What is Jim Nantz’s ‘career lowlight?’ Let him tell you about ‘adult film’

Jim Nantz catches himself. They’re grown-up movies. 

But they’re not — actually, CBS’ longtime golf, football and basketball announcer tells this best. We’ll just set this up by saying that the story is both wonderful and part of what Nantz calls his “career lowlight,” and that’s a juicy combination.  

We got it thanks to his appearance this week on the Five Clubs podcast, where he was asked by host Gary Williams what was the last movie he saw in the theater — and on the fourth sentence of his answer, he had a flashback to the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Davis Love III and Clint Eastwood. 

“It was a children’s movie,” Nantz began on the podcast. “You know, I got two young ones, so I’m trying to think which animated one was most recent. Frozen 2 was too many years ago — that was like two years ago. These latest ones that come out, I can’t even remember the titles of them, but I haven’t gone to a grown-up movie — you know, I almost caught myself just now doing something that I would say is my career lowlight. 

“And I’ll go the roundabout way of telling you. I had, years ago, Clint Eastwood in the booth at Pebble Beach, as we had for 30 years. And Davis Love had just won the tournament; he shot 64 to come from way behind. And Davis — great friend, great pal — had told me one time that growing up, his favorite childhood actor was Clint Eastwood. And one of the reasons why is that the first time he ever went to see a movie, with his dad, was a Clint Eastwood movie. 

“So we’re on camera, and I’m thanking Clint as we’re drawing near the end of the broadcast and he’s going to leave to go down to the green and give the trophy away. And I said, hey, by the way, before you leave, I just want you to know that you’re going to be presenting that trophy to Davis, and he’s a huge Clint Eastwood fan. In fact, the first adult film he ever saw in his life, you starred in. 

(You can laugh here.)

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“And I didn’t know what I had said. I just about said it again with you guys, about how I hadn’t been to an adult film in a long time. Yeah, I felt the temperature in the tower drop about 20 degrees when Clint looked at me — I didn’t know what I said — he said, ‘I never made an adult film in my life.’ That’s not what I meant!”

(You can laugh here, too.) 

Also on the podcast — which you can and should listen to in full here — Nantz was asked about his own traditions at the Masters and Augusta National. It was a fun question. Next month, he will be part of CBS’ broadcast team at the event for the 38th year, and he’s been the voice behind one of the tournament’s labels: A Tradition Unlike Any Other  

“You know, I have my own traditions there that I do every year,” Nantz said on the podcast. “This will be my 38th Masters coming up, and there’s certain things that I do during the course of the week. Wednesday afternoon, I always walk down to Amen Corner and try to be there for some alone time, and thankfully our credential allows us to walk across the Hogan Bridge, and I can stand back on the 12th green and kind of look around and have a little prayerful introspection and take inventory of where my life has gone in the last year since I was at Augusta. And this year, I want to go back and explore the new tee at 13, but that’s my own little tradition. 

“When we finish the green jacket ceremony, it’s the end of a whirlwind, where I’ve just gone from calling 16 games in the month of March and early April — all things in, 16 games, and then fly right after the One Shining Moment video is played and land in Augusta in the middle of the night on Tuesday morning. And I walk out Sunday afternoon after the green jacket is presented and I don’t take a golf cart, I walk across the par-3 course — our old compound used to be located at the back of it — but I like to just, again, have a moment of gratitude and thanks and be able to make sure I touch all the bases that are really deep in my heart.

“Those are my traditions.”  

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