Brandel Chamblee-Led 'Live From' Continues to Deliver as Golf Channel's Best Program
With alarmingly few exceptions, pregame shows are a carefully prepared waste of time—a cheesy appetizer before the 20-ounce sirloin. Nobody turns on the television to watch five middle-aged men discuss why Buffalo’s offensive line can’t neutralize Kansas City’s pass rush. Does it matter whether Shaq likes the Celtics or the Sixers as the series heads back to Boston?
They all look the same, moving to the same predictable beat while leading viewers down the same beaten path. Pro golf’s pregame fare, meanwhile, is more like escargot. Rare and deliberate, at least in its original form, an acquired taste in that it makes no theatrical attempt to engage the masses. Shaped by the longtime stewardship of host Rich Lerner and shrewd insight of analyst Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel’s Live From stands alone as the network’s best program, offering a timely mix of style and substance from start to finish during the six most important weeks on the competitive calendar.
Rich Lerner (left) is Live From's able host, Brandel Chamblee its most outspoken voice.
Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Although it serves as both a pregame and postgame supplement to coverage on NBC and CBS, Live From transforms the simplest form of TV into a broadcast with a wholly unique identity. It’s the only long-form discussion show focused solely on golf. It occupies two hours of prime-time air despite being shot in one-hour blocks, which is pretty much an all-day process. Overall, however, Live From is a very limited series, running only from the four majors, Players Championship and Ryder Cup.
Maybe that’s a good thing. If you ate chocolate eclairs all day, every day, you’d probably get sick to your stomach by Wednesday afternoon.
We focus here on the three “primary” pregame editions leading into this week’s British Open—six hours of air that didn’t include desk regular Paul McGinley, whose mother passed away Monday. Brad Faxon proved an able replacement for the Irishman, whose willingness to tussle with Chamblee has added a zesty dimension to a show that still favors expression over aggression.
That makes it an ideal forum for Faxon. Hired by NBC as an auxiliary analyst after the network decided not to renew Gary Koch’s contract last fall, Fax is clearly better suited to telling stories and sharing wisdom than he is calling golf shots. A masterful putter during his 26 years on the PGA Tour, his breakdown of Scottie Scheffler’s woes on the greens Monday was comprehensive, informative and easy to understand. From a detailed analysis of Scheffler’s posture to his mentality over par putts as opposed to those for birdie, Faxon—who hasn’t spoken to the reigning Players champion about his struggles—offered this simple advice.
“Stop looking for something wrong,” he concluded.
Hardly heavy stuff, but that’s Chamblee’s department. Nobody in the game comes close to parlaying statistical data into sound theory with greater acuity, a skill dwarfed at times over the years by his uncompromised opinions and vehement opposition to LIV Golf. Every viewpoint Chamblee conveys to the audience is delivered with conviction and confidence. His numerical comparison between Tiger Woods's 2006 season and Scheffler's 2023, also part of the Monday Live From was an absolute gem. Pure validation as to just how good Scheffler has been.
His 18 consecutive top-15 finishes since last November is the second-longest such streak in the modern era—Woods reached 19 in mid-2001. Scheffler also leads the Tour in every significant ball striking category, a mind-boggling feat matched only by Woods in ‘06. Chamblee used these parallels—and the fact that the last two British Open winners at Royal Liverpool were ranked No. 1 in the world at the time—to make Scheffler his pick to win on Sunday.
He's not always right and he rarely says what some people want to hear, but Chamblee always makes sense. He is the consummate desk analyst, a guy who spends hours doing his homework, utilizes his remarkable grasp of golf history and packs a punch when a punch is needed. Without him, Live From probably doesn’t have a pulse by now. His role as the show's franchise player frees up guys like Faxon to tell funny stories like the one from the 1983 Walker Cup, also held at Royal Liverpool, when his foursomes partner, Willie Wood, was overwhelmed by nerves and unable to strike the opening tee shot.
Fax stepped up and put his ball in play. He and Wood beat Stephen Keppler/Arthur Pierse, 3 and 1.
Tuesday’s show included a lengthy segment with Mike Tirico, who will be calling his 25th British Open in a career renowned for his immense versatility during stints at ESPN, ABC and NBC. Tirico's knack for pompous-free perspective has always been one of his strengths, a notion reaffirmed in his assessment of the game's latest wave of turbulence.
“For all the garbage going on outside the ropes,” Tirico declared, “this sport has delivered.” Defiance of the alliance. Imagine that.
All three early-week pregame shows were bolstered considerably by breakout features, the best being Tuesday’s 7 ½-minute piece on Jack Newton. Eight years after losing an 18-hole playoff to Tom Watson at the 1975 British Open, Newton lost his right arm and right eye when he walked into a single-engine Cessna aircraft propeller whirling at full speed just before takeoff. The Australian tour pro barely survived the accident, founded the Jack Newton Junior Golf circuit in 1986 and spent 20 years as a TV commentator, earning widespread recognition as the voice of Australian Golf.
Newton passed away last year at age 72, prompting the need for a fresh coat of sunshine to his gutsy tale of triumph and tragedy. Interviews with his wife, son, daughter, close friends and several high-profile players (Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Karrie Webb) make this an award-winning profile—work above and beyond what we’ve come to expect from a network made bottom-heavy by PGA Tour branding programs and game-improvement pitches.
When Chamblee and Faxon double-teamed Live From contributor Jaime Diaz in a lively Wednesday afternoon discussion as to whether the Players should officially become golf’s fifth major, however, the dated nature of the debate itself suggested that the 151st British Open should commence without further adieu. Every angle had been covered. Six hours of jabbering had produced a trio of installments worth watching, but at some point, viewers only care about the balls in the air.
So enough is enough. Perhaps pregame shows do serve a purpose, although none justify their existence with greater proficiency than Live From, where qualified voices maintain their standing as an old-school commodity. Interesting TV isn’t that hard to make. Just find an idle cameraman and pour Chamblee another cup of coffee.