Paul Azinger announces surprise return to golf broadcasting

Guess who’s back? Back again?

Zinger’s back, tell a friend.

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

WELCOME BACK?

While Azinger remains well-regarded in the industry, his return to a PGA Tour arrives as a bit of a surprise. He has been out of television since leaving NBC in a blaze of glory last December after the network elected not to renew his contract. Zinger was not a particularly popular voice among viewing audiences in his final years in the lead chair due to an overreliance on folksiness and his repeated derision of golf media (of which he was a key appointee), but his new role with the PGA Tour Champions should place him in the good graces of a generation of Tour stars he knows well, which should help to enhance some of the analytical breakdowns of recent years.

WELL THAT’S AWKWARD

We should not forget the events that most recently brought Azinger into the golf spotlight. A few weeks after his departure was finalized, Azinger torched his bridges at NBC, unloading on 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 lead job, and perhaps apologized for his characterizations of the network he will now occasionally broadcast for (Golf Channel) and the golf tour that signs his paychecks.

NEWSLETTER

Sign up for GOLF’s Hot Mic Newsletter!

Want exclusive golf media news in your inbox? Sign up for the Hot Mic Newsletter with James Colgan!

SIGN UP

HOME COOKIN’

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

Remote broadcasts, or “remies” as they’re often referred to in the industry, are new terrain for sports TV. Proponents of the strategy say the business model brings down costs for sports leagues and broadcast networks while limiting the risk of technical failures, while opponents say that it undermines the journalistic integrity of broadcasts by removing access from players and competitive tours.

LANNY’S SWAN SONG

Azinger will replace Lanny Wadkins, also a former major network lead analyst (CBS) and also lead analyst of the PGA Tour Champions. Wadkins said the shift to remote broadcasts was part of his decision to step away from the game

“I think that telecast is going to be losing something for all the positives that they can come up with,” Wadkins told Golfweek. “I think the personal interaction with the players is one of the best things you can do. I know, for example, when I call the tournament in Hawaii, I have breakfast every morning with various players and you get them in a surrounding like that you’re able to get more info from them on what’s going on with their games, who they’re working with, how they’re hitting it, and what they’re trying to achieve, everything else.”

BROADCAST MOVES

December is the time of year when broadcast moves are announced in the golf world. Mum is the word on significant shakeups to the TV product as of now, but it’s worth noting that NBC Sports play-by-play man Dan Hicks’ contract is set to expire at the end of the year. Flood, the head of NBC’s production, has stated his desire to keep Hicks on the NBC Sports roster headed into the future. Hicks is the voice of a host of big properties for NBC, including golf, Olympic swimming, Notre Dame football and tennis.