Paul Azinger announces a surprise return to golf broadcasting

Guess who’s back? Are you back again?

Zinger is back, tell a friend.

Pardon the bad pun, but the news is true: longtime NBC commentator Paul Azinger is returning to golf broadcasting in 2025, replacing at least the PGA Tour Champions commentator for the late Lanny Wadkins. Golfweek’s Adam Schupak was first in the news.

WE WELCOME YOU?

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 flames last December after the network chose not to renew his contract. Zinger was not a popular voice among audiences in his final years at the helm because of his overreliance on human action and his frequent derision from the golf media (from which he was nominated), but his new role with the PGA Tour Champions. it should put him among the best of the generation of Tour stars he knows well, which should help improve some of the statistics in recent years.

WELL IT COSTS HIM

We shouldn’t forget the events that recently brought Azinger to the golf limelight. In the weeks after his departure was finalized, Azinger burned his bridges at NBC, touting his former employer’s “cost-cutting” measures, calling NBC Sports head of producers Sam Flood “a real a-hole” and emphasizing his view that the PGA . The tour had become a “fitness” for LIV Golf.

One assumes that Azinger addressed the allegations with the PGA Tour Champions before accepting the new leadership role, and perhaps apologized for his description of the network he will now broadcast on (The Golf Channel) and the golf tour that signs his checks.

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HOME DENIAL’

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

Remote streaming, or “pay-as-you-go” as it’s often called in the industry, is the new realm of sports TV. Proponents of the strategy say the business model lowers costs for sports leagues and broadcast networks while limiting the risk of technical failure, while opponents say it undermines the integrity of broadcast journalism by removing access to players and competitive tours.

LANNY’S SONG

Azinger will replace Lanny Wadkins, who was also the lead analyst for the network (CBS) and lead analyst for the PGA Tour Champions. Wadkins said the switch to broadcasting was part of his decision to retire from the sport

“I think broadcasting is going to lose something with all the good things they can come up with,” Wadkins said. Golfweek. “I think personal interaction with players is one of the best things you can do. I know, for example, when I call a tournament in Hawaii, I have breakfast every morning with various players and you find them in a place where you can get more information from them about what’s going on with their games, what they’re working with, how they’re hitting it, and what they’re trying to achieve, and everything else. “

THE ANNOUNCER LEAVES

December is the time of year when promotions are announced in the golf world. Mum is the name of the major shakeup of the TV brand as of now, but it’s worth noting that NBC Sports play-by-play man Dan Hicks’ contract expires at the end of the year. Flood, NBC’s head of production, said his desire to keep Hicks on NBC’s future-oriented sports lineup. Hicks is the voice of several major NBC properties, including golf, Olympic swimming, Notre Dame football and tennis.