Gary McCord is missed, miss him at CBS — his humor, his wit and personality that made him a bit of spice on those dull golf broadcasts.
McCord’s contract was not renewed last year — but no worries for Gary, he’s been living happily ever after at his home in Scottsdale and has more time for golf at Whisper Rock, a hangout for Tour players and former athletes.
So it was a no-brainer for TNT to reach out to McCord to try and add something to what could be a real turkey of a contest in this over-hyped Match III, a descendant of the original Phil Mickelson-Tiger Woods match for $9 million at Shadow Creek followed by The Match II that brought Woods and Mickelson into the limelight with future football Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
Now we have the “Match III” today that can’t hold a candle to the drawing power of Tiger Woods.
Yes, it’s the “day-after” Turkey Day and a for those forced inside by cold weather, it’s either football of Charles Barkley. Tough choice?
Hardly.
But with McCord on the course, well, it’s like a reunion with an old friend.
McCord will be back to some degree in 2021. He’s going to co-host a one-hour program on Sirius XM’s PGA Tour Radio. McCord will also team with another CBS-outcast, Peter Kostis and a few others on an undisclosed entertainment project. It’s hush-hush right now on that.
So for this day-after holiday course adventure, McCord will be there to help ease the pain. And it will be painful to watch “Hard-Luck-Chuck” Barkley play golf.
The offer from TNT surprised McCord. As McCord described it, the offer “came way out of left field.” He agreed to participate for one simple reason. “Well, I’m doing OK, I’m not dead, but I am kind of bored,” he said. “I’ve had a year off, so, you know that whole deal. This should be entertaining.”
McCord was an incredible one-liner machine during his time at CBS. Now he’ll handle something totally out of the ordinary — Phil Mickelson teaming with hacking-prone Charles Barkley in a match with Peyton Manning and Steph Curry.
This one could have some challenges for McCord and in typical McCord fashion, he says he’ll try and be as creative as he can. He’s also anticipating some trash-talking during the match.
“That’s what we’re waiting to hear,” McCord said. “You know Phil is going to be in the middle of it. I was texting Charles during the telecast in May (Barkley was part of the broadcast crew for The Match II) and told him he nailed it when he said, ‘We all have that friend who’s annoying; that’s Phil.’ So my deal is to prompt Phil when Charles drives into the desert and then just let him go.
“I’m not there to tell you, ‘Wow, he’s got an 8-iron from 180 yards.’ I’m there to step into the chaos and keep it going. I can still do that. I can do that all day,” McCord predicted.
Hopefully McCord will do his thing.
We know Mickelson won’t miss a chance to fire some abuse at Manning and Curry.
As for Barkley? He’s nothing but a walking target.
A very, very slow walking target.
Good luck on this one.
10 Comments
RM
Always liked Gary’s commentary and hope he does well and is happy.
I do remember reading his book “Golf For Dummies” when I was just starting to play. I remember reading his definition of par as the number of strokes for a “reasonably competent” golfer to complete a round.
LOL, looking back at that after years of striving and mostly mediocre play, “Reasonably competent”? Par golf? Seriously?!
Tom Edrington
I liked the title of his book: “Just A Range Ball In A Box Of Titleists”
baxter cepeda
Gary was pretty quiet.
Michelle and the basketball guy made more of an impact with their comments.
Tom Edrington
Too many commentators, way, way too much pre-match analysis, you’d think it was The Masters.
baxter cepeda
The match III was cheese.
Charles was teeing it up up to 100+ yards in front.
I’m glad I didn’t actually bet. I would be mad if I was.
So many lessons learned. Don’t bet on courses and competitions running 1 time.
It reminded me of the event at Sherwood, whom nobody shared it would be a completely new renovated course rendering any veteran advantages.
Did anyone betting know Charles would get to treat up so far forward he would simply need to bunt some irons in play for Phil to do the rest.
It would have been a great competition if Charles was never more than 25 yards ahead.
Pretty lame really. Dishonest.
I really don’t think Phil can take as much satisfaction as he did. Even Chuck seemed unimpressed since he never got to hit hit driver. Heck Phil didn’t even let him hit his longer irons at times.
Tom Edrington
When Chuck tried it hit driver, it was unplayable….agreed, they had him so far ahead he would hit seven-irons off the tee…plus, NO WAY Steph Curry is a plus-one, guy has no short game whatsoever, AND missed two six-foot putts….He’s a five on a good day and Manning’s an eight.
baxter cepeda
I missed the pre game show. But saw it was 1 hour.
I bet they spent some time on bets.
Tom Edrington
Not really, just a lot of senseless babble….
baxter cepeda
Curry clearly had a bad day.
Still he is definitely not tour ready. Even Chuck out prepared him. Steph can definitely bomb it. But Sub 1 hour practice rounds ain’t gonna cut it against Phil.
Manning too was unprepared but he never played professional tour golf; and Peyton is going to be 45 soon, which is when golfers start to slow down, much less football players with serious neck injuries.
Peyton should have played up a bit as he played up in the Match II.
But the big takeaway again are those Chuck tees. The assumption is Chuck has to hit driver from the Chuck tees to keep up with everyone else’s drives.
The Chuck tees took away from all the good things Phil and a Chuck did.
The first two matches had integrity. This one unfortunately did not.
Tom Edrington
Curry IS NOT a plus-one, if he were, at least he’d show a short game and his was abysmal, his swing gets real short and choppy on his shots around the green and from the sand and that’s NOT what a plus-1 looks like; I’ve played enough high-level amateur golf locally, back in the day and I know what a plus-one looks like and Curry is NOT; Manning’s a solid seven or eight.