Six-time major champion Nick Faldo will return to the broadcasting booth for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, NBC Sports announced on Wednesday.
Faldo, 68, was the lead analyst on CBS alongside play-by-play man Jim Nantz for 16 years before officially retiring from the seat in the summer of 2022. He hasn’t stayed completely away, chipping in for NBC at both the 2022 and 2023 Open Championships, but he no longer has a full-time role.
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Next week he will be doing more than simply chipping in at Bethpage. NBC’s lead golf producer Tommy Roy said during a Ryder Cup conference call that Faldo would be calling each morning session of the event, and he’ll be joined by host Terry Gannon and fellow analyst and former tour pro Notah Begay. The afternoon sessions will be hosted by Dan Hicks and he’ll be joined by Brad Faxon and Paul McGinley.
In a somewhat unprecedented move for the network, Roy says these are “partisan” booths. Faxon and Begay representing the American side and McGinley and Faldo representing the European side.
“We’ve always covered our sports events in a completely impartial way,” Ry said. “Never referring to the Americans as ‘we.’
“But if you’ve worked the Olympics like we’ve had the good fortune to do and you’re in the international broadcast center, you can dial up the feeds from the different countries’ broadcasts, and they are almost all very partisan,” he added. “For example, if you listen to the Brits’ track and field, they are literally blatantly rooting for the UK athletes. I kind of used to scoff at this style because I was so brainwashed into impartiality, but you know what, it’s actually a pretty fun listen.”
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Roy said that NBC executive producer Sam Flood decided the network would give it a shot at Bethpage, and that they actually experimented with it a bit at last year’s Presidents Cup in Canada.
“This is not going to be the new norm at NBC Sports,” Roy said. “But at Bethpage, this is what we’re doing.”
If you notice Faldo pulling extra hard for a Justin Rose 10-footer at Bethpage, or Brad Faxon chanting U.S.A. after Scottie Scheffler secures another point, just know it’s a strategic move from the network and not a couple of analysts struggling to hide their biases. Not only will there be plenty of edge on the course, but in the TV booth, too.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
