Jim Nantz is Catching Strays for Admitting He Hasn't Watched a Single Shot Bryson DeChambeau Has Taken for LIV Golf This Year

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If you were going to make a list of the least divisive figures in American life, you could do a lot worse than to start with Jim Nantz. I mean, he's been front and center of the culture for a generation. The No. 1 play-by-play guy in pro football, college basketball and the most prestigious golf major for decades. And he's universally revered. Breathing that rarefied air of other icons of their professions like Dolly Parton, Keanu Reeves, Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, Steve Irwin (RIP X 3) . Where never is heard a discouraging word about the man. 

In fact, the closest thing I can think of to an actual controversy he's ever been involved in is the time he got Phil Simms fired as his broadcast partner for the crime of farting on him:

But it seems Nantz has found the one thing that will anger the populace worse than even the noxious gas cloud produced by Simms' digestive system. Apparently the thing that's inflaming the public more than the seat of Simms' pants is Nantz saying disparaging things about LIV Golf, of all damned things. 

Source - Don’t ask Jim Nantz, the voice of the Masters, to give you too much insight into Bryson DeChambeau’s current golf game. …

On Monday’s CBS Sports 2026 Masters preview press call, the longtime golf announcer was asked to talk about which golfers might be considered contenders for the tournament this year, admitting in the process that he’s only watched DeChambeau on YouTube.

“I think if you had to pick one guy, [Scottie Scheffler] would be the guy, and probably right behind him would be Bryson. Just given his recent track record,” said Nantz. “I have to confess, I have not seen Bryson hit a single shot this year. I have not seen him, so for me to say what his form looks like, all I can go off is the YouTube videos I’ve watched with my son. That’s all I’ve seen. Busy doing our own coverage, so I haven’t seen him play. But I know his desire to win there. I know Bryson quite well through the years, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him in a Green Jacket one day.”

The comment drew strong rebukes from LIV fans, who see it as proof that the “mainstream media” is overlooking the tour.

That last sentence is accurate. Here's a sampling:

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I could go on but you get my point. 

Imagine of all the things a guy who is as on TV as Jim Nantz is - really almost to the point of overexposure - and the one time he finally steps in it and incurs the internet's wrath is over … LIV Golf?

Say what you will about whether he should be watching tournaments from 12 time zones away. Or whether he has some sort of moral obligation to do so, or else he has no right to be welcoming the rest of us as his friends into Butler Cabin all weekend. But just don't act like dipping out on LIV Golf makes him in anyway unique or special. In this case, he's the rule, not the exception. 

I'm a big fan of DeChambeau. I'd love to see him win the Green Jacket (which just gave him the kiss of death). But that doesn't mean I've watched a single stroke he's taken, either. No one watches LIV. It exists. But that entire tour leaves no mark on the public consciousness. I have a disproportionate number of golf-related conversations, and nothing that happens in LIV ever comes up until a major or an international team event like the Ryder Cup. In which case we all get reacquainted with DeChambeau and the others like him who have yet to come back into the PGA Tour fold. For all the cultural impact LIV has, those guys might spend all the time between the Masters and PGA Championship on a cruise and it wouldn't make a difference. 

LIV isn't a niche sport. It isn't popular enough to qualify for "niche." It regularly loses in the TV ratings to the shows you scroll through when you're in a hotel that only has basic cable, so you settle for whatever show Guy Fieri is on. (He's never not on, somewhere.) C-SPAN has more viewers. And yet, it seems the few, the proud, who were watching (looks it up) the tournament from South Africa last weekend, will not suffer anyone to speak of LIV without respect in their voice. Not even the one of the most celebrated, and busiest, broadcasters of this or any era. 

So Nantz finally knows what it's like to get ripped online like he's … well, Phil Simms. I guess he'll just have to deal with it as he gets back into the sweetest hosting gig in all of sports. And comfort himself with the knowledge he's had dinner at the White House with both the Queen and the King:

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One "controversy" a career is Jim Nantz' limit.