Davis Love III’s broadcasting career did not last long. The two-time Ryder Cup captain took to Twitter today to announce that he would no longer be a part of CBS’s golf broadcasts.
The decision comes just months after the network announced his addition to their roster as part of a total overhaul of its golf presentation. In October of last year, CBS announced that it would move on from Peter Kostis and Gary McCord. Love’s addition was supposed to add a younger voice that had a stronger connection with current players.
Love’s chance to grow in the role certainly suffered from the interruption both in play and American life that the Covid-19 Pandemic presented. It also didn’t help that Love never really seemed devoted to the gig. As he mentions in his tweet, he was still playing in PGA Tour events, although he only made the cut in three of the thirteen event he’s played in since 2019.
Jay Rigdon of Awful Announcing points out that Love hasn’t had the easiest time in his personal life in 2020. His family’s home in Georgia burned down in March.
“I think it might have taken 10 minutes for the house to be completely engulfed, and it was completely gone in less than half an hour,” Love told Golf Digest about the blaze. “All we could do was stand there and watch. It was beyond awful.”
Kelly Tilghman will take over for CBS. It will make her the first woman to be the lead voice for PGA Tour coverage on a network. She will anchor coverage of the PGA Championship.
Tilghman left the Golf Network in 2018 after spending the previous 22 years at the network. The extent of her role with CBS is unknown, but as the network prepares for a season of NFL broadcasts, its reasonable to assume Tilghman will be used a lot as the schedule fills up for both Jim Nantz and Andrew Catalon.
One final interesting note is that Davis Love III may very well be on CBS next week. He is a lifetime member of the PGA Tour and former winner of the PGA Championship. That gives him lifetime eligibility to play in the event.