There are very few events in all of sports that are more synonymous with a particular broadcaster than the Masters is with CBS lead play-by-play voice Jim Nantz. And when it comes to his famous introduction to the broadcast each day, it has simply become second nature for Nantz, according to former CBS golf broadcaster Nick Faldo.
Sir Nick Faldo served alongside Nantz for 16 years at Augusta National prior to his retirement as a full-time golf broadcaster in 2022.
In an interview with Claire Rogers of Golf.com on Thursday, Faldo discussed both his illustrious career as a golfer, where he won six major championships, and his broadcasting career with CBS that followed it.
Speaking about his partnership with Nantz for the Masters, Faldo recalled his first-ever Masters in 2007 alongside Nantz, explaining how he sat down five minutes before they went live and proceeded to deliver his patented “Hello friends” introduction for the audience watching at home.
“My favorite memory is actually my very first Masters with him. We’re still calling live golf through the internet [before the network telecast started], and we’re down to two minutes to go. And Tiger’s now going out, so of course we’re going to stay on. And Tiger is now throwing grass in the air. We’re down to one minute. We’re down to 30 seconds, and then Jim… The only time Jim has an auto cue is maybe for those opening first lines of the Masters. That’s the only week.
“And then wallop, 30 seconds to go. Auto cue goes down. So Jim jumps out of his chair. We’re sitting in Butler Cabin, and Jim goes into the back room with, you know, that sound, technical stuff. And I’m sitting there and I hear, ’10 seconds.’ In our world, five seconds is nothing, is it? But in TV, five seconds is monstrous, right? And I hear ‘five seconds’ and there’s no Jim Nantz. And I’m sitting there and I think, ‘Oh s***, it’s going to be me. I’m going to go, Hello, I’m Jim Nantz. No, I’m not. I’m Nick Faldo. Well, I won this, maybe I didn’t. Uh, welcome to the Masters CBS.’ So I’m panicked. I had a split second of ‘what the heck.’ And Nantz just waltzes in, sits down and goes, ‘Hello, friends, welcome to the Masters.’ So that was my first Masters.”
Sitting down in front of a camera with under five seconds to spare before introducing yourself to a national audience online certainly shows the kind of comfort that Nantz has calling the Masters.
Clearly, he has only become more and more comfortable each year that he calls the event, as he again received rave reviews for his on-air performance in his 40th Masters in April.
Nantz does have an end in sight to his longstanding run as the Masters’ voice. But fortunately for golf fans, it won’t be for quite some time.
He recently detailed that he plans to continue to call the Masters through the 100th annual edition of the tournament, which would be his 50th time calling the Masters. So we will get plenty more perfectly executed Masters introductions until he calls it a career as a golf broadcaster.