Golfweek has learned from multiple sources that Brad Faxon and Smylie Kaufman will join the NBC Sports and Golf Channel announce team beginning in 2023.
Golfweek was first to report that Gary Koch, 69, and Roger Maltbie, 71, wouldn’t be returning for next season. The network told Maltbie and Koch the decision was made to “refresh” the team for the future.
Faxon, 61, won eight times on the PGA Tour and twice on PGA Tour Champions and is renowned for his putting stroke. He still works with Rory McIlroy as a putting coach. He broke into the TV business in 2010 with NBC Sports, doing seven events before shifting to competing on the senior tour wheh he turned 50.
He was the lead golf analyst for Fox Sports for five years when the network held the rights to USGA events including the U.S. Open. Since NBC reacquired those package of events, Faxon has provided analysis for Sky Sports, the subscription-based channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which along with NBC and Golf Channel are owned by Comcast.
Faxon is expected to take over one of the tower assignments and will contribute to various ancillary programming such as the popular “Live From” show at majors. Faxon declined to comment.
Rory McIlroy and Brad Faxon at a practice round ahead of the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. (Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images)
Kaufman, 31, played at LSU and won the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in 2015 and played in the final group of the 2016 Masters, but has struggled with his game in recent years and no longer is an exempt player. He worked for ESPN and contributed to coverage of the PGA Championship and NBC’s Peacock coverage of the U.S. Open, as well as the U.S. Junior and a handful of fall events for the Golf Channel.
Kaufman is expected to be an on-course analyst and viewed as a direct response to CBS’s hiring of Colt Knost, who went from a part-time role last year to a full-time gig this season.
Former Golf Channel host Gary Williams said of Kaufman on his podcast “5 Clubs,” that Kaufman has a savant-like ability to talk like himself and give a thought in 12 seconds.
“Is it my path forever? I don’t know,” Kaufman told Williams of doing TV. “But for right now it seems to be what I enjoy doing. We’ll see. I think right now it seems to be the way I’m headed.”
Kaufman didn’t respond to phone or text messages.
Golfweek has also learned that Curt Byrum is in line to be elevated to the top PGA Tour team…
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