Paul Azinger announces surprise return to golf broadcasts

Guess who’s back? Come back again?

Zinger is back, tell a friend.

Pardon the terrible pun, but the news is real: NBC’s lead analyst Paul Azinger is returning to golf broadcasting in 2025, taking over at least as analyst for the PGA Champions Tour in place of the departed Lanny Wadkins. since then. Golfweek’s Adam Schupak was first in the news.

WELCOME?

While Azinger remains well-regarded in the industry, his return to the PGA Tour comes as a surprise. He has been off television since leaving NBC in a blaze of glory last December after the network chose not to renew his contract. Zinger was not a particularly popular voice among audiences in his final years in the main chair due to an excessive reliance on the populace and his repeated derision of the golf media (of which he was a major appointee). , but his new role with the PGA Champions Tour should put him in the good graces of a generation of tour stars he knows well, which should help improve some of the analytical divides of recent years.

YES IT IS SET

We should not forget the events that recently brought Azinger into the golf spotlight. A few weeks after his departure was finalized, Azinger burned his bridges at NBCdecrying his former employer’s “cost-cutting” ways, calling NBC Sports head of production Sam Flood a “real a-hole” and asserting his opinion that the PGA Tour had become a “qualifier” for LIV Golf.

One imagines that Azinger addressed these allegations with the PGA Tour champions before accepting the new leadership role, and perhaps apologized for his characterizations of the network that he will now broadcast from time to time for (Golf Channel) and the golf tournament that signed his paychecks.

BULLETIN

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COOKING AT HOME

Azinger’s return to the booth comes as the PGA Champions Tour begins its broadcast transition to a mostly remote setup from the PGA Tour’s new production studios in Jacksonville, Fla.

Remote broadcasts, or “remie” as they are often called in the industry, are new ground for sports TV. Proponents of the strategy say the business model lowers costs for sports leagues and broadcast networks by limiting the risk of technical failures, while opponents say it undermines the journalistic integrity of broadcasts by removing access from players and competitive tournaments.

SONG OF LANY’S SWANS

Azinger will replace Lanny Wadkins, also a former lead analyst for the network (CBS) and also lead analyst for the PGA Champions Tour. Wadkins said the switch to remote broadcasting was part of his decision to leave the game

“I think the telecast is going to miss something for all the positive things they can bring out,” Wadkins said. Golf week. “I think personal interaction with players is one of the best things you can do. I know, for example, when I call the tour in Hawaii, I have breakfast every morning with different players and you get them in an environment like that, you can get more information from them about what’s going on with their games, who they’re work with it, how they’re hitting it and what they’re trying to achieve, everything else.”

Transmission movements

December is the time of year when broadcasting moves are announced in the world of golf. It’s mum on major changes to the TV product so far, but it’s worth noting that NBC Sports anchor Dan Hicks’ contract is set to expire at the end of the year. Flood, NBC’s head of production, has stated his desire to keep Hicks on the list of NBC Sports leads in the future. Hicks is the voice of a number of major properties for NBC, including golf, Olympic swimming, Notre Dame football and tennis.