David Feherty. And possibly Charles Barkley. Should Gary McCord also join the LIV Golf broadcast team, he has a thought on what that could be like.
“Yeah, I think it would be fun to ride in that clown car with those two,” McCord told Golf Digest this week.
In an exclusive interview with the website, the former CBS analyst said he’s met twice with LIV CEO Greg Norman about a potential role with the controversial, Saudi-backed series starting next year, and that they were to talk again this week. McCord, whose contract at CBS was not renewed after 2019, currently is a co-host for a show on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio.
Charles Barkley opens up on potential LIV offer, says ‘we all have sportswashed’
He told Golf Digest that he would be interested in joining Feherty, who also once worked at CBS, and Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer and basketball analyst, and that “whatever your feelings right now about LIV — and everyone has their opinions — you can’t deny it’s the biggest thing going.”
“There’s a lot of potential there for some entertaining ways of doing this,” McCord told Golf Digest. “Right now, I’m just listening and taking it all in and seeing where this thing goes.”
In the U.S., LIV Golf can be watched over only its homepage, Facebook and YouTube. For its first two broadcasts, LIV Golf has had an announce team of play-by-play man Arlo White, analysts Jerry Foltz and Dom Boulet and on-course reporters Su-Ann Heng and Troy Mullins, and Feherty is expected to join for the third event, to be played this week at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
As for Barkley, he confirmed in an interview with the New York Post that he had dinner with Norman on Wednesday to discuss a broadcasting role. While Barkley said he and Norman only talked, he did commit to play in this week’s pro-am at Bedminster.
Report: David Feherty to leave NBC to become analyst for LIV Golf
Barkley, the Post reported, is under contract with Turner Sports for three years and $30 million, though he told the newspaper that he could also work for LIV. In the interview, Barkley also revealed strong thoughts on the concept of ‘sportswashing,’ saying, “We have all taken ‘blood money’ and we all have ‘sportswashed’ something so I don’t like those words, to be honest with you. If you are in pro sports, you are taking some type of money from not a great cause.” LIV is supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and the PIF serves as the financial arm of the Saudi government, which has committed numerous human-rights violations.
Barkley also told the Post that his sponsors reached out to him after hearing he was meeting with Norman.
“Between [my Turner contract] and all my commercials, for me to risk all of that, it would have to be some serious money thrown my way,” Barkley told the Post.
