Dottie Pepper – a great choice to replace Feherty on CBS.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Former LPGA Player Dottie Pepper was the most prominent female golf analyst at NBC Sports from 2004 until 2012. She had also done spots for ESPN.
Pepper was recently hired to replace David Feherty as an on-course reporter for CBS for the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season.
This is a great move, in my opinion. As CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus says “… Dottie is one of the most respected and insightful analysts in golf. She has played and covered the sport at its highest levels and her reputation, contacts, and relationships are outstanding.”
Pepper won 17 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, including 2 majors. One of my favorite memories of Dottie was seeing her play on the Solheim Cup team. I don’t believe there’s ever been a more emotional player in golf. She was an absolute lightening rod who amped up the American players every day!
Dottie Pepper has had a long, great career as a player and broadcaster. (Getty Images)
Dottie Pepper has been hired to replace David Feherty as an on-course reporter for CBS for the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. It’s a good get by CBS and, as someone who watches an absurd amount of golf, one I’m looking forward to.
Pepper is straight pro and loads of fun to listen to.
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus agrees with me.
“Dottie is one of the most respected and insightful analysts in golf,” said McManus. “She has played and covered the sport at its highest levels and her reputation, contacts and relationships within the game are outstanding. We have the strongest ensemble of voices in golf, and the addition of Dottie to our team makes us even stronger and deeper.”
I did a Q&A with Pepper recently to discuss her new job.
What are you most excited about?
“First and foremost is getting back into the live golf arena on a regular basis. It’s mostly live golf and the events CBS covers. You’re talking about two major championships, they’re events that matter. They matter a lot. That was the biggest thing for me.”
8 Top Golf Commentators that make us watch golf on TV!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Stories of sub-plots abound with the loss of David Feherty from CBS.
Top-ranked golf commentators are hot property and are worth their weight in gold to the networks they work for—some more than others. CBS obviously thought they could do without Feherty, who wanted more work “in the booth” and a higher salary. (which I’m sure he will get elsewhere). There are the legends like Henry Longhurst, (my favorite) Peter Alliss, and Pat Summerall; there are the commentators some people love and some hate, like Johnny Miller and Greg Norman.
Feherty is not on either list. Almost everybody loves him, but he has not yet reached the status of the three aforementioned broadcasters. This is his chance to take it to the next level. I, for one, cannot wait to see the outcome! Thanks to Golf Digest and Joel Beall for this interesting story!
A glance at Golf Digest’s Facebook page shows fans are none too pleased with CBS Sports’ apparent decision to part ways with on-course reporter David Feherty. While some looked at the Northern Irishman’s commentary as sacrilegious, there’s no denying that Feherty’s outlook was unique, and frankly, an imaginative take on a sport that’s notoriously conservative.
In honor of Feherty, here are eight of the more unique personalities that have graced golf broadcasts:
Henry Longhurst.
Henry Longhurst, British golf writer and commentator, during the US Masters Golf Tournament at the Augusta National Club in Georgia, circa April 1971. (Photo by Leonard Kamsler/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
A golf correspondent for The Sunday Times, Longhurst penned a dozen books throughout his life, and once served as a member of parliament during World War II. However, Longhurst is best known as one of the first voices involved in golf broadcasting, and as such, played an indelible role in the shaping of the sport’s coverage. Longhurst worked on golf broadcasts for 20 years, from the late 1950s until his death in 1978. He famously called Jack Nicklaus’ 40-foot putt on the 16th hole at the 1975 Masters:”My, my…in all my life I have never seen a putt quite like that.”
Johnny Miller.
Miller was a fine player in his own right, racking up 25 wins, two majors and one of the best final rounds in championship history, but is best known to contemporary golf audiences as NBC’s color commentator. Miller has become known — some would even say infamous — for his candor, which has drawn ire from tour players throughout the years. Nevertheless, his ability to convey both a golf course’s subtleties and the mechanics and fundamentals of the sport to the common man are unparalleled.
Peter Alliss.
One of the fewer announcers who doesn’t hyperbolize the present. Can spout out historical facts as if he’s reading from a book. He’s facetious without the snark. And if he does offend — which he occasionally does — he doesn’t give a damn.
Or, we could just say his nickname is “the Voice of Golf.” Enough said.
Pat Summerall.
Ken Venturi, Pat Summerall
PGA TOUR
Photo by Jeff McBride/PGA TOUR Archive
To a certain generation, Summerall was known for many years as the monotone narrator of the “Madden” NFL video game franchise (as well as Golden Tee!). Yet, despite his career as a NFL player, he seamlessly transitioned to golf, and was an integral part of the sport for 30 years. Summerall worked his first Masters in 1968, and was at Augusta every year until 1994. The brevity and booming inflection was apropos for golf.
Give thanks that you can play for the round is much too short and sweet.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The full verse goes – Give thanks that you can play for the round is much too short and sweet to let it slip away!
This Englishman won 4 consecutive European Tour Order of Merit titles from 1971 to 1974, was a member of 6 Ryder Cup teams and won the Canadian Open in 1981 on the PGA Tour.
I remember playing a practice round with him at Huddle Park Golf Club before the 1971 South African PGA Championship. He had class and dignity then, and he still has that now.
I did not know why I hadn’t seen “Oostie,” as we used to call him, when I played the South African Tour in the ’70s, in the broadcasting booth for CBS for some time. Oosterhuis has just announced publicly that he has early-onset Alzheimer’s.
It takes courage to deal with this devastating disease. Peter Oosterhuis and his wife, Ruthie, are doing all they can to support fundraisers to help fight this condition, affecting too many people. Peter has accepted this challenge with the same class and character he brought to his golf and broadcasting careers.
Give thanks, celebrate the good shots, and forget the bad ones.
Peter Oosterhuis, a former PGA Tour player and broadcaster, has disclosed that he has Alzheimer’s disease.
Oosterhuis, 67, an Englishman, made the public announcement in May with his wife, Roothie, at an event for the Nantz National Alzheimer Center, which broadcaster Jim Nantz founded at Houston Methodist Neurological Institute as a tribute to his late father, who suffered from the disease. Video of the announcement was released Monday by Golf World.
“It’s a horrible disease. Not only does it affect Peter. It affects me, our children, and our grandchildren and our friends.” Roothie Oosterhuis said at the event. “It took nine months for us to accept the fact that Peter has this. He is, as always, elegant and amazing in standing up to the situation.”
The six-time European Ryder Cup player worked as a golf analyst for BBC, CBS Sports and Golf Channel, beginning in 1995. His playing career included more than 20 titles worldwide and 11 years on the PGA Tour.
