Get ready to hear more from PGA Tour veteran Kevin Kisner on TV.
Golfweek has learned from multiple sources that the four-time Tour winner will share lead analyst duties in NBC’s “four-wide” setup of two anchors and analysts at the 2024 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Update: NBC confirmed Kisner’s role in a press release at 6 p.m. ET on Friday.)
Kisner will serve as an analyst for weekend coverage with play-by-play commentator Dan Hicks. Additionally, Kisner and Smylie Kaufman will team up to call “Friday Happy Hour” coverage from alongside the iconic 17th hole on Golf Channel and Peacock.
“Kevin did a great job in the booth with Dan Hicks earlier this year and his work with Smylie Kaufman on the 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open made for great TV, so we’re happy we can once again pair Kevin with Dan and have Kevin join Smylie at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass next Friday,” said Tommy Roy, NBC Sports’ lead golf producer, in a statement.
“Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch have called some of the most iconic moments at the Players Championship throughout the past three decades and having them on next week’s broadcasts is a great way for NBC Sports to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Players,” Roy added.
Kisner, 40, previously worked for the network at the Sentry and the WM Phoenix Open this season and both times showed he’s more than capable of providing analysis and player insight in an entertaining fashion.
Kisner lost a playoff to Rickie Fowler at the Players in 2016, but he’s not eligible for next week’s tournament after struggling last season. Two years ago, he was a captain’s pick for Team USA at the Presidents Cup, but he has slipped to No. 397 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
NBC has been rotating broadcasters since deciding not to renew Paul Azinger’s contract. A source tells Golfweek that Kisner likely will be offered the job and he will have to decide whether he still thinks he can be a top 50 in the world player and chase the big money available these days or if he wants a guaranteed paycheck and to play a limited schedule as a past champion.
Kisner, playing in the Puerto Rico open this week, an opposite field-event to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, has missed the cut in all three starts he’s made this season and hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since June 2022 at the Travelers Championship.
Speaking last month in Phoenix, Kisner told Golfweek, “I have no idea what NBC’s intentions are, but Tommy (Roy) asked me to help them out when they knew they weren’t renewing (Paul) Azinger, so I picked these two to do. I still plan to play a full schedule for the rest of the year.”
MORE: Full Kisner Q&A
European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald is serving as lead analyst this week at the Arnold Palmer.
Golfweek also has learned that Brandel Chamblee, who served as lead analyst in the broadcast of The American Express, is expected to fill that role some more, including in three weeks at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. NBC declined to comment for this story.
