More than the proficiency and professionalism he brought to his job as lead golf broadcaster for NBC Sports, Dan Hicks is remembered by colleagues for his infectious good nature, his kindness and his ability to lighten the mood between tense moments calling some of the game’s biggest events over a quarter century.
“This is a hard one, as hard as it comes,” an emotional Roger Maltbie, the longtime NBC and Golf Channel broadcaster, said by phone. “He is commonly referred to as the quintessential broadcaster, but Danny was just so solid and didn’t draw attention to himself, which says a lot about him. He was just a great guy, a great person. We ate hundreds of dinners together, and you could not ask for a better friend.”
Hicks died suddenly Wednesday from an acute illness, according to a statement released on Thursday by his wife, ESPN sportscaster Hannah Storm. An Arizona native, Hicks was 64 years old. In addition to Storm, he is survived by his three daughters, Hannah, Ellery and Riley.
An Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, Hicks joined NBC in 1992 and covered 16 Olympic Games and had been lead play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame football games for seven seasons. But it was his work in golf where he made his greatest impact, calling the U.S. Open starting in 2000 and also the British Open, Ryder Cup and PGA Tour events.
“He always called me Rog on the air. ‘Hey Rog,’ this and that. There was that personal connection, and by the texts and emails and stuff that have flooded me this morning, I think people felt that, that we had a personal connection and that we were pals and we were,” Maltbie said. “And that’s how he was, I think, with everyone.
“We started about the same time at NBC. Danny was certainly a broadcaster and I was a golfer. He was kind of a neophyte to golf. So we’d go out and have dinner and it was questions to me about golf and nuances and so on and so forth in golf. Then I, in turn, would say, ‘Well, how do I do this broadcasting thing? I don’t know a damn thing about it.’ And so that was the start of our connection.”
Roger Maltbie remembers longtime friend and colleague, Dan Hicks. pic.twitter.com/rNLWX1qxOG
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 12, 2026
Reached in Arizona, where he is calling the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Paul Azinger, who worked beside Hicks for five years as lead golf analyst, could only issue a statement as he struggled to come to terms with the news.
“Toni and I are devastated by this news of the passing of our great friend Dan Hicks,” Azinger began. “Our hearts go out to Hannah and his three daughters—Ellery, Riley and Hannah. I’m so sad for them. On the broadcast side of things, you can say the show will go on but it will never be the same. On air and during rehearsals, Dan brought such a consistent joyful energy that will never be equaled. The whole industry loved Dan Hicks. He was truly the best.”
Azinger did add that, “Dan brought an amazing attitude that made everyone feel good. The singing, the energy, the comedic relief … he was such a positive person.”
“He brightened every room he walked into. He was just one of those people that was instantly likable the minute you met him,” said former NBC golf announcer David Feherty. “And he was superb at his job. One of the most difficult jobs in broadcasting is that play-by-play role. You have to be so smooth and in control all the time. And he did it in multiple sports. He was so talented.”
Ben Jared
One of his greatest talents, friends recall, was his vast repertoire of voice impersonations, including broadcasters Bob Costas, Tom Brokaw, Vin Scully and even his CBS golf counterpart Jim Nantz. The showstopper was his dead-on impersonation of former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.
“We always felt like he could have been Johnny Carson. He could have had a late-night comedy show. He was that good,” said longtime NBC broadcaster Mark Rolfing, who recalled the time that Hicks called late PGA Tour rules official Arvin Ginn during a weather delay pretending to be Finchem. “We were in San Diego, and there was a lot of starting and stopping, and it was just kind of chaotic. Tommy Roy [NBC golf producer] called Arvin, and Tommy said that he had the commissioner here. Arvin is out on the course, and I was there and so was Roger, and Dan says to Arvin in Tim’s voice, ‘What the hell’s going on out there?’ We’re listening to this whole thing, and Arvin thought he was talking to Tim Finchem and trying to explain it all. It was hilarious.”
“Dan was really good at doing a lot of voices,” Peter Jacobsen added. “He would do it to the level to where we would be laughing so hard and Tommy Roy would say, ‘Guys, guys, we’re back in 10, nine, eight … and we’re still giggling like 9-year-old boys with a new bike.’ I’m thinking about it right now and I’m smiling because if that happened once, it happened a thousand times. When we came back on the air, Danny would gather us back together, and I would have to slap myself or pinch myself to get myself back into professional mode. I know Gary Koch would tell you that and Roger, Jimmy Roberts, Rolfing, Johnny [Miller] would all say that. Dan Hicks was the light of the telecast.”
Jacobsen went further to express what a loss Hicks is to the broadcasting profession as a whole and likened his passing to that of Hall of Famer Payne Stewart, who died in a Learjet crash in 1999. “I can’t even imagine replacing a Dan Hicks, first of all. You can’t replace him as a person. Losing Danny is very much like losing Payne. You don’t replace a Payne Stewart. You don’t replace a Dan Hicks, the person, first of all. But the professional side, like Payne, you don’t replace a major championship winner with that kind of personality, character, and charisma. And I don’t know how you replace a Dan Hicks with his incredible talent.
“Dan seemed like he was a 35-year-old with enthusiasm and grace and excitement and passion for golf and for football and for Olympic swimming and downhill racing. It didn’t matter what he did. He brought the knowledge and enthusiasm that made you excited to watch whatever he was calling, and I’m going to miss that. We’ve been cheated to never hear Dan Hicks’ voice again.”
David Cannon
Like Maltbie, Jacobsen remembers how Hicks helped him in the booth. “He was always there with a helping hand and a kind word and something funny to take the edge off the moment. And so we need to talk about that,” Jacobsen said.
“Dan was incredible as a leader,” Rolfing said. “Before he took over, we really lacked a leader in the booth, and he really changed everything. And the way he did it, through friendships and relationships and inspiration by how hard he worked. He was just an incredible leader. He helped me both professionally and personally. I never met anybody in my life that cared more than Dan Hicks about everything, whether it was his job or the people around him, his friends, his family. He truly cared. And he just had an amazing way of making everybody feel better around him. He made everybody feel better all the time. That was Hicksie’s greatest quality, I think.”
In his tribute on Golf Channel Thursday, Jimmy Roberts perhaps summed up the legacy of Dan Hicks the best, saying, “There aren’t many people in life that everybody seems to like. … The rare ranks of the ‘loved by all’ shrank by one. I am gutted, and I know I am not alone.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
