Jim Nantz on Phil Mickelson coverage: “There was no effort at all by anybody at CBS to treat anyone any differently.”
Lead CBS commentator Jim Nantz has hit back at claims of an intentional ‘shadow-ban’ of Phil Mickelson and his fellow LIV Golf players at The Masters last week.
There had been uproar from a number of golf fans on social media, particularly LIV Golf fans, that Mickelson had been hidden from the CBS coverage at Augusta National.
But according to Nantz, who was speaking to Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina, that was most certainly not the case. Or the intention.
As Nantz puts it, Mickelson’s charge came late in the final round, and he was only ever a contender for the green jacket when he stuffed his approach to an inch on the 17th.
CBS showed coverage of Mickelson on the final few holes.
Lefty was playing alongside Jordan Spieth, who was also making a late rally.
Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, would birdie five of the last seven holes for a stunning round of 7-under 65 and he would set the clubhouse target of 8-under par.
Jon Rahm was still two strokes clear of Mickelson by the time he finished, and the Spaniard went on to run out of a four-shot victory on 12-under par.
LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka, who was leading just about all week until the early stages of the final round, finished in second alongside Mickelson.
Nantz said:
“If you went back and looked at the full coverage on Sunday, including Sunday morning, the finishing up of the third round, our guys were really on Phil.
“Part of it is optics, when you look at the leaderboard at the end and you see that Phil’s tied for second, you think, ‘Well, my gosh, they must have been on him all day.’
“With two holes to play, he was tied for fifth with eight other guys at six under par, and he happens to be facing two holes that you’re lucky if you come through there unscathed in 17 and 18.
“The odds are, if you had to make a prediction on it as you stood on the 17th tee, he’s probably going to make bogey on one of the last two holes and he’ll finish in the top 10.
“To Phil’s enormous credit, he knocked it to an inch in 17 and made birdie. We showed his entire playing of 18, and all of the sudden he finishes birdie-birdie, and it was a tremendous close by him.”
The legendary commentator added:
“At the end, the leaderboard looks like, ‘Well, he should have gotten that much coverage because he finished second.’ But you don’t know how it’s all going to play out in the end. There was no effort at all by anybody at CBS to treat anyone any differently.
“Phil has been a buddy of mine for a long time. There was no effort to conceal him or hide him at all.”
Earlier in the week, Nantz hit back at claims he was taking a cheap shot at LIV Golf League players at The Masters.
Article originally appeared on: Golfmagic.com
For someone as accomplished as Phil, he has a weak ego
No, he doesn’t like Nanzy. Many people also hate Nanzy and his coke-addled nasal voice
This site has banned two of my comments because I didn’t support CBS left wing banning if LIV players
Phil didn’t make these shadow ban claims, it was from people on the internet.
Nantz, the company lackey!!!!!
Clearly Phil had minimal coverage . If it was Tiger or another 50+ year old making a historic run, THE ENTIRE focus of the Masters would have shifted to this more emotional drama!!!!!!!
Who is BSing who?? Man up Nantz !!!!
What do you expect Nantz to say?? CBS is a far left network and signs his enormous salary. It was very clear from a golf fan perspective they were avoiding any coverage of LIV players.
If it wasn’t for Koepka leading and Phil’s late charge, you would not have seen a thing of any of them. LIV player took 3 of the top 5 spots! So much for the PGA Tour having the best golfers in the world? Also, their mouthpiece Rory had significant coverage excusing him for missing the cut! Of course Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, although he WD!
PGA Tour is a shell of itself!. Boring
This site banned my comment!!!! Because I supported Phil and not the left wing CBS
This site bans comments!!! By saying you posted a duplicate comment! If you supported LIV and not left wing CBS
If you look at the headline it looks like Phil is the one that was making the charges which he wasn’t. Also I didn’t see Phil being interviewed after his round. Here’s a guy past champion, sets a record for shooting the lowest round in the history of the Masters at his age and they don’t talk to him, really!
Love Jim Nantz but he’s full of shit on this. They showed Colin Murakawa when he had the very same score as Phil over a few holes. The Masters app had a page following Phil. It was definitely a CBS/Nantz thing.
I ‘ve met Jim Nantz and he’s a wonderful guy. He has to be on board with CBS, and the PGA.
I did chuckle yesterday though as Mark Fitzpatrick was winning the RBC, Nantz said he’d probably dreamt of it as a 6 year old vacationing there with his family!!
There is an apparent disrespect for LIV players for trying to make more money by joining a different association. I believe that it makes golf a bigger stage and there is much more inclusion.