NBC Sports has hired Kevin Kisner as its newest lead golf analyst.
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The friendship between NBC Sports and the network’s newest golf analyst, Kevin Kisner, began in December 2023, but it took more than nine months before anyone dared to define the relationship.
Now at the end of September, it was time, finally, for a visit to the homeland. As golf season rolled into football, a column of NBC Sports brass including golf honcho Sam Flood, president Rick Cordella and executive producer Tommy Roy made plans to visit Kisner at his permanent home in Aiken, SC The goal? To encourage Kisner to take his broadcasting talents full time. After nine months of tiptoeing around their interest – Kisner insisted on playing out the remainder of his pro career before heading to TV as NBC handled lead analyst duties at the US Open and Open Championships Brandel Chamblee and Luke Donald — NBC was ready to go all-in.
A full-time commitment was not on anyone’s mind for long in the months leading up to September. Not after NBC announced Kisner as interim lead analyst for a handful of PGA Tour events (The Sentry, WM Phoenix Open and Players) that complement Paul Azinger. Not since Kisner impressed the NBC Sports brass with his performance, balancing his knowledge of the pro game with his rib-chopping sense of humor. And not even after Kisner enjoyed the experience enough to sign on for NBC’s late-season FedEx Cup Playoff coverage, a three-week tryout that would closely mirror life in the full-time gig.
The truth is that neither side was ready for the next step. Kisner’s remaining two years of PGA Tour eligibility meant he was in no position to take the NBC job for most of 2024, and NBC was weary of the risks that came with hiring a neophyte. television as its broadcast underwent a broader editorial reimagining under Flood. It would have been suitable for Kisner to immediately fill Azinger’s vacated spot as lead analyst, avoiding staffing pains with the U.S. Open and Open Championship broadcasts and confusion from the golf world. NBC liked this route enough to explore adding a full-time analyst in early ’24, but the prestige of the job and the million-dollar investment required a home-run swing. Network, possibly injured by the end of Azinger’s termdecided it was better to wait for the right pitch.
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Flood, Cordella, and Roy arrived in Aiken in the fall to find Kisner open-minded. The clock was ticking on the 40-year-old pro, who was now just one year away from PGA Tour qualification thanks to a lifetime top-50 finisher exemption. He would be involved in a dozen or so tournaments in 2025, but it would mostly come down to weaker field events. If his game improved — unlikely for a player of Kisner’s age (40) and stature (181st on tour in 2024) — his playing schedule could be filled, but that was uncertain.. On the other hand, if his game continued on its recent trajectory, he would be available for most weeks of NBC’s PGA Tour coverage in 2025 and his playing career would end in 2026.
In other words, if NBC was willing to work with him on the details, Kisner was open to getting the gig.
“I have a great relationship with Sam Flood. I like the way he talks about things. He’s very fair, and so am I,” Kisner said. “My wife and I sat down with (Flood, Cordella and Roy) for three and a half hours and just talked about life. We talked about the future — what we felt was good, bad, how to make golf better, how they thought I could fit into their team.”
At the end of the conversation, the decision was made. Kisner would take on 10 events in 2025 and the permanent title of NBC Golf’s lead analyst while retaining part-time PGA Tour playing privileges. If his playing career got in the way of the deal, NBC would be flexible, and if not, NBC would be the beneficiary.
“They will work with me in 2025,” Kisner said. “If something happens where I win and play well, they said, ‘that’s great.’ And I will play more golf. And if not, then I told them they have my full commitment in 2026.”
For NBC, Kisner was worth the gymnastics. Of all the analysts tested in ’24, Kisner had been the network’s top performer. He was the first outside selection for what became a trial run for the premiership through 2024 and the candidate whose performances in the booth attracted the most attention. In the weeks since he joined the NBC team, Kisner enjoyed a lively rapport with the man (and friend) Dan Hicks, who made headlines for his colorful criticism and seemed to understand the finer points of analysis — reinforce, clarify, explain – quickly.
“With all the Tour players, I’m paying attention to how they handle press conferences and interviews, how they react to their bodies on the air,” Roy said. “I’m always trying to get a feel for whether they’re a good communicator.”
“With Kevin, I started trying to talk to him on the line years ago. I would tell him, Hey, when the day comes that you’re ready to call it a game of golf, I really think you have a chance to be in our business here and be successful at it..”
Even with Roy’s endorsement, Kisner’s entry into the top chair qualifies as an upset. The 40-year-old professional gives NBC something it hasn’t had in more than 30 years: a lead analyst who it is not a major championship winner. This bucks decades of tradition in golf television, where the prevailing sentiment has long been that top analyst jobs are limited to those with major championship pedigree and first-hand knowledge of history-changing moments.
There is a reasonable argument that the practice is outdated. Some of the biggest success stories in recent sports TV history have been players of less than historic status (Pat McAfee), while FOX’s $100 million contract with Tom Brady has shown that even great players all times can fight in the cabin. Put another way, an analyst’s story means nothing if their insights aren’t interesting or informative.
“I want the 12-handicaps in the clubhouse or on his couch to go, Yes, he was right about that, I will try itor, this is exactly what happened“said Kisner, who is expected to call the US Open, Open Championship and Ryder Cup for NBC in 2025. “And then I want Scottie Scheffler or Max Homa or Brian Harman to go. Yeah, I got the hell out of that putt. Or, Yes, I took a terrible swing at that position. I want everyone to say, this is exactly what happened. That’s why I’m sitting in that place.”
Criticism is an art form in the chief analyst’s chair, where the subjects of the critique often watch closely. It helped NBC’s confidence to know that Kisner had a net in the biggest moments. By the time Kisner signed his contract, the network had already decided to bring back a major broadcast experiment from 2024, the “odd-even” format, splitting play-by-play and analyst duties between teams designated for odd- and even-numbered slots. . . The goal of the strategy, Flood and Roy said, is to facilitate a conversation between broadcasters that fans can “eavesdrop on,” rather than the broadcasters talking. THE the audience at home. NBC hopes the switch to even-numbered will make life easier for Kisner as he transitions to golf TV. It will simplify preparation, for example, and create fewer, more speaking opportunities.
But Kisner isn’t worried about flying off the handle. Quite the opposite. The biggest problem the networks face is making something entertaining, he says, and his biggest advantage is figuring out how to bridge the divide between the questionable players in the media business and a sports economy that’s an extension of it. .
“I think there’s always been a narrative that there’s been two sides, right? The media and then the golfers. It was always like golfers didn’t want to reveal too much because they didn’t want the media to confuse them or paint them in a bad light,” Kisner says. “The more I’ve been on both sides, the more I understand that the partnership should never be bigger than it is right now. The media rights deal for the PGA Tour is the biggest money maker they have have and players need to understand that the better they make the product on TV, the more money they can play and the more money they can win.
These are the cold realities of the sports business, and in the results-obsessed world of the PGA Tour, Kisner’s understanding of the importance of media has long made him exceptional. Good players get paid, he knows, but rich players win eye. That understanding is what got him into YouTube and podcasting long before NBC came along, and it’s what will give him a second lease on the world’s second-biggest golf television job.
In Kisner’s words, the simplest version of his new role at NBC is to serve as an emissary between golf’s two sometimes conflicting camps: the players and the people. Many broadcasters have tried their hand at helping people understand players, but Kisner says he thinks he can help the relationship work the other way, too.
“Hopefully these good players understand that I am their friend first. I will never do anything to make them feel disrespected or hurt their brand. I’m there to tell the truth,” says Kisner. “I’ll show it like I did when they’re sitting with me in the dressing room, and I’m also going to play them next week, so I’m never going to cause a controversy. statement just to get clicks. I tell it like it is, man, and I’ve done it my whole career. Ask any player, they know where they stand with me at all times, and that’s what I plan to do in the booth.”
Of course, the truth has many nuances, but Kisner seems remarkably adept at managing the upset that is surely headed his way. He’s funny in a way that hasn’t graced golf TV since David Feherty, and he’s already dreaming up ways to quickly win audiences over to his corner, even if it means running afoul of the FCC.
“I’m trying to see if Tommy will let me go on camera with my shirt off,” Kisner says, referring to his now-infamous Presidents Cup bet with Max Homa. “Dani and I are going to get down in our skivvies and introduce me to the world.”
He pauses right after delivering the punch line, as if to hold back a laugh.
James Colgan is a news and features editor at GOLF, writing stories for the website and magazine. He manages Hot Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and leverages his on-camera experience across the brand’s platforms. Before joining GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University, during which time he was a caddy (and smart) scholarship recipient on Long Island, where he is from. He can be reached at james.colgan@golf.com.
