable inner circle of men’s golf — spoke to a truth shared by all four men and each of the 24 players in the field this week: The world is watching a little closer. this week. And as the world is watching more closely, so are the TV cameras.
It probably goes without saying that part of being a TV golf star is being in the inner circle, and perhaps this week discovers stars more than it creates them. But one member of this week’s Presidents Cup actually here on TV duty – Bones Mackay – sees it differently. The world of golf is filled with stories of those whose careers reached a different stratosphere through the performance of team golf, including two members of this week’s field (Max Homa and Tom Kim).
“There’s nothing like these weeks,” Mackay said on Wednesday. “The intensity is up, it’s getting a little sharp. It’s wonderful.”
Mackay, whose stance on the bag matched two of golf’s best players (Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas), has witnessed firsthand how these weeks can change lives and careers. They have helped to change his — leading in some indirect way to his current gig as a reporter on the NBC crew.
I asked Mackay why he thought so many TV stars were in the mix this week, and he talked about Leonard, suggesting these events are often a symbiotic relationship: good in, good out. Then he stopped.
“From a television perspective, those are some of the best weeks of the year.”
Perhaps in more ways than one.
