This time next year, we can all hope, life will be different. Perhaps we’ll see two Masters between now and then, and some other major championships, too. As for Jim Nantz, well, he’s bound to be one of the busiest men in sports.
As the lead broadcaster for CBS’ golf and football coverage, Nantz rarely gets a break anyway, but the spring often serves him a couple of weeks off. But when CBS is slated to host a Super Bowl, Nantz’ schedule gets intense. How about when CBS is slated to host a November Masters?
“With all the big events that are potentially scheduled, I could essentially have the most demanding stretch of my career,” Nantz told Sports Broadcast Journal.
“I love to work and frankly I’ve never been comfortable taking weeks off. If the world is centered again, I could go from the newly scheduled Masters date in November of this year to the PGA Championship in May 2021. That’s pretty much six consecutive months of on-air broadcasting week in and week out, with the NFL and NCAA tournaments in between.”
It doesn’t sound like Nantz is going to be getting a break once the sports world is able to return to normal. Below is an imagined schedule:
2020 Masters — Nov. 12-15 NFL football — every Sunday through Jan. 24 Farmers Insurance Open — Jan. 28-31 Super Bowl — Feb. 7 PGA Tour golf — Feb. 14-21 NCAA Tournament — March – Early April 2021 Masters — April 5-11 PGA Tour golf — April 18-May 16 PGA Championship — May 20-23
That would be one helluva stretch for Nantz, who has worked wild stretches before, but surely nothing quite like this. If he gets the opportunity, we can all agree we’ll be happy to tune in.
Sean Zak is a writer at GOLF Magazine and just published his first book, which follows his travels in Scotland during the most pivotal summer in the game’s history.