Jim Nantz jabs LIV Golf again, this time on PGA Championship broadcast

To Jim Nantz’s sundry roles — golf announcer, basketball play-caller, host, emcee, Pebble Beach ambassador — you can add more title: LIV Golf roast master.

At the Masters last month, the legendary CBS Sports broadcaster perked ears when describing Brooks Koepka’s actions on the 15th hole during the third round. When Koepka’s second shot came to rest on the strip of fairway designated for patrons, Nantz deadpanned:

“There he is right on the CW.” He paused for effect then added, “The crosswalk.”

Tapped-in viewers would have known Koepka plays for LIV Golf, and LIV Golf is broadcast on the CW Network. They also might have known that Nantz has not spoken warmly of the upstart league. In the early days of LIV’s formation last year, Nantz, on CBS’s Canadian Open telecast, said of players who had signed with LIV, “…what I keep hearing from people, too, is a sense of disappointment, even a little betrayal.”

On Thursday at the PGA Championship, Nantz was back at again, dropping another subtle LIV zinger. As LIV pro Dustin Johnson got loose on the first tee, Nantz said of Johnson, “Not sure if you had a chance to see it, but he was the winner last week in Tulsa, in a playoff over Cam Smith.”

On its face, that might sound like an innocuous comment, but it, in fact, has layers. That’s because golf fans did not get a chance to see the playoff — at least not on TV. When the Tulsa event stretched into bonus golf Sunday evening, in many major markets across the U.S. the CW elected to instead air its regularly scheduled programming, meaning any viewers who wanted to see the tournament’s conclusion had to jump over to the LIVGolf+ or CW apps.

That strategic decision, it appears, did not escape Nantz.

You can check out the clip here:

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s executive editor, Bastable is responsible for the editorial direction and voice of one of the game’s most respected and highly trafficked news and service sites. He wears many hats — editing, writing, ideating, developing, daydreaming of one day breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely talented and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the features editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and foursome of kids.