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Beloved Broadcaster Returning to Select PGA Tour Events in 2026

Roger Maltbie will once again be wandering the fairways at some of the PGA Tour’s most iconic events, starting this week at Pebble Beach.  
Roger Maltbie will call several PGA Tour events this year for Golf Channel and CBS.
Roger Maltbie will call several PGA Tour events this year for Golf Channel and CBS. | Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Roger Maltbie will once again be wandering the fairways at some of the PGA Tour’s most iconic events. 

According to Golf Digest, the 74-year-old will be Golf Channel’s lead on-course reporter starting this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players Championship, the new Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral and the Memorial Tournament, 50 years after Maltbie won its inaugural edition in 1976.

“I’m excited that they still want me to do this, and I guess they feel like I am still someone viewers want to listen to,” Maltbie said. “The bottom line is that I want to keep going because I’m a fan of the game. I watch a good bit of it from home, and I look forward to getting up close and seeing all these new guys and how they play.”

Maltbie will perform his duties during the first two rounds of each event, in addition to weekend lead-in coverage before the telecast shifts to NBC or CBS. However, he’ll don the mic with CBS at Pebble Beach, Doral and the Memorial. 

“That’s something I am really looking forward to, working with Jim Nantz and the CBS team, because it’s something I’ve never done before. We’ve been on opposite deals, so that’s going to be interesting,” Maltbie said. “You know, this is what I like to do. And I do what I’m told to do. Maybe that’s why they still use me some.”

Maltbie, a five-time PGA Tour winner, began his broadcasting career at the 1989 Ryder Cup and before joining NBC Sports in 1991 and, of course, famously exclaiming “it’s just not a fair fight” during Tiger Woods’s historic 2000 U.S. Open win at Pebble Beach. 

After the 2022 season, NBC removed Maltbie and Gary Koch from their roles but brought them back in a limited capacity, mostly calling the PGA Tour Champions, which will continue this season. 

So why did Maltbie receive an increased schedule this year? Well, in December, Golf Channel executive vice president and general manager, Tom Knapp, reached out to Maltbie about this possibility and Maltbie felt, “I still have a little bit left in the tank.”

“Having the familiar tone of Roger Maltbie on the call for Golf Channel as our lead on-course reporter at these iconic venues is going to be tremendous," Knapp said. "Roger is one of the most recognizable figures in golf and set the standard for on-course golf reporting for 35 years. He is an institution, and we’re pumped to have him. “

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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.