How Tom Watson’s letter led to the broadcast of Gary McCord’s Masters

thirty years ago, Gary McCord was famously fired by the Masters CBS broadcast team for comparing the speed of a green wax to a bikini wax. But Augusta National reaction to the comment was not immediate – in fact, it was only after we received a critical letter from Tom Watson that McCord’s downfall had been set in motion.

How did everything go? McCord relived the story along with his longtime broadcast partner CBS Peter Kostis in the last episode of “Kostis & McCord: Off Their Rockers,” a GOLF production.

“What happened was, we have it Jose Maria Olazabalhe’s down the fairway, he’s talking to his box about what the next shot is, and the pin is back on the last day. And I said, let me interpret. I said, the caddy – now they’re speaking Spanish, obviously – and I said, the caddy, his brother, is saying, ‘Don’t hit it on the green, because there’s body bags down there.’ A cliché, is a euphemism for it he is dead. That’s it. All right. No big deal. This was earlier in the show.

“Now we go to later, and we go to a commercial break, and we’re late on the telecast,” McCord continued. “We’re on the 17th hole. I have the president of CBS Sports sitting next to me with the stick phone. It’s a red phone going to (Augusta National chairman) Hord Hardin. So he’s in the catacombs below, and this is the phone that can get him on the air right away, and he’s sitting next to me.”

McCord then explained that he liked to keep magazines in the cabin and saw an ad for the Golden Door Spa in Escondido, California. A bikini wax was among the treatments offered on the menu.

“Now, you know, at Augusta, the one thing they’re deathly afraid of is the speed of these greens,” McCord said. “So Jose hits it here to the left and he’s going to shoot to the right, and you know that shot by shot, and it’s just faster than hell. So I said, you know, this putt that Jose has here is really very subtle. Once he gets to the top of that hill, he’s a speed freak all the way. Actually, I don’t think they mow these greens. I think they wax them in bikinis.

“Neal Pilson is laughing his a-off next to me. He is the president of CBS Sports. The phone does not turn off. Anyway, that was it. (CBS Sports golf producer) Frank (Chirkinian) never said anything. Nobody said anything!”

The next week’s tournament was in Hilton Head, SC, and McCord and Kostis recalled being called into Chirkinian’s office the Wednesday before the tournament began.

“I get called into Frank’s office and he says, ‘Shut the door.’ So I close the door, and he throws me a letter, and it’s written in pencil,” McCord said. “And I look at the letter, it says to Augusta National. And it says, ‘We’ve got to eradicate this blight on golf. He is the Howard Stern of golf and we should pay attention to that and what he said,” Tom Watson signed off.

“I looked at Frank and said, ‘What the hell is this?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know. I got it from Augusta and they sent it to me.’ And I go, ‘What does that mean?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know yet.’ And I went, ‘Okay, keep me posted.’

Two days later, McCord was called back to Chirkinian’s office.

“So Friday, Frank goes, ‘Get in here,'” McCord says. “And I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Augusta is getting ready now.’ I said, “For what?” “For your death.”

McCord said Chirkinian told him the network would not defend him and he would have to take the case himself. However, Chirkinian gave him a piece of advice: “Stay on top of the process.”

A few months later, McCord was officially fired from the Masters broadcast, but remained on the CBS roster for the rest of the network’s tournaments.

Ultimately, McCord said he respected Augusta National’s decision to get rid of him, but he didn’t like the fact that Watson didn’t confront him personally about his grievances before taking the matter to Augusta.

McCord said he had the chance to face Watson the following year at Pebble Beach when he spotted Watson at check-in.

“Tom signs up in front of me and he turns to go out and I said, ‘Do you have a second?'” McCord said. He goes, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘I’ll meet you right there in the clearing.’

“So I walk in there, and he’s sitting there. And the next thing I know, he’s punching me in the chest and I’m putting him in the chest and I look over and you guys are sitting there laughing your ass off because we’re going to I fight there.

“And I just told him I don’t understand why he didn’t do that and get up and come talk to me first. He was trying to be God in this whole thing. That was the purpose of the conversation.”

In the years since, McCord said he and Watson have played the Champions Tour together and gotten along well. In fact, McCord now credits Watson for giving him so much attention.

“I’ve gotten more publicity for this than anything I’ve ever done in golf,” McCord said.

“It is possible that he not only did not hurt your income, but also increased it,” noted Kostis.

“I have to pay him a retainer fee,” McCord said.

For more great anecdotes from golf’s master storytellers, check out the latest episode of Kostis & McCord: Off Their Rockers, a GOLF production, below.

Editor of Golf.com

As a four-year member of the inaugural class of varsity golfers at Columbia, Jessica can put away anyone on the tee. She can also drive them in the office, where she is primarily responsible for producing print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her series The original interview, “A Round With,” debuted in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.