Tommy Roy, NBC’s lead producer for golf, has had Kevin Kisner on his radar as a potential broadcaster. He told Kisner that the opportunity would be available when the fan favorite was ready to retire from playing.
After a quiet autumn, Roy approached Kisner on Sea Island in Georgia. He called him again a week later and asked for his schedule to find an appropriate time to have Kisner try out the microphone.
Kisner stated, “I was like ‘Well I’m going Honolulu for a concert so I can play Maui’.” “(Roy’s) like, ‘Alright, perfect. I’ll be there. I was like what? The next day, I knew I was talking to someone about a job.”
The four-time PGA Tour champion made his first appearance for NBC and Golf Channel last week at The Sentry’s PGA Tour opening, and received raves from the media and fans. Kisner will be calling the WM Phoenix Open in the fall. Before making his first start of the new Tour season at the Sony Open in Hawaii this week, Kisner joined fellow player-turned-commentator Smylie Kaufman on his podcast to talk about his broadcast debut.
New EP out now with @K_Kisner
Kiz goes in-depth about his first week of broadcasting… and the abrupt switch to “on camera”.
Watch/listen
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The Smylie Show 10 January 2024
Kisner admitted that he had called his wife after spending an hour watching the behind-the-scenes action during the first round on Thursday. He stuck with it and joined the broadcast Friday. He was funny and told some great stories about players. It brought new life to a broadcast which had become stale in recent years.
“From what i heard, it was helpful to have a guy who’d been there recently and close with the boys. Kisner stated that he had stories about all of the young men because he has been there. Now, some of these guys I do not have stories. “If I had known that (Akshay) Bhatia was hot on Sunday, I would have probably sat and twitched my thumbs all day. I have no dirt on him. It was great to see some of my old friends and acquaintances in action. I had a lot of memories from the past.
View the podcast in full here.
