Last month, the legendary Verne Lundquist had to fight back tears as he said goodbye on his final CBS Masters broadcast.
Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa, the final pairing of the Masters Sunday, finished the 16th hole and reached 17. And as the telecast comes to an end, broadcaster Jim Nantz thanked Lundquist, his good friend and longtime colleague, who has called 40 Masters and spent most of them as the chief commentator on the towering par-3 16th at Augusta National.
“Verne wrote a book back in 2018 called ‘Play by Play,'” Nantz said. “In the last line of the letter you wrote, Verne, I want to apply it to you. He said thank you, to borrow a phrase, thank you for the memories. Your voice has been a great tool. Thank you for the beautiful song of all our lives.”
“Thank you so much, Jim,” said an emotional Lundquist. “It’s my right, my right.”
Lundquist recently joined co-hosts Peter Kostis and Gary McCord on their “Kostis & McCord: Off Their Rockers” podcast, a GOLF Production, to talk about his time calling the Masters, his favorite moments, saying goodbye to Tiger Woods and more.
But he also rejected the name of the person he believes should replace him in the 16th.
“I have my favorite, and I no longer have a dog on this hunt,” Lundquist said. “I mentioned it to Jim Nantz, and I’m going to put it here with you guys and see what your reaction is. I would like to see Frank Nobilo at 16. I think you have a new face; he is a really scary guy. I said to Jim. I haven’t talked about it yet [CBS Golf lead producer] Sellers [Shy] or [CEO] David Berson, who took Sean [McManus’] place, but we’ll see.”
Nobilo, 63, is well known in the world of golf broadcasting. A longtime member of Golf Channel’s “Live From” alongside Brandel Chamblee and Rich Lerner, Nobilo left NBC to join CBS as a golf analyst in December 2019.
“That will be very exciting [who they hire],” said Kostis. “I spent 10 out of 10 years, I spent 13 out of 13, and I spent 7 out of 15 years. It has completely changed. I don’t know what they will do in the future, but it’s like whoever replaces Don Shula or Bill Belichick as coach of the Dolphins or Patriots, the next man has big shoes to fill. So whoever the hell is going to 16, they better behave themselves. “
You can listen to the entire interview with Lundquist below.
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